Building My Grandfather's 64 C10

[64C10Fleet]

After lurking around the forum for a long time, I decided to join and share my build.

This truck has been in my family since the 60s. It belonged to my grandfather and we believe he was the original owner. I haven't taken the time to research this yet because I have been in an ugly battle with a family member over the truck for several months trying to work out an agreement on the title. As much as I sometimes hate to admit it, I come from a long line of hillbillies and interacting with some of my family members is not always easy. I digress.

The earliest photo I have of this truck was taken in 1971. My mother is seen here posing on the front of her 57 at age 18. The truck is in the background fitted with a homemade camper.



My grandfather and I were probably the closest of his grandchildren. I spent several weeks each summer break from school with him working in the backyard on his fleet of vehicles, he had several cars and trucks dating back to the 60s.

He passed away 9 years ago and all of the vehicles were quickly picked up by my uncles and stored in their backyards. Two years ago, I went out to my uncle's land one evening during deer season to check one of my stands and I found the truck sitting in the rain under an oak tree with the windows down and rain pouring inside. I got into a huge argument with my uncle over the truck and its condition and demanded he sell it to me. He refused and I was so mad about the condition of the truck that I didn't talk to him for over a year.

Last March, I got a call from my aunt and she told me that my uncle was having some financial troubles and that I should make an offer on the truck if I still wanted it. Two weeks later, I made a deal for $2000 and picked the truck up. Here's a shot of the truck the day I picked it up:



My uncle wouldn't answer my call when I picked the truck up. It took me and two others 6 hours to pump up the tires and move the truck from where everything had grown up around it and onto my trailer. It rained the entire time and we got two trucks stuck in the mud in the process. My uncle would not answer his phone the entire day. We all tried calling him several times so I could pass the money off and pick up the title, but no answer. It took me four months, but I finally got the title yesterday.

Let me rewind a little... Here's a few shots of the truck the day I got it back to my house in SC.

Any idea where these hubcaps came from?



We spent over 8 hours cleaning up the inside and outside of the truck. My uncle insisted on transporting my grandfather from the funeral home to the cemetary in this truck and had a piece of plywood thrown in the bed to cover the holes and a cheap paint job sprayed on. I told you we were hillbillies. And no, we didn't allow him to carry my grandfather in this to the cemetary, lol.

[RockTonka]

Sorry to hear that you had to fight family to get the truck...but you got it and I bet your grandpa would have wanted it that way. Sounds like you want it for all the right reasons, truck looks good and we look forward to seeing what you do with it.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by RockTonka

Sorry to hear that you had to fight family to get the truck...but you got it and I bet your grandpa would have wanted it that way. Sounds like you want it for all the right reasons, truck looks good and we look forward to seeing what you do with it.

I think I have to echo what RockTonka said.
If you are going to go at it with someone because the windows were down....then my bet is it is better off with you. Bloody shame he stuck you for $2k though.

I hope you keep us posted, I truly dig it when people know the history of their rigs.

to the board !!!

[64C10Fleet]

Hey, thanks guys. I've been admiring and working on this truck since I was about 13 years old, so the patience and persistence really paid off this time. I almost talked him into selling it back in 2004, but I'm happy he wouldn't come off of it now. I probably would have ruined it with bags and unnecessary bodywork.

I actually started the build last month; I'll try to post the progress this evening. Plan is to return it as close to the way my grandfather had it with a few minor upgrades. Of course, I probably won't be putting the camper back on. Though, it is still there and in really good condition.

[CRGRS 66]

Welcome to the forum, glad you were able to end up with your grandfather's truck. Unfortunately the family history is something that I don't have on my truck. Good luck, look forward to following along on your progress!

[64C10Fleet]

Hoped to post all the progress up to this point this evening, but I got carried away in the garage again.

My wife and I took a drive up to Myrtle Beach to take the kids to spend a couple weeks with my parents. This will be the first time we've been without kids in almost nine years, so should be interesting. There were lots of talks of big plans including a date night and day at the beach. We got home around 9pm and my wife went to bed and I went to the garage. So yeah, we are party animals.

Finished priming the frame under the cab tonight. I've been working in sections, I can only take so much time sanding on one piece before my ADHD kicks in and I have to move onto something else.

