Finally a c10 owner, now the "fun" begins...

[Operatorfailure]

So, come to find out the bodywork done on my truck was sub par. I have a few places with pin holes of rust coming up through the paint so I'm going to fix it. I have never done bodywork, but luckily one of my good friends does and does a very good job. He is going to teach me and paint the whole truck, I just have to buy materials and beer.

So, why did I post this?

I need color ideas! I am not a fan of the color it is, halfway between blue and gray. I had an orange truck when I met my wife and she really loved it and wants me to paint this one orange. I am totally cool with orange and will probably do that, unless someone changes my mind. Oh, and black is out. I'm not going to have another black daily driver, they are impossible to keep clean.

Opinions?

[GAc10boy]

Can't go wrong with blues, reds/oranges, and silver on these trucks, in my opinion. I'll try and post up some of the samples I've saved on my iPad over the past few months.

[GAc10boy]

Here are a few




And my favorite blue on any truck (even though it's not our body style)

[Operatorfailure]

Thanks! All of those trucks look good. Do you happen to know what the name of that blue is? It does look amazing.

[Low Elco]

Goolsby Customs built it, worse comes to worst you could call em. That's a badass truck!

[Operatorfailure]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Goolsby Customs built it, worse comes to worst you could call em. That's a badass truck!

Thanks!

Are you sure a shop built it? It isn't the worst paint job but I wouldn't even be proud of the bodywork if I did it in my garage and I have no idea what I'm doing with that. If they did, do you know if they had a build thread or anything? If so it would be awesome to see.

[Low Elco]

Here ya go-

http://www.artandspeed.com/details.php?id=41

[Operatorfailure]

I misunderstood what you wrote, I thought you were saying my truck was built by them. The blue truck is gorgeous, so it makes a ton more sense. Lol.

[GAc10boy]

The Goolsby Customs truck is one of my favorite trucks for sure but I do not love it $90k worth. Wheeewwweeeeee!

Good luck with your color choice! In my opinion, color is very dependent upon stance and wheel selection. In my opinion, nothing worse than seeing a custom color truck, shaved on rally wheels and stock height.

[Operatorfailure]

I agree with you there. I plan on getting some nice wheels but that is down the road a ways. It probably won't go any lower any time soon though.

[GAc10boy]

Oh, that's a killer stance for your truck! That's how I'm hoping mine turns out. Looks awesome!

[Operatorfailure]

So, I found a truck I want to make mine look like, except the color changed. Here are some ideas. Pretty sure I am going with the orange.

[mcbassin]

Very nice project. Sometimes, I wish I would have started with a nice clean body like you did. I would have been driving mine years ago....

[Operatorfailure]

Thanks! Having something I can drive almost every day keeps me working on it.

[GAc10boy]

That is sweet!

[Operatorfailure]

Thanks. I don't know who's truck it is but I love it. The truck is actually red, I just played with the color a bit to see what I like. The orange has me sold.

[Operatorfailure]

So, my transmission started going out. Luckily the craigslist fairy stopped by my house.


It will get cleaned up, a transgo hd-2 shift kit installed, then the turbo setup worked on when money allows.

[Operatorfailure]

Got a few more things for the trans swap, going with a 4l80e like I wanted to do from the start.







I will be installing the shift kit Thursday after work probably, but can't install the trans this weekend because I have to go get an MRI on my shoulder Monday and have to make sure the truck is up and running to get me there. With any luck I will get the trans installed before I have to have surgery. It's a lot easier to install a trans with 1.5 arms instead of 1 arm and one in a sling velcroed to your side.

[Operatorfailure]

Originally Posted by Operatorfailure

The only reason I am planning on doing ac first is where my compressor is going to mount. I need to route my hot side around the ac compressor and without it installed it's just guessing, and I don't want to redo the hot side later. If it wasn't my daily I would just skip ac and boost the crap out of it!

Oh, and I posted this a while back, but things have changed. The wife and I are talking about trying to get knocked up late this year or early next year. So that means I need to turbo it before a baby comes, otherwise it will never happen! I bought some electric fans and have been pricing out some stuff. It depends on how much my surgery hurts my wallet I am going to try and have this thing running on boost by next spring.

