Henry - 1984 C10
 

Well its time to introduce our new project. My second son, Owen just turned 16 earlier this month and just got his DL. He is eager to start on this truck and we have done a few things to it at this point only to fix issues from when we first got it. Here are some pictures from last September after we purchased it.

I got the truck from a good friend of mine Mike Henry, it was his grandfather's truck since new. When Mike got it was in good shape but needed a few things. He put some money into it to fix a long list of things. He provided me all the paperwork of what he had done and all of the original factory manuals. As we go thru this build, I will detail out what he had done when we get to those parts of the rebuild. All in all its a great truck, no rust, minimal body damage and just typical wear and tear on the interior.

Ken (N2TRUX) looked it over at C10's in the Park last year and his evaluation of the truck was what pushed me over the edge to purchase this one for Owen. Thanks Ken for the push!

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

We had to do a little work on the carb to get it drivable, but it did run and drive fairly well. Everything works on this truck, although the power windows lack in speed, the driver side actually binds up. Closer inspection shows that the glass has jumped out of the track in the vent window assembly.

After driving it for about 200 miles, the fuel pump went out. So, Owen got to replace that for his first lesson on this old truck. He did it with very minimal assistance from me. I did end up having to take the hard line out of the pump that runs out to the carb. He had to take out the pump with that line still attached. That meant he had to remove a few extra parts to get it out. We got that part swapped and all was good again. While I was driving it in early June, the water pump went out.

Owen finally had time to work on that last week, he again did all the work without much help from me. I had to help him with the belt routing when he was putting it back together and give him some advise on doing that.

For his birthday, I had a set of rally wheels powder coated Bengal Silver, which is really close to the OE color. Korbin helped out and get the tires swapped over and got them back on the truck. I found some good trim rings at the Pate Swap Meet that Owen cleaned up and I found a guy on FB that had a great set of metal OE center caps.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Looks like a gem! What's the build plan?

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Plan is pretty simple at this point. Lower it with spindles and a cut coil in front, switch the front rallys to 6.5" wide ones with 225/70-15 tires. Do a flip kit in the rear so that the truck sits right.

New dash pad, might change the color to camel instead of the OE dark brown. Recover the seat with new cloth. Update the stereo and speakers, Clean/Replace as needed the dash bezel, A/C vents and a new headliner. Front bumper is tweaked a bit, so we found a good driver quality one at Pate this year so that will get swapped on soon. Replace the rear bumper with the Suburban/Blazer bumper and add in a filler piece like the Suburban uses. The whole plan revolves around how much work we can get done over a weekend. What ever we do on the truck, it has to stay running and driving. No long term down time.

We plan to make it back to C10's in the Park with the new stance and wheels, and maybe the headliner and dash redone.

Ill post up picks as we get items checked off the list.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Nice!!! I like the color. Can you post some interior pics?

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Interior pics...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

The inside of the bed is one of the best I have seen around here, they are usually beat up cause most people use these trucks as trucks.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Nice!! I agree on the dash panel. I would think it would look better to match the door panels.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

that's a nice truck...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

I have an 86 that has the same interior colours. My dash pad was also Cordova Brown and when it was replaced I refinished the new one to match the door panels. Looks fine. The dark brown looks fine too. Pick one you can't go wrong.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Thanks guys!

We are having an issue with the cooling system now. Replaced the water pump and thermostat and refilled with coolant and water. Yesterday it spit it all out, $30 of coolant gone...Looked for an obvious leak, loose clamp, etc and found nothing. There is one pipe plug is questionable so we are going to replace it with new sealant. I refilled it with just water, ran the truck till the temp was up and the stat opened (verified this since the upper hose got hot). I let it idle for a while longer and no leaks can be seen, so we will watch it close for a few days.

Y'all have any ideas?

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Looks like the one pipe plug might be the culprit. Swapped it out and all seems to be good so far.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Finally got the cooling system leaks figured out, Owen split the lower hose near the clamp when he put it back on. Got a new hose installed and that fixed it.

The tires we ordered for the new front wheel finally came in after multiple phone calls to the sellers customer service line. The last one showed up on Wednesday. Maybe tomorrow we can get them mounted on the rims.

Owen finished up a welding project in the shop and I need to finish the rear seat install on the boat. Once that is done, we will do a bit a shop clean up and then get some work done on Henry to make it into what Owen wants it to be.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Can't wait to see how this one turns out!

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Owen is driving this one everyday now. He and I have decided hold off on any changes till after football season. He has a good chance at making the varsity team this year, so we are going to put off any changes till the Christmas Break. The only thing we will most likely do is get a new dash pad next month, that we can do over a weekend without much effort.

I will keep this thread updated as we get work done on Henry!