Goods news... I talked my wife into going to the beach with her friends this Saturday for a girls day, so that means I get a whole day of working on the truck, uninterupted. I'll probably take her out for a nice dinner that night to make up for whenever she figures out I made the suggestion for a girls day so I could work on my truck.

New parts arrived today. Got my oil pan, oil dipstick and tube, trans dipstick and tube, and new manifolds. I ordered the 60s Corvette style rams head manifolds with the 2.5" outlet.

I guess this is a good time to talk about the engine/trans for the truck... At some point, my grandfather had a 307 installed. Here's the paperweight of an engine a few weeks ago.



I decided I wanted something that would sound bad@ss and had plenty of power, but at the same time I wanted a setup that had a classic look to it. A good friend of mine had a high nickel / high tin block with flat top pistons, new crank, and a bunch of other crap I didn't care about. I picked it up for only $500, less than 100 miles on it. Also included was a set of 461 double hump heads, HEI distributor, and two carbs. Not sure which carb I'll be going with yet.

Here's a shot of the engine two weeks ago when I got my heads back. I couldn't wait to sit them on and see what it was going to look like.



I picked up a used Edelbrock Performer intake from a guy for $40. He also sold me the cam I installed, brand new Thump'r for $60. Like I said, I want that classic look so I bought an intake mounted filler and had the intake machined to accept. I also picked up some Chevrolet script valve covers for $15 locally and bead blasted and painted them.



I didn't realize the heads came from a family owned car until I got them home. My buddy called me up and told me that they came off a 63 Impala he bought from my family almost 12 years ago. He took the heads and the 327 out and stored them until he found out I was building this truck. Nice score. I had new hardened guides and seats installed, along with all new valves and springs matched to the cam. I have another friend that runs a machine shop and he really did a great job on the heads. Shaved just a hair just for the hell of it.





That's all I have in me for tonight. I'll post more tomorrow while I'm supposed to be working.

[SFTorange]

Cool truck and great story! I'm glad you were able to buy it. The engine looks really good. I always dig the classic script valve covers. I'll be watching your build!

[LostMy65]

Very Cool Truck Story.
I love Grandpa Trucks.
I'm glad you managed to win the stupid wrestling match.
And especially glad you're going to do your grandpa right.

[64C10Fleet]

Redneck wrestling matches are awesome, hehe. Back to the build update...

My grandfather was a HUGE fan of the Powerglide transmission. He tried to stuff one in just about every vehicle he ever owned. As far as I can tell, this truck came with a Powerglide and V8 from the factory. Naturally, I'll keep the Powerglide in it for now. This truck will be a daily driver when its complete (Why build something if you can't drive it?), so I may end up swapping the Powerglide for something else later depending on how much highway driving I do.

My garage is full of other stuff, so this entire build will be done out in the driveway. My latest hobby, for the last two years, has been restoring and riding 3 wheelers. When I got the truck I decided it was time to grow up a little and I told my wife I would get rid of some of the toys. I sold a bunch of the guns I had that didn't really serve a purpose and so far I sold all but one three wheeler. I might sell the last three wheeler in the next month if I can motivate myself to pull it out of the garage and take pictures. I also have a '76 CB550 bobber I've been building for a few years that is only missing a cam chain tensioner to be complete, but if I finish it I might have to ride it and everytime I mention riding a motorcycle I'm reminded by the old lady of a bad wreck I was involved in almost four years ago.

At the start of the build I considered renting a place to do the work, but when I weighed the options (couple hundred bucks a month vs. a $25 fee from my HOA each month) I decided to keep it at home and work in the driveway. So far, I haven't received a fine from my HOA, seems most of the neighborhood is more interested in seeing the progress than reporting me for violation. A little tough working in the sun in SC this time of year, but not too bad considering some of the other places I've been.

Did I mention the driveway is on an incline? Makes things interesting. A few weeks ago I had a friend come over and help me pull the engine. I prepped everything the night before, he came over to help me push the truck out in the road so we had a level surface to work with. I gave him the old 307 for helping.

When I got the engine out I was in awe of the amount of oil that had accumulated under the cab over the years. There was a good 1/4" of grease covering everything. Here's the Powerglide after separating from the engine.



I soaked it in oven cleaner and pressure washed it.





