Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

You make it look so easy! I hate you!

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

awesome job on the rasied floor bed! .....thanks for not ruining it by putting that other box back on!!

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Great work! That raised bed looks factory.

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Nice work
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Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Thanks to all who have posted- you guys keep me motivated :) It's hard sometimes to keep the vision- it occasionally just looks like a directionless pile of junk to me. I think if I could stay off these forums, I could maybe finish this little project- there are just too many great ideas floating around here. There has been ZERO physical progress since my last tiny update due to being out on business for a bit, but I plan to get back to it with a vengeance and make up for lost time ASAP, which leads to the next revelation...

Any of you following my '72 Blazer build know that I parted ways with it, not necessarily by choice, but for good reason. It was like pulling off a band-aid, you don't really want to, but you know you have to, so the wound will properly heal... Between that time and now, I have managed to piece my life back together and am stable and headed in a new direction, which gives me an opportunity to think about playing in the garage again :chevy: Boosting this newfound(re-found?) interest is a recent conversation I had with my soon-to-be wife about the truck. She thinks that it will be cool to make the truck a part of the coming wedding celebration (how awesome is that?!) She would like to see it in a semi-completed state so we can have it on-site for photo ops and be used for hauling some of the props, decorations, etc and to be used as something for the guys to paint with shoe polish and hang cans off the bumper... She also knows that working on this old junk keeps me happy and relaxed, which is a good thing :)

The snag is, it can't just get painted and appear complete, it must be road-worthy, capable of some fairly long distance interstate travel while also being reliable and semi-comfortable. We are to be married in June, so that leaves a small window to get everything done in, and necessitates the installation of the Classic Auto Air kit I have sitting on a shelf... I have started putting together a punch list of items that need to be completed to make it happen. The hard part is finding the balance between what needs to be done and what I want to do, and without cutting corners. Luckily, I have most of the parts already and the required funds for completion are being added to the wedding budget :metal:, finding the time may prove to be the hard part.


Sorry for the long, drawn-out, lack-of-update post. I wanted to put this out there, so hopefully you guys can hold me accountable ;)


...and yes, I am one lucky guy. I am very blessed to have found such a wonderful woman who wants to integrate the things I like into our life together. Another upside is that since the truck will now be 'a part of the family', she won't ever ask me to sell it :lol:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

I'll be here to remind you whever you are slacking! ;) :chevy:

Congrats on the upcoming marriage!!!!

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

nice build, will be watching

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

very nice project! was going to build a daily driver, but somewhere got sucked in to going the full mile. keep up the progress.

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Managed a half a day off work today :metal: so I decided to spend some time rebuilding the front suspension. It was filthy from a trip to the metal scrap yard on a rainy day- I will NEVER make that mistake again. The majority of my time was spent cleaning and painting everything; if it wasn't so disgusting, the job would have gone much faster.

The first couple of pics show the state of the front end when I started. :barf: Also some pics of the carnage. The lower arms are actually the ones that were removed from my old Blazer when the DM went in. I used them on the truck after I 'accidentally' bent the right side doing a little off-roading. This truck has been neglected for entirely too long...

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Here's a few more of the progress, including a crappy cell phone pic of the truck on stands that I sent to my fiance when she asked what I was doing today ;)

The 'new' parts were cleaned, painted with rust encapsulator and chassis black, and rebuilt today. The lowers are a set I picked up a while back which got new balljoints; the uppers are actually the same ones from the previous post that I removed earlier today, just cleaned, painted and with new Moog offset cross-shafts and balljoints. The 1.25" anti-sway bar, poly bushings, and ECE lowered mounts are more hand-me-downs from the Blazer that have been sitting on the shelf for a while.

The springs are new Moog 6102s that I picked up on Amazon for $40! I love me some free super saver shipping! They will be losing a full round tomorrow before installation :ito: Don't mind the rusty calipers, they will be getting the treatment tomorrow along with the spindles and rotors. Time to flip the lever on the ratchet the other way and start installing some of this stuff...

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

nice work:metal:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Nice! Love a clean undercarriage!!!

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Painted the spindles, calipers, rotors, and other miscellaneous stuff. Had to get a shot of the brake dust shields since I have way more time than I care to share in cleaning them :lol:

Also lopped a full coil off of the brand new springs (cheaper than new drop springs) and got the driver's side assembled. I'll get it on the ground tomorrow and see if I need to trim the springs any more. Also had an upper control arm stud start spinning on me, so I need to do something about that before it goes out for alignment...

The before/after shot makes it all worth it :chevy:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Very nice work! Did you clear the cross shafts or paint them? What colors? Wanting to paint my suspension parts the correct colors....

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

I don't think clear would hold up on bare metal very well. Maybe try a cast iron grey- I'm sure Eastwood (or somewhere cheaper) has some. Colors I used were rust encapsulator black, chassis black, caliper black(on the spindles), and a grey caliper paint.

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Got the suspension reassembled and put her back on the ground. Forgot just how low she actually sits when not on jackstands :cool: I ended up using the Belltech drop coils that were previously installed since I couldn't get the Moogs to seat properly??? I dunno- the Belltechs dropped right in. Still need to do a little more clearancing on the LCAs; since I'm running van rallies with 3" drop spindles, they rub the wheels when turning sharply.

Once it was on the ground, I started work on the underhood area. There's tons of little things that needed to be done starting with fixing a couple of little coolant leaks, one at the thermo housing and one at the radiator petcock.

