So 3 weeks ago my daily driver Beretta decided to crap out on me and I was left with no vehicle and starting a new job in 5 days. Well I didn't have the 2-3 weeks that it was going to take to tear down and rebuild the motor (again) and my parents said that since I wasn't gonna tear down and rebuild the motor that they were "repo-ing" my car and I was now on my own for a vehicle. Well I scraped together all the money I had, and bought a new daily driver/work truck. Its a '95 S10 short cab short bed with a 2.2/5speed and 84,000 miles. Its pure bare bones/work truck. Heat only (no A/C), rubber floor, bench seat, non-tilt column, and even a GM rollpan that was a cheaper option than a real bumper. I got a super deal on it and its been a great work truck for the past 3 weeks. Here's some pics from when I brought it home:
What I love about this truck is the POTENTIAL it has. As you can tell, some aspects of it are a bit rough. The front end is smashed, the passenger mirror is missing, the rollpan is hanging by who knows what, the tailgate handle is bent/crooked, etc. etc. But the body is in great shape for being a '95 and a work truck. There's probably a grand total of 15-20 dents on the truck INCLUDING ones INSIDE the bed. My new job is at a bodyshop so a large part of the plans for the truck is to practice/hone my bodyworking skills on it and then paint it a bit nicer color lol. But the front end needs to be fixed, so might as well swap it for a '98 up front end, right? I need a new mirror so might as well get some Street Scene ones... The rollpan is falling off, so I'm thinking about putting a stock bumper on (EVERYBODY has rollpans....who runs bumpers on a custom truck these days? Besides...all the people who have rollpans can hardly GIVE AWAY their old stock bumpers lol). The tailgate handle is crooked, so might as well shave it and relocate it to the inside...
But anyway...not really sure where this truck/project will head but anything that happens with it will go here in this thread.
I bought the truck on Saturday, June 24. 3 days later on the following Tuesday I took my brother's old ZQ8 leafsprings, 4" pinion angled blocks (with U-bolts... SCORE!), Deutsch Tech drop shocks, and ZQ8 hopper stopper shock out of our garage attic (his truck is bagged and he hasn't used any of that stuff for 2+ years) and put it on my truck. Only thing thats strange is....the truck dropped about 3.5" total in the back. weird.
This past week/weekend (after I brought my '91 to my new shop) I decided to strip the front suspension off the '91 and put it on the '95. I changed my mind about running stock control arms on my '91 (I want it to be a show truck and although the stock arms did their job of laying flat out on my rims they were kinda ugly and I'd rather have some nice looking tubular arms that can lay out on that size wheel but with a stock spindle). So I stripped the pie cut upper arms, the de-humped lower arms, and the drop spindles (with new discs already on them) off of the '91 and then put them on the '95. I also cut 1 full coil off of the stock coil springs from the '95 then re-assembled the truck to acheive around a 3-4" drop up front (the drivers side is more like 4" drop, whereas the passenger side is about 3" of drop. Stupid S10 lean...)
After purchasing some longer wheel studs to accomidate the 1/2" spacers for my 18s I decided yesterday to put my 18s on the daily instead of having them collect dust in a garage while on the '91. I learned 2 things when doing this:
#1. S10 drop spindles widen the front track of an S10 approximately 1.25" per side of the truck. They also have the tie rod connection point closer in towards the frame when compared to a stock spindle (I had a normal alignment with stock spindles, but after putting the drop spindles on, I had about 2-3" of toe-out).
#2. The bodies of 2nd gen S10s are about 1.5"-2" wider PER SIDE than the bodies of 1st gen S10s. My 18s had the perfect offset on my 1st gen with using the 1/2" spacers all around. The back tucked nicely and the front did once the negative camber started taking effect. On the '95 the front wheels sit about 1/4" too far into the wheelwells, but in the back the wheels sit about 1.5" too far in the bedsides WITH THE 1/2" SPACERS ON. So I think I may end up getting some 3/4" spacers for the front and then some 2" spacers for the rear to get the right offset and not have the offset ruin the nice look of the rims.
Ok here's some pics:
Halfway there!:
rollin a 3/4(ish) drop on 18s:
in this pic you can see how the rear wheel is really far inset into the bedside...:
from the side it looks good though :
Hopefully tomorrow I can get an alignment so that that will be straightened out. Other than that...thats all for now
nice daily driver by your description at least, my p/c is crappy and i waited at least 10 minues for the hugh pics to load and finally gave up. i just bought a 95 s-10 for 50 bucks that just needs the head replaced that i plan to make my daily( good gas milage)truck.
That looks EXACTLY like my truck when I bought it 5 years ago... Same color, engine, tranny, and bare bones interior...the front end was even smashed. Does yours have the black interior?
I still can't believe my truck used to look like that...
nice daily driver by your description at least, my p/c is crappy and i waited at least 10 minues for the hugh pics to load and finally gave up. i just bought a 95 s-10 for 50 bucks that just needs the head replaced that i plan to make my daily( good gas milage)truck.
That looks EXACTLY like my truck when I bought it 5 years ago... Same color, engine, tranny, and bare bones interior...the front end was even smashed. Does yours have the black interior?
I still can't believe my truck used to look like that...
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