1971 C-10 Cheyenne

[sangell]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

Looks like a great project & some father- son bonding too! Nice the you found a solid truck without a long drive. Those crazy 80's mirrors have got to go!- they look great on the trucks they were made for but not so hot on these! Keep up the good work- thanks for the pics

Thanks, it is good to spend time with the kid. You think the mirror looks bad in the pictures you should see it in person. It is terrible, we have a factory replacement 71 mirror going on it.

Originally Posted by Already Gone

What did you use for a brake booster bracket to get the booster so close to the firewall? Where did you buy the new booster /master combo ?

It just looks like the booster is close to the firewall, in fact it is not close at all. The bracket is just like the factory one.

[sangell]

More work done over the weekend, with now having a clutch pedal to push my son needs the driver seat moved forward while I do not so the driver's seat is getting a slider. Once it's mounted we'll mount the passenger seat to match the furthest back point of the driver's side. Steering column is rebuilt, painted, and installed, along with a start on the front clip. The replacement grill is silver and my son vetoed that so it's getting painted black this week.

[sangell]

Passenger seat mount is done, waiting on the slider for the driver side. Ordered a Griffin LS swap radiator last week and it showed up with a defect so the replacement will be here tomorrow. Got the grill insert painted black and started working on the rear end. It is a factory posi 3.07 set up. We are rebuilding the posi with a little more aggressive clutches and springs and installing a 4.56 gear. The harness and ECM left today to the guy who is cutting it down and doing the tune.

This was a fun one for me to show my son how to tear apart a rear axle and posi as it fits my skill set much more than body work.

[71swb4x4]

There is a clear coat out there that is tinted to make something that looks like black chrome. You might have your son check that out for the grill that might look kind of cool.

[sangell]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

There is a clear coat out there that is tinted to make something that looks like black chrome. You might have your son check that out for the grill that might look kind of cool.

I'll look into thank, I really like black chrome. Thanks for the heads up.

[sangell]

Kid is into the low gloss black thing so we stayed with that.
Grille installed and a few pics of the ring to mount a factory fuel module for the 5.3.

[sangell]

Radiator showed up. I need to modify the upper mounts to make it fit better.

[sangell]

Seat sliders showed up.

[sangell]

Rear end rebuild is done. 4.56 gears, all new bearings, more aggressive clutch pack shimmed tighter, and 400 lbs springs in the posi.

[sangell]

Picked up the driveshaft yesterday. Went with a one piece, 4" .083 wall, 1350 series joints. With a fixed output on the t-56 the slip yoke is in the driveshaft so the tube it's self is 54.5" weld to weld. I went this route due to the high RPMs the shaft will turn with the .56 6th gear and 4.56 rear gear. Now we are working on modifying the cross member and floor to clear this thing.

[engineer_gregh]

I have the same radiator set up. I synched mine down and after a couple of thousand miles it leaked. Griffin stood behind it but I had to send it back for them to redo it. I learned the hard way that there should be play up and down as well as side to side for it not to crack. It has epoxy and will crack if you flex it.

[sangell]

Originally Posted by engineer_gregh

I have the same radiator set up. I synched mine down and after a couple of thousand miles it leaked. Griffin stood behind it but I had to send it back for them to redo it. I learned the hard way that there should be play up and down as well as side to side for it not to crack. It has epoxy and will crack if you flex it.

Thanks for the heads up. I used the factory mounts after I modified the the uppers to put less pressure on the radiator. I can wiggle it in all directions so I hope its ok.

[sangell]

A few updates, gas tank bent up and tacked together, driver's side seat slider and front mount, seat mounts with tabs, modified stock crossmember, and t-56 shifter.

[lolife99]

What a cool truck! subscribing.

[sangell]

Originally Posted by lolife99

What a cool truck! subscribing.

Thank You,

We missed our completion goal by a lot but it is further along that the pics I've put up. My son making the HS baseball team, playing on the HS summer team, a summer tournament team, going to Philmont Scout Ranch and Scout summer camp cut more into our garage time than I though. Baseball is over and he is not playing any Fall Ball as he is going to focus on finishing his Eagle Scout. I'm going back on my plan to not work on it if he's not out there, as long as he is doing school work and maintaining his grades and/or working on his Eagle Scout work I'm going to push to get his truck done. I want to get plenty of road time on it as we are planning to attend the Hot Rod Power Tour in 2017 and run the entire trip.

