70 C10 SWB Makeover

[lilred2]

Ok, I have decided to make a build thread about giving my C10 a makeover. For a little background about the truck I have owned it since I was 10 and I am 34 now. I worked at my families grocery store to help pay for the original purchase price of $400 and the restoration. This was a father son project that took 6 years to complete. I have included a few pictures of the truck from a few years ago when it was still exactly like I drove it in high school. I will include some more pictures of what it looks like now and what all I have done to it recently and what my goals are for the truck.

[flashed]

I like it but I am very biased as mine is very similar to yours .

[lilred2]

Goals for Red
1. New wheels and tires
2. fuel system
3. Fix oil leaks
4. Finish interior
5. LS swap
6. Wood bed
7. Maybe remove tanneau cover
8. Replace tailgate with one that fits
9. Replace after market fenders with nice originals

That's all I can think of right now.

[lilred2]

Thanks flashed after all these years I still like it. I have owned about 40 cars in my life and this one is the only one that always made the cut.

[lilred2]

Here is a picture of the new wheels. They are wheel vintiques 62 series the rear is a 15x10 with 5 1/4 backspace and the fronts are 15x8 with a 4 1/4 backspace. Tires are Mickey Thompson ET Streets 295/55r15 and the front are Mickey Thompson Sportman 255/60r15. Poverty caps are 67 Camaro from Heartbeat City.

[flashed]

I like those wheels and tires ,they will make it look even better. I have some of those caps for someday on something .

[lilred2]

Here are some pictures during the new wheel install. It also has a 4/6 drop on it now vs the 2/4 it had in the first pictures. The last picture is of it all cleaned up after sitting all winter.

[flashed]

That looks much better ,very sharp now .

[lilred2]

Thanks flashed, I think so too. It's amazing what the right wheels and tires do for a vehicle.

[68Gold/white]

Nice!
What trans is in it now?
Does it get very good MPG?
I like the LT engine it it now, many favor LS engines, they are awesome, I prefer old school stuff, my opinion...
Keep up the good work!

[lilred2]

68Gold/white it originally had a 700r4 in it and it got around 18mpg on a trip to Kansas City but now it has a th400 that I threw in it after the 700 gave up. Not sure what it gets now. I like the LT1 also but I am thinking of putting a turbo on it and the LT1's bottom end is a little weak for that. The LT1 is too good of a motor to risk blowing up.

[lilred2]

My project this weekend is replacing the fuel system with a Boyd Welding tank. The tank has a Aeromotive 340 pump in it and I am also replacing all of the feed and return lines with -6 Fragola 6000 series PTFE lines.

[lilred2]

I got the tank in and the fuel lines ran last night. The Boyd tank definitely doesn't hang as low as the blazer tank did. One problem I had with the old fuel system is it would lose prime and was hard to start after it sat for a little while. I haven't started it yet today to see if it fixed it but I am sure it did.

[lilred2]

Made a video of red starting with the new fuel system after sitting for 2 days. As you can see the hard starting issues have been solved.

https://youtu.be/7TNfcGOt2LQ

[lilred2]

Here is a picture of what the interior currently looks like. I scored those buckets out of a 73 Blazer in the junk yard for $70. I put new foam on and recovered them myself. I just have a couple of things to finish up and the inside should be done.

[flashed]

Wow ,those look great as well as the whole interior .

[Mapearso]

Originally Posted by lilred2

Thanks flashed, I think so too. It's amazing what the right wheels and tires do for a vehicle.

looks awesome. those wheels / tires make all the difference!

[lilred2]

Thanks guys. I still have a lot of work I want to do but it has come a long way so far. Next on the list is finding and fixing oil leaks. I think it has a couple one on the engine and one on the transmission.

[lilred2]

Got my new seat belts last night from seat belts plus.

[lilred2]

Here is a non-sideways picture of the interior and one of the truck after its first drive with the new fuel system.

[RRR18]

[AnotherWs6]

Lookin' good. I wouldn't be in a hurry to LS it. That LT1 would hold up against a decent amount of boost. Everybody wants 1,000rwhp now with how easy it is to get big numbers from practically stock LS motors, but if you got 450-500rwhp out of that LT1 you'd be boogy-ing pretty hard. And the current motor 1 - looks sweet and 2 - is already in there lol.

How do you like the seat belts BTW? I need a set of shoulders for my Suburban, there are a lot of choices and price ranges out there.

What tach are you running and do you have any pics of the whole instrument cluster setup? I'm also thinking about a column mount but want it to look "right" if that makes sense.

[flashed]

Your truck is about as perfect as any I've ever seen ,love everything about it .

[lilred2]

AnotherWs6 thanks. We will see what the future holds for the LT1 it's been in the truck since the mid 90's. The biggest issue I have with it is the Optispark which I know I can get rid of it but the cost makes me lean towards just swapping it for an LS. I am currently having issues with it cutting out at 5,000 rpm so I am going to put a fuel pressure gauge on it but I think the distributor is on it's way out again.

I haven't installed the seatbelts yet but they look good and they came with the hardware which I didn't expect. The tach is something I picked up at the parts store close to 20 years ago it was the cheapest one they had not sure the brand. The tach in the dash has been converted to one out of a second gen Camaro but I could never get it to work with the LT1. I will get a pic next time I have it out.

Thanks flashed I hope I can continue to make it better.

[AnotherWs6]

I can swear that I randomly came across a distributor to get rid of opti on ebay just a day or two ago and it was cheap but I can't find it now. I don't know a ton about opti spark, just that most people hate it. There is all sorts of stuff floating around the bay these days, it's actually amazing. I know it's not the best stuff but it's still intriguing. I'm 98.73968% positive my truck's OP put on onr the black $39 distributors from this site. Seems fine.

Is the Camaro tach swap thing common? I HATE not having a tach.

http://stores.ebay.com/whiteperforma...p2047675.l2563



I studied your seat belt pic, poked around the web a little more (and I have already looked at online seatbelt stuff A LOT in the past few months) and pulled the trigger on them this morning. They look pretty nice in your pic. I was going to go with a set that was about $40 more, so thanks! It pushed me to bite the bullet. Now my wife will feel better and so will I.