Newbie 1965 SWB Fleet DD Project - ROUGH Start

[Dweezle]

Hello everyone. I've been lurker/reader for a while now, but didn't actually register with the forum until yesterday. I want to start by saying how great of a resource this website has been thus far, and that I'm truly grateful for all of the time invested by you all who document your experiences and knowledge.

I guess I'll start by sharing a little bit about myself and this project. I'm a 32 year old husband and father of three. I didn't grow up with a father or anyone who was into wrenching or anything like that. My dad was an Airforce pilot, so we moved a lot and he wasn't around much to work on things around the house. That being said, my grandfather on my dad's side was extremely handy. I remember hearing stories as a kid of my grandmother asking him to clean the fridge, so he took the whole thing apart, cleaned every nut and bolt, and reassembled it. She never asked him to clean out the fridge again, but that's just the kind of dude he was. I didn't grow up around him - with my dad's job we spent a lot of time overseas, but it seemed like every time we visited he had some old truck in pieces in his garage and was sure to make it a rock solid vehicle by the time all was said and done.

I can't really pinpoint when my affinity for classic trucks started, but for as long as I can remember, when anyone asked me what my dream vehicle was, my answer was "a Chevy with wood in the bed". Of course that answer was in my younger years before I knew the different models, years of production, etc. As I got older the answer became a 1960-1966 Chevy. I had always planned on buying one and fixing it up - teaching myself as I went along, and hopefully passing the skills learned down to my son, were I ever to have one. Fast forward, and my third child, my boy, was born on September 8, 2012.

On August 8, 2015, after much research and waiting for some financial things to line up, I headed out on a four hour drive with a good friend of mine to look at and possibly purchase a 1965 Chevy C10 SWB Fleet. The truck was advertised as a daily driver, and seemed to have a lot of the "big" stuff done already, which was good for me since I haven't ever really worked on cars before (I've become quite proficient with framing, flooring, plumbing and electrical work, but haven't delved into vehicles much). The ad stated the truck was equipped with a rebuilt Chevy 350; Mucnie car 4 speed tranny; power steering; power brakes, disk front and drum rear; front and rear sway bars; aluminum headers; repro tach; new steering linkage; leather bucket seats...you get the idea.

We got to the house and the truck wasn't exactly as pictured in the ad. I mean, it was the same truck, but the pictures were clearly not taken recently. Differences were new front fenders, a broken tail pipe bracket (1 pipe straight out the back, one hanging down a few inches off the road), and it was dirty as all get out, inside and out. I gave the truck a look over, best I could anyway with what little bit of knowledge I had, and we took it for a two mile test drive. The truck didn't seem to shift very well and felt pretty primitive to drive, but I figured that was to be expected. I did notice the truck smelt like oil/fuel pretty bad, but again, figured that was to be expected. The only rust I found that went through the metal was in the rocker panels, the driver kick panel, and the passenger floor board (pin holes). The guy wanted $7,500, and included a bunch of goodies: new a arms; inner and outer rocker panels; a new gauge cluster and lens; a front bumper; a wiper cowl; and tons of bolts, hinges, and miscellaneous stuff. I paid him $7,000, loaded the truck on a trailer and made the four hour drive home. I planned on using the truck as a DD and slowly making some repairs and improvements, mostly to keep the truck in good condition for a frame off restoration with my son someday. I never intended to make a show truck or anything, so a few dents or dings don't concern me. I just want a solid, decent looking and decently comfortable truck.

The day after purchasing the truck I loaded up some things into the bed (very carefully as some of the wood is missing) and headed to the dump. The drive to the dump went well, except for some smoke of unknown origin at the time, but I thought I could adjust the carb or something and get that fixed. On the way home I was driving 45mph and the truck died. Managed to coast it into a parking lot, but couldn't get it started again. Had a friend help me tow it to his shop and after half a day of trouble shooting we figured out the ignition module in the distributor was fried. Bad luck? Hope so! We replaced it and all was well. I also bought a rebuilt Quadrajet carb for the truck in hopes that it might fix some of the smoke I was having. It came with an Edelbrock and just seemed to run way rich no matter how I adjusted it. We put the Quadrajet on, but fuel was leaking everywhere, so the Edelbrock went back on and the supposedly rebuilt Quadrajet went to a friend, along with a new rebuild kit, for a "real" rebuild this time.

I continued to drive the truck daily to work, on errands, etc., and about two days later the same thing happened. I took the next day off work, went and got another ignition module and swapped it out (good thing I was paying attention when my friend helped me with this the first time). I ended up leaving the tach unplugged from the distributor and taking off a quick disconnect on the battery to see if one of those things might be causing the problem. All was well again, and the truck ran fine for about a week. I started feeling better about things and wanted to make the truck more presentable. I went and bought a colored 2k primer system, sanded the body and sprayed the truck. Next on my list was possibly a rewire to sort out these electrical problems and a new wood kit for the bed.

Each day I drove the truck I noticed the smoking was getting worse. Research revealed it may have been a coolant leak because I thought I was seeing white smoke. I also noticed some coolant pooling on top of the intake manifold, so I put two and two together and thought I knew what the problem was. Since this truck was supposed to be a DD and I didn't want my wife having to take me everywhere I decided to take the truck to Pep Boys and have them look into the coolant leak since they could have it done in a single morning. They found the leak, replaced the thermostat and some other bits, and told me the truck still smoked. They said it was a blue smoke, meaning an oil leak in the engine. They recommended buying a crate engine and paying them to install it...no thanks!

At this point my wife and I were seriously contemplating selling the truck at a loss and moving on. We are a single income family and don't have a ton of disposable income. Hence, our intent to use this truck as a daily driver and make slow but steady improvements.

I continued to drive the truck while pondering my options with the information about the oil leak. Eventually, I started noticing oil splatter on the rear bumper and tailgate, and on my driveway behind the truck. The smoke was getting pretty bad, and I decided to stop driving the truck until I could figure out what the problem was. My friend came to the rescue again and helped me take things apart and do some trouble shooting. We were able to find that one of the intake valves on the driver's side of the engine was stuck. I was pretty pissed and discouraged at this point, so I just parked the truck and walked away from it for a week.

Once I had my wits about me, my friend and I took the engine down a bit more and removed the lifter for the stuck valve. The lifter was in three different pieces, so we thought we had found the problem. I went to a local machine shop, bought a lifter for $3, and installed it. Unfortunately, it didn't fix the problem. Today I went back to the same machine shop and bought a new cam, 16 lifters, break in oil, cam lube, a gasket kit, and an oil filter. we plan on installing the new cam this weekend, along with the rebuilt Quadrajet. Hopefully the truck will be drivable again by Monday.

Sorry for being so long winded, but this has been a bit of a rollercoaster of an entry into the world of classic truck ownership. I've had my happy moments, my discouraged moments, and my what the heck did I get myself into moments. I've also been getting over the fact that I way over paid for this truck in the mechanical condition it's in. I guess I'm thinking this post and maintaining this thread may be a sort of therapeutic outlet to keep me going, and hopefully something to look back on and laugh about some day.

Here are some pictures of the truck:

There are from a few days after I bought it. I had cleaned the whole interior with simple green and installed the cowl extensions between the doors and hood.











Here are some during and after pictures of the priming process. It was my first time painting anything like this with a gun and compressor, so it didn't turn out to well. It has a sand paper texture to it. I plan to wet sand the whole thing once it's back up and running again.



















And here are the parts I picked up today...time to get to work this weekend!