This is going to be a long drawn out build...

[Lated]

I've had a '70 C10 for just over two years now and so far most of what I have done with it is just to keep it on the road since it is my daily driver but that is about to change. I bought a '98 Z28 last Wednesday and as soon as I get it registered/titled it will be taking over the haul my ass to work duty from my truck. I got the car for, at least what I think is, a steal so it wasn't too hard to talk the wife into it. I paid way to much for my truck given the condition it was in but it was yet another in a long string of impulse buys which rarely if ever turn out good. There is rust everywhere. I did a temporary fix on the floors just to keep water from coming in off the road and my foot from going through. My truck is in no way safe in the condition it is in, the passengers side cab corner is rusted away to the point that there isn't much metal left to anchor the seat belt. The same seatbelt that held the car seat for my son for more than a year (we had no other choice with the truck being my only vehicle and my wife and I working opposite shifts). The front drivers side of my bed is held on with a tie down strap. The hole where the mounting bolt goes through the wood in the floor is big enough that the bolt pulled through. Why not just replace the wood or put a bigger washer on it you might ask? Well, at some point a P.O. decided that instead of replacing the rotted/missing wood it would be better to weld diamond plate in on top of it so now I can't get to the bolt. Genius. I suppose I could torch/cut through the diamond plate but that would require a torch or a saw, neither of which I own. Oh yeah, I forgot about the brakes! No idea what is wrong with my brakes. I have drums all around and they look to be fine. There is plenty of shoe and drum left, I've bled the brakes, I've replaced the master cylinder and I know I have enough vacuum but they won't lock up. It's not that they don't work at all, they just won't lock up and they seem to fade really fast. Luckily I only drive about 10 miles to work and back. It also looks like I have a leaky valve seat on the number 3 cylinder that's letting oil in. Good thing that my truck is registered in Colorado even though I live in Maryland. 'Rady doesn't require emissions tests anymore or I would have been in even more trouble. I'm sure there are other things wrong with it but I'm getting tired of typing and if any of you are reading this you are probably getting tired of my *****ing about my truck so lets get on to the pictures.

[Lated]

Here's pics of the floor and my temp fix and another of the passenger side cab corner.

[68chevy68]

Yep, long build ahead of you. I have some trucks worse though. good luck man..keep us posted and pictures coming

[Lated]

Here are a few pics of the truck when I brought it home and one of the Camaro (I know the picture sux but it's almost 1100 and it's kinda dark outside). The last two pics are of the floor shifter I installed because I got tired of having to pull over on the side of the road and either pop the hood or crawl under the truck to pop the tranny out of third gear because the column shift linkage was binding up. One day it got stuck in first and no matter what I did I couldn't get it out and had to drive it home that way. Good for me I was already on post and only about 3 miles from my house. Of course, as soon as I got home and popped the hood I was able to get it out of gear but that was the last straw. I installed a Hurst shifter. The pictures are respectively of first gear and reverse. The very first time I shifted into reverse after installing the boot it tore. I don't think it looks like an overly long throw between 1st and R but I guess it is. Maybe I put the boot on backwards.

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Then and now of the 305 (I have a 350 sitting in the shed waiting for a trip to the machine shop, I'm thinking 383) The PO used house wiring to hold the fan shroud on. The shroud and radiator must have come with the engine swap cuz neither fit right. The engine is out of a 81 Malibu if I remember correctly. A couple pics of what I think is causing the rust on the passenger side. The driveres side is just as bad but I don't have any pics of it. Here's the diamond plate I mentioned earlier. When I bought the truck the wiring was horrible. There was house wiring connecting the front turn signals to the back and there was an extra bulb in each tail light, one for signals and another for brakes. The brake wire was the double zip wire like they use for floor lamps. I put a Painless harness in this spring.

