$100 S-10 Build

So another box S-10 followed me home as outlined in this thread. For $100 I couldn't say no. I did use my last free AAA tow getting it home but it flips in May. Do I upgrade for one more or let it ride and hope my many POS don't break until then?

Anyway After getting the thing home I see there is no starter. The PO said it needed a fuel pump, which is nothing like a starter. Then again I watched him down two tall boys at 10am on a Saturday while waiting for the tow. Also he lives in an old School Bus. Either way I needed a starter and battery just to safely turn it over and listen for a fuel pump issue. I had the 2.8 from the parts truck of my Vette build, but neither the starter nor the bolts would fit (that last part is important).

Today I went to ISA looking for a starter. And I found one, hanging by it's wires under a new arrival, in under five minutes! Because ISA is a step below Pull-A-Part the yard isn't well graded or maintained. This leads to huge icy puddles on a 50 degree day after the foot of snow we had Thursday. Naturally I pulled out the wire cutters and took the easy way out rather than lay in a pool of icy, oily slime. I guess someone must have needed the bolts (see where this is going?). I also scored two sets of door panels and the nicest seats I own. Because what else would you do but buy parts for a truck that may not run and you might not keep?

At home I realized the bolts in the glove box were NOT for the starter. And that the bolts from the 2.8 are metric and the 4.3 are SAE. This took several hours, much cursing, and an aborted attempt at finding new ones at Autozone. Once in I had to go back to the parts store because the GM side post battery cables had been swapped with regular ones, and I only had side posts. That done she fired right up using the battery from the 2.8 parts truck.

Total spent so far: $100, Starter $26, Cable Ends $6.50. The seats and panels need to be sorted between my 3 projects before I add them in. In fact the budgeting will be interesting considering the parts will be spread across three cars. I might need to make a spreadsheet. And learn how to make a spreadsheet. On to the pictures!

Not too bad... OK maybe it is. At least this fender isn't rotted! The other bed is in much better shape. Not bad for $10 each! Nicest seats I own. After a cleaning. The reason for the seats and door panels.

No progress until the 21st. Stupid work.

Can't beat a running vehicle for just over a hundred bucks! Nice work! What are your plans for it?

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Then again I watched him down two tall boys at 10am on a Saturday while waiting for the tow. Also he lives in an old School Bus.

This is powerful imagery. Can't wait to see the truck evolve.

S10's are the champions of cheap junkyard "upgrades" and are the car version of Legos.

Pics of it outside. Not to work on it , but to make room in the garage to store work stuff. Looks like I'll be swapping back windows tomorrow to make it weather proof. Anyway here it is in the sunshine.

Classy. Something tells me I shouldn't park it on the street too long.

Really need to primer and swap on the better bed soon.

I have all the front end parts to fix this sitting behind the garage. Just need time!

Cab corners came in. $19 each shipped from Amazon.

Picture it dropped with the same colors in primer.

OR I'm leaning towards a black and white or grey version of this truck I had back in the 90s. Only with Corvette saw blades instead of rallys. Hope to have those wheels tomorrow for $150 with good tires.

Im hunting a set of 88 vette wheels for the elky. Had a set for my old s10, but they went away a while ago....

I miss my s10. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this thing.

I actually feel a little sorry for this little S10. It looks like it's just barely keeping it together.

Good on you for saving it. You should staple wetsuit material to the old bench seat and weld it to the bed to make a Brat-style rear facing jumpseat once the new buckets are installed.

That thing is a small block swap away from ultimate sleeper glory.

Northstar. Bolts to the 2.8 bellhousing, and from preliminary research, the crossover tubing for the exhaust should clear s10 frame for easy turbo. I also have a link on my desktop to adapt a 7730 ecm to run it, which will run code 59 for boost bliss.

Can you tell what I want to build for the challenge?

Dusterbd13 wrote: Northstar. Bolts to the 2.8 bellhousing, and from preliminary research, the crossover tubing for the exhaust should clear s10 frame for easy turbo. I also have a link on my desktop to adapt a 7730 ecm to run it, which will run code 59 for boost bliss. Can you tell what I want to build for the challenge?

Find a 2 door blazer for that swap and call it a Coupe de Escalade! Would you mind linking your past S-10 build here? I can't find it and I know it has a ton of good info in it.

This one is actually a 4.3/auto, so if the right V8 fell into my lap, it would go in for sure.

im pretty much a ford loyalist but square body s10's just happen to be my favorite mini truck. add v8 power and its even better.

