69 C10 swb stepside project 45 ACP

[68 TT]

Got the brake pedal welded on then cleaned up the mount bracket and sprayed the whole assembly with satin black.

I will get it bolted in tomorrow, install the master cylinder & prop valve then start plumbing my brake lines.

[68 TT]

Picked up the rebuilt calipers, brake pads, flex lines, banjo bolts and new clips so I can get the brakes working on this thing once I have the hard lines plumbed from the proportioning valve.

Not sure if the flex lines are going to work. They might be a bit too long. I will test fit them some time soon and see if I need to use a different part. These are the 93 C2500 parts to match the calipers.

[68 TT]

Cleaned up and sprayed the calipers with high heat black so they won't get rusty as fast.

[68 TT]

I stole the tires off the rear street wheels I have for my Camaro and put them onto the 15x10 Cragar Soft-8 wheels I have that were on my 67 C10.

Put them onto the stepside then painted the balancing weights to match the wheels. The silver weights really stand out against an all black wheel.

[68 TT]

The gap above the top of the rear tire is just over 8". Much to high for my liking. Once I get this thing assembled and complete I will see where the ride height ends up and make some adjustments.

Most likely it will end up with an axle over spring arrangement like a Camaro and I will be building a set of Cal-Trac bar like traction devices for it.

The front will come down quite a bit with an iron head big block vs the stock 6-cylinder that was in there stock. I believe the front end was all original parts still (before I tore it all apart) and the springs are the originals. I hope it doesn't drop too far. We will see where it ends up after assembly is compete.

[68 TT]

While cleaning out the interior I decided to take everything out from under the dash so I could clean, repair & paint the whole area and line it with sound deadener.

The glove box had a bunch of scrap & junk in it but one unassuming looking piece of paper I pulled out was the back side of the mounting paperwork for the protect-o-plate. I turned it over and the plate was still attached & readable

The original owner was Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. of San Francisco. Pretty cool to find this and know the origins of the truck.

This and still having the SPID intact on the original special order paint color glove box door are kind of nice documents to have even if I am changing pretty much everything.

I inverted the image in the last pic so it is more readable.

[68 TT]

I needed to install the steering column to get the brake lines bent & routed properly so that lead to gutting the entire under dash area, hitting it with the grinder & wire wheel then painting the under dash area satin black.

[68 TT]

Heater box looks pretty good. Just dirty, no rust anywhere unlike my other trucks that will need some repair work on their heater housings.

[68 TT]

Pulled the cheapo stereo out of the dash to find it had been partially cut. No big deal as I don't have a post type stereo to go in just DIN type CD players.

At least I don't have to feel bad about cutting up an uncut dash now.

I have a few holes to weld up above & to the right of the stereo opening from PO's equipment hangers.

[68 TT]

A PO had put a single aftermarket speaker into the center dash opening with a speaker grille over the top of the dash louvers.

I got lucky and the speaker had been mounted through the stock louvers and none were butchered to install the other speaker.

[68 TT]

Pulled the cracked dash pad off and found quite the dead bug collection under there.

The pad support is rust free and all the studs are in good shape. I might look into getting this one recovered.

[68 TT]

The truck came with a set of decent bucket seats but no mount brackets. I had the old seat frame from the 67 sitting around so I pulled it apart and set the bucket seats on it.

They fit pretty well to the seat base frame so I put it in the truck. It sits a bit high but that could be fixed pretty easily. It will work for something to sit on while working on the truck much better than a milk crate or the bucket seats sitting right on the floor.

As you can see I also pulled the driver door off so I could get the lower pillar patch installed. Then I can put the outer rocker on and paint the cab to keep all the bare metal from rusting any further.

[68 TT]

I got the new master cylinder installed and test fit the 2nd gen F-body perpendicular mount proportioning valve bracket. Won't work on a 67-72 truck with manual brakes as the steering column is right in the way.

