64 C10 - This Rat's a Keeper!

[67stepsideC10]

I've been through a lot with this old truck. I bought it from a nice old guy out in Kannapolis, NC who'd took it on trade for some other vehicle. It cranked and ran, fuel line sucked gas from an antifreeze bottle under the hood. Brakes "needed bleeding" and it needed the tank cleaned/replaced. 4 mismatch wheels and tires, only two held air. That was the truck for me. $1200 and a call to AAA for a tow and it was mine.



I had no idea what I was in for with this thing. Ended up needing wheel cylinders, so replaced those, then blew out the brake lines, so I ended up just redoing all the brake parts from the master cylinder down the line. Problem solved.

Replaced the gas tank with a nice new in cab unit. Looking back I wish i'd done an under-bed tank, but oh well.



Bought some nice 15" 6 lug rally wheels with centers and rings from a guy in Denver, NC for $250. Cheapest tires I could find were these BFGs at Wal-Mart for about $400 mounted and balanced.



Bolted on some spinners to the centers for an added touch, and roughed up the front bumper so it'd match the rest of the truck.



Then, the fun really began, now that it was driveable.

I began to notice it would overheat any time I got going faster than about 45mph. Seemed counter-intuitive...more air should be cooler, right? Well, I went through all the typical troubleshooting steps:

Tightened fan belt, no joy.
New thermostat, no joy.
New radiator cap, no joy.
New water pump, no joy.
Radiator and engine coolant flush and replace (even bought a flush gun), no joy.
Professional radiator flush, no joy.

I was ready to burn the thing to the ground.

After a peak inside the radiator I realized it had a bunch of little chunks at the top of the tubes. Tried a magnet and sure enough they were metal.



Took the radiator out for a third time (I was getting good at it by now!) and had it flushed at the radiator shop. Same exact problem. Same metallic material in the tubes after running the engine.

I determined the engine must have been so full of stop-leak that it was just filling the radiator up with crud. The radiator was acting like a filter. Tubes were clogging, and as soon as I got up to speed, the open tubes weren't enough to cool the engine.

Hopped on Craigslist and found a 250ci Inline 6 with less than 50k miles, with the integrated head removed and replaced with the old style head, painted up all nice and orange, even had HEI. Gave me an extra head on top of all that! I think I only gave $200 for it, delivered. This was going to solve my problem, I just knew it.



Never having done an engine swap before, looking back I think this was the best one to start with. It was all very simple.

Old engine:


Removed:



Went ahead and put in a new clutch and had the flywheel turned because I didn't want to have to pull it again any time soon.





Got the bad boy in there in about a day and a half, cranked up right off the bat. I was one happy camper.



That is, until I realized it was doing the EXACT SAME THING. Still overheating the second I stayed at 45mph+.

Finally someone with some sense stepped in. A family member handed me an old 4 tube radiator out of a 55 Chevrolet. We zip tied it in, connected up the hoses, and went for a test drive. Problem solved.

While we're still on the good stuff, another note about the motor. The guy I bought it from kept telling me "those power steering brackets are worth a whole lot...I really shouldn't take your offer but I need the money". I thought it was BS. Didn't want power steering on my truck anyway so I stuck 'em on eBay. Sold for $283. Holy freakin crap. He wasn't kidding. Motor paid for itself.



All said and done, I probably have $4000 in this hunk of junk. It's still a rusted out raggedy old rat, but it's mine for good. It's too rusted out to ever fix up, but I actually like the "patina". We use it often for moving things, and I've actually daily driven it for the past two weeks to and from work. The gears get jammed and it's loud as heck because the muffler is blown out, but I love it.











I have dreams of lowering it, maybe even bagging it, patching the floorboards, swapping the bench for bucket seats, etc, but it'll always be a rat. I'd love to teach my kids to drive in such an old survivor. A 3 speed on the column will be unheard of by then! I'm never selling this old thing.

My wife and I even used it for a few of our engagement pictures...and yes, i'm well aware she's out of my league!









And one funny one...says it all...