1966 C10 Daily Driver

[slowGN]

Looking good. Hope to see it riding around on the road soon.

[KenAdams]

Originally Posted by slowGN

Looking good. Hope to see it riding around on the road soon.

Thanks! I'm hoping for June.

[KenAdams]

Got back from a wedding out of town yesterday. And measured out the entire rear end housing. It's not perfect, but it's darn near close.

I started to assemble the rear today and had an odd pattern. It was too far to the heel on the drive side and to much toe on the coast. It took me a minute to realized what had happened; I forgot to put the pinion shims in. The real bad part was I was out of marking compound. After I took these pics. I ripped it apart and put the shims in and it looked okay. I ordered some more marking compound and will do a final assembly later this week. Here is pics of a .025" too shallow pinion:

[KenAdams]

Got my "fish plates" in. I think I am going to hole saw out an 1 1/8" hole in the middle for additional strength. Hopefully I can get this frame finished up. I want to start assembling it!

[Captainfab]

A little tip. If you have room to work with, I would round off those points a bit. And yes a hole or two to weld up wouldn't hurt.

Originally Posted by KenAdams

Got my "fish plates" in. I think I am going to hole saw out an 1 1/8" hole in the middle for additional strength. Hopefully I can get this frame finished up. I want to start assembling it!

[aggie91]

I'm in for the rest of the journey towards completion.

I agree with Captainfab, round off those corners...

[KenAdams]

Made full use of the engine hoist this weekend. I got the frame chop welded up and all the cross members cut out except the transmission cross member. Only a couple things left on the punch list before I send it to the sand blaster.

1. Cut & fit rear c botch for Ridetech supports/brackets
2. Cut out original trans cross member
3. Drill rear cab support holes
4. Remove radiator c? brackets
5. Weld in fish plates
6. Cut out holes in front cross member for Ridetech coil overs

[KenAdams]

More pics. I couldn't wait and started completing items out of order. I ground down and finished one exterior side to make sure I didn't have any undercut or pin holes. I was confident in my welds but was surprised in the amount and hardness of the mill scale. My OCD got the better of me, but was satisfied when I had it all finished. Still not sure how I am going to mount the fish plate, thinking two holes now... we will see. They are going on the inside, for a couple seconds I was thinking about a different shape or bigger, but am now pretty sure I am going to stick with what I have.

[KenAdams]

I changed my mind again. With a big new project at work I am just not going to have time to paint the frame, so the frame is going to someone who can sandblast and powder coat it later this week. Got a few odds and ends to wrap up but I was able to get the c notches cut and the relief in the front cross member for the coil overs.

[Joe Pass]

very nice

[KenAdams]

Just dropped the frame, front cross member and cab perches off at the sandblaster/powdercoater. They talked me into getting a two stage job, with a zinc primer base coat and color top coat. They've got a couple of huge nice look shops, will update with pics when I get it back next week.

[KenAdams]

Final assembly and painting of the rear is going down this weekend. I've never had a pinion spreader so I splurged and bought one. Actually I bought two. I bought one from Yukon and had to return it because it would not hookup 12 bolts, only dana axles. So I found this one eBay and it is sweet! If you are around the Richmond area and want to borrow it let me know.

[KenAdams]

Picked up the frame from the powder coater today. Reassembly in progress.

[Joe Pass]

Wow....nice

[Theboatandcarman]

looking good!

[KenAdams]

Forgot to post a photo from the other weekend, I finished assembling the rear and put the last coat of paint on it. I used Eastwood's 2K Chasis Black. It's much less shiny than the photo shows. It matches the 40% gloss powder coat perfect.

[KenAdams]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

very nice

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

Wow....nice

Originally Posted by Theboatandcarman

looking good!

Thanks. I just spent my all my black friday money at Jegs. Looks like assembly will really kick into gear next week.

[Bomp]

Nice work.
Im in.

[rusty76]

Cool ride.

[KenAdams]

Drove 8 hours back from the Georgia Family Thanksgiving extravaganza and was able to put in a couple hanging parts, nothing is torqued yet. It's currently beer thirty nothing more happening today. I like The CPP perches, hopefully, they make enough room for some cheap longtubes.

[KenAdams]

Unpacked my christmas presents...

[Captainfab]

Very nice

That will make your truck very fun to drive.

[KenAdams]

Ran into a little bit of trouble, and it looks like others have had the same problem mounting with the CPP perches and the LS3 oil pan. I saw the Craig just drilled another hole and fit them on the back mounts.

Originally Posted by 66ChevyMax

I mounted the engine last night, the original motor mounts were located in the back two holes, the cpp mounts fit perfect in the front two holes and the hole in the cross member, the instructions said nothing about which holes to use, so I used the front two "WRONG".

I was hoping by using a large offset plate that I would be able to get the oil pan to clear. No, go. It is so close, less then a 1/4 inch off using the original V8 holes and the largest offset plate I could find to push the motor back.

I guess there are two options. Use the V8 holes, a different oil pan, and have an easier time with headers, but possibly run into issues with accessories. Or, use the V6 holes, original oil pan, have a more difficult time finding headers, and have an easier time with accessories.

So, I ended up taking off the oil pan, mounting the motor and putting the cab back on to check the firewall clearance. I like the firewall clearance the V8 holes provide and am going to stick with that. Using the V6 holes it looks like if I ever had to change the clutch or take a valve cover off it would ba a PITA. So, I've ordered the muscle car oil pan.

Had a few PM's asking about part numbers. The correct energy suspension part number for the motor mounts that fit the CPP perch is 3.1114. It's the GM short and wide motor mount. For the conversion plate, I just purchased the cheapest one, they all looked like they where exactly the same.

[Captainfab]

Just a FYI. In the '63-'66 trucks, from the factory the V8's and 230/250 I6's all used the same engine mount brackets and in the same rear location. The one exception is the 292 I6 which used the same engine mount bracket on the drivers side, but a shorter bracket on the passenger side in the forward location. The '67-'72 trucks used the rear location for the I6 and the forward location for the small blocks and an in between bracket for the big blocks.

[KenAdams]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Just a FYI. In the '63-'66 trucks, from the factory the V8's and 230/250 I6's all used the same engine mount brackets and in the same rear location. The one exception is the 292 I6 which used the same engine mount bracket on the drivers side, but a shorter bracket on the passenger side in the forward location. The '67-'72 trucks used the rear location for the I6 and the forward location for the small blocks and an in between bracket for the big blocks.

Ahh... okay. I just assumed that the front holes were V8 and the rear where V6, maybe I read it, maybe I assumed.

So the muscle car oil pan came into today (19212593) and it clears with plenty al around. Took some more pictures, more for documentation purposes and so I can assure myself that I tightened eveerything.

Removed the windage tray for the fun of it.



More internal:



Muscle Car pickup tube:



And the big reveal:



From the left:



Between the OEM cross member and the muscle car oil pan, about ~3/4"+:



Plenty of clearance, and sits about 1/2" higher then the bottom of the cross member: