My name is Chris and i found my way here awhile ago while searching for ideas for one of these three vehicles but only recently registered after binging a few threads on here to see what others have built. And rather then starting separate threads for these three i figured i would keep it all in one to make it a bit easier to track things. My past vehicles have included multiple hondas such as a 1st gen hatchback, two CRXs, and two Odysseys. One of the three being documented here is the second Odyssey. I have also had multiple muscle cars and pickups over the years along with other imports such an Integra RS and two separate MKII Jettas. Background out of the way here are the details on the three...
Vehicle #1 1984 Chevy C10 Custom Deluxe "Frankenstein"
I have had this truck for nearly a decade at this point. It will be a decade as of September of this year. I originally bought it as a cheap A to B vehicle and had some ideas for a build but never really started on it until after COVID. Essentially my marriage was a victim of the Pandemic and i ended up just throwing myself into building this truck finally.
Current Specs:
1974 Oldsmobile 350 Rocket with TH400 trans (Swapped into the truck long before I bought it)
It was originally a 305/Th700R4 truck according to the Vin
A few cosmetic upgrades include a Grant GT steering wheel, old aluminum gauge trim, and LED headlights.
Over the past couple of years, I have added a drop-in bed liner and a fiberglass canopy, as well as fitting a .50 Cal ammo can as a center console.
Essentially just started piecing together a bit of a ratty survivor-type build.
Potential changes now that the truck has been pulled off the road for the next year:
Clean up and seal up the Olds 350 or swap to an Olds 455 (May have a lead on a 455. Need to check casting numbers to determine it is one or a later "Lightweight" 350)
Rebuild the Th400 with a Stage 2 shift kit.
Clean up and rebuild the rear diff. Will likely add a drop in locker at this point
lower 2/2 to give it a stance similar to a 1st gen Ford Lightning.
Swap out the bench for buckets and build a console to add some aux gauges and a tach.
Swap to a tilt steering column or a manual column and add a floor shifter (TBD)
There will likely be some other ideas that happen along the way as time goes on
Vehicle #2: 1973 MGB Roadster "Jinx"
This was the car that got me looking around here initially as i started researching different engine swap ideas such as a Chevy V6 or a Saturn 4 cyl. I have since decided to keep the original 1.8 in it and build it up more to be a fun lil driver. I picked this up almost 5 years ago...about a year before separation. Did some tinkering on it to get it back on the road. Enjoyed driving it for a few months that first year but ran into fueling issues the next and it got parked. I left it on the back burner as life decided to beat the ever-living hell out of me. But with the truck off the road and picking up this current Odyssey as a daily driver, I can finally pivot back to it and try to enjoy it this summer. This car is essentially mostly stock at the moment other than a 13" Steering wheel and Hyundai tiburon seats which are getting replaced with either Pontiac Fiero seats or Saturn SC coupe seats.
Vehicle #3: 1996 Honda Odyssey LX
This is the most recent addition to the fleet and current DD. I picked this up after the center bearing went in the truck which had me going "Ok...this needs to come off the road for a while to properly repair this issue and a few others that got neglected" It already has a couple of upgrades such as LED headlights, Wheels from a Nissan Stagea, AGM battery and large ground cable kit. Plans here are to add an HRG lift kit and a smittybilt Street bar from a GMT400 pickup. As well as a mild stereo build.
To be honest, the MGB and Honda will likely not see as much documentation on here as the Chevy but there will still be the odd "I did this to X" kind of posts referencing them. Once i find some older pics of the Chevy and MGB ill post them to this thread.
We definitely need pictures.
