project 65/66 C30 sanford & Son's

[enonz65c30]

Well I figure its about time to start a project thread on my 1965/66(still need to figure out what year it is) Chevy C30. My father, Brother an I picked this up afew years ago and I have decided to start on it so I have something to haul my old tractors and junk or just drive to work in style. My goal is to do this pretty low buck but safe and reliable.

the major things that I want to do are as follows:
replace the I6 with a 4 bolt main 350 I picked up awhile back for free
upgrade to power disk breaks in the front
swap in a 14 bolt rear to replace the eaton axle
rewire the whole truck
fix the rusted rockers/floor
get rid of the split rims for 1 piece 16 or 19.5 steel wheels
possible repaint
power steering
ect. ect.

I already posted about the disk breaks in the other forum and I have been reading around here. From what I gather I might be able to keep my factory crossmember and just swap out the upper and lower ball joints on my existing control arms for the later C30 73-87 ball joints to gain disk breaks? of course I would need the later spindles, steering and sway bar from the 73-87 donor truck.

anyway here are some pics, this should be an interesting project

here is what I look like when I drug it out of its resting place

[enonz65c30]

my first task was to remove the factory flat bed to make swapping rears easyer. I am debating on if I want to go back with wood or just get some metal diamond plate for the deck, The Ford 3000 and a cutting torch made short work of this part of the project






Its amazing what people did back in the day just to keep things going. I had never noticed this little jerry rig fix before. I will need to address this during the axle swap

[1963c-10]

Welcome and great looking project truck. My sister lived in Farmville, VA for a few years and I've driven through that area quite a few times when I lived in VA. Keep us updated w/pics and progress.

[enonz65c30]

now that it is in the nice warm shop I can really see where the rust is and start the fun of taking it all apart. I just wish I had more time off I only have 1 day off(Christmas day) till next year...

[1963c-10]

Factory power brakes...nice. What other option on the truck? Looks like you're going to need some new inner fenders. Typical spots on these trucks.

[enonz65c30]

the seat is in really good shape(one small cig burn on the drivers side) and the interior paint looks pretty good. I think im not going to do much other than clean the interior and throw some carpet in it. I wonder if the miles are correct

[enonz65c30]

Originally Posted by 1963c-10

Factory power brakes...nice. What other option on the truck? Looks like you're going to need some new inner fenders. Typical spots on these trucks.

I have no clue what other options it has. I did notice that the e-brake is on the back of the transmission instead of the rear drums of the axle. does anyone know what type of transmission it has/ if you can get parts for that emergency break set up? on the shift knob it looks like a 3 speed with a granny low in the floor

[1963c-10]

probably the sm420 trans...you can do a search above in the 67-72 forum and pull up tons of info on them. Good solid trans if its going to be a work truck.

[McMurphy]

and welcome to the site !!
Nice to see another stock dually around, and that factory flat bed is pretty sweet looking.

Although not 100% accurate (of course) but a laymans way of telling if the 87k on the odo is all the miles it has on it is to look at the foot pedals (mostly the brake and gas pedal, the clutch pedal could have suffered a bad driver that rode the clutch).
They were rarely replaced when they got worn out.
If the pedals are only slightly or half worn then it is probably only 87k....if they are worn through then it is likely the odo has rolled once and it is 187k miles.

Just a little something someone pointed out to me once when I wondered the same thing about a 66 Pontiac I had....

[TJ's Chevy]

Great start! Interior looks perrty clean! Minus the dust....LOL!

[BMERDOC]

Found ya Ian! The interior looks like its in great shape! The cats paw for a spring leaf bolt is awesome! I wonder if they did that in an emergency and just said good nuff.

[bj383ss]

This truck is so bada$$. I hope you are keeping the knobby tires and big mirrors. Look forward to your build. Subscribed.

Bret

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

and welcome to the site !!
Nice to see another stock dually around, and that factory flat bed is pretty sweet looking.

Although not 100% accurate (of course) but a laymans way of telling if the 87k on the odo is all the miles it has on it is to look at the foot pedals (mostly the brake and gas pedal, the clutch pedal could have suffered a bad driver that rode the clutch).
They were rarely replaced when they got worn out.
If the pedals are only slightly or half worn then it is probably only 87k....if they are worn through then it is likely the odo has rolled once and it is 187k miles.

Just a little something someone pointed out to me once when I wondered the same thing about a 66 Pontiac I had....

What Michael said.

Welcome. Love your truck so far.

My dad taught me the foot pedal wear trick when I was a kid as well.

How much wider than a standard C10 Fleetside are these C30 Dualies??

I love them too but am not sure it would fit my very narrow drive down the side of the house if I had one.

Look forward to this evolving.

[2manyprojects]

Cool truck. Yours is a 66 dark color dash, and emblem location. I have a 66 C30 also. The trans is a SM420.

[enonz65c30]

well merry Christmas,

I think Santa found out about my little project and swung by TopBanna and got me a sleigh full of goodies I have about 75% of the patch panels I need. I made use of my stocking stuffer ASAP(brand new air ratchet) and started busting down/tagging and bagging bolts, spacers ect....gotta love air tools. I got a little done between family events(I only had a 2 hour window) The rust repair is going to be like a big jig saw puzzle and I found that at some point in its life someone hit or pulled on the radiator crossmember and bent it all to hell(pic below) so that will need to be replaced.