[SeTx67]

Ever since the tbss I hate doings trans swaps . I hope your surgery goes well

Good luck getting the wife knocked up. My kids take a lot of what used to be fun money but I wouldn't trade it for anything

[Operatorfailure]

Originally Posted by SeTx67

Ever since the tbss I hate doings trans swaps . I hope your surgery goes well

Good luck getting the wife knocked up. My kids take a lot of what used to be fun money but I wouldn't trade it for anything

Thanks. The TBSS was terrible swapping transmissions. This one should be a whole different story.

[SeTx67]

I hope the 4l70e holds up better in this truck than the one in my tbss did. I had to r&r that thing several times by myself on jackstands and it was a pita. With the jackstands all the way up the trans wouldn't slide under the truck while it was on the tranny jack. So I would have to slide everything under, crawl under, pick the trans up and try to roll the tranny jack under by nudging it with my knee. I do not miss doing that

[Operatorfailure]

Being lighter will help, but its still based on a 4l60e.

[Operatorfailure]

A little update. I got the transmission in, everything works great. It shifts amazing. I had shoulder surgery and am recovering and have 3-5 more weeks off work. Today I had time to go to pick n pull and get an XJ cherokee steering shaft to replace the stupid rag joint in mine. I had put a 1980 power steering box on my truck and since then, the splined part on the end of the rag joint always had slack in it. I have a one piece steering shaft so I had to modify it to make the XJ shaft work.

Here is the XJ shaft (I already cut it, but put it back together for a picture)


Here is it cut, with the factory rag joint shaft cut with a couple inches slack to slide into the XJ shaft.


Luckily, the large part of the XJ shaft slid right over the upper part of the steering column shaft, so I just slid it on and welded it up. No more rag joint!

[Operatorfailure]

I thought I would update everyone on where this truck is. This is a copy/paste from my new build on ls1tech. Just search Project Turburban.

So, three weeks ago I got an offer for my ls swapped 68 c-10 shortbed that I couldn't refuse, so I loaded it up and off it went to Kansas.



I have always liked wagons and my wife and I are wanting to have kids, plus I have three dogs. A wagon makes sense. I love patina and one of the few things I didn't like about my truck was that it had been painted, and I'm a sucker for original paint. So patina, check. I had been planning on throwing a turbo on my truck but never got around to it, so the next project will get a turbo right off the bat, and anything I own has to have an LS engine in it.

So... a patina wagon that will fit a turbo LS. The search was on. I went and looked at a 72 suburban that looked great in the ad, but when I got there the quarters needed replaced and that wouldn't do for the look I wanted. Then I found a 1956 plymouth suburban online. After a little research I found out Plymouth called their wagons in the 50's suburbans, so it wasn't based off the trucks like Chevrolet. After a couple days of thinking about it I loaded up my yukon and headed to Oklahoma and picked up this beauty.



I got it in the garage and managed to jam all my other stuff in around it and my wife can still park in the other side. Not bad for a 19'x19' garage.



The car already had an engine swapped in, and it will probably really irritate some people I am pulling it out. But hey, it's my car! It's a dodge red ram hemi. It doesn't run but isn't locked up, and has the original push button auto transmission in it also! (I will be repurposing the buttons for something, just not sure what yet.)



I went to pick n pull and grabbed a full 03 crown vic front suspension for it, power rack and pinion, 12" disc brakes, aluminum crossmember for $195, not bad.



Today I found a deal on craigslist for a 5.3 with all accessories, wiring harness and computer so I went and grabbed it up, sorry no pictures of it, but you all know what they look like. I still have an ls6 cam, good valve springs and pushrods from an earlier build that I didn't use them on so they will go in this engine.

I am ordering a gt45 denmah special from vsracing, but going with no intercooler and e-85, because I want to irritate as many people as possible!

That about brings me up to where I am at the moment. I need a transmission and am looking for a 4l80e, going to throw a transgo hd2 shift kit in it and have a connection on a good converter. I also need a rear end, am planning on going with a 95+ explorer 8.8" so I have discs all around. I can't decide what kind of rear suspension I want to go with, keep it leaf springs, go ladder bar, parallel 4 link, triangulated 4 link, I just can't decide.

As for the plans for the car it will be a family cruiser that can hit the drag strip and run high 10 second passes with air conditioning and nice comfy bench seats!