1979 C10 SWB Build - Off To Hawaii

[airspeed247]

Before I begin I want to note for anyone who decides to read this. As a home garage mechanic, my goal for this truck is simply to give some life back to it, make some humble mods to it and get it back on the road full time like it deserves. Hoping to ship it with us to Hawaii and be able to enjoy it on the island while we live there. Figure at the very least it will give my two year old and I something to tinker with together. (Trying to teach her to be independent and not have to rely on men who can't change their own tire) Not trying to invest ten's of thousands into it and make it a show truck.

Just your solid every day road worthy square that can strike up some driveway and gas station conversations. Just my way of appreciating it.

So here we go:

It's been a while since I've used this forum and decided it was time to get back into it with my most recent vehicle swap. Figured best case it would give me a good place to archive things as I do them.

Long story short I buy and sell way too many vehicles but there's a couple that I always seem to go back to. Old Chevy trucks is one of them.

I'm prior service but about a year ago my wife decided to enlist so I'm taking to the sidelines and get to watch her kill it. She wanted it and made it happen, huge props to her.

Long story short after moving to her first station in Pensacola I had picked up a 97' 4X4 Tahoe to build. Then almost shortly after us getting here my wife got orders to Hawaii. With those news I decided I wanted something I could easily get parts for and really enjoy spending some quality wrenching time with. I had already picked up a 61' Chevy from my dad but it's not road worthy and will be in storage until we get back. So I looked around locally and I came across a short bed 79' 2WD. It didn't catch my eye at first but after looking at it more for a few days I shifted some things around, sold the Tahoe and was able to pickup the new project.

Got a fair deal on it and drove it home. Here's how it sits now:

[airspeed247]

Some quick background and details on the truck:
- Engine was originally a 305 but had been swapped out with a 350/400 combo that was originally supposed to go in a guys camaro.
- Original driveshaft broke so a custom one was installed.
- Looks like the brakes have been ran through (Although the MC is now leaking from sitting).
- Has some rust areas in the floor and doors that are the worst. Beach surface rust underneath.
- Alot of the gauges/electrical inside either doesn't work or is a mess.
- Tires are shot. (Has the 454 SS Wheels)
- AC is kind of there?? but I'd like to figure out how to get it hooked up.
etc etc

Overall not to bad and again. The best part is its all pretty cut and dry to work on

Started making my list of things to do with it on the drive home and tried to address the following immediately. Radiator overflow was missing its hose, air filter was floating on the HEI, Battery wasn't staying charged and died on me two days after getting it home.

Fixed the radiator with the missing hose, got a new air filter and jumped it and took it over to Autozone. After a quick diagnose realized the battery was junk so swapped it out for an AGM. I don't know what but I really like the Duralast AGM batteries. Have had really good luck with them and they aren't that much more than the Golds.

[airspeed247]

Next thing I wanted to tackle was the wheels/tires. I was really torn here as I like the look of the 454 wheels with the 15" tire look however I've always wanted some American Racing Torque Thrusts. Initially my budget was $500 for either new tires or if I could find a different wheel/tire setup and figure the Torques would be out of the budget. Looked around a bit and went back and forth on a few things and randomly came across some TT with tires in my budget on marketplace. They were in New Orleans though so I had to make a fun 7 hour trip to pick them up but was able to snag them.

The bolt pattern was off but they came with adapters so I went ahead and tossed them on.

A couple things on going this route. I would have preferred a different offset as these are a bit more sucked in then I would prefer, I would have liked the wheels and tires to be a bit wider but here is where I am.

I'll give them a good polish and hopefully withe lowering the truck they will "fit" the look a bit better. Sold the 454 wheels and still kind of torn on if I should go back to 15's but I'm going to run these and see how it all transforms around them.

[airspeed247]

Interior wise the truck has some gauges that need some work and a lot of fun wiring that is kind of nested all over. Luckily in the grand scheme of things this is all easy to track and just needs to be cleaned up. Things I wanted to get working immediately though included the voltmeter which wasn't working(So I could keep an eye on the battery), the radio which did nothing, and the tach which also did nothing. That one simply because it was there and why not.

