Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

thanks Grizz - have been watching your endeavours to prepare the chassis on your latest project - what an epic challenge...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Great job so far!

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Frame back from blasting - looking very clean and ready for paint.

The day it was collected it rained hard - typical - luckily coated in 2k primer.

Plan to paint it with 2 part epoxy topcoat this weekend along with crossmember, axle and trailing arms.

The rest of the suspension and running gear will probably be satin black to keep things looking simple.

After blasting, I found the factory frame numbers punched into 2 areas of the frame - had no idea they were hiding underneath years of dirt and grime.

The cab is getting some final tweaks ahead of blasting - I'm reinforcing the seat belt anchor points, adding shoulder belt mounts, fabbing a seat frame, removing the tank mounts and a few other tweaks.

The winter seems to be drawing in quickly this year in UK so I want to get everything in epoxy at least as this project is currently under the carport - I would love a big garage to spread everything out in - one day :-)

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Frame paint day - probably one of the last dry / warmish days left in UK so its time to get the main frame covered up with epoxy paint.

This Rustbuster 2 part stuff is meant to either be midcoat or topcoat - depending on how shiny you want it.

I went for a mid grey but will do all the axle, trailing arms and other suspension stuff in satin black so it doesn't stand out too much.

Im not after shiny but I don't want this thing rusting on me too fast.

I got the frame up on blocks (gonna need a hot bath tonight) and prepped it with panel wipe and got mixing the paint up.

I haven't done a lot of painting but a fair bit of YouTubing :-) - what could go wrong.
Paint-gun for this stuff is a cheapo from Amazon with a 2.0 nozzle.

Paint mixes up equal parts of A and B plus thinners to suit. I went for 15%.

During the paint mixing and filtering into the jug I realised I forgot to buy a gun rack - ha a trusty C10 cab mount - perfect...

Let the paint do its thing for 10 minutes then got going...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Got the paint on and had enough to go over some of the tricky spots again to make sure I had as good a coverage as I could.

With a bit of adjustment on the fluid volume and fan angle the paint went on quite nicely - nice wet coats.

It was quite orange peely but did settle down well.

It has a semi gloss finish which is good in my book for a frame.

3rd photo - you might be able to spot the bit Wiltshire flies sat in the paint!

Will let it dry for at least a day before attempting to start bolting bits to it.

Next batch of painting will be the trailing arms, crossmembers and other bit suspension stuff...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Very

Very

Very Pretty.

I do like that finish.

Well done mate, its a load of work these builds.

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

thanks Grizz - appreciated.
Im happy with it - its a tough finish and as you say - pretty.

Maybe try the stuff on your chassis - it goes over anything including surface rust and goes very hard over a few days. It was 29.00 including the hardener and thinner as a kit for 1.25ltrs.

I checked out your frame reinforcement - that chassis is going to be nice and solid - especially with the poly bushes...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Lots of stuff going on but have managed to do some prep and paint on the big stuff. I am crossing all my fingers that a house purchase goes through - one big reason being its got a garage :-)

Got the front crossmember painted with a couple of coats of grey epoxy gloss after opening up the control arm holes to accept the bigger U bolts.

Fitted the rear cab mounts (back in their new short-bed position).

Prepped the rear axle with temporary diff cover and again got some epoxy primer and topcoat on nice and thick - this stuff goes off like concrete but takes about 7 days to fully cure.

And finally the wind-chimes all primed and coated with a few coats of grey topcoat (minus the bushings) that are ready and waiting.

Hopefully during next week after work I can bolt the rear end back together with blocks, springs and hardware - feels good to be start putting this jigsaw back together...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Those fresh nuts and bolts do look rather nice.

Well done.

My day was slow, filled with a variety of tasks.

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Nothing better than fresh hardware 😀
Would be good to have the knowledge and kit to renovate and re- plate hardware that I removed but I have neither - another time.

Weather this weekend in Wiltshire has been great for painting parts and sadly the last one warm enough for some time.

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

I like the color, very clean, makes me wish I went with gray. :)

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

thanks - when I ordered the paint it was described as dark grey - it kind of looks like shiny primer to me :-)

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Just caught up on this.

Very, very nice.

P. :D

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

thanks Pauly - hopefully you've been able to get some garage time in...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Bit slow over past few weeks - starting commuting back to office after 18 months of working from home so thats been a bit of a shock to the system!