[Lated]

Passenger side door is about to fall off. Picture doesn't do justice to the amount of rust around the hinges. Next is one of my favorite dumb ideas by a PO. I just love water dripping on my head. Seems like no matter how much caulk I put on it water still gets in. PO fix for the top breaking off of the heater box, more caulk! That was roofing tar behind the glovebox in the pic earlier. The last two are how my truck is now and a possible future that has been floating around in my head (I'm not good with paintshop )

[Lated]

What's left to complain about? How bout taxi drivers! Apparently BWI airport taxis have the right away over old trucks no matter what and he wanted my lane. I ripped his mirror off and destroyed his front fender as well as leaving red paint all down the side of his nice white car. All I got was paint scratched down to bare metal and a small dent right in front of the handle. Insurance covered it and I was going to replace the door anyway. Can't seem to find a picture from before I sprayed primer over it. Enough of the ***** fest for now. Last pic is of the present and future owner of Bob short for Bucket O' Bolts, some days I call him aRTy for Rattle Trap, don't ask, my mom is the one that got me started naming my cars. In case you were wondering the Camaro is C2 aka Coffin 2. My 99 Z28 I had that we traded in on my wifes car right after I bought the truck was the original Coffin. I always called it that because of the way I drove in it. I was convinced I was going to wreck it someday and I didn't have much hope of being extracted from what was left of the car after a 165 mph wreck so they would have to bury me in it . My wife tells me that the shoulder or the median are not designated Camaro only passing lanes, they are in fact not driving lanes at all!! Who knew?

[Spray-Bomb]

I have buckets in mine, but if you ever want the kiddo to ride with ya youmight want to keep the bench

These are what I put in mine(they're out of my 90 chevy)

[Lated]

Originally Posted by Spray-Bomb

I have buckets in mine, but if you ever want the kiddo to ride with ya youmight want to keep the bench

These are what I put in mine(they're out of my 90 chevy)

I'd like to keep the bench but I want to put a 5 speed or maybe even a 6 speed in and I think the shifter would be under the seat. I haven't seen any pics of a 6 speed install to base this off of but the shifter for my 3 speed is up against the seat and I know the 6 speed tranny is longer and without some sort of custom shifter I don't think it will work. I also want to do a significant chop to the top and it seems easier to find shorter bucket seats than a short bench but I could be way off on that. Part of the reasoning behind the buying the Camaro was it has seats for four and we just had a little girl two months ago and can't all fit in the truck anyway. It would be nice for the wife to be able to sit in the middle while cruising though. We'll see what happens. The first order of business is coming up with the money to get the floors fixed which may take long enough that I might have somewhere to try and do it myself. The housing office has already gotten mad at me for changing my oil in the parking lot, they'd probably throw a fit if I was doing any body work

[samwise68]

I wish you the best of luck in your build, my rust stricken friend.

i know what it;'s like to be plagued with PO repairs that were ridiculous, along with just nasty rotting rust.

but. i must say. i commend you in every way, shape, and form, for doing what you had to, to keep the ol' girl on the road. that, in my opinion, is the true spirit of these trucks, and a reflection of the people who own and enjoy them. simply perserverance.

also. cute little one.

keep us updated!

-Sam.

[Lated]

Well I have some good-bad news. My 98 Z28 that I bought a month ago and was so proud of is no more. About a week and a half ago I tried to take a corner too fast, lost control, bounced off a guard rail and into traffic where I was hit by another driver. Luckily everyone is ok but not my car. The insurance company is totaling my car after they estimated the damage to my car at $12000 and the value of the car as $10500 and change. Fortunetly for me I only paid $6000 for the car so after my $500 deductable, the $130 ticket for failure to control speed to avoid a collision, and paying off what is left of the loan I am pocketing just over $4000. Best-worst mistake I've ever made! I now refer to the Camaro as "Gold Mine" for obvious reasons. Check out the last pic, if you imagine a straight line following the trim piece between the T-tops extending towards the front of the car you can see that the badge on the front of the car is about a foot farther to the right than it should be. Both front frame rails are bent and all four quarter panels need to be replaced along with the rest of the front clip. I had the option of buying the car back for $2200 but I'm hoping to be moving soon and didn't want to deal with it. Hopefully my check will show up soon so I can blow some money on my truck.