First I pulled the radiator to install the new petcock and cleaned up a bunch more mud from the scrap yard run. *I will NEVER drive this truck in mud again. What a pain* While the rad was out, I figured I'd put a coat of paint on it... and figured since I was gonna paint it, I might as well install the correct fan shroud(thanks tll74, as described, arrived in perfect condition)... and figured while the radiator is out, I'll fix the wiring up front... and while I'm fixing wiring, I'll install a new battery... oh, wait, Mar-K has powder-coated trays on sale(a thing of beauty, too nice for my truck)- mine's rusted out, sooo...

Long story even longer: My little project snowballed :lol: A simple leak fix turned into a detailed renovation of the underhood area. All is well, it's things I've been meaning to do anyway, just had a severe case of the 'while I'm in theres'.

Last pic is an eBay score I got in the mail today :metal: I like the black and gold California style they have instead of the black on white of 'normal' passenger car plates of this vintage. Now if I can just get the state to let me register them...

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Nice work....


...those "might as well's" will get ya every time! :lol:

Going to be worth it though!

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

NICE AND CLEAN ,:metal:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

looks good

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Did a little more work on my underhood cleanup tonight, though wasn't able to finish due to distractions and cold weather causing paint to dry sloooooowly...

Got a package in the mail today from boardmember 'otsenre'. Came well packaged as have all parts I have received from him. I got to work straight away making the booster cosmetically acceptable for bolting into my truck. I hope to be able to use the 67-70 C20 booster and bracket assembly to get the benefit of dual diaphragm while still being able to use the C10 style master. Hopefully it all fits the way I think it will :)

Here's some before and during disassembly pics:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Thanks for checking in fellas! Nice to be back working on the old girl :chevy:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Spent a bunch of time sanding, cleaning, and prepping for paint. I love seeing before/after pics, but unfortunately only get to show 'during' pics as paint was still tacky on the booster when I came inside :waah:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Also did a little finger painting with the 'new' color the truck will be getting- I couldn't help myself. Very similar to the 'old' color, just not quite as shiny ;)

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Parts are looking good. And I love the flatz blue!!! :chevy:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

cant wait to see it painted

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Love the plate - nice work too

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Almost zero progress- assembled the booster...

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

better than zero ;)

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Finally (I think) settled on a seat covering. Doing the Mexican blanket thing since it's a) cheap, and b) easy which are both things I could use more of due to the limited budget and time frame. Went through a few different ones ordered off of eBay, which turned out to be NOT what was pictured and crazy (orange and then purple!) color schemes, before settling on what's in there now. Actually found them at a truck stop for $13 :smoke:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

My fiance scored me a sweet new 'toolbox' on eBay (I love this woman). Also received a new toy in the form of an Eastwood welder. I've laid a few beads with it, but the jury is still out on this one- it definitely welds, but I'm not sure it is up to par with the major brands. For $299 with the gas kit and free shipping included, it should do what I need it to, at least.

Also received a box o' goodies from The Truck Shop, one of which is a pair of new dash speakers that should sound better than the ones they're replacing :lol:

Last two are before shots of the 'new' wheels I'm picking up from a board member to replace my front 6.5" van rallies. I don't feel comfortable cutting any more from the lower control arms, so I will have the 7" wheels sandblasted and powder coated. They have 3/8" less backspacing, so they should clear my suspension with the 3" Belltech drop spindles...

I'll likely do a comparo/write-up/FAQ on the different types of 5-lug rally wheels (6.5, 7, and 8 inch) describing the differences between them, since I will have one of each on hand. This is one of those questions I see asked frequently and only recently did I really come to understand the differences between them and how to properly identify them, so I hope my efforts might help other members. :chevy:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Everything is looking good. I think you definitely got your use out of the old speaker! :)

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Eastwood welder looks kinda like a Lincoln. Eastwood is where I bought my Lincoln, but it's been at least 10 years ago. Maybe they just rebadge them?

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Glad to see your life back in order and back to the trucks... Congrats..

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

I like this one. Is this the purple you're referring to? It looks blue on my MacBook.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1299902667

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Yeah, someone did. I pulled it outta the local yard- my truck was bare-bones- I mainly grabbed it for the bracket...
I don't think it's a Lincoln, but I agree it does look a lot like one. It reviewed very well, so I went for it, hope I don't regret going cheap, but you know how that goes...
Thanks :) Good to be back.
Haha- wanna buy it? :lol: Looked blue to me in pictures too...

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

No thanks, I have one already. ;)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...312_162057.jpg

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Great idea on the truck ralley wheel FAQ thread!

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Thought you might like it. I'll just be plagiarizing your posts anyway :lol:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Took a little break from 'mechanic-ing' to do some wood work. Decided I liked the look of a wood bed, so I ordered up some rough cut, clear SYP(southern yellow pine) and made a bed floor out of it. This is the wood that these trucks came from the factory with, is durable, reasonably priced, and I won't be afraid to throw crap in the back of the truck like I would with expensive wood. I paid $70 for the stack of lumber and spent a few hours ripping, cutting, and grooving the planks. MUCH better, in my opinion, than spending $3-400 on a pre-made kit.

Here's a few shots of what I started with, and some of the work in progress :chevy:

Re: How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10
 

Here's a few more of the 'complete' floor. I had to lay it on top of the steel foor to see what it will look like. I gotta say- it looks sweet! :metal:

I used the dimensions from GMCPauls website combined with some from Mar-K, since I'm using their bed strips. All cuts were made with a table saw and a miter saw at the local Air Force base's wood shop. This could have easily been done at home if I'd had the tools, but my garage is full of stuff used to work on cars... :smoke: