Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Good to hear about the pedal mod. Will be doing that myself next week.

P. :D

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

If you don't have a tire shop call Woodside tire in Kitchener. He is sponsoring me for rear tires (just used ones) but rubber installed free, he also can get anything and best price in town. Tell him I sent you. He has 2 Chevelle's also.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Thanks for the tip Bob. Maybe next time I need tires.

Here's a pic with the new wheel & tire combo. The fronts fit fine as-is, but the rears need some spacers to keep from rubbing on the inside. I'll buy or make some 2" spacers. And I'll need some small hubcaps.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Now that looks very nice indeed Johnny!

Agree on the hub caps. Going for baby moons or originals?

P. :D

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

OK.... I'll play.

I like them, and my vote would be originals for the caps.


Well done on the slots.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

I agree the wheels look awesome :metal: would go for original style too but loved the sombrero's

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

So cool John that totally changed the look of your truck very nice. :metal:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Good morning Gents,

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I must admit that I'm kind of "on the fence" with the new look. It's a big change, and I'm a little bummed that the truck now sits about 1-1/2" higher all around. I know its not a lot. I'll have to get used to it.

I agree that original hubcaps would look good, and rather than the sombreros I'd prefer the earlier corvette centre caps, like the one below. Problem with Rally wheel caps is that they snap into nubs on the ID of the raised area of the wheel, rather than regular hubcaps that snap over the OD...

I have a cap in mind that will look good, and as always... at a bargain price. :metal:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

yeah, those caps will look good... and nice job on the slots too.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

It may be a while before I get much more done on the C10, as my wife's patience has worn thin and she's keeping me imprisoned in the bedroom! :waah:

It's not what you think. For a couple (or 5!) years, I've been promising to remodel our master bedroom and en suite bathroom. I've started in the bathroom, re-taping many of the drywall joints, then I'll lay a Granite tile floor. Then it'll be onto the bedroom to paint and remove all carpetting. Nothing fancy... mostly correcting poor workmanship from when the house was built 20 years ago.

Until I get the bathroom finished I stuck the toilet in a corner of our bedroom, creating what we're calling our "redneck en suite". :lol:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Thanks Clem. They do look really different with the slots.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Looks good buddy!

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Thanks Craig. I hope you're getting your flood damage fixed up so you can get back on the C10.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Good to see that you have ample power source for uninterrupted 'research' on the viewing device of your choice....

Think the Camaro (?) caps will look rather good in conjunction with the slots.

P. :D

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Good luck with the remodel!! Just make sure the toilet is not used by accident:lol:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

I assume that like many others, it's my preferred seat for perusing catalogs, magazines and of course online auction sites.;)

I agree about the caps, but I don't think they'll fit. We'll see.

That wouldn't be good!:lol:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Your truck is fantastic Johnny...I'm 50 mins up the road south and east of London..love your 63..

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Great looking 63!!!

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Thanks neighbour! We should meet up some time.

Thank you, but it looks better in pics than up close. One day I'll take it apart for a resto. I'm sure you'll agree that 63 is the coolest model year. :lol:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

I do love them...even my old soon to be swap meet auction beast and pickin machine is a 63...not to take away from your build thread but wanted to show you what's up the road...lol and I'm by Cambridge all the time...would be cool to meet ya.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Tough looking old girl in primer and baby moons! I like it.

Sure, let me know when you're around. Maybe we could have a meet-up at the Unfinished Nationals in Paris, if you're planning to be there. Lower50s will have his GMC on display there. Or a swap meet...

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

I wish i could go to the nationals man..im working that day...ill get in touch sometime for sure Ill bring my 51 F1 thats not as tough looking

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Sounds good.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

A little update... I'm still busy with home reno's, but I finally got around to making a pair of DIY hubcentric spacers for the rear wheels.

They were a real pain to install, due to the axle hub being all banged up. After a bunch of hand-filing, then grinding a 45 degree bevel on the hub they slipped on nicely. I decided on a 1-3/4" thickness, which worked out pretty well.

I'm not really a fan of using wheel spacers... I'll have to pull the wheels in a few days to make sure everything is staying tight.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

And... check out my bargain hubcaps!

These are the caps I've been planning on using. They're from a Chevy Chevette, which were made from '76 to '87. I like the simple styling, but they're actually a little bigger than I thought they'd be, about 9-1/2". The pic shows the cap on a stock 22" transit wheel. I still need to figure out a simple mounting method. I'd like to avoid drilling the wheels for clips.

I get a nostalgic feeling using these caps. Soon after getting hitched in 1986, we bought a brand new 2-door 1986 Chevette for Wifey to drive. The later models were pretty good little cars with a 5sp trans, but they carried the bad reputation from the early years.

First the Vega, then the Chevette... I've owned both! :whine:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Nice job buddy. A few friends of mine use them on there Jeeps they off road and have never had a problem. How long did they take you to make?

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

You obviously have skills,, why not cut out the center out of the wheel ring and set it to the offset required to the truck to eliminate the wheel spacers?

