Wampus Cat

[TxCajun]

I found this '66 C10 SWB Fleetside, six cylinder 3-speed manual in August of 2017. From the dealer bumper and the limited information that I have, it appears to have been purchased from a dealer in Itasca, Texas (home of the high school Wampus Cats). It has spent its life in that general area of Texas and appears to have not been on the road since the early 90's.
There is a lot of bondo on various spots of the body; the cab floor has been fiberglass patched; there is rust above the windshield in the cab roof.
The cab and frame VIN numbers match; the bed does not appear to be original to the truck (evidence of side trim mounting holes) and has a steel tread plate floor; the left front fender and some front sheet metal do not appear to be original.
Non-running and no brakes when purchased.
Leaking from all orifices and the bottom is covered with 1 or 2 inches of petrified oil and dirt.
I'm not planning on doing any major restoration. I'd like to just get it roadworthy and enjoy using it while continuing to make upgrades here and there.

[LostMy65]

Enjoy.

[Captainfab]

That looks like not too bad of a truck aside from the issues you mentioned. What engine and trans does it have? What upgrades are you planning?

[TxCajun]

September 2017
Purchased some red Rallye wheels from my nephew. They were take-offs from his '65 that he replaced with steel wheels and baby moons.
Replaced the battery tray (rotten) and installed a new battery.
Cleaned up the fuel system; new points & condenser; a bit of tuning and got the engine running. Reasonable compression and no smoke, but has a helluva knock.
Pulled the engine and determined it appears to be a 230 cu in that has already been bored .060 and is worn out. Found some metal bits in the oil pan that look like camshaft thrust bearing. Started looking for a rebuildable engine.
Removed a bunch of spacers from the coil springs on all four corners; the springs look like they must have been heated for lowering at some point (or maybe just sagged).

[TxCajun]

October 2017
While looking for a rebuildable engine, decided to rebuild the brakes and check through the suspension.
Discovered that only the driver side parking brake was connected; the passenger side parking brake hardware had all been removed. Cheap fix for a broken cable?
Upgraded to dual master cylinder. Installed new wheel cylinders, new shoes and hardware, installed new brake rubber hoses.
Installed new rear axle seals and new rear axle lube. Installed new front wheel seals and re-packed bearings.
Installed new rear parking brake cables and hardware.
Installed new panhard rod bushings and straightened the panhard rod which was bent in an arc.

[TxCajun]

November 2017
Installed new driver side window rollers, window tape, and used window support channel. (The window support channel was missing from the door when I purchased the truck.) Now I can roll that window up and down.
Started rebuilding the brake/clutch pedals and linkages. Installed new brake/clutch pedal bushings and pedal pads and pedal bumpers; weld repaired pedal stops.
The ends of the clutch rods were worn almost to the point of failure so I built these up with weld metal and ground/filed them back to round size. The clutch arm holes were also worn oblong so I built these up with weld metal, drilled them oversize and installed bronze bushings.
Found a rebuildable engine east of Dallas, dragged it home and started tear down.

[TxCajun]

December 2017
The engine that I found to rebuild is a 250 cu in from about '78 (according to the casting numbers and stamping). It had been previously bored .040" over and the bores measured within tolerance after honing.
Had the cylinder head rebuilt with hardened exhaust seats, machined for valve seals and install valve seals, surface head .012”.
Installed new rings, bearings, gaskets, new cam (stock, the old one had flattened cams), lifters, oil pump.
Installed new harmonic balancer.
Installed new water pump.
Big thanks to my brother for assembly assistance while visiting for the holidays!

[Palf70Step]

I think all our truck's are Frankenstiens. Yours is coming together very nicely!

[LostMy65]

Thanks for uploading all the photos.
I like your plan.

[61K10]

looks good---------

[shp4man]

Nice. I like that you stayed with the six. It's a great little motor.

[rvrfoot]

Did you take your hood springs off so the hood will go up higher?

[TxCajun]

Originally Posted by rvrfoot

Did you take your hood springs off so the hood will go up higher?

No, I read a suggestion elsewhere in this board that you can take out the front hinge mounting bolts on each side, loosen the rear mounting bolts, and then pivot the hood up vertical for engine/hoist access. You will need to tie the hood up, perhaps with a rope back to the cab, to hold it in this position.

Since I was working by myself, I did not want to take the hood off, and this pivoting solution worked well.

[rvrfoot]

Cool thanks i am taking my motor out next weekend.

[TxCajun]

Decided to install the front sway bar that I purchased from Performance Online when it was on sale a few months ago, part number FSBK6372. It's a 1 1/8 inch diameter bar, and the front pivots bolt directly to the underside of the frame so the bar is positioned relatively high with respect to the chassis. The parts appear to be good quality and the supplied hardware is Grade 5 bolts and nylok nuts.

One pair of bolts for the front pivots needed to go where the rivets holding the lower radiator brace to the main frame rails were located. I had not removed any of these chassis rivets before and was concerned about how hard that might be. However, I read a suggestion about using a cutoff wheel to cut an "X" in the rivet head and then knock the head off with a hammer and chisel. Tried it, and worked like a charm. A half dozen whacks with a five pound hammer and chisel, and the head was gone. The rivet can then be driven out with a punch.

