'63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Greetings from sunny So Cal! Here's my truck and my story...

I grew up on a quiet street in San Diego. The street was quiet but one of my neighbors wasn't. Scott was his name, a nice "kid" in college who had three 64-66 trucks. I was 13 or 14 at the time, my dad had just passed away, and I spent most days in his garage learning everything from shoddy body work to engine building. Scott not only taught me the old car ropes, but encouraged me to figure things out on my own, ask questions, and if the question had an obvious answer he would encourage me to figure it out on my own.

When it came time to start driving, convenience won and I drove the family Honda Accord. I found a group of friends in the "tuner" crowd and enjoyed modifying imports. Fast forward 10 years, a 2000 Civic SI (still love that car), and a marriage. The beloved Civic was stolen while on my honeymoon and I made out like a bandit with insurance. I now had cash burning a hole in my pocket and a father-in-law (FIL) who collects old cars. I spent Christmas vacation of 07-08 building/installing a monster motor in my FIL's '57 Bel Air and the bug bit me. After a couple months of searching and craigslisting, I landed on an orange '63 LWB C20 (not really a C20 anymore) in Orange County. Being twice removed from the guy that did all the work, all I had to go on was a binder FULL of receipts and brochures. It was like the history of the truck unfolded in front of me. I paid $4500 and drove it home.

Come May '08, my FIL flew out to San Diego and we replaced just about every user-replaceable rubber component on the truck. Every hose, gasket, fluid, etc. was replaced. I've done a couple other projects here and there. I added power steering, replaced all the a-arm cross shafts, ball joints and tie rod ends, and changed from C20 body mounts to C10 body mounts.

So here's my truck "Big Orange" (appropriately named by my grandmother) at the CPP Cruise and Shop Tour in 2011. I'm going to try to document additional work here. I hope someone gets some enjoyment out of this.

DS

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Love the truck, and love the color!

Welcome to the forum

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Welcome to the forum!
Nice lookin truck!
Post some more pics please!

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Welcome Aboard... Diggin' the orange

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Thanks everyone.

I have to say, I can't take credit for the truck or the color at this point. The PO did the majority of the work and everything I've done has been "under the covers." I'll try to keep this thread updated with things I'm working on.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Nice truck
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Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Welcome, you have a really nice truck :c2:

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Welcome, I'm a little biased on the color. ;) Truck looks great!! :lol:

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Good looking truck and the color stands out

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Good looking truck man. I love seeing this still cruzin around san diego
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Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

:thumbs: cool truck and nice story.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Welcome to the forum :D

That is a very nice looking truck. I assume by your comment that the truck is no longer a C20, and might have C10 running gear? I look forward to more pics....

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Orange looks so good on these trucks.
Welcome

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Maybe that comment wasn't entirely accurate, I'm not sure. When I did the front end suspension rebuild, a lot of the C20 parts I bought didn't fit. So I started using "'63 C10" for the parts counter folks and things started fitting. Also, I've swapped the cab mounts over to the C10 style and I assumed, maybe incorrectly, that the trailing arm suspension I have wasn't found on the C20. Either way, it's a bit of a mutt now :D
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Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

I did a bit of work today. No shots of the in-progress, but here's the final product:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8173/7...35ae45ea_c.jpg

The PO had attached the headlight bezels with drywall screws. I lost one of them on the Coronado bridge a few years ago. Totally bummed that all the replacements are chrome, but I plan on going chrome on the front end at some point, so here we go.

The big brown truck stopped by and brought the following:
Headlight bezels
New parking/tail light plastics
Accompanying screws
Thermostat housing (the aluminum swivel kind)
Lighted license plate bolts (gotta fend off the cops)
Cast aluminum valve covers (and gaskets)
Magnaflow mufflers
Pypes exhaust kit

Tomorrow's task: thermostat housing and hoses, license plate bolts

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Been idle for a while... I think everyone knows how these things go.

I decided to install full length headers, got the headers in and they're interfering with the brake lines. Seemed like a good opportunity to do front discs.. so it sat for about 9 months. And here's the last three days progress:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psroayndo9.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psjzkl2ysh.jpg

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Awesome you are back at it! Kinda like the color too :)

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

I think you might be biased :) Nice truck you've got as well!

I'm in the process of removing the crossmember to have it powder coated. It's not in the best shape, but I want a nice base for being able to clean up oil spills. Planning on powder coating the cross member black. I also have Porterbuilt control arms on the way, so those will be getting powder coated as well. I'm thinking of Silver Vein under an Orange top coat... kind of like this, but in orange:
http://www.prismaticpowders.com/uplo...65e9168217.jpg

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

gday..cool truck.i am chasing a set of stock spindles and drum brakes for my 66..would these fit ok?if so...do you want to sell them?cheers Buzz

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Cool truck! Glad yer back!