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

My apologies, your truck looks amazing. You've really set the bar with your build.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Thanks Bob. This was one of those jobs that I regretted starting. In hindsight, I could've bought a pair of Hubcentric 1-1/2" or 2" spacers on ebay for $53US, and free shipping in the US. Then I'd have to drive to Niagara Falls NY to pick them up. With those, I'd have to bore the backside to suit the 3.532" OD of the axle hub... and they'd come with metric wheel studs.

By making my own, my only expense was $30 for 7/16" wheel studs. In hours... I probably have 12 hours in them, between designing, programming and machining. Way too much effort. :waah:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Unfortunately Aerotruck63, I may have "some" skills but they're not always "the" skills that are required. I really need to work on my welding to get consistently good results. I did consider cutting and repositioning the wheel centres myself, but fixturing a wheel this big would be a problem, and I don't know anyone with a big enough lathe to get them running true. There's a fellow in London Ontario ("themaintenancedepartment" on instagram) that's offset, widened and narrowed many of these wheels. I considered asking him to do my rears, but its expensive and I'm a little leery about how durable these wheels will be. I don't want to invest a bunch of cash then bend a wheel hitting a pothole.

Thanks for the compliment on my truck... but I keep telling everyone that its not that nice! :lol:

It really isn't. It looks good from across the street, but it needs to be stripped, restored and repainted.

You sir, I must commend for all the information you provide on the forum. I know I've benefitted at different times from all your reference material. :clap:

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

I'll let you know how mine turn out. Got them yesterday. I'll be mounting them on my 63 4WD Frankentruck. After seeing oem4me's 4WD with 19.5's, I was smitten.

I widened the 16" that are on my 2WD and have done a few others.

I got a 4WD hub assembly off a newer truck and machined the center to mount on my brake lathe. I cut everything with a grinder and cutoff wheel mounted to the cross slide of the brake lathe. The bigger the diameter the more room to work.

How to mount the stock hubcap is the question of the day. All my spares are 7 5/8" clip style. 4WD's never came with hubcaps but dress them up so much when their installed.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/DSCN0100.JPG

Plenty of room to move the center portion from the 6" stock backset on the 22" transports to a 4 1/2 backset like the 16" wheels I did in the past.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_...0/DSCN0101.JPG

Recouping from a triple bypass for now, but there's plenty of future ahead and some strategy thinking to do. lol

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

The things you learn here! A brake lathe would be perfect for doing this kind of work. Hmm... wheels turning.

Just yesterday I came across this pic posted on IG by @psukraw. Its kind of what I was thinking as a hubcap mount, tubes over the lugnuts... but I was considering rare earth magnets as a means of the holding the cap and bracket to the face of the lugnuts. Maybe this pic will give you some ideas?

Recovering from bypass surgery... don't rush into anything strenuous. the 22's can wait. All the best in your recovery.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Hopefully not hijacking your thread.... the centerbore of a stock wheel from the early sixties is 3.625".
The centerbore of the 22" Transits are 78.3mm or 3.082

Can I ask what 3.532" as you posted above pertains to? Does this reflect the stock axle outside diameter.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Aero, my axle hubs measure 3.532", or maybe slightly larger, like 3.535". I assumed that they were 3-17/32". The diameter that locates the brake drum is larger, but i don't recall the size. My axle is a 1965 12 bolt. I was running the 70's 15x7 Rally wheels. I read that they were only used on 4wd vans. Maybe you can advise if that's correct.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

4WD vans were quite rare, but 3/4 ton vans had 6 lug axles. You would see Camper Conversion vans with this setup.
Both my trucks are at a Buddy's farm since I needed the room to build the new Garage. I'll have to pass by and take some measurements.
Found a thread on this site stating that you can reverse the center portion on the ring but can't push it back as the ring tapers and you lose material.
More measuring on the wheel will be required to see if I could shim the center to the larger diameter required, as not to reverse the ring and change the look.
Thank you for the info.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

I'll stop by the shop on my way home from work tonight to measure the ID of my old rally wheels. I really don't want to remove the rear 22" wheels off my truck again. Its a pain jacking up the truck, lowering the axle, then wrestling the tire out of the wheel well. And heavy!

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

I took a look at rockauto.com and found that the brake drums for a 1965 C10 1/2 ton shows a pilot bore size of 3.564". That would lead me to believe that the axle hub diameters were 3-9/16" at the drum, stepped down to 3-17/32" at the wheel.

It's very difficult to find this info listed anywhere. Any wheel-specific information I could find only goes back to 1967, and I don't see anything with a 3.532" or 89.7mm centre bore.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

I scoured my GM literature to no vain. No dimensions mentioned anywhere.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

Well, I checked the ID of my 15x7 rally wheels and it measures 3.533".

I couldn't find a part number on them, but I assume they're the 6lug van rallys.

Re: My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project
 

For the UK guys...
I was surprised to see a right-hand drive mini on my way home. I was even more surprised to see a Rover nameplate on the back. Until I googled it, I didn't know that Rover owned Mini for a short time in the '80s.