Wheels for the truck - american racing torq thrusts - these wheels are very old style wise but I really like them - Ive got a set of early porsche ones on my beetle and thought a set of fat and thins would work well on the truck.

Casting on more recent wheels is a bit nasty - the diamond cut rim looks like an old record and the edges are not de-burred - so I spend a fair bit of time with a file knocking off all the edges and now plan to hand sand the rims with wet and dry to knock off the diamond cut finish.

They will get painted with a warm dark grey colour with a low sheen finish to try and emulated a classic magnesium version of the wheel. I did trya goldish colour to make them look like they have a DOW7 mag finish bit they looked a bit too 'pretty' for me so sticking with the grey.

Next was balljoint fitting in the lower front control arms - after powder coat so I was a bit nervous that I would screw the finish up! - A 2 inch hole in some timber and the bench hydraulic press - they went in a treat.

And got the lower rear shock mounts back from powdercoat - Ive modified so I can run shocks running vertically up, outside the frame - this seems to be a popular mod on lowered trucks.

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Finally got some brighter weather here so tackled the rear axle and suspension intial fit up.

Got the trailing arm bushes pressed in and fitted those up first.

Then the 5" shorter springs with upper and lower mounts.

Then carefully slid the rear axle underneath and bolted it through the drop blocks and squeezed it all up with painted U bolts.

Hardest part of the job was getting the upper spring retainer nuts on whilst holding everything together :-)

Happy the rear end is mostly there - I can now build up the axle, once the TrueTrac arrives - it finally came into stock - step by step...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Nice. :)

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Shiny

Shiny

Shiny.

Looking good.

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

A few bits moving along - lots of parts cleaning, prep and either paint or powder.

Im usually too dirty or 'in the groove' to remember to take photos but a few below.

Got the steering column into many parts to figure out what I need to replace - most of it looks fine - just top and bottom bearings and the indicator mechanism. Most of the wiring seems fine and the selector gates not too worn out. So tore it apart and had most parts done in gloss black powder - the wheel will be repaired with epoxy putty where it's cracked and painted in 2k black to keep it all simple in the cab.

The brake backing plates were badly worn from the shoes rubbing them for 60 years so I MIG welded the grooves and ground them back flat before powder coating silver.

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Shocks and the diff!

Rear shocks on a lowered trailing arm rear end seem to lean back to such an extreme angle I decided to follow what many of you have done. Swapped, flipped and re-drilled lower shock mounts and mounted the top of the shock on the C notch area - super strong, upright and outside the frame. I used stock front KYB shocks that have a very good open and closed length to suit the 5" springs and 2" blocks - no idea how the truck will ride but hopefully will find out soonish...

The rear axle is something I was not really looking forward to - no experience of these things. So - lots of YouTube videos and reading between the lines decided on an Eaton Truetrac, a 3.73 R&P, solid spacer and TIMKEN bearings. I used the old bearings opened up a bit to get the pinion preload setup and now getting ready to drop the diff in and set it up - slowly step by step - every day is a school day for me with these trucks - loving it...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Final pictures of the pinion setup with its temporary bearings and the spacer pack shimmed up to provide the right amount of bearing preload.

Compared to air cooled vw performance stuff - this truck gear is so heavy duty...

Finally a bit of bling - I managed to source some original good used Mickey Thompson SBC valve covers that I will mount to the LS using adapters to try and make the motor look like it belongs to the truck. Painted in a semi gloss gold colour - the air cleaner will also use this colour to tie it in - not everyones cup o tea but I love a bit of old school stuff...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Looking amazing.

And when I see gears anywhere, but in a gearbox, I get nervous, very nervous.

I then know I am looking at some clever stuff.

And the gold, certainly my cuppa tea.

Even the wheels on the Rezin Rockit are getting some old gold.

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Great work. really clean. I'm going to be paying attention to the Eaton install. It is exactly what I intend to do but I've never tried it. First time for everything I guess. Good luck

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

thanks Grizz - I noticed Rezin is almost rollin now with those overhauled axles - :-)

First time for me - just going to take my time, measure many times and ask questions - the carrier unit certainly looks very well made and all the reviews seem to favour its simplicity of having no friction materials inside - Ill make sure to take pictures along the way...

Re: 1965 C10 Fleet Project - unfinished business
 

Just catching up.

Good progress and very nice work!

P. :D