The tank is at my buddies getting tigged, the frame pass throughs for the exhaust are done, the eaxhaust is run just waiting for hangers to finish it up, we have started to thin out the factory underhood harness, and we have started to wire up the fans, headlights, fuel pump, etc. and we have all the parts to complete the fuel system once the tank is done.

[sawyerrm]

You are an exceptional father with an amazing son. Time spent together will never be forgotten.

[sangell]

Originally Posted by sawyerrm

You are an exceptional father with an amazing son. Time spent together will never be forgotten.

Thank You, he is a great kid on that I will agree . Me on the other hand there are many things I do wrong, I have high expectations of him and sometimes I let that go too far. I try my best but thankfully he has a great mother who happens to put up with me too.

[sangell]

Got some of the wiring started, we made our own battery cables with some 1/0 and Alt-battery cable with some 4 gauge. The relays are for the fuel pump, two cooling fans, low beam, and high beams for the head lights. We ran new wires for the headlights with heavy duty plugs since we are stepping up to a modern style bulb. We have a few more connections to make and then it will be re-routed some, cleaned up then put into wire loom.

[sangell]

Exhaust exit flanges installed, passenger side exhaust is done. Air intake is done and coolant overflow bottle (not pictured) is in making the engine compartment done. Instrument panel is in, the red and black wires hanging down are buttons used to program the tach and speedo which I'll tie up out of the way.

[OlSmokey]

That's pretty great, I'm 19 now but at 17 my first truck was a '72 Cheyenne!

[sangell]

Well it runs, has brakes, fuel filler door, etc. We had it up on jack stands to run it through all the gears, get engine up to temp, be able to look under it for leaks etc. Good news and bad new, good is it runs and has no leaks so far. Bad news is the trans is a mess, the forward gears all seem to work but reverse wouldn't go into reverse without holding the shifter to keep it there, I figured it was a reverse lockout issue but that is working as it should. So I googled it and read about needing to modify the reverse shifter fork to allow it to "engage" more which requires removing the tail housing so out came the trans. Once on the bench I placed a drain pan on the floor and removed the tail housing, there were parts laying in the bottom big enough that when they fell in the pan it splashed fluid out of the pan. The magnets were covered at least 1/2" thick of crap, the reverse gear bearing is gone. So off to Tick Performance for a stage 2 rebuild. Glad we found the issue now instead of later but it sucks, I'm bummed, Nick is bummed, this has wiped out the budget, etc. Nick's 16th birthday is 11/28 so that's my new goal of completion of this round, I want him to be able to drive it on his birthday at the latest.

We got the tail light filler door useable, while waiting on the trans I hope to get it cleaned up but I wanted to make sure it filled ok first.

The last picture is a small fraction of the crap that came out of the trans.

[sangell]

Well today my son Nick turned 16 and got to drive his truck to school. The drive train will need a few changes. The long one piece driveshaft didn't work out as about 68 mph it tries to shake the truck apart so we will be going back to a two piece setup, and the free Flow Master 40 series mufflers are too loud so we'll be switching them out for some Magnaflow 20" bodied ones or the 24" ones if they'll fit. The shifter tunnel was all Nick's design. We are taking it back off the road on Dec 10th to re-do the interior. We are doing new glass, weatherstripping, window seals, paint, dash pad, door panels, carpet, sound deadener, insulation, etc.

[jlsanborn]

Nice work boys! Congrats on hitting the mark and look forward to the winter projects

[sangell]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Nice work boys! Congrats on hitting the mark and look forward to the winter projects

Thank You, I'm getting our list of interior parts together. I'm hoping to get some good work done over the Christmas Holiday as I'm off work the week between Christmas and New Years but Nick will be working on his Eagle Scout Project that same time so it will get priority.

I'm thinking at this point we are going to use a combo of spray in insulator and some mat product using the different products in different areas. I'm pretty decided on going with the newer style cut pile carpet with a mass backer and getting some bulk carpet to cover the back wall since the tank is not there anymore.

Plan is to have the interior, new driveshaft, 4.10s, and cruise control done by the first of March so it can start seeing some serious road time before the Power Tour in early June. We plan to have new wheels and tires on it before the tour also but that may not happen. My mother lives 2.5 hours away so we'll make some shake down runs to see her then I have a good buddy who lives 4 hours away so we'll step up to that at least once before we leave.

[RenoKeene]

Just found this thread. We appreciate you being here, good dad with mad skills and determination. I had a feeling the one piece shaft was going to be a problem as I have a background in metallurgy and harmonics but I was too late to the party.
Folks like you make this place kinda special, thanks.