Son and I had a boys weekend, worked on my 70 K10

[glock35ipsc]

My wife and my daughter left my son (8 y/o) and I alone this weekend, so we decided to spend our together time working on my 70 we call Goldie.

A little background about Goldie. My Dad bought the truck from the original owner in 1974 (I had always thought it was 73, but he told me yesterday it was 74). The truck had 40-some thousand miles on it, and he paid $4500 for it. Even though I was only 4, I remember the day he brought it home. This man has never kept a vehicle for more than 3-4 years, so the fact that we still have this truck just amazes me.

My Dad always knew I loved this truck, and about a year ago, he gave me the title to it, as well as giving my brother is cherry 72. Goldie is the truck that got me into loving these things!

She has sat for the last year without hardly ever been driven. I want to start driving her more, so my son and I decided to clean her up and do a few things to her.

We started out by acid washing the wheels. They looked terrible, so bad I had thought about replacing them with something else. After acid washing them, they look awesome!

Dad put a rubber mat in her several years ago, and it was cracking real bad. I (for some reason) still had a new brown carpet kit that I bought well over 10 years ago but never put in. So we pulled the seat, vacuumed everything, and installed the carpet. It is a cheapo JC Whitney kit, and doesn't fit real great, but looks better than the old mat.

Then we pulled the huge steering wheel and installed the smaller wheel out of my 68.

The original instrument cluster was looking sad, so I took it out and cleaned and waxed the gauges and painted the pointers, tested all the lights, and installed everything into a new bezel that I had up in the attic.

Next it got a thorough pressure washing under the hood and underneath. After taking a test drive to test the gauges, I noticed the master cylinder was leaking down the booster. So I got the master cylinder/booster for the 68 out of the attic and we installed it. My son helped me bleed the brakes, then we went for another test drive. NIGHT AND DAY!!!!! I don't remember this truck stopping so good! I had replaced all 4 brake drums and shoes a few years ago, but even after that it still never stopped right. Now it stops on a dime!

Goldie drives like a new truck now. We still have a few things we need to do... fix the dome light, find a new radio (no cutting the dash on Goldie though!), and find some good used chrome bumpers. Some day I want to repaint her. She has been repainted once but it didn't last long. Originally she had a white top, and I'll do that again. The body is as straight as it looks, except for a ding in the tailgate.

All in all, it was a great day in the shop with my boy, and everything we done did not cost a dime! Well, except for the cheeseburgers we had after we drove Goldie to town last night!