LUVTruck.com

Hello everyone, new here.

I've had a 79' Chevy Luv 4X4 since 2001. Drove it for a short time, but it has been sitting in my garage for about the last three years collecting dust.

I also have a 408cid gen 1 small block chevy on an engine stand that I took out of my SCCA car years ago. Dart block, 18 degree brodix heads, roller valvetrain. the works. This engine is extremely strong.

So I'm sitting out in my garage the other night having a few beers with my buddies when one of them asks, "whats under the blanket?" I pull the blanket off the engine and he starts going on and on how I should build my LUV into a road race style truck. Ditch the 4 wheel drive etc...

I kinda blew it off at first, but the thought of doing something with this truck is way too tempting, plus I have a road race course about a 2 hour drive away that is completely SICK! and they have open track days, where you pay then play. (after safety inspections of course)

I would really love to build this truck, but I would also like to be able to drive it on the street, which unfortunately won't be legal in California under our smog regulations. 75' and under are exemtp from smog, anything newer has to be inspected every 2 years. Kinda puts the hamper on things.

So now, I'm thinking If I could purchase a salvaged 1975, I could use the cab, and serials and still build my truck making it legal under CA smog laws.

So yeah, the plan is begining to form but I know from past experiences that the realization of a dream is usually ten fold in complexity than the original plan.

I also want to take some pages from the SCCA way of building cars by forming a fiberglass widebody kit, and using wide low profile tires mounted on 18" wheels, Jaguar or Corvette IRS, coil over suspension, and a low race car stance. Just to give you an idea of what I am imagining.

any suggestions?

If you've got the skills to do this, I say, go for it. For those tricky bits, you're on the right board. I'm doing a V8 truck, and wouldn't have considered it without this board. That gives you and idea of my skills. Lol...

Good luck, and welcome. You can post photos after 5 message posts.

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Thanks for the welcome nukeday, Well, I have skills when it comes to engine building I worked in a machine shop when I was younger, and later went to the race engine side of the shop for a couple years before I got into law enforcement. I've done some light fabrication, but nothing on the scale of what this project will require, so I will be learning as well if indeed I decide to go forward with this.

One thing I have going for me is I'm a great welder, so atleast whatever I come up with, I'll have the comfort of knowing it was glued together properly!

Welcome to the site. Where are you in No Cal.? We have a few others up there. I'm down here in smoggy So Cal.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

Hey rondog, I'm currently in Susanville, but will be transferring to Fresno in about 18 months. Hence the concern about being smog legal.

Oh, ok. My dad lives up in Grass Valley. And I know of at least 1 member here that is in Auburn.

I tryed to send you a PM, and I see that you tryed to reply. But all it said was error. It might be a spam control, and will work after you have more posts. That's my guess anyway.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

here is an old 80's wide body

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My old but now gone Luv...

Nice, but I'm hoping to design something a little more modern looking than that. Gotta love 80's styling though!

I'm usually really good at finding links, but I'm not doing so well tonight. You might want to look at some of the stuff ridgeway369, farmerjoe, bagged79, etc. are doing. Several members here are laying frame with these trucks. There are also quite a few serious straight line Luv race trucks here. Between all of that expertise, I think if you search a bit, you'll find most of what you have in mind can be done. There might even be a couple of V8 4x4's here. I'm not sure the stock running gear would handle a V8 for SCCA racing, but it's an interesting idea. A 4x4, V8 slalom Luv...I'm not sure that's been done...(and there is probably a reason...lol)

Most of these trucks seem to have survived in the Northwest, so finding an older cab is probable if you want to make a haul into Oregon or Washington.

ctmandu is the guru of finding Luv stuff, he may already know where one is. Plus he's done some some pretty cool body mods to these trucks, and is working on some fiberglass molds for parts that aren't produced any longer...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Thanks for the tips nukeday. although a 4X4 V* luv is interesting, my original thoughts were to scrap the 4X4 running gear. I'm afraid the complexity of building and designing a AWD road race truck is beyond anything I want to get into.

