72 Cheyenne Build

[golfandcars]

Forgive me but I am copying over my introduction from the welcome section for some background, this is from 9/27/2021.

Wanted to stop in here and introduce myself, I actually joined the site several months back but only recently have I been able to post for some odd reason.

Back in July I purchased a 72 C10 longbed, my grandfather had a 72 two tone orange and white when i was little and i absolutely loved that truck so i decided that i was going to get one for myself. I couldnt locate one identical to his so this one is two tone blue and white. It has a 350 and automatic transmission. It is a patina truck, the major rust issues have been repaired and the whole truck has been cleared over the patina. Overall it is very solid.

It has a relatively fresh crate engine, new carb and radiator and the rear suspension has air bags. The previous owner used it for towing and would actually jump his horse up in the back of the truck to haul it around. My goal is to spruce it up a bit and use it as my daily driver, my plan for it has changed 5 times since i got it and i am still not sure where i am headed with it overall.

There are some things that need to be done regardless of what direction i am heading with it so i started buying parts back in July, the biggest of which is getting functioning AC, its a necessity in TX. The truck has factory air but it is non functioning and is missing some parts, rather than trying to get it up and running, i bit the bullet and purchased the vintage air kit. It was supposed to ship in August, then mid September and now it is supposed to ship tomorrow but i am not holding my breath. On top of that i have also ordered the following parts:

- New Headers and full exhaust system
- New rubber brake lines
- Full front suspension rebuild parts
- bushings for rear suspension
- new shocks all around
- new door seals, window seals, tracks, etc.
- new door hardware parts
- full wiring harness to rewire the entire truck with modern fuse box
- some rebuild parts for the guts of the steering column
- rear diff cover seal
- new tailgate (truck didnt come with one)
- New brake master (took the cap off a couple nights back and it is rusty and bone dry, not taking chances on brakes)

i am probably forgetting some things but that is the high points.

I am pretty experienced working on cars, you name it i have done it but everything i have owned and worked on has been 1990 or newer. I am clueless with carbs beyond a weed eater or a dirt bike and have never really owned an American car so i am absorbing a lot of information here. So far i am loving it though.

You guys are going to have to be patient with me as i learn my way around these trucks.

[golfandcars]

So update time...

back when i originally posted i was waiting on my Vintage Air kit to really start tearing into this truck. It finally came in the week before Thanksgiving, which meant i didnt get to start in on the truck until early Dec.

The deeper i dug, the worse bodgery i found, someone had meddled in almost every piece of wiring on this truck and it was a disaster. Wires to the alternator just spliced in and electrical taped, the compressor for the airbags was spliced into god knows what, all the steering column wires were just twisted together, wire nuts... the list goes on.

The first thing i did was rip all that wiring out and get the painless performance harness installed, it was time consuming but i enjoy the tedious nature of wiring and i especially love the finished product once you get to bundle it all up. At this point it is 90% finished, the truck has cranked and ran with the new wiring, i am chasing some issues with the blinkers and cluster but that has gone to the back burner for now, other items took precedence.

The next item on the list was getting the vintage air kit installed, i didnt want to complete the wiring install without getting this done. This way i can work all the vintage air wiring into the new harness. The only things i lack for finishing the vintage air kit is running the coolant and refrigerant lines and putting in the duct hoses in the dash. Again, i didnt want to button this up until i worked all the bugs out of the wiring but the fan is working and the controls are functioning to control the vintage air, so we should be good there as well.

While i was waiting on all the transmission parts to come in (see below for that story). I started taking apart the front suspension and brakes for cleaning and rebuilding. I had ordered all the parts for this back in the fall and just not had the motivation to start fighting with the mess under this truck... inches of mud caked on EVERYTHING, some of which is permanent. I pulled all the control arms, ball joints, tie rods, everything off. Once everything was off i dropped in a new steering box and broke down all the control arms for cleaning. I soaked them in purple power/water mixture overnight and pressure washed TWICE and couldnt get all of the gunk off. This is a work truck so i have given up on cleaning further and they are getting painted as is, standby for future updates on this.

My original plan for this truck was to LS swap it with a modern OD transmission however the further i dug into the truck the more i realized how solid the engine, it really is a low mileage crate replacement and i couldnt justify throwing it away or selling it for cheap. So somewhere mid Dec. i decided to sling an NV3500 in and run the existing engine as is for awhile, this truck is going to see mega highway miles, I drive 40k-50k miles a year all over TX. So parts got ordered for the swap and we started in on tearing the old out, nothing to eventful with that other than the trans fluid being the most beautiful cherry red, i was [pretty stunned with how clean it was. In this process i also realized the crate engine is from a much later model, it uses the smaller diameter bolt pattern for the flywheel, 1 wrong flywheel later i realized this... this was not the only issue i had with ordering wrong parts.

I had planned to use the clutch pedal and master from a 2005 Silverado, but the pedal assembly is to big and clashes with a bunch of stuff under the dash so back that went as well as the master. I ordered a wilwood setup that i think will work just fine, more on that later.

I also ordered the proper yoke for the new transmission but of course it doesnt use the same u joint as the one i just took out... so another night with a caliper and some internet sleuthing and i think i have the proper U joint on order to make it work, fingers crossed...

