I'm new to the forum, but I've been working on a new project for a few months. Let's begin with a bit of history...
I'm located in central Illinois, deep in the rust belt, where old vehicles go to melt away into piles of iron oxide. I've been playing with old vehicles off and on since high school. Most recently, for the past couple of years, my 16 year old son and I have been working on his first car. It's a 1983 El Camino resto-mod. We've done a 5.3L LS/4L60E swap and modernized most of the car's systems. If you're interested, you can check out our build thread on the GBodyForum here:
https://gbodyforum.com/threads/1983-...-thread.79332/
Working on my son's car reminded me how much I enjoy wrenching on old vehicles and it got me thinking that I really needed to find a new project vehicle of my own. It's been about ten years since I sold off my last project vehicle (a 1988 Jeep Grand Wagoneer) and it's time for something new, er old. I've always wanted an old Chevy pickup for cruises, car shows, and road trips. At first, I was thinking about a 3 window Advanced Design pickup (1947-1953), but those are getting harder and harder to find in rescuable condition. The more I searched the market, the more I fell in love with the 1st generation C/K series pickups (1960-1966). The styling is classic and they're just "modern" enough to be familiar to my child-of-the-'70's sensibilities. Plus, there is tons of aftermarket support for this series of trucks. Pretty much anything that is too far gone can be replaced from a catalog.
I wasn't really planning to buy a project truck until after we finish the bodywork on the El Camino, but, while on a family kayaking trip in Missouri this summer, we stumbled upon a couple of old Chevy pickups in a small town along a two-lane highway. On a lark, I pulled into the driveway to take a peak. There was a '65 C10 and a '55 3600. As soon as I stepped out of my truck, the requisite "junkyard dog" began barking like I was there to rob the place. This, of course, roused the home owner, who walked out front to let me know, in no uncertain terms, that the trucks were NOT for sale. I apologized for disturbing him and we struck up a friendly conversation about the two Chevys. The owner turned out to be a friendly retired guy who piddles with old vehicles a bit more seriously than I do. In addition to the two pickups, he had a Chevelle and a BelAir in the garage. After talking with him for a few minutes, it was clear that he had a few too many projects around the shop. Within fifteen minutes, he was willing to talk about maybe selling off either of the pickups. The '55 3600 wasn't really my style, but the '65 C10 had lots of potential and was already in drivable condition. His "I don't want to sell it" price really wasn't too far out of line, so my son and I visited again the next day and we struck a deal. We returned the following weekend with a trailer to haul the C10 home to central Illinois. I've purposely left the seller anonymous. He seemed like a pretty nice guy, but as I've learned more about the truck, I'm not sure how much I trust him. More on that as we go along...
About the truck
1965 Chevrolet C10 Long-bed Fleetside.
Base-model pickup. The original owner was down right cheap. The truck came with manual steering, manual drum brakes, no AC, manual windows, manual locks, no reverse lights, etc. It's about as plain as they come.
Originally had a six cylinder and a 3-on-the-tree.
A Previous owner swapped in a small block Chevy and a Saginaw 4-speed.
It's clear that the truck has had a pretty sorted past. I am at least the 4th owner and it's been a "project" for at least three of us. The drive train isn't original and it's on its third paintjob. Like my son's El Camino, I'm going for a resto-mod vibe. I like the original 1965 aesthetic, but I want something that runs and drives more like a modern vehicle.
The Plan
Goal: Cool old truck with modern performance and reliability.
Engine: I'm not entirely sure. I've considered doing an LS swap, like the El Camino, but if the small block proves to be reliable, I might consider keeping it around long-term.
Transmission: The truck is in desperate need of an over-drive. I plan to use the truck for road trips. Right now, it's wound up tight at 65 mph. I want something that can comfortably handle Interstate speeds. And, I'm not really enamored with the manual transmission. If it were a Muncie, I might be more dedicated, but with a Saginaw, an automatic swap wouldn't break my heart. Long term, I will probably go with an over-drive automatic.
Suspension: The previous owner was going for sort of a rockabilly rat-rod vibe (more on this later). So, he lowered the truck 2" in the front and 3" in the rear with new lowering coil springs from LMC. The lowered stance helps the modern radial tires fill out the wheel wells and the lower center of gravity helps improve the truck's handling characteristics. My only complaint is that the truck was dragging tail. The rear end was just too low for my taste. I've since remedied this by adding a pair of 1.5" spring blocks from McBay Performance. The result is a 2" drop in the front and a 1.5" drop in the rear. The truck has a mild rake, like a modern truck would have. Long-term, my goal is to modernize the suspension to improve road manners. I'm not looking to go full-on pro touring, but I will be looking at front disc brakes, a power master cylinder, sway bars, and poly bushings. I'm open to suggestion on other suspension improvements. Before I get too far into the suspension upgrades, I will go over the entire chassis with a flap wheel, rust converter, and black chassis paint. I'm not planning a complete frame-off, but I want to halt the rust and do what I can to keep it at bay.
Body: The body condition is a bit of an unknown. Keeping with the rockabilly theme, the previous owner sprayed the entire truck flat black, including the grille and bumpers. Under the black paint is a coat of metallic burgundy. Beneath that is the original two-tone light blue with white. It's obvious that someone has done some bodywork at some point in the past, but it's difficult to assess the actual condition until I dig into it. There is definitely some filler in the body, but I haven't found anything completely egregious yet. The blacked out paint scheme definitely isn't my style, but I can live with it until I'm ready to tackle the body work. If I find any deep puddles of filler, I'll grind them out and patch with new steel. Eventually, I would like to go back to the original light blue with white paint scheme. But first, there will need to be some rust repair in the floor, the cab supports, and probably lots of other spots that I haven't discovered yet. Sooner rather than later, I plan to bring some more chrome to the party by replacing the painted grille, light bezels, and bumpers with shiny new parts. The chrome will look good with the flat black now and even better with light blue in the future.
Wheels and Tires: The previous owner did me a favor by mounting a set of 16" steelies with chrome hubcaps and modern radial tires. At the moment, the steelies are painted red. They contrast well with the flat black paint job, but someday, they'll need to be repainted. When the truck goes back to light blue, I think the steelies would look good in a medium-dark gray. Or, maybe white instead. I'm not quite sure yet.
Interior: The interior is a mess. Whoever sprayed the burgundy body color sprayed the interior the same color. Underneath is the original silver color. The previous owner installed poor fitting black carpeting, red seat belts, and a broken down blue bench seat from a mid-70's square body. My plan is to turn the interior to various shades of tan & brown. Eventually, I want to paint the cab interior tan/taupe/beige/putty, install distressed dark brown TMI low back bucket seats, dark brown carpeting, dark brown door panels, dark brown headliner, and dark brown seat belts. Basically, I want the interior to feel like you're sitting in an old baseball glove. I think this will look pretty sharp with the light blue body color.
As you can see, I have some vague ideas, but I don't have a lot of the details decided yet. I hope this gives you an idea of where the project is headed. All of this should keep me busy, and entertained, for quite a while.
Since we brought the truck home, we've made quite a bit of progress toward making the truck drivable. I've taken notes along the way, but this post is already too long. I'll add the progress notes as a series of shorter updates. Thanks for coming along for the ride!
John