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Much better with the rallies.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Owen continues to drive and enjoy this truck. We have all the tires and wheels now. We have drop spindles and a rear flip kit ready to install, we need to get a new set of shocks for it and we would be ready to lower this one.

While attending C10's in the Park, we met up with the guys from Cheyenne
Pickup Parts. After discussing our options and looking at their products, we purchased one of their replacement dash pads. We made the decision to change the color from the factory dark brown to his Camel colored pad. Owen likes the lighter color. He provided us with the SEM color code so that we can die all the interior plastics to match. We also grabbed one of his brushed aluminum overlays for the cluster bezel since the one in the truck has some stains we can't get out. It is a 3M vinyl that looks just like the real thing.

Here is a pick of the pad we bought and the color options that he offers. Great people to deal with and good products!

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

We plan to work on getting the lowering kit install over the Christmas break. Maybe work on the interior too.

Owen just got moved up to Varsity this week, and they are undefeated at this point, so the whole school is excited about football! He is so pumped to get the opportunity to play on the Varsity team. Football and school come before the truck so the updates will be few before Christmas break.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Thats going to look NICE!!!

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Christmas break is coming up, are all the parts on hand for dropping this thing over the holidays?

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

We have pretty much everything on hand. Still need to pick up a few cans of SEM die for the interior a few small things, but we are on track. Thanks for checking in!

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Congratulations to Owen for making Varsity. I hope that their season is wrapping up great. I'm on board to watch you guys build another one, and I really like this truck. When I get one, I tell people that somebody else wore it out, and I'm going to do my best to wear it back in. This truck seems like a great candidate for that. No major issues just a lot of little things to tidy up along with a drop in altitude.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Nice truck. Looking forward to seeing more!

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Owen's winter break starts on Dec. 21st. I have just a couple of things to round up before then, but we will start hopefully that Saturday and have it back on the road by New Years Day so he can get to school...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Man, where did the time go? Since my last post we had a few major changes at the house...Both of my kids changed schools for the spring, and my wife and I bought a rental property. Owen and I did not get anything done on his truck like we wanted, but he does not start at his new school until the 8th. Maybe we can get some of the work done before that...but today is not good for painting, it was 18 when I got up this morning and should only get to 34 today. Maybe this weekend, I can get the shop warm enough to paint, it should hit 50 on Saturday....

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

looking forward to it:metal:

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Well yesterday was a holiday for school and work. So after I finished up a few things at the rent house (another place to dump money into), Owen and I cleaned up the shop on moved Henry inside for some changes.

First, here is what we started with, lets see if we can do something with the stance...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

We got Henry in the shop and set on jack stands and the wheels off so that we could start our work. Owen worked on all the bolts holding the rear suspension in place while I worked on getting the front torn down.

This truck is relatively clean underneath, and we are not going to do some of the clean and paint right now for various reasons. Time being the main one...

The front was well lubed and the parts are in good shape. The shocks and ball joints are all OE parts still. We will do a front suspension rebuild in the future and paint all these parts then.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Once we had it apart, I moved over to help Owen with the rear flip kit. We got it all but bolted back together. The U-Bolt plates need a clearance hole added and I was not up to the task to do it on my drill press. I broke out the torch to burn a hole, but no acetalene...

Lucky for Owen, he does not have school today because of snow & ice in our area. I'll get the plates cut tonight and the rear bolted back together to finish off that end.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

While Owen was still working on the rear, I was able to attack the front and get it torn down for the new spindles and cutting a coil off.

This thing has many OE parts on the front. Looks like the brake hoses and pads have been changed, but the rest looks OE. The ball joints are tight and the shocks, well they will need to be replaced soon.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

I got that far and pulled off the front to assist with the springs in the rear. Once those were in place, Owen started putting bolts back in and I went to cut the front springs. We decided to only cut 1/2 a coil at this time since we where not real sure how much clearance we would loose...Got that down and started putting the front back together.

Out with the old stock spindles, in with the new CPP 2.5" Drop Spindles...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Got the front all put back together with the cut springs and the new spindles. That's when...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

I bought the wrong freaking spindles...I got the ones for the 1.25" rotor, Henry has 1.0" rotors. Since it has to get back together tonight, I get to replace the good calipers, pads, rotors, and bearings with all new stuff!

Lesson here kids is to check the details I make sure you order the right parts to avoid delays and extra costs...I should know better...

I have done a bunch of these in the past, but the truck always needed brakes, so I always just upgraded them to the 1.25" rotor set ups. This truck was not needing brakes and I just assumed it was a 1.25" set up. It never occurred to me to look to make sure before I ordered the spindles...Lesson learned, the expensive way...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

aggie91 you might as well go ahead a whack the other 1/2 coil off now, it will be too high in the front if you don't. And if you're not completely finished with rear you can gain about a 1/2 more drop by removing the overload leaf out of the pack. Then it will get you sitting right on the money.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

You're probably right on the front. Its my boy's truck and with him never driving a lowered truck before, we thought we would get him some seat time before we go the whole coil. For the rear, it only has the 3 leaves plus the overload leaf. Since we still need to use it as a truck every now and then, we will be keeping the overload in place for now. We aren't going with 20's yet, just sticking to 15" rally's for now.

