The phoenix -

gmc4cw · March 7th, 2007, 08:45 PM

I don't know where to start. the pics start after the first lift. most of what I have is on actual photo paper. I own a scanner but the pictures are scattered everywhere. I'm going to start from a random point.

The truck at this point has received an 8" set of superlift springs, 35x16.5x16.5 boggers on 12" wide wheels. I just finished swapping in a new 350 making 350hp and 400lb/ft. The axles are new to the truck too. a dana 44 and 14 both with 4.56 gears. a detroit in the rear. I was still driving the truck at this point. I believe these picture are from around 2000.

the car was mine. It wouldn't pass emissions and then locked up in park about a week after the inspection ran out. made a good RTI ramp.

I'll bring this up to date slowly. the truck barely looks like this now. I kind of miss this setup. It was fun to drive on the street.

hidesertwheelin · March 7th, 2007, 08:55 PM

Nice looking trucks. All these cut-out fender flares makes me wont to get some

**cbbr** · March 8th, 2007, 05:30 AM

That is a nice setup. What's next.....

gmc4cw · March 8th, 2007, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbbr

That is a nice setup. What's next.....

next is where the name comes from. the following pics are entirely my younger brothers fault. after the motor swap I ran with the original quadrabog. couple of wheeling trips and I decided it was time for a truck avenger. I took the carb off and took it apart to see how they work. At this point I am storing the truck at my dads house and I live at an apartment. I didn't get around to putting the new carb on the same day.

closed the hood, locked the garage and headed home to return the next day to put the new carb on. The next morning my brother, who still lives at home with dad, goes out to his car to go to work in the morning. His car won't start, nothing, won't even click. He is not mechanically gifted. He figures the battery must be dead so he'll jump it. gets the spare keys to my truck and cranks away trying to start it. He is too short to see that there is no carb and wouldn't know what he's looking at anyways.

The way he described it was "I cranked for a little bit then I heard a loud POOF" he grabs the fire extinguisher bolted to the seat bracket and its dead. I had used it the week before to put out a jeep offroad. so he runs to the house and grabs the extinguisher in the kitchen. nothing, its aparently too old. calls 911. luckily the firehouse is 8 houses down and there were people there. they showed up before he hung the phone up and had the fire out before he got back out to the truck.

They wrote me a nice estimate for insurance saying the truck was a total loss. I only had liability so fires not covered. This was all in the early months of 2001.

**walla2k5** · March 8th, 2007, 07:43 AM

Damn, that was a nice looking truck. Too bad about the fire.

**MrK5** · March 8th, 2007, 08:49 AM

I want to find a car to crush.

Man, that fire must have been pretty disheartening.

gmc4cw · March 8th, 2007, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrK5

I want to find a car to crush. :bicycle:

Man, that fire must have been pretty disheartening.

driving over a car is so satisfying. I got it up on the roof but didn't want to get out for the pic. it was a little tippy.

When I saw the aftermath of the fire I was stunned. Just stood and stared for hours. sat in the garage staring at the truck every afternoon for days. I didn't do a thing for awhile, just kind of put together a mental plan of attack.

more pics to come. I still have the truck. it just looks different. heres a teaser pic. notice the lack of a cab.

gmc4cw · March 10th, 2007, 07:34 PM

update time. since the truck was an 83 and the axles were from a 75 and the engine was from a 90, I thought why stop there. I got a complete 1981 2wd stick shift out of my friends junkyard. I unfortuately did not take lots of pics. I swapped cabs pretty quickly.

I unbolted the front clip of the toasted one in one peice and set it aside. did the same for the donor. got everything disconnected on the donor cab so that it was just sitting on the frame. The burnt cab I just hacked up with a sawzall and threw in the bed of the donor truck. it was going back to the junkyard when I was done. The picture is some random moment during this process. I went from having 2 complete trucks to a swapped cab in about 3 days.

I picked the donor cab off the frame with a boom truck I used to drive at my last job. I did it really late so no pics.

gmc4cw · March 10th, 2007, 08:11 PM

somehow in the process of all this I thought to myself that this would be a good time to go bigger. I bought the 44's you see in the earlier picture at a swap meet for $180. Really I would have been happy with 40's, but they were so cheap. A 3" body lift and they fit. sort of.

swapping the cab went quick but like they say the devil is in the details. all the little stuff takes so much time. I finally got it to the point where I could drive it. I went wheeling 3 times before I realized there was no way I could make a dana 44 survive. time for more upgrades. good thing a friend of mine had a dana 60 with the correct ratio he would sell.

$360 and he delivered it. so rebuild and install with crossover, lets go wheeling. Here it is in all it's full bodied offroad glory. can you tell I don't do paint work, the rust spot on the hood is from the fire.

gmc4cw · March 10th, 2007, 08:16 PM

44's will roll over anything. I was having the best day and then the steering took a crap. ripped the box right off the frame. it was a nightmare extraction. discovered I couldn't turn at 2:30pm and got it on the trailer at 7:00pm. Luckily this all happened at Paragon, they brought out the backhoe to get me.