Tackled the Voltmeter and Tach first and in the midst of that realized I had a bad ground that the radio was also connected to. Got that all lined up but still wasn't getting anything from the radio so I pulled it out. Glad I did as I found the fuse on the back of it was blown. Last thing I would have normally even thought to check for was a blown fuse on the back so I got lucky. Swapped it out and all three are now good to go. The drivers door 6x9 doesn't want to work despite having power so that's another thing I'll add to the list. The Tahoe didn't have A/C or a radio so I'm glad I now at least have a radio working again.

Still need to clean up all the wiring and swap out some temporary connectors but at least it's working.

[airspeed247]

Parts started coming in the mail and first thing was the rear flip kit. I have front drop spindles, rear shock extenders and rear shocks also on the way but they will be here this weekend.

I couldn't wait so last night I busted out the rear flip kit and went to work on it. I will add the shock extenders and the shocks as soon as they come in but for now I wanted to get started.

A couple things I noticed and did on the rear flip. Alot of people have how to's and what not so I won't get into all of that but here's some notes:

1. I left the wheels and rear shocks on when I did the swap. I figured doing it this way would help brace the rear axle and it definitely helped me out. I simply raised the truck by the rear bumper, removed the leaf springs and swapped them under the axle, bolted them back on and then attached them to the axle with the u bolts. I liked doing it that way and would do it again.
2. I did have to remove the wheels today when I went back and cut out the bump stops though. (Initially tried using a sawzall but in the end getting under there with a cutoff wheel to the rivets was the best and fastest way)

Now when the new shocks and shock extensions come in I just have to remove the shocks and bolt everything on to finish the rear.

Fo those curious my plan for the front is new shocks, front drop spindles and removing one coil from the factory springs. Then alignment. This should net the perfect stance and improve the ride from the shocks that are beat now.

Also hoping it helps the look of the wheels.

Here's some shots from the rear flip.

Next is the front drop, brake MC and more wire cleanup. Also going to try and clean up underneath a bit as well.

[airspeed247]

Didn't realize this after the drop but I was looking at the picture above a bit more closely after posting. Turns out that my exhaust pipe was sandwiched nicely between the bed,axle and brake line. Another great reason I'm glad I started this thread. Helps for things like that.

While someone was once quoted to have said about me: "The idiot that had it before you takes brand new trucks, crops springs and cuts off the exhaust and calls it bad ass. guy is a total joke!" While I don't fully 100% agree with that statement, in this situation I did find it necessary to go ahead and chop off the exhaust to help with fitment. I actually prefer pipes coming out right before the rear wheel at a 45* so I may try and figure out that in the future. For now though I needed to trim the pipes before the axle and will add some turn downs I picked up.

I also gained another 1/2" or so of rear drop with the pipes out of the way

Still need to finish removing the cut bump stop rivets but plan to do that when I'm back under there for the shocks and re-torqueing everything after putting a couple miles on the turck with the drop. Will probably wire brush some things while I'm under there as well.

[airspeed247]

Front shocks showed up yesterday and hopefully the rears show up today. Was also supposed to get the rear shock extenders today but they have been delayed until Monday. So I will finish the rear shock portion then.

Front drop spindles are still tentative for tomorrow arrival and I plan on removing one coil to get about 4" in the front. Based on the research I've seen from most of the users here that looks like a good tried and true route for the front.

I went ahead with the factory length Monroe OESpectrum shocks for a few reasons but primarily because they are made in America and the stock length with shock extenders seem to be a good setup vs drop shocks. I almost went with KYB's but again, these seemed to review well with other forum members so I figured I'd give them a go. Can't be worse that the beat shocks on there now. So win win


Also, started the truck yesterday after doing all of the up and down lifting for the rear drop and it instantly puked out a bunch of radiator fluid from the fill spout in the engine bay. I can only assume there was air in the system and after some research found out this could be from a clogged vent line. Sure as **** after crawling around and locating it on top of the 400 it was plugged with dirt. Honestly didn't know that was a thing that happened. Cleaned it out and hopefully that was the issue and a simple fix. Never seems to be though.