I imagine one could build from a GMC Cyclone running gear, but honestly I've neve seen one in the wrecking yard, and doubt I ever will. There were so few made, I think most owners have thier AWD turbo Cyclones parked in preservation.

zeemax is a great wide body company in the uk , i was going to use one of there kits on my old mini but sold it before i could get it done... but hay look around the site and mabe it will give you some ideas
http://zeemax.com/ by the way if you ever call them the guy is a very nice and he may be able to design somthing for you...or at least thats what he told me a few years ago

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My old but now gone Luv...

I was thinking about something similiar to this picture I made in Photoshop, Im not a great artist though:

I see ... sorta like the 69/70 bmw 2002 wide body that was all over in germany when i lived there in the 80's/90's ... would like to see it when its all done, good luck

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My old but now gone Luv...

G'day mate, sounds like an interesting build!

I have similar plans in mind. I like the thought of an angry sbc luv with coilovers all round, big disc brakes front and rear and a nice low stance on some big wheels, although I intend keeping a live rear axle setup on a fourlink and making my own tube control arm setup for the front.

If money isnt an issue art morrison do some great IFS kits you might like (http://www.artmorrison.com) although I think there gear will need to be modified to suit a luv chassis due to different widths.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing more...

Gilly

My virtual truck is taking shape. Well, if anything, these pictures will be usefull down the road when I start getting pooped out on building. I'm attempting to work out some sort of budget also, just had a sit down with the wife, and we discussed things. It's looking pretty good, we have 2 credit cards with a zero balance, I'm trying to talk her into letting me use one just for this project, so the impact on everyday things isn't impacted too much.

anyways, here's #2

Hey Gilly, sounds like fun! I'll most likely be getting my Jaguar IRS from this company > http://www.cwiinc.com/ they offer custom widths, center sections, and ship it completely set up. I love the idea of the inboard brakes, plus I can get one to handle nasty amounts of horsepower if needed. Have to get the motor running and strapped into a dyno room to see where I'm at, I hate guessing at that stuff, it's always resulted in broken parts in the past.

as far as the front suspension, I think I'll browse some wrecking yards and see If I can find a production sports car front clip with the correct width hub to hub then go chop and grind the Luv frame until everything fits like factory. The benefit of doing it that way is I'll be able to order parts for the suspension through any auto parts store, the geometry will be right, and I will have a matched set of brake parts, steering parts, and suspension components witch will ultimately save time as opposed to custom fabbing things, and chasing parts that fit.

The rails come in far enough to take a jag front end just as it comes straight from the car. Not sure how the ride height would be.


At first i was going to say, buy a 2wd and start with that but by the sounds of it your going to get pretty excited.



The worst thing with the Luv is the diffs. Im not sure how the front shafts and hubs would hold up to AWD.

Some of the Nissan gear could be your answer. They did quite a few turbo AWD cars. Skylines and the like. Im sure if you looked you could hunt up a manual setup. Would be pretty expensive.

I did contemplate it for a 4x4 luv i was offered. AWD nissan trans, turbo isuzu 4cyl.

Bob.

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Current project, 1979 KB Isuzu Ute.

Daily driver, '86 Rodeo Spacecab.
Chasing parts for Isuzu Impulse.

Well, I've contemplated just starting with a 2wd, but I already have the 4X4, so my plans are to strip out all the front running gear and turn it into a 2wd.

Building a AWD V8 SBC road race style Luv is beyond anything I want to think about. Plus I plan to actually take this thing to the track when it's finished,

I'm afraid that if I attempted to build an AWD, the world will be out of fuel before I finish.

The Luv made it into the shop

I may re-do the widebody, I want it to look less like a slammes truck and more like a SCCA vehicle, grrr, hard to find the balance.

whatever, this is all photoshop fun at this point.

Josh, Just wanted to stop but and say what's up!!! I have one of the layed out luv's on here. Are you looking at getting really low center of gravity and running wide tires and wheels? I do have some pointers of what you can do and some of the problems that I ran into. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. BTW I'm running a 383/th350 with 20" wheels on mine with a 4-link and bags. Here is some of the process as it keeps truckin on.

Craig