picked up a 71 project today

[4matty3]

first truck for me. 1971 c10 327 -factory ac- power steering-frame is pretty solid. does run and move, brakes suck tho. im sure i will have alot of dumb questions being that this is my first project (only 20). first question-where should i start??heres what it looks like

[Newtz67]

Congrats! Start by drivin! haha welcome here!

[4matty3]

i want to ^^ but the brakes are way to soft. the guy i bought it off of gave me a power brake booster thing. but he wasnt sure if it worked. also when i put it into drive or reverse you cant really tell what its in. he said some kind of linkage needs replaced??? any ideas

[Newtz67]

Originally Posted by 4matty3

i want to ^^ but the brakes are way to soft. the guy i bought it off of gave me a power brake booster thing. but he wasnt sure if it worked. also when i put it into drive or reverse you cant really tell what its in. he said some kind of linkage needs replaced??? any ideas

I couldnt really tell you with out climbing under the truck or with some good pics. Maybe someone else will come along with some answers.

[heeroyue2002]

looks good! post lots of pixs and ask those questions.

[travlinman]

well.. u already answered ur own question. start with a brake rebuild. find a service manual and look in the susp/brake fourm and ask questions. the only way to learn is to jump in look at it figure it out and ask questions when u get stuck.
truck looks good/good luck and enjoy it!

[VA72C10]

Nice find. As said, start with the brakes. Then I'd look and see if the linkage is loose for the shifter.

For the power brake booster if it has a bracket with it, I'd take the actual booster off and use it as a core charge at a parts store and get a new booster. Then you can bolt it up to the master cylinder and instant power brakes!

[71gmcburb]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Nice find. As said, start with the brakes. Then I'd look and see if the linkage is loose for the shifter.

For the power brake booster if it has a bracket with it, I'd take the actual booster off and use it as a core charge at a parts store and get a new booster. Then you can bolt it up to the master cylinder and instant power brakes!

before you turn in your orig brake booster install the new and insure that it is the correct one. make sure that your push rod is of the correct lenght (you'd be surprised how many of the auto parts sales clerks think that since they can change thier own oil that they are mechanics lol) also I would advise you to replace the master cylinder while your at it.

As for the shift linkage can you feel the indentations as you shift or is it sloppy as a $2 hooker?

If its all sloppy then it could be any thing from a bad connection between the column and the trans to bad bearings in the column for the shift linkage.

If is firm than look for a thread of wire that has a clip attached to the end of it this thread is what controls the shift indicator. it attaches to the loop on the column that rotates with the shift lever.

I'm assuming that the trans is in working order

[dmack91]

Agree on brakes first. However, being cheap, I would try the booster first. I put a used one on my 68 and it worked fine. It took less than an hour, just go slow bending the brake lines. Even if it works, I would still go through and rebuild the brakes (costs around $200 in parts and machining on mine front and rear), then change all fluids.

Making sure it is safe to drive should be your first priority, then reliability, then cosmetics.

Best advice I got was to get it running and driving first, then tackle other things (body, interior, etc) one at a time. It is easy to get excited and strip it down to nothing, then get overwhelmed and abandon it since you can never seem to see the end of the tunnel.

Have fun.

[4matty3]

heres the brakes.

and what he gave me

ok, truck wouldnt start today and when i hooked it up to jumper cables the wires smoked and bubbled. so i then moved to the interior.






bout to sand it all down and por-15. not sure what im going to do about the holes tho

[JORGIE95961]

Originally Posted by 4matty3

heres the brakes.

and what he gave me

ok, truck wouldnt start today and when i hooked it up to jumper cables the wires smoked and bubbled. so i then moved to the interior.






bout to sand it all down and por-15. not sure what im going to do about the holes tho

looks like youl need some patch panels ..Im assuming the rockers are gone as well?

[dos0711]

I would probably start by making it mechanically sound...starting with the brakes...LOL

[4matty3]

lmc has patch panels.http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cb/full.aspx?Page=25. looks like i need a #3(?). this is gonna need alot of work

[71gmcburb]

first of all I have had bad dealings as have alot of others with LMC thier products are cheap but you get what you pay for with them. At the top of this page you can search this board for various things enter LMC into it and see what comes up. Also looks like you don't have Power brakes on your truck as is (no booster). Installing power brakes isn't the easiest of things to do. You can't just throw a booster on and expect it to work properly you would need to compleatly rebuild the brake system with power brake parts (new master cylinder, proportioning valve, hard lines, hoses, wheel cylinders, new front calipers) to handle the pressure as well as run the Vac line to the booster, if you just replace you OE manual master cylinder with another manual master and blead the system you should get you brakes back online (soft pedal is usaly a sign that the master is bad)

[4matty3]

wheres the best place to get things? does advance still carry products for our trucks? anyways i think im gonna gowith replacing the oe manual booster along with the whole system see how that works. boy this truck is gonna be alot of work. thanks guys

[Zoomin]

When you say "project" what do you mean? Is this going to be a driver or are you going to take it all apart?

You'll find that if you can plan far enough ahead, you can usually save money (and taxes) by buying your stuff online. Our sponsoring vendors are as good or better than others out there, so do some searches or just ask and you'll get what you need info-wise. Also, you will become addicted to the parts for sale forum. Tons of good buys there.

Welcome to the forum!
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[4matty3]

well it was gonna be a weekend driver, but know that im tearin into it a little bit it seems like theres a ton of stuff first before its safe. i am going to use the search more often and do my research first before i buy anything. thanks for the help!

[RCbowtie69]

Welcome from N.C.You can do it,keep on truckin''