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

So I pulled a Camaro rear swaybar from the junk yard. It is, unfortunately, the smallest rear swaybar a Camaro had... 19mm or 3/4" Is that sufficient for the back end of these trucks? I don't want to go to the trouble of installing it and have it be worthless.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Glad you are finally working on it. I am happy to help out where I can. You will love that Porter built system.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

I spent most of yesterday trying to find someone to hot tank my crossmember in San Diego, but I struck out hard. There's one place in Anaheim (Ellsworth Truck) that said they'd do it for $250. That's a bit steep for me, so I went to the big box store and picked up some DIY materials:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...pswga8024g.jpg

Last night, I used the oven cleaner, 3M scuff pad and a screwdriver to dig out most of the gunk. It left behind the nastiest sludge I've ever seen. So I wrapped it in plastic, put it in the wife's car trunk and headed to the nearest self-serve car wash. The next part was a risk (chemically), but I figured it wouldn't be too bad: I covered the thing in Engine Brite, let it sit for 5 minutes, then started with the rinse. It did a pretty good job, but still has some thick stuff caked on. I'm going to hit it with the oven cleaner again and probably some kind of brush, I haven't figured out what brush yet. Should I stay away from metal? Stainless? On my angle grinder?

Also, this car wash had a "mat blaster" floor mat dryer. I used that to dry the thing, it was almost completely dry after just a couple minutes.

3M Scuff Pads: $2.70
Generic Oven Cleaner: $3.98
Car Wash: $5.66
Total Cost: $12.34

Not too bad.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

I had one installed and removed it during the bag drop. It helped some and looked cool. A big front one does %75 of the work it seems.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Keep using the oven cleaner. I bought that exact same can. It works well. Spray it let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Do some scraping. Rinse. Spray it again. I have used up 2 cans of this stuff on my front suspension parts. For $4 a can it beats any off the shelf engine cleaner. I cleaned my whole engine with 2 passes of this stuff.

Bret

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

When you use the oven cleaner do not use it on pavement or blacktop. Ask me how I know. Bad bad bad idea........But on the bright side I got to reseal my blacktop.....yay.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Thanks for the advice. I used it on concrete in my garage... then hosed it out to a drain right outside the garage door. Covered liberally with water, it wasn't that big a deal. They're also quoting asphalt replacement right now, so it would get replace soon anyways :D

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

It's been a year.... lets see some progress pics. I know you got 'em.:lol:

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Very funny... I need to keep my phone with me in the garage.

I had everything powdercoated black and installed the PB front end. RCD in El Cajon, CA hooked me up with the shocks. For anyone in the San Diego area, RCD will coordinate the purchase of their products through a local dealer as RCD can only wholesale. Good price and the guy at RCD drove them down to the dealer on his lunch. Great folks over there.

Here's a shot of the completed left side suspension. I'm running the McGaughy's drop spindles and 6-lug disc kit on Porterbuilt arms.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psgpqrp0pe.jpg

I ran into some clearance issues that may or may not be a problem... I'm going to swap out my rubber motor mounts for polyurethane and hope there's no interference. Worst case, I replace the headers?
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...pswkbsvuvj.jpg

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Looking great.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

looking good, like the tip on oven cleaner , might try that. I've got a LWB 63 fleetside too, but in UK imported it from Oregon in Sept 14.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Thanks uber. The only thing you have to be careful of with the oven cleaner is anything organic you don't want cleaned. Asphalt/Blacktop can be compromised by it... just be careful.

On that note, I actually used lye (drain cleaner) at first. Took a giant metal drum, added lye, put a fire under it and put the parts in it. That stuff is very caustic, an extreme base, so you have to be extremely careful. It did a good job of cleaning, but I was concerned about getting a burn from it, so I neutralized it and moved on to oven cleaner.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Got a package (or 4) from Summit today. :whine:... Pop quiz: which one is not like the other one?http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...pskvnjfelj.jpg

Not to mention, the price went down 10% overnight.... :waah:

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

I picked up the "poor man's serpentine kit" which uses two 6-rib belts instead of one, but is significantly cheaper (March Performance P/N# 22061)

So I started pressing the P/S pump pulley on while loosely mounted...
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...pskwxa3ckl.jpg

And realized there is no way I'm going to be able to get this bolt in with it on the truck
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psl5icrpjr.jpghttp://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps6j0ptixk.jpg

So off it comes and I need some shorter bolts... hold that until tomorrow I guess.

