94 Crew cab dually build

Hey everyone new to duallyscene, I've lurked around for a while since I first bought my dually. Decided to start a build thread since I'm finally starting to tear into it and build it up. So here is the back story on the truck and why its being built.

Bought the truck about 3 months ago, I have always wanted to own a crew cab 2wd chevy dually since I was a kid when my dad owned one. Im 23 now and I finally decided to sell my yota 4runner that was my daily driver, to buy one to daily and to use as a tow rig for taking my car to car shows.

So i found a 94 Chevy it had some things already done to it which was cool for the time being until I started building it, GMC grill, spring under in the rear, lowering springs in the front and exhaust. It was a great platform since the interior was immaculate and had a new crate 454 and trans. So about a month ago I was heading to a friends house when I was t-boned and wrecked the truck, and messed it up real good. Insurance was no help since it was considered totalled, but I wasnt about to give up on the truck since I already loved the thing. I started with finding a donor truck to use all the parts off that I needed to put mine back together. Right now Ive got the cab stripped off the donor cab and getting ready to swap cabs out. Also I have ordered my Air ride system from AVS. So updates will be coming soon as I start tearing down the trucks and reassembling mine back together.

Here is the truck when I first bought it.


Here it is the night of the accident, really depressing to see since Ive waiting forever for this truck.


More pictures of it in the morning after the accident.

Axle shifted back when he hit me sheared the leaf spring pin and pulled out the driveline.

Fixed the leaf pack bolt and got it off the trailer to start looking at the damage, I knew a new bed was a must, and either a patch panel for the cab or a whole new bed. Now I am all about doing things right so I knew I was going to swap the cab.

So I went and found a donor truck, sure it looks rough but it has everything I need to put mine together. Check out them flames, and skirts!

Started getting the cab stripped out to get ready for the swap, since everything in there was thrashed.



So thats where I'm at right now with the truck, got the whole cab stripped out tonight and gonna take it off the frame in the next few days. Building vehicles has always been a passion of mine and I have built a rockcrawlers with my father when I was younger, and have also built a show car which was my first car I ever bought. The car is my show car, I trailer it to shows across cali, its won multiple awards and been published in Honda tuning magazine so building with quality is something I am very used to. Here is a few pictures of that car.



Hope you guys enjoyed this terribly long post, I can promise it wont be so long and drawn out all the way through the build. I also have an instagram if anyone is interested @g2teg2

Sorry about the luck, but cool start to the project! Be sure to update. Lots of pics!

Thanks it happens I guess but I guess it's better it happened now so I can do it all at once instead of doing it overtime. Oh I will forsure, this isn't my first build thread so I'll keep you guys posted on whats going on! Hopefully this weekend I'll have some good updates for you guys to see.

damn! that sux bro and sorry about the wreck, im sure the dually is gonna look sweet once you put it all together and laid it out, can't wait to see the build, post lots of pics as you go.....

Thanks! yeah the wreck totally sucks but it is what it is now. Now I just get to have fun with it and build a pretty awesome truck when it is all done.

Got some updates for you guys here, So AVS called and my bags and the rest of the kit should be here tomorrow so I started tearing into the rear end today, Got most of the unused bracket off the frame, pulled the bumper and the hitch, torched off those damn rivets and got the stock shock mounts removed. I also went ahead and wire wheeled the whole frame down to bare metal to get it ready to paint once the cab is off, and I was getting real tired of dust flying everywhere whenever I moved anything, I'm doing most of this build in my car port at the house, since I moved and dont have a garage big enough to put this thing in. So needless to say it gets pretty cold later in the evening, but thank god for California weather and its not snowing. But once I'm ready and start painting then I will move it to my friends paint booth were I will be doing the paint job on it as well.





Heres the frame all wired wheeled and cleaned up back to bare metal and a fresh start for it.


Little shot of it after I was done for the night


Also sorry for the crappy quality photos Ive been using my Iphone since my nice camera is dead and my sister in law has the charger. Hope you all enjoyed it hopefully I will have some more pics tomorrow.

nice progress man.... where in cali are you? and what kind rear set up you gonna be running on this? a carport is good enough i do most of my work on my driveway but i have to keep it clean all the time or the city will fuck with me....

I live in northern Cali a little north of Sacramento. Well I bought the avs air ride kit so I'll be running a parallel 4link and instead of the panhard they offer I'm going to build myself a watts link to keep the rear end straight when I air out. Yeah I live out in the country out of town so no one bothers me with that stuff. I do miss having a garage though

sounds like a plan..... watts link imo is way better than a panhard bar, cant wait to see the progress man.

Hey guys sorry for no updates! I have been so busy working on this thing, working on it literally everyday after work and the weekends, so I have been making some great progress on it and trying to take as many pictures as possible. But its coming really far and getting close to a rolling chassis again!

So where I left off here was I got the truck up in the air and started getting ready to perform the C notch, so I started the C notch, plated the frame for some more strength, and laid down some hot beads to reassure its strong.







So I then took all my measurements before taking the off the leaf springs and put a quick coat of spray paint on the frame from rusting.


Then for shits and giggles I pulled the front springs out and laid it on the ground to see how its going to look. Also I decided to set my ride height at 4 inches from the ground to the frame which I think will be a decent amount of clearance for me.
This picture will be my ride height


And this will be laid out. The frame is laying in the rear and the front crossmember is laying on the ground, and I really dont want to Z the frame since it will be my daily so this will be perfect.



So I lost the pictures of the work I did installing the 4 link but here is the end result. My brother came over and helped me out setting the measurements and getting everything straight since its a pain doing it alone.
I then installed the cross bars for the c notch, welded in the bag mounts and tied everything in. Its starting to look good now!



I also had to notch the crossmembers for the driveline to clear when I lay out so I notched and braced that.


So when I was laid out I noticed that my front tire clearance was so tight so I decided to mock up some 4wd flares from my daily right now to see how they look. I personally really like the look of them and cant beat the functionality of them either. I then ran to pick and pull and found a set of flares so When the time comes I will trim out the fenders and flares to get the clearnaces I want.
[URL=]
[/URL]

Now that the rear was very close to be completed I started working on the front end, I cut the spring cups out to fit the bag cups in, cut the spring area out to clear the bags and welded the upper cups in and welded the lower cups in to the lower control arm. I was going to plate the lower control arms instead of using cups, but after some mocking up and test fitting using the cups would allow full travel from aired out to ride height which is all I wanted. If I was running larger wheels then I would most definitely redo the control arms.


Didnt really get too many photos of the front end work, but as of last night I got everything fabbed up and installed, I used the rear inner tires for setting up the suspension since they are the size I will be running once the truck is done. the clearances are tight, which I expected but nothing I cant handle. I still need to notch the frame for the tie rods from hitting and a few little things here and there to tie it all in. but its definitely coming along. I ran into a little issue I didnt expect when the truck lays out the lower control arm hits the frame which limits me from laying frame on the front. The gap front the frame to the ground is really only like 1/4 to a 1/2 inch which isnt alot, but I still may trim the control arm to give it some more space to lay out fully.









So thats where the truck is at as of last night, its coming along slowly but surely, cant wait to get it back on the road again I miss driving this truck. But this project is much more hands on and much more fabrication then my car ever was, but I have done lots of fabrication in the past so its fun getting back into doing these things. Hope you guys all enjoyed reading through this. We are having a rain storm up here is norcal so today I will be working on small projects on this thing, probably work on the fenders and get the flares mounted and trimmed out, and clean up some areas and such.

Great progress! Keep the pics coming!

DZL1.