After that, I just had to drill two more 3/8 holes in the frame and one in the front of each a-arm, then bolt everything up.

[jimmythompson1964]

Nice work so far you will be rolling in no time

[aggie91]

Nice work. I enjoy your methods and the way you are documenting the changes.

[TxCajun]

When I was putting the engine & transmission back in the truck, I greased and adjusted the lower column shift arms along with installing new bushings at all of the shift arm pivot points. However, the top of the column had a lot of side-to-side steering wheel play and the column shift arm was very loose.

I disassembled the top of the column and cleaned, inspected all of the parts. The shift lever holes on the "Shift Lever Housing" were worn out oblong and cracked, so the shift lever roll pin which should be pressed in was just a wobbly fit. I thought about trying to repair these holes with aluminum brazing rod and then re-drill, but upon investigation it appears that the commonly available brazing rods have a melting point of about 720 to 750 degrees F which is very close to the temperature at which the die casting would melt or distort. Also, since there are hairline cracks between the hole and the end of the casting boss, I don't think a bushing would work or, at best, would only be a temporary solution. After cleaning up the casting, I found a part number cast on the inside: 3873134. In doing a web search, I found an NOS part for a reasonable price from AutoPartsObsolete, and bought it.

The steering wheel also had 1/8” cracks/gaps next to the center hub and a few other places. Using a Dremel tool, I cleaned out the cracks and made them wider at the base than at the top, then I filled these with JB Weld, sanded, and painted the wheel satin black. I'm in the process of installing an “old school” lace-on steering wheel cover, but the last picture shows close to final results.

After greasing the column parts with white lithium grease and reassembling everything, the shifter feels more precise and the steering wheel play is gone.

[TxCajun]

I've now got the truck running and driving. I've driven up and down my 100' driveway several times, and also ventured out in my rural neighborhood for test drives, but I have to get the windshield installed so that I can get the state inspection and liccense plates. Before that, I have to fix the rust around the windshield frame and in the inner/outer roof panels above the windshield.

I removed the outer roof panel and discovered that it appears to have been removed at some time in the past. Instead of being held in place with a whole bunch of spot welds, it appears to have been spot brazed at about 3" to 6” spacing. The rain gutter appears to have been refilled with fiberglass resin which was brittle and cracked, thus making water ingress and rust worse. I also discovered a couple rodent nests, the results of a can or two of expanding insulation foam, and some window-screen/bondo patches.

I purchased another roof fairly cheap on Craiglist near San Antonio. It has it's own share of rust problems, and is not good enough to do a full replacement swap, but that swap would be beyond my fab/weld capabilities anyway. My current plan is to use parts of the second roof as patch panels on the truck. I'll clean up all of the rust, prime, and paint.

After the rust repair, I'm leaning towards bonding on the outer roof panel using 3M structural panel bond adhesive rather than spot welding it on. There are some posts in this forum and other places on line that make this bonding method look like an interesting alternative to spot welds for this outer roof panel application.

[TxCajun]

More roof disassembly pics and the Craigslist roof.

[TxCajun]

After much research, I finally worked up a plan that would meet city building permit requirements for a workshop. There were restrictions on building size relative to my house and lot size, but I was able to get approval for an 800 sq ft building. It also has a 14 ft wide x 18 ft driveway leading up to the building which will eventually be covered for outdoor work space when the weather is good and/or the tasks are messy.
The permit was approved in early September, we poured the slab by the end of the month. The Mueller Steel Building kit arrived in early October, and despite a lot of rain, we finished the shell assembly before Thanksgiving.

[TxCajun]

Paying for this as I go, so still need to do insulation, floor paint, and electrical as the funds are available but I've always wanted a work shop so I'm pretty excited.

[roll_the_dice]

Nice work shop! I can't wait until I buy a house with land on it for a building like this. I did build a 12x12 "workshop" last year for my blast cabinet and some other fabrication areas. Works well for what I do...but can't wait to have a shop I can put my cars/trucks in with a lift! Keep up the good work on the truck!

[TxCajun]

I've been wire brushing and poking at the rust in the roof and around the windshield to determine which areas need to be patched using parts from the extra roof that I found on Craigslist. There are several areas around the windshield and the driver's side drip rail that are pretty crusty.

I decided to dive in and start with the center section above the windshield which was a nasty mix of bondo, window screen, fiberglass resin, canned spray foam, and rodent nest/droppings.

I've heard that if you have to grind your welds to make them look good you are not a welder, you are a grinder. I definitely fall in to the latter category, but I think the welds are full penetration and strong. Hopefully I'll improve as I go along.

[TxCajun]

My brother was in town visiting for a couple days. We really enjoy working on projects together, so he helped me out by cutting and fitting a few patches while I was welding and grinding. Big thanks!!!

These are the passenger side patches to the windshield upper and lower frame.

While patching the rust at the lower corner, I also welded up the body seam in that area because it had rust through. That turned out nicely, so I'm thinking about welding up the other windshield body seam gaps to minimize the use of seam sealer.