Somewhere in all of this i realized the master cylinder was junk in this truck, it had no fluid in it when i took the cap off for the first time. I filled it up... fluid all gone again... turns out the cap was leaking and the left rear wheel cylinder was also leaking, so i ordered a new master and wheel cylinder for the left rear. Once i decided to replace the master, i noticed the lines were rusty as hell as well so i ordered a full set of stainless hardlines for the truck. I already had the rubbers on hand, the ones I have taken off were beyond dangerous... one of them was missing all the rubber down to the woven metal innerds...i am astonished it wasnt leaking badly. Crazy thing is, the brakes on the truck worked awesome despite all of this BS... At this point all the original lines are out and i have started to install some of the new lines. I had the engine held up with a jack preventing any further brake line install but...

Tonight i dry fit the transmission to cut the shifter hole and see if i needed to clearance the tunnel at all, mine is a low hump cab. Everything is in and loosely bolted up and... IT FITS. I need to beat out 1 seam in the cab and one little spot next to the shifter but everything fits and should be good. While i had it in there i dropped the jack out of the way so i could get that brake line that was holding me up installed.

Sorry for the long winded post, trying to get caught up here photos are attached, i know thats what everyone is here for lol.

[golfandcars]

One minor issue i ran into installing the Vintage Air kit was my truck has an 80's or 90's serpentine belt set up, Vintage Air doesnt make a compressor bracket that works for this setup, so i was on my own...

I ended up snagging this cheap kit off amazon and it actually fit perfect.





Also, somewhere in all of this i redid the fuel lines, they had both supply and return were crammed into one totally raw hole lol



So i got some grommets and remedied that situation before something got cut and there was a fire.



I think this is all the updates for now, i promise i will do better keeping this up to date from now on.

[golfandcars]

So update on the 72 been making progress over the last couple weeks.

Got all the brake lines installed, new master installed and passenger rear drum wheel cylinder. This wasnt without its challenges, the kit i bought was "pre bent" and i use that term very loosely. Still need to bleed the system so hopefully nothing leaks, i had to cut one line and flaring stainless lines proved to be more difficult than expected, hopefully that one holds.



Got the NV3500 installed finally, again not without its issues, initially bought the wrong flywheel but got that sorted. Only think i need to button that one up is the proper u joist to adapt the new yoke to my driveshaft, been through 2 different ones trying to get it right, one i bought wrong, the other they sent me the wrong thing... hopefully this week that will get sorted.



Finally got the front control arms painted and started installing the front suspension, the front suspension is the only big ticket item i have left to get this thing off jackstands for the first time in 2 months nearly. Sorry dont have any install photos, i will get some later. I got the passenger side finished minus the tie rods.



Random interior shot i sent my buddy yesterday



Anyone know anything about this airlift system? The controller for it is wireless like a garage door opener type thing, it was not responding before i started tearing down the truck and i need to figure out how to get it back up and running. I have an owners manual but it doesnt seem to be for my system as my controller isnt in the book.

[BigBird05]

You can still call Air Lift.

[Accelo]

Nice job. Can't tell the A arms are the same ones that came off the truck. Sometimes the goo will protect them from rusting. Don't install the radio till the glove box back is installed it will not go in except from that side. I think I would get the system charged and working before installing the radio. Wouldn't want to go back into it as it would be a PITA.
Starting with an Air cab makes the Air-Conditioning install a lot easier. Cutting the holes is difficult.
Cheers.

[golfandcars]

Originally Posted by Accelo

Nice job. Can't tell the A arms are the same ones that came off the truck. Sometimes the goo will protect them from rusting. Don't install the radio till the glove box back is installed it will not go in except from that side. I think I would get the system charged and working before installing the radio. Wouldn't want to go back into it as it would be a PITA.
Starting with an Air cab makes the Air-Conditioning install a lot easier. Cutting the holes is difficult.
Cheers.

The a arms dont look quite as good after installing the ball joints lol i really just wanted something to protect them from rust, you are definitely correct about te goo protecting, it has preserved alot of the underside of this truck from front to back lol

Thanks for the heads up on that glove box, whats left of it anyways lol I am more worried about the proximity of the outlets on the air handler and the little control rod things that attach to the AC controls, they are super close to those outlets.

[golfandcars]

Little update, the truck is coming along. Got several things buttoned up over the last several days.

Got all the front suspension installed, i am using stock springs. Getting those compressed enough to install the LCA was a bit sketchy but its done now. Got all the brakes installed and bled. Pedal is pretty firm, will see how it feels once vacuum is applied and i drive it a bit.





Got the clutch setup up fully installed and bled, not sure how this is going to work out, some further tweaks may be in order but i hope it works for now. I used a wilwood MC and pedal assembly. I converted the line to -3AN and bought a 36" line, it was probably 2" short so i had to improvise with a piece or hardline lol



Got almost everything in the dash buttoned up, was able to get all the lights working. Had to replace the headlight switch to get the cluster to light up. Ran all the duct work for the vintage air kit, i was dreading this but it was actually pretty easy. Only things left to do are install the glove box door, ash tray and the dash will be complete. Notice in the photo the position of the clutch pedal, not ideal lol.



Installed the rad hoses and plug wires as well during all of this, still need to do the heater hoses and AC lines, those will happen shortly.

I bought another slip yoke with a known u joint and that sorted things with the driveshaft, however i went to install it and the driveshaft is to long. It is at the shop now getting shortened, should be ready Monday. Once that is installed, hopefully i can get it back on its wheels and moving on its own power.

Until next time...

[raggedjim]

Nice work, but son, someone done left they underwear in your truck.

Rg