70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Ok, I have decided to make a build thread about giving my C10 a makeover. For a little background about the truck I have owned it since I was 10 and I am 34 now. I worked at my families grocery store to help pay for the original purchase price of $400 and the restoration. This was a father son project that took 6 years to complete. I have included a few pictures of the truck from a few years ago when it was still exactly like I drove it in high school. I will include some more pictures of what it looks like now and what all I have done to it recently and what my goals are for the truck.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

I like it but I am very biased as mine is very similar to yours .

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Goals for Red
1. New wheels and tires
2. fuel system
3. Fix oil leaks
4. Finish interior
5. LS swap
6. Wood bed
7. Maybe remove tanneau cover
8. Replace tailgate with one that fits
9. Replace after market fenders with nice originals

That's all I can think of right now.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Thanks flashed after all these years I still like it. I have owned about 40 cars in my life and this one is the only one that always made the cut.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Here is a picture of the new wheels. They are wheel vintiques 62 series the rear is a 15x10 with 5 1/4 backspace and the fronts are 15x8 with a 4 1/4 backspace. Tires are Mickey Thompson ET Streets 295/55r15 and the front are Mickey Thompson Sportman 255/60r15. Poverty caps are 67 Camaro from Heartbeat City.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

I like those wheels and tires ,they will make it look even better. I have some of those caps for someday on something .

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Here are some pictures during the new wheel install. It also has a 4/6 drop on it now vs the 2/4 it had in the first pictures. The last picture is of it all cleaned up after sitting all winter.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

That looks much better ,very sharp now .

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Thanks flashed, I think so too. It's amazing what the right wheels and tires do for a vehicle.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Nice!
What trans is in it now?
Does it get very good MPG?
I like the LT engine it it now, many favor LS engines, they are awesome, I prefer old school stuff, my opinion...
Keep up the good work!

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

68Gold/white it originally had a 700r4 in it and it got around 18mpg on a trip to Kansas City but now it has a th400 that I threw in it after the 700 gave up. Not sure what it gets now. I like the LT1 also but I am thinking of putting a turbo on it and the LT1's bottom end is a little weak for that. The LT1 is too good of a motor to risk blowing up.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

My project this weekend is replacing the fuel system with a Boyd Welding tank. The tank has a Aeromotive 340 pump in it and I am also replacing all of the feed and return lines with -6 Fragola 6000 series PTFE lines.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

I got the tank in and the fuel lines ran last night. The Boyd tank definitely doesn't hang as low as the blazer tank did. One problem I had with the old fuel system is it would lose prime and was hard to start after it sat for a little while. I haven't started it yet today to see if it fixed it but I am sure it did.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Made a video of red starting with the new fuel system after sitting for 2 days. As you can see the hard starting issues have been solved.:metal:

https://youtu.be/7TNfcGOt2LQ

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Here is a picture of what the interior currently looks like. I scored those buckets out of a 73 Blazer in the junk yard for $70. I put new foam on and recovered them myself. I just have a couple of things to finish up and the inside should be done.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Wow ,those look great as well as the whole interior .

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

looks awesome. those wheels / tires make all the difference!

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Thanks guys. I still have a lot of work I want to do but it has come a long way so far. Next on the list is finding and fixing oil leaks. I think it has a couple one on the engine and one on the transmission.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Got my new seat belts last night from seat belts plus.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Here is a non-sideways picture of the interior and one of the truck after its first drive with the new fuel system.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

:metal::metal::metal:

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Lookin' good. I wouldn't be in a hurry to LS it. That LT1 would hold up against a decent amount of boost. Everybody wants 1,000rwhp now with how easy it is to get big numbers from practically stock LS motors, but if you got 450-500rwhp out of that LT1 you'd be boogy-ing pretty hard. And the current motor 1 - looks sweet and 2 - is already in there lol.

How do you like the seat belts BTW? I need a set of shoulders for my Suburban, there are a lot of choices and price ranges out there.

What tach are you running and do you have any pics of the whole instrument cluster setup? I'm also thinking about a column mount but want it to look "right" if that makes sense.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Your truck is about as perfect as any I've ever seen ,love everything about it .

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

AnotherWs6 thanks. We will see what the future holds for the LT1 it's been in the truck since the mid 90's. The biggest issue I have with it is the Optispark which I know I can get rid of it but the cost makes me lean towards just swapping it for an LS. I am currently having issues with it cutting out at 5,000 rpm so I am going to put a fuel pressure gauge on it but I think the distributor is on it's way out again.

I haven't installed the seatbelts yet but they look good and they came with the hardware which I didn't expect. The tach is something I picked up at the parts store close to 20 years ago it was the cheapest one they had not sure the brand. The tach in the dash has been converted to one out of a second gen Camaro but I could never get it to work with the LT1. I will get a pic next time I have it out.

Thanks flashed I hope I can continue to make it better.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

I can swear that I randomly came across a distributor to get rid of opti on ebay just a day or two ago and it was cheap but I can't find it now. I don't know a ton about opti spark, just that most people hate it. There is all sorts of stuff floating around the bay these days, it's actually amazing. I know it's not the best stuff but it's still intriguing. I'm 98.73968% positive my truck's OP put on onr the black $39 distributors from this site. Seems fine.