I will need to find or fabricate a parallel style mount bracket but I may just buy an aftermarket bracket & prebent lines as they are pretty inexpensive.

[mac]

Truck is lookin' good for the short time you've been workin' on it. Great to see someone else from Spokane on the site!

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by mac

Truck is lookin' good for the short time you've been workin' on it. Great to see someone else from Spokane on the site!

Thanks.

Not many of us on here. There are a few though.

[68 TT]

Finally managed to get the the wrecking yard again to grab the other half of the clam shell motor mounts I need to install the drivetrain.

Got a cancer free battery box and a crew cab truck rear seat that is in pretty good shape along with the shoulder belts from the same truck.

I didn't think the seat brackets would be even close but they line up pretty good. I am going to modify an old set of 67 bench seat mounts I have to fit the crew cab seat as the mounts on it are not adjustable.

[68 TT]

First cancer free used battery box I have come across up here. It looks like it will clean up nicely and save me some money there.

[68 TT]

The driver side door shell was pretty hammered in addition to the large dent in the skin. The dent is easily fixable but the upper hinge mount area had been cut out and oxy-acetylene welded back together along with the window regulator area.

Not worth the effort to fix it when I have two other better sets of doors on hand.

I may experiment on this one to see if I can remove the door skin intact and fix it for the K10 project. The skins on it are really ugly but the shells, tinted glass & chrome vent window parts are in great shape.

I want to play around with the bare inner shell to see if I can retrofit some square body power window & lock parts into the 67-72 doors. It will be a whole lot easier to test fit with the skin off and easily reinstallable for clearance checks. I have a bunch of the square body parts sitting around so it won't cost me anything but a little time.

[68 TT]

Put the square body high hump tunnel back into the 67 cab and installed the 67-72 high hump tunnel from it into the stepside.

Now I have the clearance needed for the T-400 or any other trans I choose to install down the road and it fixes the chopped up hole a PO put there for the column to floor shifter conversion that was done a long time ago.

[68 TT]

Got the manual steering gear box, center link & idler arm cleaned up, painted and reinstalled.

Forgot the 67-68 steering shaft was longer. I am going to save this 68 one for the 67 C10 in case I hate the 3-speed manual trans and put an auto trans back in it.

My 69 K10 has a good auto trans column that will go into the stepside and I will complete the square body steering column retrofit I started for the K10.

[68 TT]

Got the 69 auto trans column with shift indicator & fiber optic parts pulled out of my 69 K10 project and installed into the stepside.

Since I am pulling the in cab fuel tank out of the K10 I unbolted the seat and slid it out of the way instead of removing the steering wheel for column removal clearance. I may keep the Vega GT steering wheel on there until I can find the 68 horn button & install parts I need to make it functional but eventually the 68 wheel will go onto the stepside.

Still need to pull the in cab fuel tank out of the K10 and put it into the stepside but that will have to wait until my new filler neck gasket shows up and I get the cab sprayed with some paint to protect it over the winter.

[68 TT]

Pulled the wing window & glass out of the damaged driver door from the stepside and put them into the good door shell.

Also installed the door handle and adjusted the door better while I was at it.

They will come apart again when I have the money for the new seal kit and have the time to paint the truck.

At least now there is glass in there to help keep the weather out over the winter.

I still need to install the rear glass but need to wait for the new seal to get here and I am going to paint the cab first.

Current plan is to paint the outside of the truck satin black without messing with any of the body work other than hitting it with the DA sander to clean the surfaces up. The interior will get painted dark red to match the seat.

I need to get it on the road and completely functional so I can use it as a truck and get my other project vehicles completed and gone. After that I can give the stepside the attention it deserves to make it as nice as I want it to be.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Truck is really coming along..

[VA72C10]

Nice progress!

[68 TT]

Thanks guys.

I need to wait for the rain to stop so I can get the front brakes installed & plumbed then I can install the engine & trans and the 67 / 68 front clip.