Father & Son '72 Project Truck

[Snowman34]

As a form of a "mental break", I will share our journey of a "Father & Son '72 Project Truck" since last October. Bear in mind that this is our first venture into the realm of classic cars & trucks. Long time reader; 1st time forum poster.

Last year, our family decided we "needed" a 4th vehicle. I/we wanted a truck, ideally a new one, crew cab, loaded, etc. Our 17 y/o son came to us and said, "What if we went classic?" I advised he needed some airbags & other safety features as a new driver. Case closed. He walked away with a frown.

As I showed potential options, our son again asked, "What if we go classic?" We asked what he was envisioning since he kept bringing this up. My wife & I asked for some examples. He showed us a number of 60's & 70's trucks that were absolutely bad as*! We were honestly hooked!

And here's the kicker; our son says, "Ya know, if you get a new truck, it'll likely lose ½ of its value within a couple years. If you go classic, replace things with some quality or desirable parts, you'll increase your value steadily & likely gain, not lose money."

What the flip was that? Was our son listening all these years when we talked about $$? I suppose. As a kid, my Dad had a "matador red" '57 Chevy Convertible which we rode in a ton, it was awesome. He restored it "a few times". He also had a '70 Chevelle, '90's Vette, Grand National, Trans Am WS6 & a few others. My wife said why not go for it as you had with your Dad, "it's about the experience, right?" She strongly pushed us to do it. Am I in Fantasy Land or what?

So we found a '72 C10 & fell in love with it. It was loud, yellow, obnoxious, had some 20" wheels, and completely impractical. So we brought it home in October. As with any older vehicle, this "needed some work" and definitely wasn't perfect. It was much less "perfect" than originally thought. Heck, we didn't know what we were doing. We should have taken a great friend to look at the truck with us, but he was out of town & we got the "bug" to get it, so we did.

We realized early on that "some things" weren't just right. Like I said, we likely shouldn't have bought it, didn't know what we were doing, but we did it anyway. Our neighbor [a true gear-head] helped us confirm there were unmatched brake calipers & spindles, as well as '73 parts all over the front of the truck. Shocks were totally shot. He/we felt it was best to rip all of that out, so we did.

Over the next few months, we worked our butts off on it. I worked a ton of extra shifts. I'm a nurse who as a few extra jobs so I can put $$ in the "truck cookie jar". Our son used his spare time after he was done with homework & school stuff as a break & worked his tail off on the truck. I helped him when I woke up, but he's done the majority of the stuff on the truck.

It's got/came with a "re-built" stock '73 350 w/stock 76cc heads; stock intake manifold; 750 Edelbrock carb; headers; TH350 re-built; 12 bolt rear w/3.07; Belltech lowering kit; 20" Ridler wheels; gas tank moved to rear.

We've changed & added:
RideTech StreetGrip kit
Wilwood 4-piston disc brake conversion
Complete steering set-up w/all tie rods, drag link, idler/pitman arm; box/column
Upper/lower control arms
New exhaust w/Borla S-Type mufflers that exit out the back
Gauges are now all working
Complete re-wire
Carb re-built
TH350 [previously re-built] working well again & not leaking
New stereo system
Killmat sound deadening/heatshield added
3-point seatbelts
Cheap set of air horns for starters; original was pitiful.

As this COVID stuff is with us, it's slowing down what we'd like to do with the truck, as I'm sure everyone else's projects. We'd like to seek out some opinions, guidance, recommendations for what to do next. Our goal for the truck is a "daily driver", not auto-crossing at all, not a track truck. We want to enjoy this every day. It's crazy yellow & folks high-5, thumbs up us, and in today's world, it's honestly refreshing to see people's faces light up & talk about something other than what's going on. If I step on it, I want it to move, but not wrap our 17 y/o & 20 y/o daughter around a tree. It currently gets 9mpg. We'd like to be able to drive it on a road trip & be completely reliable to go across the country. Dreaming, I know, BUT we all have goals, right? Crazy or not!