My new toy


the bad crossmember


it looks like im making a little progress


it is pretty solid......but there is rust, I mean this is VA after all

[enonz65c30]

Happy New year!

well I have been busy sence my last update, getting parts and taking the truck farther apart. I picked up a 1983 C30 complete front clip and Dana rear from a forum member(thanks Richard) and some other odds and ends off craigslist including some better fenders and an alum grill all for $80 I was off Tuesday and even thou it was 8 degrees outside I fired up the wood stove and got to it.
the first order of business was to get the old 6cyl out of the way

and with the motor gone I got to work removing the stock frontend

here are the shots of the front clip and rear clip before I unloaded the trailer. I also got a hydroboost system with the deal so that should work out giving me some more stopping power. these were some heavy bits for the tractor to lift




after getting the old front clip out of the way, I put the new 83 clip in the shop and got it separated from the frame and rolled under the front of the truck. I don't think I will rebuild it before bolting it up because I want to have it as a roller and I am just going to paint what I can for now.

[BMERDOC]

Uuugghh!! What a mess! Collecting a lot of good parts. Do you have a due date for it? I can't wait to see it. Maybe we'll take them out and switch off! I'd love to drive that Monster when its done! May not be too good for me though. I've been researching some of the heavier trucks. I've been daydreamin (ADHD these days) of a ground scrappin C40 on a lighter chassis.

[enonz65c30]

well after a long day of playing farmer I got to spend a couple of hours on the truck. I spent over half my day chasing a 65lb pig that decided to run through the electric fence....they always do it in the rain for some reason. so after running all over creation I finally tackled that little monster. but hey that just makes the bacon taste that much better back to the truck.

we only had two hours to work on the truck before dinner so we decided to put the new front cross member in. I guess the donor truck was built on a Friday or a Monday, because the 4 weld nuts were cross threaded and when the bolts were removed it stripped the nuts the rest of the way so they got redrilled to 1/2 vs 7/16 and through bolted. All and all it was pretty darn easy and in MHO the best way to upgrade a 66 C30 to disk brakes. Btw any torque specs out there on these bolts? I did use nylock nuts, lock washers, and locktight, so they should not go anywhere.

the engine lift was the ticket to safely lift it into place instead of balancing it on a jack like I had thought about doing.



RedBull the Official drink of crossmember swaps

and its in, it only took 2 hours! not too bad for a NOOB lol the rearend swap is next...

[enonz65c30]

well I got a little work done on the truck sunday, I would have worked on it today....but I spent the day working on my jeep after hitting a deer at 55mph Friday night driving home from work. Jeep 1 - Bambi 0. My goal was sense the front was done the next logical thing to do was to swap rear's. I was working alone for the day( my buddys inlaws were in town) so I grabbed a pack of PBR and decided that before the 12 pack was done the rear swap had to be done as well. the only thing I have to advise for others thinking about doing this is that my 1983 chevy c30 PICKUP truck rear is much wider than the eaton, which is no big deal with the flat bed. the springs are the same with and everything,so its pretty easy swap. I just need to figure out if the drive shaft will work as is or will need to be shortened.

I used the blue wrench on the eaton ubolts...and the rear had to be smacked afew times with a BFH to break it free from the springs...

now you can see where the width comes in

It looks pretty good from this angle lol

I used the Ubolts, spring plates, and top locating plate from the donor truck. I did not use the 83's springs because they are longer than the stock springs

its gonna have a bigg a**


the driveshaft is going to be close

[BMERDOC]

Comin' along! That diff is a MONSTER! LOL! Funny. The difference between a cab and chassis diff and a fendered dually is amazing!

[2manyprojects]

Loooks good. I still have the drive shaft out of that long wheelbase 65 if you want to come see if any of those sections will work for you.

[enonz65c30]

Originally Posted by 2manyprojects

Loooks good. I still have the drive shaft out of that long wheelbase 65 if you want to come see if any of those sections will work for you.

I might take you up on that Richard. I think I need a shaft that is roughly 1 inch shorter than stock

[enonz65c30]

finnaly I have done enough to warrant an update. I have been doing a lot of reading and building in my head/ coming up with some sort of plan. part of that plan was to wrap up the steering and suspension. so first I got one of captainfabs amazing power steering brackets and got that installed(thanks captain) then I moved onto the rear. from day one I wanted to get the tank out of the cab and under the bed so I had to decide on a tank, I went with the 21gal blazer tank kit from LMC. the reason I had to order the tank before I could finish rear suspension was because I needed to make sure I would clear the new rear shock mounts I got from my donor frame. anyway here is what I came up with.

[enonz65c30]

here are some more, I wanted to move it as far forward as possible so it would be somewhat protected from the rear and the sides

[enonz65c30]

Well I had to ask myself....if your going to do rust repair...would it be better to do it on a small back window cab.......or a big back window........BIG Back Window it is





I thought this was pretty neat behind the seat


And Dad did a little craigslist shopping and found this. it will make welding all those patch panels in a whole lot easer than with his old mig machine