52 Weekends Project

[Z1971]

My first project in 30 years. I was torn between a full blown project and a daily driver, so I got something in the middle. It needs about 50 things done to it, but it will be my day to day transportation. Anything started on Friday will have to be finished Monday morning.

[Z1971]

Came with the rare concentric slotted disc brakes and Summit racing engine dress up kit.




Almost hit a car on the way home. Unsafe at any speed. Picked up some new brake lines down the road at LMC. Had to get the brass T for the rears at Grainger. New calipers and rotors.

[Z1971]

I can already tell this weekend thing is going to be tough. I had my wife helping me bleed the brakes Monday morning before I left for work.




Lessons learned the first week were that the parts store is going to give you at least one wrong part.

Week two. Oil change. It came out like ink. Grabbed some Valvoline and a cheap Fram filter. I have a bad lifter tick, so after a lot of reading on the haters and lovers, I picked up some Sea Foam. Poured it in the new oil and ran it for the rest of the weekend.



Poured out the now black Valvoline on Sunday and used a better oil and filter.
The tick is gone. Changed the rusty sparkplugs and added some knuckle skin to the headers.

I saw this truck for sale over labor day. The same weekend as Goodguy's here in KC. Thinking I might buy it, I could not pass on these valve covers and air cleaner from one of the vendors.

[specialtyretail]

Seafoam is a wonderful product.....

[Z1971]

I was impressed with the Seafoam. Pulled the valve covers and had cleaned a lot of varnished on what appears to be rarely driven truck. Decided to clean the fuel system with it also before I changed the plugs.




http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/p...ictureid=14613

[Z1971]

Oil change and carb cleaned.



Time for the steering. On the drive home I noticed two problems, wouldn't stop or steer. It wondered all over the road. I had to pull off the highway and take backroads. Anything over 50 (I think, speedo doesn't work) was pure white knuckle driving.





This Fenco rebuild was a score. $125 with core exchange at Advance Auto. If you order online you get 25 bucks off next purchase. I ordered online for in store pickup and grabbed it Saturday morning. It has a lifetime warranty and is 3.5 turn lock to lock. Not a CPP, but for a hundred buck, I like it.



Painted it black and put on a new pitman arm.

[Z1971]

Lessons learned from this weekend:
You really gotta pound that tie rod fork sometimes.
Changing a steering box with the tire and inner fender still in
place costs you more time than it saves.
A floor jack won't help.
It is a one man job if you don't need the use of your arms the next day.



And finally, just after you tighten that last nut on your new rag joint, your realize your steering wheel is upside down.

New tie rods next weekend.

[Z1971]

In case anyone looking at that ochre beauty at the beginning of this thread is thinking "How much can he have to do?" I have included a few pictures of the seedy underbelly. I will save a bunch of time removing the cab supports and inner rockers, since I have none.






I think you can tell by the seam working it's way across the bed, that bed supports have also dissolved.


Also leaks fluid out of every hole. Windows don't roll down. AC compressor frozen. Condensor took a rock. I better stop before I get depressed.

[specialtyretail]

Man I love the fix it as you go plan. So many of us tear them down, get aggrivated cause we can't drive them and give up. You have the right idea there and we are looking foreward to watching it come together.

[gcburdic]

I think you are going about this one right...fix it as you go....keep up the good progress...don't get overwhelmed....small jobs at a time....my new motto is, if I can't put it in the garage on Friday, and drive out on Monday, leave it alone (OR get lots of help!!!)!!!

[Fred72]

My first post on this forum is that I subscribe on your thread. I will do like you are planing now. Just waiting for my car to be deliverd to me in Norway...mid February they say :-)
Good luck on your build/driver, it's looking good.
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[Z1971]

Thanks guys. I have always been a "car guy", heck I subscribe to Classic Trucks AND Custom Classic Trucks, but I could see myself getting over my head and losing steam on a big frame off project and never getting it on the road. I LOVE driving this thing everyday. I get a comments or thumbs up everyday. In the short time I have had it I have run into several former and current C10 owners. I have come to the simple conclusion that C10 owners are good people.

New weekend and a new project. You never know how many times you need to roll down your window until you can't. The find of the month was a new, sealed in plastic window regulator under the seat. After pulling out an issue of Custom Classic Trucks and reading the how-to in the FAQ truck tech section here, I headed to LMC.



Picked up window kit that included new fuzzies and rubbers seals. After pulling off the door panel, I went to Lowe's with my rusty bolts and got some new stainless ones.



These two screws officially opened the gateway to hell. I assume removing the vent is always going to be a bear, but the prior owner had "upgraded" from the tripod type mirrors. Somehow he got nuts onto 2 inch bolts to hold the mirrors on. No matter how I tried I could not get a wrench inside to get them off.



Two hours later, the vent and window was out. I spent an hour or so with some steel wool removing the surface rust from the bottom frame of the window. Taped it off and gave it a coat of zinc primer and black paint.

[Z1971]

I decided that while the window was out, I would change the locks. The doors worked ok, but the ignition was it's own theft prevention system. When I bought it, the owner had to start it for me. It took me a lot of practice to learn the trick. Three weeks later and my wife could still not figure it out. Picked up a combo pack with all new locks.



Removing that little bar and putting it on the new lock was a little tricky, but the safety pin ignition removal was almost too easy. By the way, the ultra rare "woody" radio delete is for sale if the price is right.

[splehigh]

Nice looking truck. My 71 came with those rare rotors also. lol I didnt see any need to replace them. Perhaps I should though.

[Z1971]

Yea, I think it means the pads are gone and only the rivets are left.

[Z1971]

I did have my first budget buster. An unplanned expense occured when one of the dry rotted wranglers blew out the sidewall. Decided to go with a new set of Uniroyals. Gave it an old school feel.



I spent a few weeks looking for a 1971 truck tag on ebay and a few local tag collectors. Kansas allows you to run a tag from the year of the vehicle if it is over 25 years old. My 30 day temp tag was up so I ordered a personalized antique tag instead. Guess I am stuck with this paint scheme now.

[69CST-V]

Nice ride. Like the way you're going about it one weekend at a time. Can't wait to see it cruizing up and down I-35.

[notsolo]

Originally Posted by Z1971

I did have my first budget buster. An unplanned expense occured when one of the dry rotted wranglers blew out the sidewall. Decided to go with a new set of Uniroyals. Gave it an old school feel.



I spent a few weeks looking for a 1971 truck tag on ebay and a few local tag collectors. Kansas allows you to run a tag from the year of the vehicle if it is over 25 years old. My 30 day temp tag was up so I ordered a personalized antique tag instead. Guess I am stuck with this paint scheme now.

Nice daily driver. And a good sense of humor helps get you thru. I believe the original rotors were supposed to be grooved seen it many times here. Looking ahead some used parts are available on this site also, Randy (teeitup) is in Meridan, Ks he seems to dismantle a truck a month.

[splehigh]

Originally Posted by notsolo

Nice daily driver. And a good sense of humor helps get you thru. I believe the original rotors were supposed to be grooved seen it many times here. Looking ahead some used parts are available on this site also, Randy (teeitup) is in Meridan, Ks he seems to dismantle a truck a month.

I've seen the grooved rotors before also and thought that was original but wasnt sure.

[M Evertsen]

I like this thread.

I am hoping to do the same with the 69 C20 I have. Picked it up for $40 last summer, and just this week finally got the paperwork all straightened out, and got my title, insurance and registration.

It kinda ran when I got it last year, and I am trying to get it running now.

The things I need:

Carb, rear main, steering and brake components I am sure, new bed, heater core, fan and vent controls, get radio working, windows won't roll up or down, lights, and probably a few more things I missed. I intend to make this a DD as well, and this is how I plan to go about doing it. About $200 a paycheck, and 4 days a month.

Keep up the good work, and keep the pictures coming!

[JumboAMONGus]

i have a 71 a/c long bed sitting in the field pretty much rust free i need to start working on ran till water in oil this makes me wanna get it running again i ordered lot new trim peices for it but never thought motor would crack or head ,cool color too ,

[Z1971]

I have also seen pictures of the grooved rotors before, I just can't imagine why they would be stock. My pads had worn down so bad that only the ridge that fit into the groove was left.



Rain and the Chief's game caused me to split up the weekends project. New tie rod on drivers side. I will post pictures after I get to the passenger side after Christmas. I did pick up a few parts for a future weekend. I am leaking a lot of antifreeze. I keep a gallon in the cab for the quart I lose everyday.
Painted up a new waterpump and picked up some new hose.


I also picked up some shorter grade 8 bolts from Lowe's since I am going remove the original a/c brackets and the stock bolts will be too long.

[Z1971]

LEAK WEEK. I had some great weather over the long New Years weekend so I decided to skip a couple of the inside projects and take care of a few of the 20 or so leaks.

I have transmission leaks everywhere. The th350 is painted grey and looks like it there was a rebuild within the last decade. The lines look original and are leaking at both ends. They are stripped at the nuts. I have some damage to the inspection cover and pan, I assume was caused by hitting something on the road.






I learned my lesson when I changed the front brake lines and picked up a flare nut wrench for the trans lines.


I ordered a new trans pan with the credits I earned from Advanced Auto when I bought the steering box and waterpump. It is chrome so I should gain 20 horsepower at least. The vacuum modulator was only a couple of bucks so I decided to change it even though I could not tell if it was leaking. I also ran to LMC and picked up new trans lines.




I had to unbolt the transmission from the support and jack it up about an inch to get to the rear bolts. The old lines slide out pretty easy, but it took about 10 trips under the truck to get the new lines to line up with the radiator.


I gave it a short test drive, and so far no leaks. You might see a little red in the pictures, that is the grease I used to hold the gasket in place. I decide to hold off on replacing the leaking speedo cable. I need to pull the instrument panel to replaced burned out bulbs so I will do it then.

[Z1971]

The 350 appears to be the original motor after checking the block casting numbers. I am guessing it has been rebuilt more than once, but certain clues like the rusty headers and condition of the rocker arms make me think it was rebuilt about 5 years ago. A little history on this trucks lack of history. I bought it from a guy who had bought it from a guy. He didn't know anything about it's history.

What I do know is that is leaks but runs pretty good. Doesn't smoke and had no sign of water in the oil. Based on that, I am going to freshen it up the best I can without pulling it apart. I may rebuild it sometime in the future, but I am avoiding trying to fix what ain't broke.



I know it looks like a leak from the front of the intake, but after watching it a few weeks, I thing it is heater hose leaking and mixing with oil that leaked from the old valve covers. I grabbed the family's toothbrushes and degreaser.



I also decided to leave off thle original brackets. I am going to beadblast and repaint them I will wait until I get to the AC system before I reinstall the originals. I have a billet alt bracket from swapmeet that I will use for now.



I know it is like putting lipstick on a pig, but I don't have time to redo the old brackets this weekend.



I think it came out pretty good. I just took it for a drive and my leaks are down to a freeze plug, speedo cable and the rearend. All for another weekend.

[CrazyDave]

That engine cleaned up nice good job
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