Possible upgrades/desires for the future:
Holley Sniper EFI
New Intake manifold
"Maybe" new heads
"Maybe" new SBC/LS down the road
700R4 Transmission
3.73 gear swap
Snowden bench seat & matching door/dash panels

Let us know what you all think. This has been a ton of fun! Frustrating at times for sure, but it's definitely been worth the price of admission vs. buying a new "regular" truck that everyone else has!

Stay healthy & safe out there!
Ryan
Orlando, FL

[54blackhornet]

Congratulations Ryan you are a great dad and your son needs a high five ! Beautiful truck..Jack

[1971Stepside]

Cool story and lucky kid!

[SIXTY9]

Hey good looking truck. And sounds like you and your family is going to enjoy it and do it right. I would start with the transmission and go from there. good luck and have fun with it.

[HO455]

All around great! The truck, the story, the family, first post! There is more than one viewer here who would like to be in your shoes.
With the truck as it is tuning will get the mileage up to 12mpg. Of course your driving style needs to be appropriate.
If you decide to go the LS route in the future, then not putting a Sniper or a 700r4 will be money saved for the LS conversion. Together they will not get you the same results as swapping an LS package into the truck. And arguments could be made that the LS engine and tranny will less time to complete and hit the road.

Welcome Aboard!

[72 tigger]

Nice truck and vision. Sounds like your son is wise beyond his years

[bigmac73]

I like it and i am curouis on the sound of those Borla mufflers. In regards to your engine choice u recommend a 383 stroker crate. You will get your performance goals without going over the top and the kids will just have to learn how to drive a old school rodder

[Snowman34]

We absolutely LOVE the feedback, this is AWESOME! Thank you & keep it coming! There definitely seems to be more than "one way to skin a cat" with these projects, especially when you can have folks who are willing to lend what they did that worked well, or didn't really work at all.

As far as the Borla S-Type mufflers, we went with them because the exhaust that came with the truck had a set of Series 10 Flowmasters on it which dumped right before the rear tire, and didn't really exit well with the tip still kinda under the body of the truck. The drone was horrid after about 5-10 minutes riding in it, plus you couldn't have a conversation in it. We put AC in it as well, but you'd have to yell at one another to speak. It honestly made the truck hard to ride in.

We spent a bit of time listening online to different set ups online, obviously knowing they were different bc of computer speakers. We opted for the "no drone" S-Type crate mufflers from Borla. Since the truck already had headers, the exhaust was re-routed out the back, emptying out under the bumper at an angle.

Everything improved! The sound is awesome & all of the gear-heads who hear it really like it. The "drive-ability" has gone up tremendously! We can have a conversation in the truck without yelling, even with the windows down, and the smell has improved considerably. Even though we have a primarily stock 350 truck motor, it sounds like we have much more. And, for those who have the fortunate benefit of "instantaneous wife criticism", my wife LOVED IT IMMEDIATELY and was thankful we did it. Please send your commission fee should any of you guys go this route & show your trusty, beloved spouses this and they go with it.

I will try to figure out how to post a clip for you guys to see shortly. THANKS AGAIN!! We appreciate it all!

[bigmac73]

Please send your commission fee should any of you guys go this route & show your trusty, beloved spouses this and they go with it.



HA HA Ya right.. My wife would rather scoop the litter box than get involved with the chevy.

[RenoKeene]

Hey Ryan, I'm up here by the Villages and first of all THANKS for working on the front lines of this virus war. You guys are my Hero's.
You have a great truck and it's cool your family loves it too.
Welcome aboard!

[Ol Blue K20]

A very nice truck and I like it.....A LOT!

Awesome story! I'm really happy to hear your son has so much interest.

Now for my opinion, since you asked! HAHA
You said its a daily driver, and you want to keep it that way so I would keep your rebuilt engine, install the 700R4, and keep your rear end. I'll explain..