[Lated]

I finnaly got around to pulling the rear end off my parts truck this morning. I'm swapping them because my truck has drums with 6 lugs and the parts truck has front discs with 5 lugs so I want 5 lug on the rear too. I cleaned all the crud off of it with a scraper but didn't get an after pic. Don't think the wife would have been very happy about all the grease I would have gotten on her camera. By the time I got cleaned up it was dark out side. Tomorrow I'm gonna hit it with the scrub brush and dish soap to see if I can get it a little cleaner. Any suggestions for what kind of paint to use on it? I'd like to find something to stop the rust on it. I think I remember hearing about something at Eastwood but any ideas are welcome.

[ChiefRocka]

Too bad you couldn't use the 'Maro drivetrain in the truck !!!!

[Lated]

Originally Posted by ChiefRocka

Too bad you couldn't use the 'Maro drivetrain in the truck !!!!

I thought about it but I don't have anywhere to park it while I was parting it out. The housing office here gives me enough crap about my truck as it is. I'm also hoping to get orders any time now and don't want to deal with a third vehicle on a cross country move. All that aside, it would have been awesome to have the LS1 and overdrive auto in the truck. Might actually get double digit mileage that way. It feels like the ball joints are giving out on my truck so while I'm replacing them, and now that I have plenty of money, I'm going to do a 3/4 drop, convert the front to disc and put sway bars on front and back. I'm also looking at putting a FCG fuel cell under the bed. I'm tired of smelling gas. I found the axle code on the rear end I pulled off yesterday and its a 3.07:1 so I ought to get a little better gas mileage.

[caminokid]

I know what you mean by more rust then metal. My truck is at least 65% rust! You got something to work with at least. Keep at it and you will get it done.

[1966gmc]

That clear cover is wicked looking man.What part of MD do you live in?

[Lated]

I'm at Ft Meade for now, but I got orders about a month ago so I should be heading out in the next few months.

[Lated]

Latest pic with wheels cleaned, hub caps on, and new tires. Unfortunately the front tires rub when I hit potholes so I'm looking at buying some narrower tires for now.

[Lated]

Been awhile since I posted anything. Keeping pretty busy between shift work, new house, and a full load of college classes. It doesn't help any that the HOA in my subdivision won't allow me to work on my truck without it being in a garage, which of course we don't have yet. Hopefully by this time next year I will have a garage and can start working on my truck again. Ever since gas shot up over $3.50 I haven't driven my truck to work. It was cheaper to buy a used Jeep. The loan payment, insurance, and gas for the Jeep is less than I was paying for just insurance and gas for the truck.

[Lated]

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...2/CIMG0888.jpg

[Lated]

Wow. Been quite awhile since I've posted anything in my build thread. I haven't done much to the truck lately. When gas prices shot up a few years ago I bought a new DD and parked the truck for the most part. I did end up dropping in a sbc 400 in place of the tired old 305 early autumn of 2010. I drove it to work about every other week or so until the clutch return spring decided to disappear. Without the spring the tranny is unshiftable. I did manage to get it into third and drove it 35 miles to home only using third. Made for a fun trip.

Plan on fixing the tranny when the weather warms up and then swapping in some higher compression heads along w/ a new intake and carb. Probably the time to go ahead and throw a new cam in as well.

[chevy71c10]

Glad to hear you haven't given up on the build with the gas prices and such. Be sure to post the pics of the new mods to the engine and such and keep trucking
Posted via Mobile Device

[Lated]

Haven't been very good about updating this thread for quite awhile; too much other stuff going on. Fixed the shifting problem around this time last year, parked the truck for the winter, and then BANG!

First time I took it out this year there was a pop sound from under the hood and then no power. Blew the main fuse I installed when I rewired the truck years ago. I wired around the fuse and now it cranks but won't start. Haven't had time to figure out what is wrong since all my wrenching time is spent on my Land Cruiser Bonnie, my 1985 FJ60.

Hopefully I'll have time soon to figure out what is going an and get Bob back on the road.