1974 C/10 Project "paw paw"

[orngsikL]

1974 C/10 LWB
Rosedale Red
Inline 6 250 with a 3 speed.
Baseline Truck (no power steering, no power brakes, no radio, no a/c)

This truck had been in my wife's family since new. My wife's grandfather purchased the truck from another family member and it was his daily driver. My wife, her dad and her grandfather would take this truck out just about every weekend and tow a boat and go fishing down in Empire, Louisiana. They would also take the truck and go "lightning bug" hunting whenever my wife would go down there as a child to spend the weekend with her grandparents.

My wife and I started dating about 10 years ago, at that time her grandfather still owned the truck and they would still take it to go fishing. Well, hurricane Katrina came in August of 2005 and destroyed her grandparent's house, nothing was left. They managed to save the truck because they took it with them when they left for the storm. So it's one of the only things left. A few years after my wife and I started dating, her grandfather decided to sell the truck. We both wanted the truck, but paying for college was more important. One of my good friends that i have known for about 20 years bought the truck from my wife's grandfather. He drove the truck daily, putting over 50 miles on it everyday. It had about 60K miles when he bought it around 2006-2007. My friend decided to sell the truck and we still couldn't afford to buy it. It was sold local in Denham Springs to a guy about a block from my friend. Every time my wife and I would drive through Denham Springs we would go down the street where the new owner susposedly lived, but never found the truck. We figured it would never been seen again. A few years later, Paw paw passed away.

Fast forward to March 28, 2015, the day after my 30th birthday. I was sitting here at work, where I am typing this now, looking for c10 parts on craigslist for my 72 "orngsikl". Well I went through all the parts in Baton Rouge and got down to the bottom of the page where it displays other local cities. Something caught my eye. The second add was an faded orange c10 with a license plate on the front bumper. I opened the add, and thought "could this be it". Well, low and behold, it was . The truck still had the "retired" license plate on the front that her grandpaw had put on. Oh by the way, my wife called him "paw paw", that's where the build name is coming from...anyway, back to the story.

So, i took a picture with my phone of the ad and texted it to my wife. She must of just glanced at it because I always send her pictures of truck that I like or want. Anyway, i got her usual reply of "no, you got to finish one truck first." I texted her back, "no, go look at that bumper on the front of the truck". She didn't text me back for about 30 minutes, she was crying. She eventually texted me back and asked how I found it and if that was really the truck and told me to call the guy selling it and see if it was still for sale. So I called the number on the add, a gentleman answered the phone and said the truck was still for sale. We started talking and he said he bought the truck for his son's first vehicle, but his son decided he wanted a/c and so he didn't want the truck, he also said he had a bunch of receipts that were left in the glove box, the original owners manual with a name in it and the original build sheet. I gave him paw paw's name and asked if that was what was written on the owners manual or on any of the receipts and he confirmed it. That was it, I knew I had to get this truck.

Well, that was on saturday, on tuesday I went and borrowed a friend's car hauler and a co-worker and I headed down to Raceland, Louisiana. We got there, checked the truck out and confirmed everything. I payed the man his money, did the paper work, and headded back home. On the way home, we stopped at a local church parking lot about a mile from the house and unloaded the truck. I got in and drove it home. My wife came outside crying. She opened the door of the truck and said it still smelled the same.

So, we didnt tell many family members what we had just done. That next weekend I put the truck in the back yard and we had a crawfish boil and invited over family, including my wife's father and grandmother (paw paw's wife).

Everyone couldn't believe we found the truck.

I've got some more pictures to post and will try to get them on here later today.

thanks for checking out the story. More to come.

[RD71]

That's one emotional story. Good for you and your wife for finding that truck.

This is proof of what I always thought about beloved cars- they worth so much to us because they represent our feelings to places/times/people, in your case it's Paw paw.

Good luck with restoring it.
Posted via Mobile Device

[orngsikL]

Originally Posted by RD71

That's one emotional story. Good for you and your wife for finding that truck.

This is proof of what I always thought about beloved cars- they worth so much to us because they represent our feelings to places/times/people, in your case it's Paw paw.

Good luck with restoring it.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks. Yes, lots of memories.

[orngsikL]

I had typed up another long story, hit a wrong button and it all got deleted.

Picture from when we went pick the truck up, after signing the papers and loaded up to come home:


So here's the short version:

Took the truck on it's first maybe voyage to work (before wax):

Drove it home at the end of the day and found out the gas tank had a few holes:

Replaced it with new hoses, fuel filter (didn't have one) sending unit and straps.
Problem: Fuel gauge reads 1/2 full when key is off, but tank is actually full, and 1/4 full when key is on. Anyone got any ideas??

Installed new plugs, wires, coil, cap and rotor.