I'll start with the transmission, which will make the rest make sense. The trans part starts with understanding gear ratios. Final drive ratio is determined by multiplying trans gear ratio by rear end ratio (Trans Ratio X Rear Ratio=Final). Most people would agree for general hot rodding around town, 10:1 first gear final ratio is ideal. so with your current setup(turbo 350,3.07 rear) you ratios look like this:

trans ratio x rear

1st- 2.52X3.07=7.73
2nd-1.52x3.07=4.66
3rd-1.0x3.07=3.07

Not very close to the "ideal" 10:1

700R4 ratios

1st- 3.06x 3.07= 9.39
2nd- 1.63x 3.07=5.00
3rd- 1.0x 3.07=3.07
4th- .70x 3.07=2.17

Getting bottom end power and low RPM cruising on the highway, real close to the 10:1 1st.

All the high performance small blocks in the 60's and 70's had a Muncie M21/22, which have the same gear ratios, 4 speed and 4.11 gears right? lets look at that real quick:

1st 2.20x 4.11= 9.042
2nd 1.64x 4.11=6.74
3rd 1.28x 4.11=5.26
4th 1.0x 4.11=4.11

you can now see with your 3.07 gear, its basically the same in 1st as am M21/22 with 4.11 rear gears, plus you get 2.17 gear for the highway! Since this swap is so popular you can have all your parts at the house and do this swap on the weekend, ie: driveshaft, TV cable and proper brackets, controller for the lockup converter, ect.

Engine:
Since it is already rebuilt, I would stick with small upgrades over time. Another weekend project could be cam, lifters, intake, HEI, and headers, if you don't have them already. Maybe another weekend you do the Sniper upgrade and add reliability. with these upgrades you could probably see 14-15 MPG, if you keep good driving habits.

Rear End:
I think I explained why I would keep the 3.07, but use the math and look at the numbers. if you do the trans and drive it for a while with the 3.07, I think you would really like it.

All these thing I mentioned are 1 or 2 day projects, this will keep you up and running and enjoying the truck. Unless you are a fairly experienced mechanic, I'm not sure you can do an LS swap in your driveway in a weekend.

Just my 2 cents. Whatever path you take, I think is really great you are getting some father/son time and keeping that great truck on the road!

Jack

[Snowman34]

Thanks for the info about the gearing! We've been using it in every calculation as we consider transmissions.

Another question for you since this seems to be an area you're familiar with if you don't mind. Or maybe this has been answered elsewhere, but we haven't come across it yet.

We are at the manual vs automatic discussion, and the manual seems to be winning out of late in our family discussions. We are looking at the Tremec TKO 600 vs the Richmond Super Street w/OD.

Since we are looking to ideally have a bench seat [looking at the Snowden Seats], we want to take advantage of having the middle seat for the 3rd passenger when we ride in it. We also don't want to have to add in a transmission tunnel hump & modify the floor, if we don't really have to, so that we can maximize the limited space & help keep the costs to a "modest" fortune.

In everyone's experience, from what I'm mentioning, would you all have any words of wisdom one way or the other??

Thanks in advance!
Ryan

[LuckyScott]

Great looking truck, and even better that you got to do it with your son.

[sick472]

Beyond this intial comment...I'll keep my negative opionions about yellow and 20" rims to myself. LOL It truly is a great looking truck and carries the color (and rims) very well.

742Jacks comments about gearing should be taken seriously. It's been a while since I got deep into adding an overdrive trans to a vehicle, but I recall it taking a fair amount of research and soul searching to avoid not liking what you might end up with.

Keep in mind the more you make the motor breath (high performance intakes and exhaust/headers) the more it CAN rev and the more likely it will be to over-rev and come apart. My old pontiac still has the original intake on it with the little air beather and it tends to level out at a higher rpm when I would hold 1st gear too long. It makes you want more, but it "self-governs" itself too. I was a young man (boy) once and had that 67 GTO been able to breath more...I would not have it today. A rev limiter might be a good thing if your son (or you) is/are squirrely like I was (am).

Enjoy the ride! I am a firm believer in driving them. My 72 will be my first new truck while my first new car is my 67 F@rd (just finished it a few years ago).

[tim_mc]

Great project and progress! An LS swap is always a good plan, and probably fewer problems than going with aftermarket fuel injection as HO455 mentioned. As for a 700R4 w/3.07s, I agree with 724Jacks. I just got mine on the road and like it...great 1st gear for getting into the headers and I can easily run 70mph at just under 2000rpm on the interstate.