Is the Camaro tach swap thing common? I HATE not having a tach.

http://stores.ebay.com/whiteperforma...p2047675.l2563



I studied your seat belt pic, poked around the web a little more (and I have already looked at online seatbelt stuff A LOT in the past few months) and pulled the trigger on them this morning. They look pretty nice in your pic. I was going to go with a set that was about $40 more, so thanks! It pushed me to bite the bullet. Now my wife will feel better and so will I.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

I am definitely one that hates the optispark. I have been through 4 of them in 20,000 miles and you have to take the water pump off to replace them.

I don't think it is common i have never seen another one. The tach works I tried it on a BBC because I thought it was bad. It's cool because it goes to 7 or 8,000 rpm. I bought it from Manes truck parts in Kansas City back when he was selling parts out of his garage.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

And the tach is reasonably easy to hook up? Do you need a new printed circuit etc, or can you just mount and wire it on its own without messing anything up?

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Not sure it's been too long since I have looked at it and I bought it from Manes all done. It fits perfectly in the factory tach location though. I need to fix the temp gauge here soon so if I have to take it out I will get a picture of it.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Here are some instructions I found for installing a second gen tach.

The following instructions are from (user) Original69. from the 67-72 board.

Z28 Tach in a 67-72 truck.

Parts needed are the tach, at least 8ft wire. Crimp on ends, 6 nuts same size as the z28
guage studs, grommet, plastic cleaner, drill bit etc. I’m sure I missed something..


Here is an overveiw of the tach install. I used a tach from a 79 Z28 cluster.

1-Dissasemble the rear cover by removing the screws on the edge. I think there are 8 of them . Set it aside.
2-Take out the black metal plate and set it aside.
3-Take the plastic plate out and you will need to remove the lines in white that are there. I used a Meguires plastic cleaner and a whole lot of rubbing. Be careful not to remove any of the other white lines, only the ones where the tach is going.
4-Get the metal plate, the one with the black side and you will need to remove the area where the tach will be. I removed just the circle area to the edge. The tach circumference should be about ½' larger than the circle you are cutting out. Go slow here and do a good job.
5-You will have to trim off the small tab on the tach where it sticks out. Don’t worry about the small notch that’s there, you won’t see it when it’s done. I did cut two small pieces off of the edge for the dash lites to show thru at night. About ¼'
6-Put the tach where it goes. I had the bend the bottom and top edges with small pliers before it would fit.
7-Take the tach back out and you will have to do some work to it now.
8-The tach has 3 studs coming thru an insulator plate. This will have to be removed. I took the 3 nuts and insulator off marking on paper where wires went. (grnd, pos, tach). You will have to screw the 2 small nuts on the studs one at a time to DOUBLE NUT them before you cut them. I used a cutoff wheel and cut close to the top nut. Then back one nut off and when you do all three hook the three new wires onto the shortened studs.
9-Put the tach back into the cluster and turn it around finding the best fit in the front. I used sheet metal screws to hold it in. You can drill a small hole then screw the sheet metal screws in close along side the tach. This will not show in the front and is good enough to hold the tach from moving.
10-Now take the rear metal piece and figure out where the tach screws could possibly hit. It is very close here. If you need room take the plastic circuit piece off, then use a small ball peen hammer and hit it a few times to bulge it out some. Be careful you don’t hit it out too far as the circuit plastic might not want to go back on. Mine is very tight but I needed the clearance inside.
11-Drill a small hole big enough for the 3 wires and a rubber grommet to pass thru the rear plate.
12-Check everything before you screw it all back together to make sure. I also put a few pieces of electrical tape where the studs might hit the inside of the rear plate.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Not sure I'm following 100%...... Is there a plate behind the instrument panel that gets cut or is he talking about cutting the whole panel itself? Another way to word it - does the tach fit in the same, existing hole where the factory tach would go?

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

He must be talking about the plate behind the cluster panel because mine fits in the factory Bezel.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

OK - gadam they are expensive!!!! Just went on ebay wow!

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Haha! I looked and said the same thing. They aren't as cheap as they used to be.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Now I'm thinking about and vintage looking aftermarket one to do the same thing with. Hmmmm..... Ideas, Ideas. Sorry for the highjack.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

That would be cool. Don't worry about it I enjoy talking about these trucks.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Going to start working on this again soon. I just bought some original front fenders for it because the ones on it are after market and fit poorly. One of the originals is very nice and rust free and the other will need some work. I will hopefully start getting it straightened up in a couple weeks.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

Been a while but I did an ls swap on it so I will update pictures for that. This one is removing the LT1.

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

LS going in

Re: 70 C10 SWB Makeover
 

I made a short video of the truck. It’s been a while and it drives me crazy that it has been sitting torn apart so long but I am going to start on it again and hopefully make some more videos about it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FW0P09qMHhw