[lolife99]

Cool project.
You might want to look for replacement leaf springs.
Someone heated them with a torch at some point in its life.

[airspeed247]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Cool project.
You might want to look for replacement leaf springs.
Someone heated them with a torch at some point in its life.

Damn. Very nice catch. I missed that, going to check the other side and see if it is the same. One more thing to add to the list.

[airspeed247]

Also went to go start it again today to move it and the new battery was down to 8 and wouldn't start without a jump. Something is hot and draining it, need to figure out what it could possibly be. Not sure where I want to start with that one. If ANYONE has advice there I would appreciate it. I can't imagine it being much. Has an electronic fuel filter that I only hear start clicking when the ignition is in start so that seems fine in theory, radio doesn't stay on, has the small 3 pod gauges and the tach but none of those seem constant....



Additionally trying to decide if I want to get a roll pan for the rear or leave the rear bumper for added character. Will probably swap it for a roll pan. I'm trying to get anything I need to order for the truck while I'm still stateside because shipping anything to Hawaii is going to be a huge pain in my wallet.

[airspeed247]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Cool project.
You might want to look for replacement leaf springs.
Someone heated them with a torch at some point in its life.

Sweet... I was hoping maybe it was just that one side of that leaf spring and maybe the other side was fine but looks like someone hit all four corners. So yep. I'll be trying to find some new leafs before I leave now too.

Seems like a really silly way to lower the rear when you could get the same effect with some shackles and not ruin the leaf springs.

[lolife99]

Those trucks could have come with a 52” or 56” leaf spring.
So measure before you buy.
You might want to purchase new rear shackles also.

[airspeed247]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Those trucks could have come with a 52” or 56” leaf spring.
So measure before you buy.
You might want to purchase new rear shackles also.

Good call. I'll definitely toss on some new shackles then as well. Makes sense too since I'll have it all off again.

[airspeed247]

Wanted to troubleshoot a few things while I was waiting for my rear shock brackets and the rest of my front drop to arrive. Biggest issue next on my list was figuring out what my battery drain was and if it was a battery drain vs an issue with alternator/battery. Battery is brand new so I assumed that to be good (based off how it was acting), also the alternator tested fine and seemed to be doing well after the truck was jumped.

Biggest issue was that it would die overnight or quickly over a day or two. So I could only assume something was draining it.

To confirm I did the light test with the negative side of the battery. Pulled the negative battery cable off. Connected the test light to the disconnected negative cable and then touched the test light itself to the negative post on the battery. If something was draining power the light should turn on.
Which it did.

So I made sure everything was in fact off that I could turn off. Headlights, run switch, door lights, cabin lights, hood lights etc. Everything was off.

Then I put a multimeter on all of the fuses. At which point I realized it looked like someone added a 1980+ fuse block onto the truck because it didn't match what I've found on the diagrams for a 79'. Maybe it is and the diagrams I found had the wrong years but regardless none of the fuses showed they were pulling power. Even turned on the headlights and checked the headlight fuse to confirm I was testing it right. This sucked because if it was fuse related then it could mean some random wiring somewhere.

Looked back under the hood and started tracing wires from the battery. This is when I realized the carb choke wiring looked off. Tested the wiring it was hooked up to and it was connected to a constant 12v vs a switched and was not grounded. Disconnected it as it probably wasn't working correctly anyways wired up that way. Did the light test again. Still showed a drain.

So at this point I connected the light up and started pulling fuses one by one to see if by chance that would figure it out. First one I pulled turned the test light off. Not sure why the multimeter didn't show it drawing power but looks to be an A/C / Heater Fuse. Since that's not hooked up I'll leave it off.

Jumped the truck and drove it around to charge the battery. Showed 11.71 Volts when I turned it off last night and matched that this morning. So hopefully this did the trick.

[airspeed247]

Should be receiving my rear shock brackets today and going to toss them and the new rear shocks on. It rides HORRIBLY in the rear right now. I think its a mixture of blown shocks and torched rear leaf springs so I'm hoping the rear shocks/brackets help a lot while I'm still searching for replacement rear springs. I've read good things about this setup so I'm hoping to dial it in.