While moving the truck to clean the garage for work storage of new tool boxes (ugh!), the truck refused to start. AFTER driving it to the edge of the hilly part of my driveway. So I pushed it inside my fence and finished up my garage work. I had a friend coming over to drop off the Corvette wheels and help with the bed, but since I had already removed all the bolts waiting for his arrival, I got impatient. It turns out you can remove an S10 bed yourself if you don;t give two berkeleys about damaging it! Its ready to be worked on but I have other things to get done today. We'll see if I can stick with that plan or if I jump in and diag. the pump that's just sitting there. Staring at me.

Somehow I got talked into two sets of wheels. The Corvette wheels have low but usable tread. The Cadillac XLR wheels have two good tires and two blown out. All for $300. I am not un-pleased.

heres the link.

and if you go on google, search my screenname and s10, you should find TONS of research and posting by me for the s10 chassis stuff.

http://www.s10planet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17252

Thats a pretty great score for 100$.

Those Corvette wheels might actually look good on that truck.

In reply to ssswitch:

Those wheels look good on everything but C4 corvetts

Not much to report other than it runs again. Scratched my head for a bit and found it had an iffy chassis ground. I can already tell undoing past butchery will be the bulk of the repairs after bodywork. Drove it around the block with no exhaust and other than being loud it went, stopped, and shifted just fine. The parents are visiting next weekend for Easter so not sure what will get done or how soon. Next up is to fix the cab corners while the bed is off and then start shooting everything in satin black before reassembly.

Here it is in backyard limbo with the Chevette.

Behind the Chevette is the good bed. I need to get that back on so I can build a shed in that spot to get the yard stuff out of the garage. I also need to do lots of yard work, so the next update might be a while

You have a Chevette AND a S10 Project?

I'm envious

TIGMOTORSPORTS wrote: You have a Chevette AND a S10 Project? I'm envious

.#thingsyoullonlyseeonGRM

I can't wait to see it done with the sawblades.

Long hiatus but this project is being made driveable and going to a new home. Parts from the Chevette build parts truck, my prvious trips to the junk yard, and two trips today should have it together and dropped with the Cadillac 18s on it. This is a trade for a paint job on my 93 S-10, which will probably get it's own build thread soon for a V8 swap. Pics to come.

It all started Friday night when I replaced the broken outside door handles and put the nice leather door panels in. I also installed a better steering wheel and the big honkin' elephant ear outside mirrors, but they came back off later.

Bed installed. Note elephant ear mirrors, as this was before our junk yard run.

Parts truck donated radiator support, hood, and bed. Here is the front end going back together.

My yard looks like several rusty S-10s exploded....not far from the truth. Dexter wants to know why I'm not playing with him.

The driver's fender I had was more rust than air and the seats I was going to put in the truck truck didn't fit. To the junk yards! New owner bought some things of his own.

Here he is putting them on. I'm trying to get him to join us here.

Meanwhile I installed the Cobalt seats and Cavalier RS steering wheel.

Back together and ready for the first test drive. He also scored the sweet small mirrors. I'm actually jealous, but he did see them first.

Success! He made it to Pep Boys for a working flasher relay (they were closed) and back. It is stalling and stumbling, but the too long plug wires routed over the control arms probably has a lot to do with it. Sounds great with the Flowmaster and cat pipe I had from the parts truck. Sits a bit high in front, we may have to cut another half coil.

His plans are to de-shine the blue fender and drive it to Beatersville next weekend.

Hopefully he will keep up with this and add to the build thread, but that is probably it for me on this one.

Without going into too much detail, mostly because the truck is gone now so I can't look at it for stuff I paid for, total investment is a bit high at around $1000 as it was driving off tonight. Of course that includes the $300 parts truck, making the drive train for the Chevette free for the Challenge budget Since The mew owner quoted me about that much for a decent 10 footer paint job anyway it seems fair to me. That is with me delivering my black truck disassembled ready to start sanding on BTW.

I also threw in a few spare parts and any others I have that he needs are free. There has been talk of both faux weathered lettering being added, a quick primer job, or some really nice paint work. Can't wait to see what he does with it.

Sad update. The $100 S-10 lost an argument with a concrete barrier just 200 miles after the heads were rebuilt. My paint job starts next week, possibly using the bed of this truck. Both driver and passenger walked away, although the dumbass passenger wasn't wearing his seat belt.