24 day project

[low&slow]

Hello all. Been a long time lurker on here. Posted numerous threads and even commented on a ton. Bought parts from here and met a few people a long the way. First off this build is going to be a two part build thread. The first part will start tomorrow and end September 30th. The second part will start some time next August.

I decided to make this thread to help keep me motivated on building my truck. I'm calling it the "24 day project" because as of tomorrow 9/6/2014, I will have 24 days to do something on my truck for a long time due to a surgery I'm having on October 1st. It's a 5 hour long surgery with an expected heal time of 8 months including rehab to learn how to walk again.

Little of myself for this project and the surgery. I was diagnosed with a nerve and muscular disease when I was 15. I'm now 21 going on 22 in December. I've never cared too much for people with disabilities until I myself found out that I have a disability. Ever sense then, I have wanted to build my truck into a drag truck to gain awareness of all the different types of MD (muscular distrophy). Well my plan later changed as I decided that a Pro Street build was better suit for me as I do plan on taking it on tours such as power tour and other tours as well as show time and strip time. Hopefully one day I can use the truck as a foundation step towards donations for the MDA clinic in finding a cure and helping others.

Now for the truck and enough about me. It started its life as a 1969 Chevy C10 Long Bed Fleet Side with no motor or tranny. The interior had a brand new bench seat and that was it. Had dash, gauges, and door panels. The outside of the truck had a brand new hood and the body is very straight. Color of the truck is the original turquoise and is in really good condition. Very light rust. Came with 4 Boyd Coddington rims that I don't like.

What I've done since I got the truck when I was 12. My grandpa and I put in a 500 CI Cadillac with an aluminum intake that he gave me. My grandpa was really into stuffing big block Caddies into just about anything old and new. Got the truck able to drive. I took the bench seat out and put in some bucket race seats out of a baja 1000 truck. Took out the gas tank in the cab and put in a little 5 gallon old school tank in the bed for test fires and test runs with the occasional burn outs....well lots of them actually. Bled the front and rear brakes with new lines and a new MC and rebuilt the front brakes. This was all done from the time I was 12 till I was 18 as I was having lots of dr. appointments and tests and I just wasn't really into it all that much after I turned 15.

Well now I'm 21 and I started getting back into it a couple months ago. I sold my whole front clip for dirt cheap. Sold the brand new hood for $50. Shame on me lol. Pieced together a 67 front clip that so far has cost me almost $500. And the worst part about it all is when I was 12, I traded a 100% original driving 1967 c10 with small back window and wood bed for this truck I have now. I was young and didn't know anything so don't bash me too much.

Well onto the 24 day project now. My plans right now are to get power back in the cab. I lost all power to the cab yesterday fumbling around with some wires. Fuses are good and fuse block is still good. So I don't know about that.

Plans for the truck:

Mostly finish the center console I designed myself. Really excited about that.
Get power back in the cab.
Lights and motor to be powered by switches and installed on the console.
Finish mounting the seats.
Take the vinyl door panels off and install metal ones that I painted myself.
Either buy another 67/8 hood or fix the one I have.
Do some body work on the fenders.
Hopefully get epoxy primer on the whole front clip for winter.

Now don't hold me to my plans. I'm jobless and have very little tools. I only make money selling parts I have laying around for these era trucks.

And now lets see if I can load some pictures on my very iffy internet because we're all picture whores here.

First picture is what the truck looked like when I got even though that picture was taken last year although changed on the outside.
Second picture is the Caddy of course
Third picture is with the 67 clip
Fourth picture is the seats I now have in it that came out of a baja 1000 truck ran by Ryan Spiers. His brother owned a construction company a while ago and my dad worked for him.

I will get more pics up tomorrow. I will try to accomplish at least 1 thing a day and post a before and after picture.

[leftybass209]

Good luck with your goals. Looking at your list I'd knock out the least fun stuff. I stopped working on my truck for a while because I did all the fun stuff and had a long list of boring tasks left and got unmotivated.

[low&slow]

Originally Posted by leftybass209

Good luck with your goals. Looking at your list I'd knock out the least fun stuff. I stopped working on my truck for a while because I did all the fun stuff and had a long list of boring tasks left and got unmotivated.