Also hoping my front coils weren't heated to lower it. I'll find out shortly in regards to that though.

[Corts60]

Good progress. Battery drain problems always suck to find. It’s happened to me two times in all my cars I’ve had and both times it was the horn button. So don’t hesitate to check that little guy out.

[airspeed247]

Originally Posted by Corts60

Good progress. Battery drain problems always suck to find. It’s happened to me two times in all my cars I’ve had and both times it was the horn button. So don’t hesitate to check that little guy out.

Thank you. Agreed. Thats what I was thinking it was at first since mine isn't hooked up completely. If it continues I'm going to check there next.

[airspeed247]

Went to toss on my front drop today and ran into a spindle issue. I posted on the squarebody main section to see if anyone has ran into the same issue but want to document it here too.

Installing my 2.5" drop spindles for 1.25" rotors and almost had it all buttoned back up. Went to install my brake rotor and the bolts are resting on my rotor.

Has anyone else ran into this? I thought maybe the area holding the rotor in place was slightly off but I'm thinking the holes for the bracket are a bit too far in. Standard rotors, nothing aftermarket.

Reached out to the shop that made fabricated them and they are checking their brake rotor dimensions they used for this new batch of brackets to confirm. Was curious if anyone else has ran into this. Maybe I have something off?

Right now I'm standing by with the front end disassembled half in the garage.

I attached pictures as I'm hoping its something I did wrong vs a bad part that I will need to stand by to replace.

(Yes. I greased up everything as it should be before installing the rotor. That picture was right before)

[airspeed247]

Figured out a fix for the above but will see what the fabricators say about the above. I'd like to see how what they recommend vs how I made it work

[airspeed247]

In the mean time I wanted to share a shot of the rear with the new brackets and shocks in. Feels alot better back there.

Plus I added on the turn downs since the exhaust originally hung down too low going over the rear axle for the drop. This fixed that issue and leaves me room if I'm able to have it coming out at a 45 before the rear tires. Although with the drop its alot more tucked like this. So I may just run it this way.

Ignore the remains of the rivets, finishing those off when I source the rear leaf springs and swap them in. Still searching

[airspeed247]

About 10pm last night I finished off the front drop. This is 2.5" drop spindles plus one coil removed and new factory length shocks. I think it sits perfect. Definitely feels alot better with new shocks as well.

Before and after shots for you. Will get confirmed measurements in a day or two when it settles.

Wheels fit the trucks look alot better now too in my opinion

Anyone else hate working under a vehicle on the ground as much as I do? Sure makes you feel old the next morning.

[lolife99]

How did you resolve your caliper bolt issue?

[airspeed247]

Originally Posted by lolife99

How did you resolve your caliper bolt issue?

I'm still waiting to hear back from the company as they are doing a trial fit today but I went to autozone, grabbed a second set of caliper pins and shaved off the small span where it was resting on the rotor so it would clear. It didn't take much. It was just enough that without it it binded but with a slight shave it cleared the rotor perfectly for it to be able to free spin. I have a couple new spares as backups now as well. They were only $4 per pair so I grabbed a couple. The factory setup probably has 2-3 tenths of an inch and mine is perfectly enough for some light to pass through.

[airspeed247]

Buttoned up the sway bar that I didn't get to finish last night, got the tach grounded correctly to work and wired the carb correctly today. The car was initially wired directly to a constant hot and no negative wire attached so I grounded it and ran a wire to the windshield wiper motor so that it gets hot power with the key now instead of constant. Should be good to go.

[airspeed247]

Drop Measurements as of today:

Before:
FD 30 1/2”
FP 30 1/2”
RD 30 5/8”
RP 30.5”

After:
FD 26”
FP 26.25”
RD 25.5”
RP 26”

Looks to be right around 4.5" all around. This is without driving it but a mile or so. Will relay how it settles over time.

Also curious to see how the rear adjusts when I get non torched leaf springs in the back on there.


When I got it vs now