Sorry, I like pictures so I'm loading this thing up.

I spent 4 halfdays soaking the frame and bottom of cab in oven cleaner and pressure washing. The years of oil buildup really preserved the frame well.

[64C10Fleet]

I started this build with the bed, but I soon ran out of parts and moved onto something else. Only to run out of parts and move onto something else, and so on. It's a vicious cycle.

First things first. When I got the truck home I had some serious air leakage problems around the beads on the tires. I really wanted to hold off and find some of the original wheels (5 1/2" side I think), so I tried to work the wheels to hold air to get me by until I found some. Well, didn't work. After coming home every day to a flat tire, I decided to go with a 15x8 Wheel Vintiques 12 series. I haven't decided on a center cap yet, but I may pull the trigger soon.





On June 5th, I officially began working on the truck. That afternoon I ripped all the fragments of bed floor and bed strips out. Tool of choice, bolt cutters. I started with a 4" grinder with cutting wheel, but after I got the wood out the bolt cutters were a lot faster than the cutting wheel.



Frame time. I tried several different methods for cleaning the frame. The best by far was a 4" grinder with wire wheel. I spent about 5 hours and finished one side of the frame with a little wire wheel on a drill before I took a ride and picked up a wheel for the grinder. Wish I had started with the grinder. By the end of the first day, I had the two outside frame rails coated in Jasco. Really surprised how well that stuff works.



This is where the research began. I read a ton of posts about what to coat the frame in. Paint vs. powder vs. POR and all kinds of other stuff. As I said before, this truck will be a daily driver. I wanted a bullet proof coating. I finally decided to roll on (instead of spraying) Valspar Tractor and Implement oil based primer and paint. This stuff is awesome and definitely tough. Because of the heat and humidity, and the thickness of the primer, it took the frame two full days to dry. I gave it another two days just to be safe.

[64C10Fleet]

The frame came out awesome so far. It kinda has a rough texture to it as I decided not to thin the primer or paint. It is super strong, I even tried tapping on it with a ball peen hammer in a few spots. I'm planning to hit the top of the crossmembers with undercoating before install, and maybe even the bottom where it contacts the frame mounts.



I went back and forth trying to decide if I was going to keep this old bumper. I finally decided to keep it. Now I have about a day of straightening and stripping and still not finished, but it's a cool old upgrade and really tough looking.





And yes, I used child labor for the frame painting...



My wife of more than ten years knows just how important this truck is to me, and has been really helpful and supportive. My youngest daughter loves to work on stuff with me. She got the bug last summer when she helped build an ATC 70, thinking I was going to let her ride it alone. She has her own set of tools and breaks them out about twice a week to try to help out.

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum

Sorry to hear of all the hassle you went thru to get your Grandfather's truck. In seeing the work you are doing, I'm sure he wouldn't want anyone else to have his old truck.

I really like to see people get their kids involved in working on these old trucks. That helps to keep our obsession alive and teaches the kids some valuable skills. Keep up the great work and keep the updates coming when you have time.

[64C10Fleet]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Welcome to the forum

Sorry to hear of all the hassle you went thru to get your Grandfather's truck. In seeing the work you are doing, I'm sure he wouldn't want anyone else to have his old truck.

I really like to see people get their kids involved in working on these old trucks. That helps to keep our obsession alive and teaches the kids some valuable skills. Keep up the great work and keep the updates coming when you have time.

Thanks!! I love having the family help out wherever they can (helps with the grunt work, hehe). My youngest sure has a love for wrench turning, but her sister hasn't come around yet.

I got my start when I was about 7 years old and my dad put me to work changing oil on his work trucks. He and I started building my first car, a '65 Ford Falcon, when I was 14, we finished it just before I turned 16 and then he decided I should have something a little newer and we decided to sell it. It was hard watching that old car drive away.

I'm really close to talking my wife into trading her Durango for a 50s model Ford sedan. I thought I might take that on as my next project and do a few things to make it more modern and dependable. I'd like to get her more invovled in building the truck before then so she can do most of the work on the car.

[64C10Fleet]

I'm really hard-headed, so when I read all the posts on people cutting their own wood for the bed floor and how they would buy the wood precut if they do it again, I did what I normally do... I decided to cut the wood myself.