From the list I have now, I'd say the least fun thing is the wiring. I absolutely hate wires. I'm sure if I had some understanding of how wiring and fuse blocks work, I wouldn't hate it so much. I look at a wiring diagram and I get so lost I start to loose interest in making stuff work.

As far as the rest of the list goes, I love doing body work and building things. I'm a very tedious and patient person. If I do something on my truck, it has to look good. I also hate doing things twice so that's where my patients come in.

And thanks for the luck. I'll defiantly be needing it.

Anyways, time to get something done on the truck. Been out and about most of the day. We'll see how this wiring ordeal works out. Might just toss it to the side for a couple days to get some other things done.

[texasld]

Great start. Looks a lot better then when mine started. Good luck with the build. I'm in.

[low&slow]

Well it's been 2 days. Haven't done much on the truck. Still can't figure out the wiring situation. The fuse block has all new fuses put in again and brand new wires ran off the back and I still don't have power.

Aside from that, I called a guy a few days ago about a 67/8 hood in real good condition and he said he'd sell it for $75. Finally today I sold a new bench seat that came out of my truck for $150, called up the guy with the hood and he said price is $150. Lowest he'll go is $125. So that kinda ticked me off a bit. Yeah grantit I do have the money for it, but I've got a wiring situation that needs to be addressed first. Plus the hood I have on my truck was $25.

Anyways, with having a life outside of the truck world I'd say I have about $100 to spend. I got to make it last. Who knows when I'll sell another part.

[low&slow]

It's quite a few days. Finally figured out I had a bad fuse block. So I'm doing short term fix with all the wiring minus the gauges so I can start it and see if the lights work.

As far as that I went to the local swap meet at Firebird raceway in Emmett Idaho and scored on some good parts.

First I got a nice set of 67/8 headlight bezels for $10.

Second I found a VERY NICE 67/8 hood and the guy only wanted $25, but said it was late in the day so he'd sell for just $15. I had a pair of really nice custom valve covers that have been chromed I traded straight across for. The drive home was interesting having a hood tied down to the roof of my car.

So no need for body work now. Just got to get the wiring done and console finished up.

[low&slow]

Well looks like I got 9 days left. Actually 8 days, but whose counting. Not much has been done.

I ran a couple new wires for the alternator and distributor. As for the rest of the wiring, can't do to much until I get all my aluminum back from being cut so I can measure the length the wires need to be cut.

Body work - not much has been done now that I got this other hood.

Seats have been mounted.

[low&slow]

Well I got till this Wednesday to get my list done. I don't think I thought about the reality side of life when I started this thread. My goal was to work on my truck every day for 24 days. Didn't work out so well. Maybe got 2 weeks in, but those days were spread out with only about 2 hrs a day to work on it.

Anyways, I got my aluminum back from being cut. Turned out really nice with nice edges except the top piece is 1/4 inch too narrow, but it'll just have to work for now. I didn't think about all the different shapes on the floor so most of my days have been spent trying to measure and cut for those areas on the side pieces. Good thing I've only been cutting on one side. That one will be my mistake side and the other side will fit more nicely. I don't mind though. All the ugly cuts will be hidden by the seats.

Also, I took the top piece of my console to a neighbor who has a sheet metal brake to try and bend (brake) my aluminum and didn't work out very well. The aluminum is 1/8 inch thick and he has a little brake so it wasn't doing anything. So we scored the aluminum where it needed to be bent (broke) and at about a 45* angle, the aluminum broke in two pieces. Every bend we tried to make ended up braking apart. That was fine though for me. We made some supports for underneath and pop riveted the pieces to the shaped I wanted. Turned out really nice actually. I'll post pics tomorrow.

We also tried to make a new battery box, but couldn't get it past 45* when I needed 90*. I'll have to figure something out for that tomorrow.

So now that I got my aluminum back, I can start to run my wires to the inside of the cab. My goal is to start it by Monday night if the weather allows. Suppose to rain all weekend . Guess I'll just have to work from the inside of my cab

[low&slow]

Okay well the project is over. Got the truck start at 3 a.m. Wednesday. 3 hrs before I had to check into the hospital. Didn't get much body work done, but got 99% of my console made. Turned out really nice.

Surgery went well. Home now. Doing alright. Tired as He%% though

[True 67]

Glad to hear everything went well.

True