hAetwagon's 65 Progress thread..

[hAetWagon]

This is the intro so it's a bit long...won't alway be like this I promise.

I found a 65 C10 long bed in October of last year that had a 350 crate motor and 2spd powerglide in it already. Nothing was permanently installed. The engine bay was a rat's nest of wires and confusion. I figure this is as good a place as any to post progress,and solicit tips and advice. If I had my heart's desire I would strip this truck to the frame and bare metal and start from scratch.. That's a way down the road though. For now I'm going to see how close I can get it to where I want it doing all of the work myself. This is going to present some obstacles but I want to do it for the challenge and the experience.
Thus far I've stripped the top of the motor down and replaced the carb,cam,manifold,fan,rewired the truck, (by hand which I'm sure the rest of you know sucks...) tore out the bed and have done as much as I can to clean up what doesn't work. isn't going to be used or just looks like plain doodoo.

I've gotten the motor to run reliably,replaced all the gaskets and that was goal 1.
#2 is..for some reason I no longer have reverse in the Powerglide transmission. I know diddly about trannies. I'm going to replace it with a th350 (which if anyone has anything I should know in advance things I may not know I need I'd gladly welcome it).
Once the powerglide is out I'll use it to learn transmissions (seeing as I won't need it.) and rebuild it.
As you can imagine not having reverse makes parking tricky. It'd be nice not to have to plan my routes and parking spots accordingly again.

However..parking will remain tricky after the swap due to step #3.
I need power steering. It still has the 65 power steering assy sans power steering pump I wanted to upgrade to the newer box since I already habe the pump. I know I need an adaptor plate and to cut a few reliefs.. but I also need to know what other components I need.. I'm going to continue to do a lot of searching but I still don't quite have the total hang of the search function here...kinda all over the place.

Once that's done... I'm tackling suspension.
I'm debating on just getting a notch and static kit for now or just put the money towards an air ride kit. I've got the hookup on the air kits so it's a matter of do I wait and just do it once or take the static off and go from there selling the kit? I think cost comparison will win decide that one.

After that (or during) I'm going to be doing the body work. I haven't welded much and plan on learning using this truck. I have an extra door that needs some work and I can use it to practice shaving handles. Frame welds I'm not dumb enough to do myself for the air ride....that comes later.

without further ado here are the pics of my truck. I've decided I'll never get rid of it as a symbol of the past year and how hard things have gotten. It was my toy at first...then my daily driver when I had to give up my Tundra.. It's still here. I'm still here and therefore neither of us is going anywhere.

It's not fair that one of us has to be so durned sexy while the other looks like hell. So I'm helpin him out.

This community has been a lot of help with a lot of great guys from what I can tell by lurking so I'm making it home and hope I can contribute at some point. Thanks in advance guys.