I know you have a great formula for setting the stance on these trucks and each one of yours I have seen in here look great. We eventually plan to do the full treatment that you typically do on your C10's. Just the weather is not helping and he has to be able to drive to school in the morning...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Well here is the picture of the front to where we got to on Monday night...the bright glow in the lower left corner is my flexible LED strip that I use as a shop light. I use a couple of paper binder clips to attach it around the wheel well lip so it lights up the whole inner fender area. Works great!

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Well, I left work at about 4:30 yesterday to pick up all the new brake parts we needed to make up for me ordering the wrong spindle. Got to the parts store to find out they are closing at 6:00 yesterday because of the weather conditions. Well that one AZ store did not have all the parts I needed. Ran across the street to the O'Reilly's for the last part, lucky for me they had it, and they are closing at 6 too.

Got home with all the parts, unboxed the rotors and set them aside, checked the calipers to make sure the hardware was all there, good to go. I took the bearings along with some rubber gloves and the wheel bearing grease inside the house where it was warm. Got all the bearings packed and headed back out to the shop to throw the front brakes together while Owen finished up the rear shocks and rechecked all the bolts.

Started putting in the bearing into the first rotor...Dang it...The AZ store sold me the wrong inner bearings. Its past 6 so we are done for the night. Back to AZ after work today to exchange them for the correct inner bearings. They are getting two pre-packed bearings from me...

...to be continued tonight in the cold shop...

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Well, after getting AZ to realize that their system was wrong and it called for the wrong bearings, I got the correct ones. They where actually $2 less for the correct ones...

Got home, packed the bearings and did the install. Got the front brakes bled and all was good. Put Henry down on the ground and rolled him out of the shop. Brakes felt good (Better than before the swap!), and because of the snow and ice, almost did not get him out of the back yard. Owen was able to drive to school on Thursday which was actually his first day back because of the weather closures. He got a few thumbs up that day from a variety of people, so that made all the work in the cold and the frustrations worth it for him. In the rush to get it on the road, we did not cut off the bump stops in the rear, that makes for stiff ride. Looks like we get to do that over the weekend.

Friday was about my daughter, Katie, she is a Level 9 competitive gymnast and it was her first meet of the season in Irving. She placed 4th in the all around and scored high enough to qualify for the State meet in March at her first event, so that takes some pressure off for the rest of the season.

While at the meet, I get a call from the City water department where we have a currently vacant rent house that I am getting ready for new tenants to move in next weekend. Seems a pipe broke during the freeze, a neighbor saw the water running out of the yard and called the city. They turned off the water and called me to let me know. Looks like that is what I get to work on for the weekend. So nothing is going to happen with the truck this weekend, Owen will have to deal with the stiff ride a few more days.

Saturday, Owen and I went to the rent house, found the broken pipe, repaired that and he worked on setting posts for a section of privacy fence. Once the pipe was fixed, turned on the water and we find a new leak :banghead: Well, the local hardware store does not have what I need to fix that leak. So, Owen and I finished setting the fence posts in concrete and called it a day.

Sunday, Owen works at the church so his day is full. I skip church and run to Lowe's to get what I need to fix the leak and reset the hot water heater since the leak is behind it. Also, picked up the rest of the items needed to finish the fence. I head out to the house and get it all fixed and the fence installed. One small thing to do in the house and It will be ready for the new tenants. I will do that on Wednesday...:exit:

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Well I posted a before pic of the truck, so here is an after pic.

We did a flip kit in the rear, factory 4 leaf spring pack, shock relocators for the lower mount. The front is a 2.5" CPP drop spindle and cut a half coil. I forgot to remove the rear bump stops from the frame, so it is kinda sitting on those in the pic. I will come down a bit in the back once we get those out of the way. Once that is done, we will evaluate it and potentially cut another half coil off the front.

Re: Henry - 1984 C10
 

Been slacking a bit on getting this thread updated. Been out of town a bunch these last few weeks and the weather around here as not been good for working on a color change for the interior.

A couple of weeks ago we pulled all the trim parts and headliner out to get the color change started and a new headliner. All the parts are in really good shape except for the seat belt anchor covers, they are pitted and dried out horribly. I coated them, but they still look like hell, will have to get some replacements.

Pictures, 1. All the parts out and laying on the prep table. 2. A-piller covers in the new color (both of these had cracks in them, I had another set in great shape so we color changed those). 3. One of the B-pillers on top of a kickpanel to show the difference in the old color vs. new color.