Dads 1966 C-10

[CustomCab66]

So after I did an LS swap on my 66 SWB custom cab my dad decided to put his 1966 back together his truck is a standard cab long bed fleet side. Originally it was a 327V8 with a three on the tree. Since then It was switched to a 4 on the floor and the old 327 replaced with a used 350. It was his daily driver back when I was a little tike. He decided to tear it apart maybe 10 years ago and the plan was to give it a freshening up and give it to my little brother. My little brother moved out of the state so it just sat in the corner of the shop collecting dust. I’ll start adding pictures of the truck and the progress. It has come a long way since last summer. Pictures to follow

[CustomCab66]

So I started receiving pictures from my little dad and I was super stoked that he was working on the yellow truck. Up until this point the cab was sitting in the corner of the shop. It needed floor patches cab corners and the rocker panels replaced. Here’s my dad 65 years young

[CustomCab66]

Passenger side floor and rocker panel work. The floor support was salvageable also the cab corner was replaced. Follow along for the build

[CustomCab66]

Everything is looking way better welds smoothed out and cab corner in primer.

[CustomCab66]

Wiper motor mount was rusted out pretty bad. Salvaged one from a doner truck. Cut removed and replaced

[CustomCab66]

September 3rd 2018:
Used an NOS GM rocker panel on this side. Floor is looking good. The underside was cleaned and coated with undercoating

[CustomCab66]

September 8th 2018:
Cab corners handled, roof of the cab is clean and dent free. Gas filler hole has been filled with a scratch made patch panel

[CustomCab66]

Drip rails on the A-pillar were worse for wear. New ones were hand made and welded back in place

[CustomCab66]

September 15th 2018:
Doors and cab in primer, some color on the firewall

[CustomCab66]

September 29th 2018:
Interior color done, doors were jammed out with exterior color and interior color on the door panels. The color is a little darker than the OEM color but it matches the seat that we will be using out of a 2000 Silverado truck and of course the dash is even darker on the 66’s they used a dark fawn poly that is flattened and textured. My dad did the best he could do the dash is still darker than the interior color keeping with the original theme

[CustomCab66]

My dads 66 had warning lights originally but we decided to convert the truck to gauges. The original cluster will clean up nice but I have a super clean 66 gauges cluster to use in the truck. Since I do not have the correct dash harness I will convert his original harness to work with the replacement cluster

[CustomCab66]

Originally my dads truck was school bus yellow. He really likes the ivory white top so he painted the top of the doors and cab ivory white. He masked off the top in order to paint the cab the body color

[CustomCab66]

Cab is in color. And back on the chassis. Bed is I. The background being prepped for paint. Way in back is his 1950 3100 that he has had since the early 80’s. We have a donor 5.3 Vortec for that one in the near future

[CustomCab66]

My dad came across a wrecked 2003 suburban with 84,000 miles on it. He gently removed the engine 5.3 Vortec, and transmission 4L60e, along with the engine harness and computer for the 66. This engine runs fantastic and it’s already installed thanks to camera magic

[CustomCab66]

I knew that the stock 5.3 cast iron manifolds would not fit without cutting the top rail of the frame so I bought my dad some speed engineering stainless long tube headers. Fit like a glove

[CustomCab66]

Every detail counts. Glovebox door restored to its former glory

[CustomCab66]

My dad dragged the front end out from under a tree were it hibernated for the last 10 years. Looked a little gross at first but after pressure washing the gunk off it wasn’t to bad. Let’s get it broken down and painted

[CustomCab66]

Battery tray repair, hood hinges cleaned and painted. Inner fenders and core support have a fresh coat of gloss black

[CustomCab66]

Bed sides and front header panel ready for color, front fenders also, grille is painted ivory white just like the factory did it

[CustomCab66]

I just went to my dads to wire up the LS motor. I’m pretty good at it so I’ll dive in head first. First I removed all the wrap and removed all the extra wiring circuits for the Evap, rear O2’s, flex fuel whatever. Then I re routed the harness through the firewall so that I could install the engine computer or PCM under the glovebox inside the cab. Shaved off ten pounds of wire ��. When I left everything that the engine needed to breathe fire was connected to the motor is just a matter of finishing up the PCM wiring inside the cab. The engine already runs because the suburban ran before it was pulled out. We added fuel pressure to the fuel rails did a test fire and she fired right up. No misfires just as expected. I’m getting good at wiring them up

[CustomCab66]

My dad sent these photos yesterday. The front fenders are now painted along with the front bumper and grille. The letter were hand painted and a gloss clear was applied afterwards. Now your up to date. To be continued

[65c10restomod]

what are your plans to get the cluster gauges to work with the ls engine?

[CustomCab66]

Originally Posted by 65c10restomod

what are your plans to get the cluster gauges to work with the ls engine?

65c10restomod,

The fuel gauge wiring doesn’t change.

The oil pressure gauge just uses a pressure line just as before.

The amp gauge wiring stays the same but the 120-130 amp alternator might be a little hard on the old amp gauge, voltage gauge would be a better option. Since the wiring for the old voltage regulator is not needed I remove them.
20 gauge red from regulator to horn relay
18 gauge dark blue from regulator to to alternator
20 gauge white from regulator to alternator
12 gauge red is increased in size to about an 8 gauge. I just used what ever I had around the garage

The new alternator has a higher amperage output compared to the original 66 unit, and in order to take advantage of the increased output I increased the size of the wire from 12gauge to 8 gauge. Be resourceful I used the red wire that I pulled out of a conventional household dryer cord.

The temp gauge, well you just drill a hole in the top of the water pump And thread it 1/2” pipe. Then you thread the temp sender into the pump. Works perfect. Now the engine has two temp senders. One for the gauge and the other for the computer.

Speedometer is pending. But there are several options out there and most of them are not free. Cable X, or replace the tail housing on the tranny. Or convert the speedo to electronic which has proved to be harder than expected. I’m still working on the one in mine and research and development is also not cheap.

[Ronzo]

Great build, following along...

[CustomCab66]

Wiring harness for the PCM is longer than I like and so it makes it difficult to hide the wires under the dash. I will be shortening each wire one by one. I started on it last Friday but I had to head home because of work. Hopefully I can make it back out there a couple more times this summer and finish up the computer wiring.