IH 54 R-100 4X4

[Jesse S]

Been working on this Binder for a few years ...
Bout 30 years back I did a body swap onto a 75 GMC 1/2 ton 4x4 frame ..
Been on the road since then .
Was looking fairly nice after the swap was completed, but was beginning to look rundown .

In the mist of a makeover ...
Kind of going hog-wild with doing a wide body and a world of addons ...

 

[Jesse S]

At the moment I'm working on installing bucket seats ..
The factory seat is still in great shape, but was killing my back ..
Found a set from a 95 full size GM truck ..
Added 4-way electric with lumbar support ..



Seat covers got a new look on em ..

Another addon was electric windows and tinted glass.
Windshield is green tint with a blue sun band ..



Found a Chrl' Petcak outside sun visor on Facebook Marketplace ..



Was in pretty good shape with a few dings in the stainless trim ...
Bumped all of them out and polished ..



AC was a must have ..



Worked the firewall to net a clean install ..



Next that was needed to get done was the AC vents and switches ..
Used another R-Series dash in order to make up a pod ..

 

[Jesse S]

Here's a few photos of the body work ..

With the 4-wheel drive frame under the Binder had a lot of tire stick out going on ..

Wasn't all that fond of that look !

The rear end was made worst when I swapped out the GM 12 bolt to a 3/4 ton 14 bolt Cooperation ..
It was bout 4 inches wider ..



Installed a Detroit Locker in it while I was in the neighborhood ..

Back in the day IH made add-on fender extensions for trucks that were dually' ..
Tried for many moons to locate a set, wasn't to be had ..
So I added 3" to the Oem fenders ..



Netted a better look doing it this way cause there's no seam to be seen.



That got all the tire stick out under the fenders ..
Now to fatten up the front fenders ..



Always thought there was to much gap above the tires running the stock R-100 fenders ..
Was eyeballing fenders from the medium duty R-Series trucks.
The 140/150 Series had what I wanted ..
They was fat and had more sheet metal above the tire..

After a very long search I found a solid set in the corn belt ..



Was far from bolt on and go ..





Lots of work was needed to fit to the light duty truck



Got them to fit after a long time cutting and welding ..





Since the fenders are bout 3" wider had a new problem to contend with ..
Back when I did the body swap I installed a bumper from a 57 Chevy pickup ..
Liked it much better than what IH used ..
But now it no longer fits ..

Added a few inches to each side was the cure for that problem ..





Slicked up really nice with 58 GMC Dagmar's and 57 Bel-Air pasties ...



Did the running boards in gloss black too ..



The step part of the board was shot with Raptor bed liner added grip (Anti slip) to the mix and clear coated ..

 

[Jesse S]

There's more upgrades on the menu ...

One that's still on the burner is adding a right side aux. fuel tank ..

I just got done redoing the stock Oem tank ...




And years back installed a 30 ga bed tank ..



Really don't need the third tank ...
IH did make them, but was a special order option ..



Tried to find one ... Wasn't to be had ..
I was about to give up the idea .. Until I ran up on this NOS fuel gauge switch ..



So ... Came up with another left side tank ..
Going to move the filler neck and make it into a aux. right side ...
That's going to be one huge chore to attain a stock look !!

 

[Jesse S]

Another big time mod is to get better gas mileage ..

When the 14 bolt when in, I did a gear ratio change ..
Went from a 3.50 to 3.73 ..
That was great for pulling trailers but killed fuel mileage ..

The 75 GMC truck originally had a THM 350 .. I built up a heavy duty THM 400 ... Been a great tranny, still works as good as the day it went on line ..

Hunted the boneyards for a 4L85E overdrive trans ..
Got lucky and ran up on a 4L80E out of a 2000 3/4 ton van ..
Didn't matter that I didn't find a 4L85 cause I was going to build it anyways.. I turned it into a 4L85 while it was going together ... Lots of H-D mods went into the build ..