This may be overkill, but I'm doing hydroboost
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psbjcr9upz.jpg

And I picked up a PSC remote reservoir, pump housing and bracket (PSC P/N# SR2545-10K, SR146H-6-10, MR18K)
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psfsdldddd.jpg

Going to be a tight fit
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psmfg5mn21.jpg

Stock photo of bracket which DOES NOT fit. I might go back and order one of these, which I didn't see before. Their site is really hard to navigate.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psmcddv80j.jpg

And lastly, my next proximity issue
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps4lprylvk.jpg

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

I can't find 3/16 line separators anywhere, so I 3D modeled this guy. It's not going to be cheap for them to be fabricated, but might be worth it if I can make the financials work to produce a bunch and try to recoup some costs.

Left hole is recessed for a Hex Cap Screw, Right hole is tapped 4-48.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psptdsz2ht.png

3x .188" half-holes. Two pieces get screwed together to make the separator.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psmumkubb9.png

I'm slightly concerned about getting to the underside to tighten the "other" screw. I'm trying to keep the cost down by making a bunch of a single part that are interchangeable.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

In the picture of the wheels, you may have noticed that the center cap style is different. The "Summit" center cap is a nice, chromed plastic, dome (on the right). The "Vision" center cap is the boxy, "Vision Wheels"-stamped, version on the left.

Just got off the phone with the fine folks at Summit.

I made a deal with them that they couldn't refuse. If they credited me for the ~10% difference in wheel price from the day I bought them to the next day, I would buy the replacement center caps myself to make them all similar. So I have new center caps on the way (~$10/wheel) and a little extra credit from the leftover.

And for future searches, here's the skinny:
Summit and/or Vision Legend 6 Wheel center caps dome with no logo are Summit P/N# VSW-C141 and Vision P/N# C141 or C141-C-CAP (Seen both of those)

Old Summit Cap:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psxcvo1jjx.jpg

New Vision Cap:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...psxuxh6ewd.jpg

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Back at it 5 years later (and a new house :metal:)

This whole adventure started when my wife made the suggestion that I extend my exhaust from behind the cab to behind the rear wheels. She stated that my (then unborn) son would only be able to ride in the truck if there was no exhaust or fuel smell in the cab.... here we are 8 years later (with an 8 year old son) who has never seen the truck run, much less ridden in it. I'm back at it again and will post changes I've done overall and summarize what I've done since the last post... (spoiler: not much)

From the day I removed the old exhaust in 2012 to today, here's a list of things:
Removed/cleaned/powdercoated front crossmember
Installed Porterbuilt tube suspension (is this even a thing anymore?)
Replaced drop springs with drop spindles and new springs
Installed front disc brakes with hydroboost
Installed front rib-belt pulley setup
Installed PS pump with housing for AN fittings
Uninstalled leakly PS pump and housing
Installed external PS reservoir
Found new pulley and bracket for type 2 fittings
Installed type 2 PS pump with AN fittings
Replaced front end electrical harnesses
Ran AN lines for all PS and PB lines to route through appropriate locations
Installed aluminum radiator and shroud with electric fan
Designed/fabricated a new radiator top retainer to bring it forward 1-2 inches because of fan interference
Ran all new AN lines for transmission cooler
Installed new ramshorn exhaust manifolds
Installed header extenders
Replaced motor mounts
Replaced transmission pan


I went to mount the wheels seen in my previous post and found that the ID of the wheel was smaller than the lip on the rear drum. Off to a machine shop to remedy that problem. Got tires mounted, threw them on the truck and away we went.

I decided the race headers just weren't going to work because of space constraints. Even with "accidental" clearancing with a hammer, I just couldn't get comfortable, so I decided to go with the rams horn manifolds. The "header extenders" aren't quite making me happy with where the exhaust is going.... I think at this point I'm just going to take it somewhere for exhaust :crazy:

Fuel lines are the current mission... I'm adding a tank behind the rear end, but as usual, I'm blazing my own trail with a universal tank. I'll snap some photos and post them tonight.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Who is this?!!!!!
Nah, just kidding.
Life happens.

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

Welcome Back!!!

Re: '63 Long Fleet "Big Orange"
 

And back we are. Moving from CA to TX, so brought the truck with me on the first trip. Fired up the old girl this week. Have a couple leaks in the fuel system and transmission cooler. Waiting for parts, but I should be on the road in a week!