It really wasn't that bad. The problem, it was about 100 degrees outside that day. It was a LONG day. The high temps started messing with my head about halfway through the day and I started making bad cuts. After I screwed up two pieces of wood and made a trip to get more, I started writing everything down before I did anything so I wouldn't make any mistakes. The good thing about that day... there were NO consumers at any of the home improvement stores. The people at Lowes took down two pallets of wood and let me dig through the entire piles to find what I wanted.



I decided I want to paint the wood for the bed so I can haul my motorcycle around and not worry about scratching anything up. Wait, here's an old shot of the motorcycle:



Bike is almost complete now. I figure I'll use the truck to slowly make my way up to Myrtle Beach next summer and cruise around on the bike.

I easily get off subject... The wood will be painted with Tractor and Implement paint like the chassis. Though, I will thin it so it lays down smoother. I know the Tractor paint has a reputation for fading fast, so I may throw in a bed mat to minimize fading.

At the end of the day, I had all the wood cut minus the notches in the rear side pieces.



I let the wood dry out for a few days and hit it with some oil base primer. I was planning to leave the natural texture, but later changed my mind and sanded the top smooth.

Here's a shot of the wood installed for test fitting after sanding smooth.

[64C10Fleet]

Working on the front of the truck is a little tricky. I can't leave the truck totally dismantled in the driveway for days at a time or the town or HOA will come around and complain. I have it setup so I can pull the entire front end apart in less than two minutes by removing a few bolts. If I'm not working on it, I leave it together.

Here's some shots before tear down. I think it initially took me about an hour to get the battery tray out, worst piece so far. Oh, and I busted a socket and universal in the process. Should have been using impact socket and universal, but who cares? You buy good tools so you can break them and have them replaced for free, right?







The old undercoating on this thing and I are not very good friends. I quickly learned that a heat gun and putty knife work well for stripping. I spent an hour on the firewall stripping that crap off.



I stripped the firewall to bare metal and hit it with metal etching primer and then a filler primer. There were not any significant dents in the firewall and I was able to fix everything with the hammer and dolly. The entire engine bay will get a coat of satin black paint in the end. Here's the passenger side after etching primer.

[64C10Fleet]

And the driver side firewall. There's a good story that goes along with this one that once again involves me losing situational awareness because of the high temps. But first, some pics...

Here's before shot after stripping the undercoating off.



Metal etching and filler primer...



This thing is cleaning up well.



Okay, so the story of front end tear down... While waiting on a friend to come over and help remove the engine, I decided to tear apart the driver side firewall and start sanding. I removed the brake reservoir and all the other attachments leaving the steering column in place. With one bolt left in the steering column and the trans linkage disconnected, I placed the impact on the last bolt and hit it. The steering column fell and hit the transmission linkage and knocked the truck into neutral. Luckily, I had forgotten to chock the wheels after working underneath the truck earlier that morning.

So yeah, truck goes into neutral and starts coasting down the driveway. I had a 10' x 10' tent I purchased a few days before over the engine bay and that was the first thing to be taken out. As it collapsed, of course it fell on the windshield so I couldn't see anything. Meanwhile, I'm stomping on the brake pedal and wondering why it isn't working. Oh yeah, I disconnected it! With steering column in lap, the tent finally rolled off just in time for me to see how close I was to the open door taking out the mailbox. I closed the door just in time and coasted across the road and into my neighbor's yard.

I quickly got out of the truck to make sure no one saw me being stupid. Mission accomplished. LOL! Glad there were no cars coming by at the time, would've been hard to explain that one to the cops.

[CRGRS 66]

Originally Posted by 64C10Fleet

Okay, so the story of front end tear down... While waiting on a friend to come over and help remove the engine, I decided to tear apart the driver side firewall and start sanding. I removed the brake reservoir and all the other attachments leaving the steering column in place. With one bolt left in the steering column and the trans linkage disconnected, I placed the impact on the last bolt and hit it. The steering column fell and hit the transmission linkage and knocked the truck into neutral. Luckily, I had forgotten to chock the wheels after working underneath the truck earlier that morning.

