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Mike & Chris Desselle

Richmond, Missouri

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The Build

1989 Chevy S10

When we first got our hands on this truck it had already been converted to a Small Block Chevy 358 with a TH350 Turbo Transmission. Everything else was basically stock except for the cowl hood and the racing seats. It ran, but it was nothing spectacular. The body looked good from 5 feet away but it had some issues. When this project started, the first thing we did was pull the motor and transmission and set them aside. Next came removing all the factory glass and stripping the inside to lighten the load. Next came the frame work. Because we had decided we wanted wide slicks on the rear, narrowing the frame and tubbing the bed was in order. We started by snapping a centerline on the garage floor and then centered the entire truck on this line. We then cut the frame on each side just behind the cab. The rear tire size was going to be 33x16.0-15 so we had to calculate how much to narrow the frame and it came out to be 16" total that it needed to be narrowed. We cut a 16" section out of the crossmembers. We fabricated a crossmember out of 4"x6" rectangular tubing as the main crossmember that the frame would be welded back too. This crossmember was designed to clear the driveshaft as shown in the pictures. After the main crossmember was welded in, We "boxed" the frame from the crossmember forward as far as we could to give the frame some rigidity. We then cut a 16" section out of the factory crossmembers of the rear frame and fit it back onto the main crossmember and welded it in place. While fitting the rear of the frame back on, we were careful to keep everything centered on the centerline and level. It took hours of measuring, checking center and level and double checking center and level before we ever began welding. After the rear frame was welded back on the truck we "boxed" the frame in from the main crossmember rearward to the front spring hanger. We spent many hours of cleaning up welds, cleaning the frame and sanding it for paint. Now that the frame was done, we needed a rearend. We knew that a stock S10 rearend would not holdup to our vision of what this truck was destined for so we started a search for that. We found a used 9" Ford rearend with 31 spline axles for $125.00 so we took it home. We disassembled the rearend and began cleaning all the oil and grease off. Before narrowing the rearend, we needed to know what rims we were going to use on the rear. We found a pair of Centerlines to fit the 33x16.0-15 Hoosier Slicks. After getting the wheels, we measured the backset so we knew how much we could narrow the rearend, cutting began. After getting the rearend narrowed, we added a drain plug to the bottom of the housing and sent the axles off to Moser Engineering to have shortened and resplined. We bought a 4:56 gearset and an Auburn Full Spool for the guts with all new bearings & seals. After getting the rearend set and bolted in, we began on the body work. We fabricated a pair of wheel tubs and fit those to the bed. Any rust we found was cut out and replaced with new metal and seal welded. We wanted the "sleek" custom look so we shaved the rear tail lights, fuel door and door handles. We wanted it smooth, no body lines so the groove that runs down the length of the S10's was filled also. It took weeks and weeks of work on the body to get it to the paint stage. While it's still not "perfect", it is 110% better than it was when we started and we ended up with the look we were after. The entire truck was painted, even the underside of the cab. What a mess that was but it came out looking great and it's clean now. After paint, we started putting the truck back together. We had a vision of what we wanted the inside to look like but really didn't know how it would come out. We fabricated a custom aluminum dash and installed all the gauges. Next came the motor, that's when things started getting nasty. At first, we were going to supercharge the small block 358 we took out so we bought a small Weiand 177 supercharger. We went to install it and found a bent valve when we took the old intake off. We thought "how far does the damage go?" so we removed the heads and oil pan. We looked in disappointment at the guts of the motor. Nothing was damaged that we could see BUT it did not have any of the parts in it we were told was in it when we got the truck. It was supposedly a bored and stroked 415 SBC according to the previous owner. It had been bored .040 but had cast pistons, a stock cast crank and stock rods. Well, we knew that wouln't work for a supercharger so we discussed the power plant options. We priced all the parts and labor costs it would take to make a good healthy supercharged SBC and it was out of our price range so we then decided to go BIG BLOCK!!!! We found a BBC 402 that had a Offy Tunnelram and twin 650 Edelbrock carbs so we brought it home. Before the Big Block can be put in, we had to modify the front crossmember. We fabricated a section from rectangular tubing and 3/8" plate,  cut a 10" section of the factory crossmember out and welded in the new pieces to clear the oil pan. We dropped the 402 in and it looked awesome with the polished tunnelram, carbs and scoop. We purchased the 402 before thinking much and then along came a BBC 461 with LS 6 TRW forged pistons and other good parts in it that had been freshly rebuilt that came out of a front engine dragster so we pulled the 402 out and dropped the 461 in it, after all "theres no replacement for displacement" We finally had the motor we wanted this time. Next came the decision on an intake, we decided to go with an Edelbrock Victor Jr. topped with a 1150 cfm Holley Dominator and a set of ProForm stud girdles. Now came the transmission. We bought a used built TH400 and installed a Redneck Performance transbrake and Redneck Performance 4500 stall converter. We had to make a new driveshaft so we went with all Spicer 1350 series yokes and U-Joints for strength. Now that the major components were in, we started installing the Clear One Lexan windows. We purchased a Lexan kit and painted the yellow border on before installing it. We think it "sets" the truck off, especially with the yellow pinstripe. The hood was a project in itself. We fabricated a hood scoop by heating a piece of plexiglass with a heatgun and forming the shell. Our intention was to form it and then spread fiberglass over it and then remove the plexiglass. Little did we know that fiberglass sticks to plexiglass quite well and it was impossible to remove. We decided that it would be best to just leave it there and encapsulate it with fiberglass. Once the scoop was in rough form, we cut a 10" diameter hole in the cowl hood and fit the scoop to the hood and bonded it with fiberglass. We then molded the scoop to the hood using fiberglass to make a strong bond. The scoop took a total of about four days to complete and the completed hood is more than 7 days in the making but we are very satisfied with the way it came out. Check out the PHOTO page to see more. Stay tuned.