Hid the controller in the grove box ...



Went ahead with buying a 4 core Aluminum radiator that has a built in trans cooler ... Installed a two speed ele. puller fan on it.





Also using a trans cooler in line ..






The controller has a temp readout built in to keep a eye peeled for overheating ..

A word about what motor that's in the truck ..
It's a 517 casting 4 bolt main 400 ci small block Chevy, been built too .. Got a few miles under it's belt, still has many more left to be had ..

It's soon to be gone though ...
Rings and bearings bout all it's going to see.
New paint job won't hurt it none too ..

 

[OldCracker29]

That is one bad ass IH. You've definitely put a lot of work into it.

 

[Kennyray]

Excellent work.

 

[Jesse S]

Thanks Fellas ..

Been growing old with this old ride, got it back in the early 80's .
Before the 54 R came to me I drove a 1968 IH 908-B step side.
It was two wheel drive, had thoughts about making it 4-wheel ..

Just about the time I started to do the mods on the 68 the 54 was found ...
The rest of the story is now history ...

About all the goodies the R-100 is getting, I forgot to mention a few ..

Added under dash courtesy lights ..




Also keyless power door locks ..



Added a key lock on the driver's door ..



And since I tossed the West Coast mirrors and installed tiny peep mirrors with built in turn signals that can't see much out of ..



Thought it would be a good idea to have a smart rear view mirror on board ..





Even has GPS ...

Kind of got two backup viewers since the radio also has one ..









Sound should annoy the neighbors being a Kicker 12" subwoofer is in a homemade ported sound box ..
1,000 watt amp ..

So many mods that I did, it's hard for me to recall all of em ..

Got a wild hair to repaint the dash ..
Been looking at that R-190 Almond dash for many years ..
Time for a new to me look ..



Going to try my hand at wood grain, the old school way of doing ...

Matched the gain pattern that the 75 Coupe De Ville horn button has ..





Many goodies are going on the dashboard ..





This one is on it just for looks ..
Not hooked to anything ..
Had it chromed back in the late 80's ..

 

[Jesse S]

Another mod that went down was the hood ornament ..

Had the og ornament chromed .. It was a cast one that came on the truck .. Still looks like new money ..

But I wanted to do something else for a ornament ..
Didn't want to go nuts with it, just wanted to be slightly different ..
After eyeballing about a hundred found the one that fits the curve of the hood ..

It's a 1947 Ford car ornament .. Called a buddy who is a Ford fanatic and asked him where I could fine one ?
He said he has a bucket full ..
Cool .. Picked the best he had and dropped it off ..

Being it was an original had a world of pits .
Sanded on it for a week and polished ..
Looked like chrome until I powder coated clear over it ..
Lost the shine when I did that ..





Installed LED ribbon lights in it too ..

All that work will be sit off to the side cause I want chrome up there ..
Lets see what I can come up with ?



Got a few parts on it that came from other manufactures ..
The 4-Wheeldrive Emblem is 49 Jeep Truck/Wagon

Guess you can see why I'm wanting the ornament chrome.
It's got a wee bit of chrome on it, did the door hinges, hood levers and rechromed the scripts ..

Also the front badge and turn signal frames was dipped ..



T-Rex wire mesh was another one of my wild and crazy ideas ..

 

[Jesse S]

About that 4L85E tranny ..

Was needing a torque converter cover that had the lugs for the motor braces ...

The 1/2 Ton 75 Jimmy I used didn't come with the motor braces, 3/4 ton and up came stock with them ..

Found out that the 4L80 was being used behind big block GM motors on 4X4's .. Very short run, like 5 years that they made those trucks .. And that was the cover I needed to be able to run the motor to tranny braces ...



Must be a rare item cause it took awhile before I found one ..

( The motor and trans in the above photo was only being used for mockup )

Did some powder coating on them and the beefy aftermarket pan ..