A bit more backstory on Frank. Originally when i was looking at buying an old pickup back in 2015 I had already started to work on a deal on a 1977 Gmc C20 that a friend had. That truck had a 350/4 speed in it. But a couple of days before I was to pick up the '77 the previous owner of the truck learned it was at my friend's place and wanted it back. So my friend offered up this old '84. I had previously bought the rear wheels off of it for a previous project and after some discussion and a brief test drive in the field, I ended up with this truck instead. At the time we thought it was originally a 350 Olds Diesel truck that blew up its engine and had a 350 Olds rocket swapped back in its place. With me not knowing much about Olds engines in general at the time figured that i would take it back to Diesel power with a 6.2 Detroit I had at the time. Further research revealed it had originally been a 305/Th700R4 truck which matched up with a decal on the rad support. By this point, I had gotten used to driving to driving it with the 350 in it and liked the power it had. Which is why i ended up selling the 6.2 and keeping the current engine. The only reason im looking at swapping out now is because the engine i found might be a 455... so Big block power...but even if its a 350 Lightweight i am still gonna swap it out as it comes with a rebuilt trans and the current engine/trans combo is tired and the trans is slipping occasionally. So if its a lightweight it will be a place holder while i rebuild this older 350 to W-31 spec (Olds Cutlass Rallye 350 spec essentially)
In reply to Darkrider :
Welcome aboard. You're gonna fit in here just fine 
Nice. I'm eager to see more.
If it helps, we have lots of MGB tech tips over on Classic Motorsports.
Indy - Guy said:
In reply to Darkrider :
Welcome aboard. You're gonna fit in here just fine
It def feels like I found a forum that likes the off the beaten path builds for sure!
Colin Wood said:
Nice. I'm eager to see more.
If it helps, we have lots of MGB tech tips over on Classic Motorsports.
Will def check it out. I am over on MGExp as well and have posted a bit about the car over there. Now that things have settled a bit i look forward to getting it back on the road this summer. I will eventually need to do the clutch as it slips under hard acceleration in 3rd. The plan there is going to a heavy-duty clutch with a lightened OE flywheel or a Fidenza just to help it rev up a bit easier. One project i am currently working on the details of is fitting a light weight battery normally intended for use in a Harley in either the OE battery location or redoing the trunk relocation that had been done to the car previously.
In reply to Darkrider :
A lot of us here have successfully used lawn tractor batteries in our cars too. Cheap at tractor supply (last one I bought was ~$39).
Light weight too. If you haven't already purchased your Harley battery
I was already intrigued by the title, but the photos really did it for me, so now I'm invested. Welcome to the party!
Indy - Guy said:
In reply to Darkrider :
A lot of us here have successfully used lawn tractor batteries in our cars too. Cheap at tractor supply (last one I bought was ~$39).
Light weight too. If you haven't already purchased your Harley battery
Good to know! I got the harley battery in a clearance sale a couple of years ago for this. It was something that has sat on the shelf waiting for me to get back to the car. It is a LiFe battery that weighs about 7 lbs. But ill def keep the tractor batteries in mind when it comes time to replace it.
Paris Van Gorder said:
I was already intrigued by the title, but the photos really did it for me, so now I'm invested. Welcome to the party!
Thanks!
Bit more info on the '96 Honda Odyssey aka "Echo" as it has come to be known as. I bought this car near the beginning of the month as more and more issues cropped up on Frank. I had known of the car for a few years from driving past it repeatedly either making deliveries in the part of town it was in or going to see events at the exhibition grounds or simply visiting a friend who lived nearby. Randomly about a year and a half ago I stopped and asked about it. Learned it was not for sale at that time so it seemed it was simply gonna end up sitting and rotting away in the backyard it was in. Then one friend picked it up as the one who had it when I asked was his mom. He drove it for a few months then sold it to another friend last fall. This friend put a lot of work into it, intending to drive it as a delivery vehicle and then pass it down to his daughter as her first car. He has since decided he will look for something awd like his RB2 Odyssey for that purpose instead. Which resulted in him putting out feeler ads trying to sell the '96. And with my truck slowly dying i asked him if we could work out a deal where I made payments and he agreed which brings us to now.