Took it out yesterday and it has a hesitation in 3rd while crusing, like it's not getting gas, so I took the fuel lines apart and blew all the trash out.

Now, there is still some hesitation, I think the cab needs cleaning and timing needs to be set. Anyone got any tips on any of this on the inline 6?

[l92powered77]

Heck of a story behind that truck of yours...Good luck with the build !!

[Man With A Gun]

My first vehicle as a sixteen year old was a 1974 blue Custom 10.

I would give anything to find that.

[orngsikL]

Got alot more done to the truck recently. Decided to do a tune up and get it running better, so me and the wife installed all new spark plugs and wires, fuel filter, cap, rotor and coil. Helped alot, but something still wasn't right. I know I need to check vacuum and timing for sure, but it does run good, and alot better than before, and I started to drive it to work more. I didnt get any pictures of that stuff.
Then we ordered a new seat cover and leds for the gauge cluster, a new fuel gauge and decided to install it all on a saturday



As I drove it, the squeeking on the passenger side front got worse and worse, and everytime I pressed the brakes, the truck would pull t to the right. So i decided to take project paw paw down and do some work.
I ordered a 4.5 / 6 drop kit from www.switchsuspension.com and went to the local napa auto parts and ordered all new brake pads, calipers, rotors, bearing, races, seals, rubber brake lines, drums, shoes, hardware kit, upper and lower balljoints and a new valve cover gasket. I found a "chevrolet" script valve cover from a guy on facebook in arkansas and had him send it to me. I media blasted it, primed, painted it and installed it with a new gasket. I tried torquing down the bolts and ended up snapping off 2 of them into the head below the surface, on the passenger side. But i did end up getting them out.


Well here are some pictures:
I think they were still good (just kidding).
It took a little while to figure out how to get this nut off, mainly because you cant fit a wrench in between the frame rail and rotate the nut to get it off. We figured out a way though.



Here's two shots of when I finished the drop at 12:30 friday morning. I started on it Thursday evening around 7pm. I had been working on all of the brake system a little at a time every night all that week, so when the drop kit came in, all I had to do was put it on and put everything back together.

[el_bole]

Very sweet story and super straight truck!!! Nice you were able to find it.

After seeing your story I see why its hard to part with my Father's 55 Olds....many memories in that car....

[orngsikL]

So I moved the truck from the back yard to the front without bleeding the brakes because I couldn't do it all by myself. And plus it was suppose to rain all night and if that was the case, I would never of been able to get the truck out the back yard the next morning to bring it to the alignment appointment.

So the next morning I had a friend come over and help me bleed the brakes. Well first we loaded up and drove #projectpawpaw all the way into town with no shocks to the local Napa to get some shorter shocks, came back home and got started.
Well it had been some time since I bled brakes. Once we got the rear done, the thought popped into my head to check the fluid level in the master cylinder. Well as soon as I pulled the cover, the fluid sucked down into the line with a bunch of air and the reservoir was empty. So we got to bleed the rear brakes again. What fun and what a mess. So we got done with that and moved to the front.
I was pressed for time the night before so I didnt get to change out all the rubber brake lines, and well, I should have.
We went to bleed the passenger side and I couldn't get the bleed screw out a brand new caliper, i fought it for 30 minutes with a flare wrench (which stripped it) then a opened end wrench ( which didnt do any better) and a pair of vice grips that stripped it clean. So then i got a chissel and hammer and beat a shoulder into the bleeder screw enough to pull it out and install the old bleeder from the old original caliper.
Well, we got the passenger side done and moved to the driver side. We couldn't get any fluid out the driver side caliper, pulled the line off, and no fluid in the line. Guess I know now why the passenger side pulled. So we got that line changed out and bled, then installed the new shorter shocks and finished at 12:30pm . I had an alignment appointment at 1pm across town.
I got cleaned up and pulled into the alignment shop at 1:03 pm.
They took #projectpawpaw in and straightened it up!

[orngsikL]

Originally Posted by l92powered77

Heck of a story behind that truck of yours...Good luck with the build !!

thanks brother!

[orngsikL]

Originally Posted by Man With A Gun

My first vehicle as a sixteen year old was a 1974 blue Custom 10.

I would give anything to find that.

I bet!!!
Thanks for following the build!

[orngsikL]

Moving on,
I ordered a pertronix electronic distributor model to get rid of the points and condenser. It works great and was very easy to install despite some bad directions. Now the truck idles a whole lot better and runs even smoother, especially on the highway.
The only picture I took was the old points and condenser, incase something went wrong.


I also had time to install the "new to me" valve cover.

Hand painted the letters (i'm a little rusty, hadnt picked up a brush in 3 years)

I think the motor is pretty clean for it's age. 97,000 original miles.

[orngsikL]

And the current look:

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Dig it!

[chevytrucksforme]

Awesome story and truck!!