Starting work on my 71 C20 today.

[King951]

So, the day before yesterday I purchased my first old Chevy. (Previously owned a 1967 F100.) I picked up this truck from the original owners son. The original owner passed away around 08' and the truck for the most part has sat since then. The previous owners son did a little bit of work to the truck before deciding the let it go. He got the bench seat reupholstered, the carburetor rebuilt, a new gas tank / sending unit, a new fuel pump,and a new muffler installed. Yesterday I did some work on the truck in the previous owners yard. Installed an aftermarket electric fuel pump as the stock one was not working for some reason. I also had to read up and do some tinkering with the linkages. (Truck is a on the column.) Believe it or not after sitting for almost 10 years I actually managed to drive it home yesterday. The brakes were a bit sketchy and it felt like a wheel cylinder exploded about halfway home. (Was about a 10 miles city drive from my house.) The drive actually went perfectly well aside from having issues with the linkages on the 3 speed column shifter. I eventually got to the point where I just had to keep it in 2nd / 3rd the entire time. It was getting stuck in reverse, then stuck in first, then it was trying to engage 2 gears at once, then I couldn't get it out of gears, it was just a mess. But, in the end it made it home.

What I plan to do with the truck:
I am going to be using this truck as my daily workhorse. I do hardwood flooring / laminate installation and need something reliable that can pull a small trailer, start every morning, haul demo / old carpet / tile / etc. I am not looking for a hot-rod, I prefer everything to be stock which is one of the most appealing things to me about this truck.

What needs to be done:
Considering the truck actually drove home fairly decently not a whole lot actually NEEDS to be done. I could honestly probably get away with doing the brakes, fixing the linkages, and doing a tune up, although there is a good handful of other small issues I would like to address.

Today I am going to AAA and taking care of switching over the title and getting the tags up to date / insuring the truck.

The brakes. I am not too sure how bad the front / back are. I heard working on rear brakes on a C20 is a pain (something about the rear axle having to come apart?). Hopefully that is not the case and addressing the front disc brakes will be more than enough. The truck also has one of the biggest brake boosters I have ever seen, not sure how well it is working if at all. The master cylinder was leaking like crazy on the drive home. The gasket was completely shot so hopefully that is the problem there.

The transmission shift linkages. I don't know where to even begin on this. I watched videos, read books / articles, had a friend who is a Chevy guy come over, and I am still having issues with these linkages. We got them to the point where I could drive the truck fairly well but had to be over-dramatic with the shifts if that makes any sense. Any little slip and things start going out of wack. We adjusted the small sleeve as far left / up as it would go with no success.

Tires. On the way home I stopped at the nearest gas station and put some air in the tires. They were sitting at about 5 psi. The tires are pretty old and cracked. I filled them up to 40 psi and they seem to be holding air just fine but I don't really want to drive around like that. I am planning on getting some new tires pretty soon here. The wheels are 16 inches. The current tires are 225/75/16. I also need to get a spare situated.

Engine gaskets. One of the valve covers leaks onto the exhaust manifold. There is also a small exhaust leak on the drivers side. I have a full gasket kit for a 350 so I plan on taking care of that possibly today.

Tune up. I want to get new plugs, wires, cap / rotor, electronic ignition, oil change was already done, temp gauge doesn't work so I am not too sure how it was running yesterday in regards to temperature so I will probably get a new thermostat. Not too sure what temp thermo to run in this truck.

Electrical. The headlights do not work. I don't think it is the actual headlights but instead the switch or a fuse as the read lights don't light up as well.

Other than that it is just some small stuff that just makes driving the truck more enjoyable but not necessary. For example the tailgate has a hard time staying closed (popped open while driving), can't open the doors from the inside of the truck, speedometer doesn't work, temp gauge doesn't work, glovebox needs to be installed (p/o bought a new one), would like to get a carpet kit installed, would like to get a dash pad, the previous owner gave me a patch panel for the passenger side where there is some rust.

For anyone who didn't see my first post here is the VIN.

CE241Z609459

C = 4x2
E = V-8
2 = 3/4 ton
4 = Pickup
1 = 1971
Z = Fremont, CA
Sequence Number = 609,459

Here is an updated album of photos of the truck: https://imgur.com/a/WicpB

If you have any recommendations / thoughts feel free to shoot them my way as this is my first Chevy pickup so my knowledge is pretty limited.

King951

[King951]

I made this build thread to keep track of what I have done to my truck and I am not even updating it. Better late than never.

I wanna start by saying I was having huge transmission linkage issues and some of the parts were missing but Grumpy old man came in and saved the day. I honestly cannot thank him enough and probably still wouldn't be driving the truck daily if it wasn't for him.

When I brought the truck home I could barely stop it in my driveway. The master cylinder was spitting fluid out the cap all over the engine bay. That was the first part I replaced. Got a remanufactured one from AutoZone for about $40 slapped it on and it stops pretty good ever since. My rotors are scarred pretty bad but the pads have quite a bit of life left in them. I am gonna wait for something to start making noise or look for any reason whatsoever to get new pads / rotors / calipers / etc. but for now everything is okay.

The truck actually left me stranded on the side of the road coming home from work one day. It was acting like it ran out of gas coughing on the highway. Got towed home. The "freshly rebuilt" carburetor the previous owner mentioned apparently never had it's in-carb filter changed. The thing was black and I couldn't even blow air through it. Gas was pushing past the tension of the spring and started pushing black crud through the carburetor. Wasn't long and all the jets were clogged / etc. Opened it up that night with 2 cans of brake cleaner and a new filter (one under the truck where the gas lines split and a new in carb filter) and have driven it about 300 highway miles since then with no issues. I did break the accelerator pump some how when I took it apart as it no longer works (previously did) so I am ordering a rebuild kit and that will be the next thing I take care of. The carb is a Rochester 2G.

The engine appears to be rebuilt despite the owner stating it has 90k original miles. (Bronze freeze plugs, repainted, under the valve cover it looks new, etc. so I am pretty positive it was rebuilt at some point in time. The truck did belong to the guys father so perhaps he just didn't know.) I looked under the cap and it appeared to be pretty nasty / worn. I went online and ordered a brand new HEI distributor for about $60. Also got some 8mm wires and NGK V-power plugs. By far the best investment I have made so far. Altogether it was about $100 and it runs smoooth. Before it couldn't stay alive unless the idle was set to 1500+ and you could hear a constant misfire. Now it just purs at 650 RPM.

I have been using this truck as my daily driver for work. I do hardwood / laminate flooring installation. I needed something that can haul demo (old carpet / wood / tile / etc.) as well as pull my small-medium sized double axle trailer. So far I am pleased.

I topped off the transmission and rear end with some gear oil 80w I believe it was. The rear end seems to be holding it in but the transmission keeps leaking. It appears to be coming out of the speedometer cable which doesn't even work. Not sure how I am gonna handle that. I am paranoid one of these days the thing is just gonna rip itself apart due to no fluid as it leaks at a pretty high rate.

The u-joints on the truck are making clanking noises so I am 99% positive they are shot. This is going to be one of the next things I replace. I am gonna go underneath and try to replace and clean up as much suspension / steering parts / arms / bushings / joints / etc. The steering is pretty sloppy and everything under the truck looks pretty shot so hopefully that will help.

The truck has no flooring in it, just the sheet metal. There is some rust on the passenger side but I have a replacement panel and a welder. Once I take care of that I am going to get some dynamat / heat shield and some carpet for the truck. Driving that thing it almost feels like you're sitting rite next to the exhaust manifold.

I got some new tires for the front and am getting new rears this Monday. I went with LT 245/75/16 and I am very pleased with them so far. Very heavy duty tire. A little wider than I wanted but I can't complain. $250 for the pair mounted and balanced.

On my upcoming to-do list:

Weld in passenger patch panel
Get carpet / dynamat
Fix doors / windows (Driver window wont go all the way up and the handle to open from inside does not work)
New heater core / hose
Fix transmission leak if possible
Add vacuum port to carb (have no vacuum advance atm since every vacuum port on my Rochester 2G is blocked with metal bearings for some reason)
Get new rear tires (Should be done this monday)
Fix bushings / u-joins / shocks / steering components
Might need a new battery soon


Can't leave without posting some photos:

https://imgur.com/a/Ps5hZ

-Ryan

[King951]

It has been about 6 weeks since I last updated this thread. In that time a lot has happened with my truck. I will post some updates / photos if there is anyone out there still following this thread. I'll start with the checklist where I left off.

On my upcoming to-do list:

Weld in passenger patch panel
- This is finally going to happen. Good friend of mine just purchased a new Miller welder. We did some welding work yesterday putting a Flowmaster 40 series on my truck as a warm up for the passenger patch panel that is gonna happen this upcoming weekend.

Get carpet / dynamat
- Done. Carpet looks amazing, went with a dark green. Also put some off brand dynamat all over the place. It is a night and day difference on the amount of noise heard in the cab. By far one of the best investments.

Fix doors / windows (Driver window wont go all the way up and the handle to open from inside does not work)
- Done. Ended up taking the inside of the drivers door apart completely. Bought a new plastic rolling shim for the windows. Regreased and cleaned everything. Now the door opens, closes, and rolls up/down like new.

New heater core / hose
- Got new heater hose and a new heater core as of today. This is my plan for tomorrow. Hose ended up being 3/4. Got 6 ft of it from Auto Zone for about $8.

Fix transmission leak if possible
- Still leaks. Worse than it did 6 weeks ago at that. It appears to be leaking from the speedometer cable. Not sure what I am gonna do about this.

Add vacuum port to carb (have no vacuum advance atm since every vacuum port on my Rochester 2G is blocked with metal bearings for some reason)
- Another huge fix. Ended up getting an entirely new carburetor. Great investment.

Get new rear tires (Should be done this monday)
- Got all new tires. LT truck tires at that. Was $500 for all 4 mounted and balanced.

Fix bushings / u-joins / shocks / steering components
- Adjusted the steering box and was amazed at how much it actually helped. Went about 1.5 turns clockwise on the box and it made the steering noticeably better.

Might need a new battery soon
- Got a new 5 year battery from Walmart for $95.





My truck is basically in daily driver territory now. I would have no problem trusting this thing to take me anywhere. I have put about 1500 miles on it since I started this thread. It has been a lot of work / time to get it where it is now, but I am happy with the results. I will end this off with another checklist and hopefully when I next update this thread it will all be done.

Weld in patch panel

Fix float is gas tank (filled with gas)

Brakes work fine but squeak quite a bit

New fan shroud (ordered it last week)

Install headliner (already got it, just gotta install it)

Buy and install dash pad cover

New shocks


And here is some photos.
https://imgur.com/a/cULtk

[King951]

I will start updating this thread more often, just been extremely busy these past couple months. Good news - the C20 has been put to work quite a bit these past two months. If you read my previous post which was in the beginning of January you will notice I mentioned the transmission leak started to get worse. Well, the inevitable happened. Transmission just went out on me one day. I assumed it was due to lack of fluid but when I pulled it out it still had plenty of fluid in there so as far as the culprit, I have no idea. About $900 later I got the transmission back with all new internals / seals / gaskets. Had to get new gears as the previous ones were in non-reusable shape. I came to the conclusion that I am in no way putting my new 3 speed back together with the nightmare of a column shifting linkage I had. After buying bushings, bolts, etc. I could never get the 3 speed on the column to be "good enough". I run a hardwood / tile / concrete polishing business and occasionally one of my guys will need to use the C20. This wasn't possible previously as the 3 on the tree was just too unreliable. I was the only one able to actually get it in and out of every gear just due to the fact that I drove it so often. Figured I was already $900 deep so I went all out and got the $350+ Hurst floor shift conversion kit. By far the best $350 I have spent on the truck. Made the whole driving experience so much better. No more guessing, anyone can drive it without any complaints, no more getting stuck at a light / stop sign. I would HIGHLY recommend the conversion to anyone who was in the same boat as me.

I also gave the small block a bit of a dress up. I still have no idea whether the motor I have is a 307 or a 350. The truck came with a 307 but has very obviously been rebuilt as the internals look brand new. I didn't take any measurements while I had everything out in order to determine if it's a 307 or 350 and I am still punching myself over it. Edelbrock Performaner intake, new valve covers, and a Thermoquad 4bbl / edelbrock air cleaner. I know some people are gonna make some comments about the Thermoquad choice but I personally think it is a great carburetor and I got this specific one rebuilt and ready to go for only $60; steal of a deal imho. Engine wise the C20 is running beautifully.

I used the C20 to pull my work trailer which can be seen in the photos below. It is a double axle ~10ft box trailer that weighs 3,000-5,000 lbs depending on what I am using it for. C20 pulled it 60 MPH down the freeway no problem. (Not as easy as my 454 Suburban, but not bad for an almost 50 year old truck with a small block.) Ended up getting 2 more of the new LT 245/75/16 highway tires so I am matching new tires front and back.

Back to when I was putting the rebuilt transmission in. Anyone else ever had any issues with U-joints? Got 4 different U-joints from Autozone and not 1 of them was correct for my 71 C20. Ended up destroying all 4 of them due to exploding as they were much to big despite being listed for my truck. In the end I ended up re-greasing and re-using the original U-joint as it was still in decent shape. Picture of the destroyed ones below.

Just purchased all the shocks and some paint. Yep - the C20 is getting a paint job. I'll leave the color choice as a surprise for my next post.

PHOTOS

https://imgur.com/a/Wavex

PHOTOS

King