The work and parts he had done and installed:
New High Pressure Power Steering Line
New Front & Rear Wheel Bearings
New Front & Rear Rotors, Brake Pads & Calipers
New Rear Shocks
New Front Stabilizer Bushings
New Oversized 650cca 35 Series AGM Dry Cell Battery (stock is 450cca 51R Series)
New Brass Battery Clamps
New Novsight LED Headlight Bulbs
Oversized Ground Cables
It came with the following:
15” Steel Wheels w/All Season Tires (Stock steel wheels)
16” Alloy Wheels w/Winter Tires (Nissan Stagea wheels)
Android head unit (Will not be using this in this car as there may be fitment issues. Will likely use to add a modern stereo to Frank)
Aftermarket hatch struts. (Will need to modify top mounts to add ball studs to them to fit these.)
Will try to get some better pictures of this sometime this week either via Cellphone or DSLR camera.
So a couple of updates on both Jinx and Frank
Jinx first: I decided to randomly see if the harley battery would fit in the original battery location and found out that it fits perfectly in there other then the box having enough space to fit two of these batteries in there. So i am just working out how to secure it in there. Most likely will put an aluminum plate in the bottom of the box with slots in it to accept a simple marine battery strap. Or two pieces of all thread with a strip of aluminum as a hold down.
Now for Frank: I have located a tilt steering column, replacement right side headlight bezel and side marker. The friend im getting those parts from thinks he might have some fenders as well. So i suppose ill end up with mismatched panels ala Roadkill Muscle truck. Kinda fitting as there is another build on here pulling inspiration from General Mayhem lol
In reply to Darkrider :
Oh! Roadkill Muscle Truck vibes.
Sweet 👍
Indy - Guy said:
In reply to Darkrider :
Oh! Roadkill Muscle Truck vibes.
Sweet 👍
Honestly when i first bought Frank i always had the MT as an inspiration point. Which i suppose leads me to explain the actual full name of the truck. Frankenstein, Which is fitting as i have literally been building it out of parts from other vehicles.
So far the donors have been:
1974 Oldsmobile 350 Rocket (Unknown model as engine was in truck before i bought it, Suspect Cutlass S or 442)
1976 Chevy C10 for the steering wheel and adapter kit.
1980s Chevy truck for dash trim. (I didn't see the donor. part was given to me by another C10 owner)
1980 Chevy C10 for plastic bedliner (Same C10 owner as dash trim)
2010 Ford Explorer aftermarket lug nuts but these will likely be replaced with something else soon
2000 Chevy Astro front wheels
1995 Ford F250 provided the Fiberglass canopy
2009 Nissan Sentra provided one of the two batteries in it
Parts im in the process of buying from other donors:
1984 Chevy C10 Tilt column, side marker and headlight bezel
Unknown of exact year 82-87 Chevy pickup fenders from same friend with the column, marker and bezel
Parts i have from previous projects that will be going in:
Hyundai Tiburon seats from my '73 MGB aka Jinx. I am going to Saturn SC or Pontiac Fiero seats in the MG so i might as well use them here.
Android headunit that came with Echo but will be going a different direction with that car. Will be part of the console that will be built as part of the bucket seat conversion. This headunit also has a rearview camera i may end up using. Depends a lot on the visibility of it from drivers seat.
Temp/compass mirror from 90s GMT 400 pickup
Overhead console from a 90s GMT400 pick up
Aftermarket parts i will likely be using:
Glowshift Pillar pod to fit aux gauges instead of console. Realized i may not have enough space to have both a double din headunit and the gauges. Plus this puts them in better line of sight. Will be running a Tach and two aux voltage gauges. Mainly to monitor how the batteries are charging vs what is shown on the stock voltage gauge. I will likely need to trim this a bit to work with the retrofit headliner as it was intended for use with a full interior.
Retrofit headliner kit intended for bare roof trucks like this. Modifying the install a bit with the GMT400 console. Will be putting sound deadening between this and roof.
rear cab panel from a seller on FB marketplace, This will provide both a clean solution to cover the back wall to hide sound deadening along with providing mounting for a pair of 6x9 speakers. Will likely fit some 3.5" speakers in the OE speaker locations in the dash.
Up in the air how i am tackling the headunit delete in the dash. Either via a stock GM delete plate or a piece of aluminum that will also function as a switch panel. Likely will be the second.