So yeah, truck goes into neutral and starts coasting down the driveway. I had a 10' x 10' tent I purchased a few days before over the engine bay and that was the first thing to be taken out. As it collapsed, of course it fell on the windshield so I couldn't see anything. Meanwhile, I'm stomping on the brake pedal and wondering why it isn't working. Oh yeah, I disconnected it! With steering column in lap, the tent finally rolled off just in time for me to see how close I was to the open door taking out the mailbox. I closed the door just in time and coasted across the road and into my neighbor's yard.

I quickly got out of the truck to make sure no one saw me being stupid. Mission accomplished. LOL! Glad there were no cars coming by at the time, would've been hard to explain that one to the cops.

Talk about a hot flash!

[64C10Fleet]

Originally Posted by CRGRS 66

Talk about a hot flash!

Haha, guess I'm going through manopause.

[64C10Fleet]

Ahh, sheet metal work. I think I get more excited about doing sheet metal work than anything else on this truck.

When I left Active Duty Coast Guard in 2004, I decided I was going to open up a hot rod shop. An old friend of mine agreed to become a partner. Boy was that a mistake. We both built several cars and trucks before opening the shop, so we knew what we were doing. The problem was we got way too big way too fast. We quickly fell behind and then my partner backed out on me. I was stuck with a bunch of trucks to finish and not enough time. I worked 18 hours days for about 6 months and finally got everything out the door. As soon as I finished the last one I closed the doors and went to find a job that was less stressful. I was offered a job bending exhaust pipe at a local shop and I took it. I loved it, but after being there for 6 months I did a brake job on a truck for a guy and when I was done he offered me a job as a diesel mechanic on an assembly line for an armored vehicle manufacturer.

Oops, off subject again... My favorite part about running the shop was sheet metal work. I've done just about everything from mild to wild. Since I'm not doing anything custom on this truck, the only fun I get to have is installing replacement panels.

Front cab wall before.





And during the weld process. I just need to apply some filler and drill some holes to finish it up.

[radleyhardy]

This truck, this build, this STORY is just so awesome man. If we ever worked together our ADHD would sure cause a bunch of nothing.

Subscribed for this awesomesauce

[CRGRS 66]

Originally Posted by radleyhardy

This truck, this build, this STORY is just so awesome man. If we ever worked together our ADHD would sure cause a bunch of nothing.

Subscribed for this awesomesauce

sorry, don't mean to hi-jack... awesome avatar!!! love it!!!

[64C10Fleet]

Originally Posted by radleyhardy

This truck, this build, this STORY is just so awesome man. If we ever worked together our ADHD would sure cause a bunch of nothing.

Subscribed for this awesomesauce

Thanks man! Look forward to checking out your build, as well. And about the ADHD, my wife says our garage looks like a meth head lives in it. When I work on my own stuff I like to take everything apart piece by piece until I can't walk through the garage and then put it back together half-@ssed in a hurry. I'm trying to over come the half-@ssed in a hurry part on this build.

Originally Posted by CRGRS 66

sorry, don't mean to hi-jack... awesome avatar!!! love it!!!

Agree on the avatar. No worries, talk amongst yourselves.

[64C10Fleet]

Interior... I thought about leaving the interior as is, just fixing the rusted panels and laying some carpet down. I'll probably end up tearing it all apart and laying down some sound deadening material. Any suggestion? I saw someone on here had used some stuff from a Lowes or Home Depot for his floor, wonder how that stuff worked out.

I pulled everything off the floor and inner firewall. A lot of surface rust and the floor is rusted through in a few places. This was my favorite fix by far.



And this is what I found under it, yikes!



A shot from below, didn't realize until after I looked at this picture that the dimmer switch plug was melted.



Passenger side floor.



Passenger side floor from bottom.



Need replacement parts! Who makes the best fitting parts out there?

[McMurphy]

I have gotten those floor pan patches from both LMC and Classic, in the end it was half dozen of one, 6 of another. Both needed some sort of attention in order to get them to fit.

[64C10Fleet]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

I have gotten those floor pan patches from both LMC and Classic, in the end it was half dozen of one, 6 of another. Both needed some sort of attention in order to get them to fit.

In other words, they all fit like crap! Haha! At least I know what to expect now. I still scratch my head when I look at that LMC catalog, I'm not quite sure which panels to order. Oh well, I'll figure it out and if I don't I guess I'll make my own.
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