72 getting rid of the 90's mistake.

[hdrolling]

Had a little delay in front end parts, ordered CPP parts and the tie rods didn't all have Zerk fittings. Figured if I was going to do the work that I wanted to be able to grease everything, so I ordered all Moog parts.
Here are some pics of the differences, moog (gold) vs CPP (black).

Also the Moog parts were all labeled made in the USA.

[OneOffStroker]

Originally Posted by hdrolling

New to me part came in, 72 NC Farm Truck plate.

I'm not sure if all states do this since I just learned NC does, but here as long as you keep the current registration and plate in your truck then you can run a plate that was issued the same production year of your truck.

Thought it was kind of neat so I picked one up for my truck.

In Virginia, you can run the old plates as long as you register it as antique (registration has the antique plate numbers associated). I have 1972 plates on my C-10. And better yet, if you get the vehicle inspected, the antique limitations are superceded, and you can drive the truck every day!

A lot of people here register as antique so that they don't have to get inspections, but I look at it the other way: pay for plates once since antique plates are 'permanent' and still drive whenever/wherever you want.

[hdrolling]

Originally Posted by OneOffStroker

In Virginia, you can run the old plates as long as you register it as antique (registration has the antique plate numbers associated). I have 1972 plates on my C-10. And better yet, if you get the vehicle inspected, the antique limitations are superceded, and you can drive the truck every day!

A lot of people here register as antique so that they don't have to get inspections, but I look at it the other way: pay for plates once since antique plates are 'permanent' and still drive whenever/wherever you want.

That sounds like a good deal, here in NC if your vehicle is over 30 years your exempt from inspections.
And I'm 100% total and permeant disabled Veteran, so my plates are free.
I just need to get the plates for this truck. All my other vehicle already have it, with the old 72 plate I'll still have to use my rearview mirror disabled placard but I already have that.

[hdrolling]

Got around to putting some epoxy primer and bed liner on the inside of the fenders and under the steps today. Hopefully two coats will be enough.

Trying to do the actual paint this week so I can get the truck ready for a drive on the 4th of July.

[hdrolling]

Took a year or so off and finally got around to getting back to the bed.

I got everything painted the the wood floor done. Wired all the taillights today with a new intermediate harness and rear harness since there wasn't one.

LED tail lights work great but I need another grounding flasher for the four ways to work, tail lights came with one so I tried it on the four ways and they worked.

Took me about half an hour of trouble shooting the reverse lights to remember that truck was a manual and the previous owner installed a TH350. I have a Dakota digital module that I need to connect, it will give me back the reverse lights and the neutral safety switch. As well as show what gear I'm in on my gauges so I need to finish wiring that up as well.

[loudchevy]

The new wood bed looks fantastic. Nice job.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks great, nice job!

[clay68c10]

That is quite the transformation! Nice job.

[hdrolling]

Lights are working now, four way flasher module with a ground fixed the issue with my hazards. Bed came with these polished caps for the holes so I stuck them in.

I have one gap on the rear of the hood on the passenger side I need to mess with, and I bought a special wrench to get to the door hinges so I can raise them up a bit without removing the fenders.
Doors hinge bolts were a little loose and the door started to rub on the rockers, I bought all new hinges but if I can adjust and not need to install them yet Id rather get to the new tubular control arms and engine install first.

[dagnabbitt]

Love the progress you are making, truck looks like a million bucks already.

Wow, that Mar-K bedwood is just... wow. What did you use on it to bring that grain and color out?

[hdrolling]

Originally Posted by dagnabbitt

Love the progress you are making, truck looks like a million bucks already.

Wow, that Mar-K bedwood is just... wow. What did you use on it to bring that grain and color out?

Thanks, I went heavy with Espresso color brown stain and let it soak in. Then I sanded it back down to bare wood but the grain was still dark, then I put a light coat of the expresso on and wiped it right off.

Another member had his the same way and I asked what he did, his was with a matt clear and looked great but I wanted mine glossy.

[RCbowtie69]

looking good keep up the hard work & keep on truckin

[hdrolling]

I got around to installing my CPP 4 1/2" tubular front suspension this weekend, should ride a little better than the 3 1/2" cut springs the previous owner had.

Still have a 1" rear block to install and front and rear sway bars but it already looks much better to me.

[regan wilson]

Looks nice. I wish I had a driver like that.

[raggedjim]

Nice truck!

Rg

[Custom 68]

looks much better

[hdrolling]

Front sway bar is on, much easier than I was expecting. That harbor freight air chisel/hammer was a worth while investment!

Today I also lowered the rear with the one inch blocks, didn't get around to doing the sway bar.

Truck is finally at the stance I want, having it lowered I now see I need to adjust my rear fenders. One is lower than the other and it took me a day of looking at it to realize that what it was and not a bent frame or the spring being wrong one one side.

Might get the installing the new engine next week, need to get it done before the NC heat kicks in for the summer. Trees are already budding.

[FRCvette]

Very good-looking truck. Well done.

[hdrolling]

Front and rear sway bars installed, what a huge difference!

Tomorrow I start getting the engine ready to be taken out and replaced, I want to try to clean up the inner wheel well and firewall as best I can so it looks a little nicer in there. I also have electric fans to install so maybe in the next couple months I'll be able to order an AC/HEAT and get that in before the summer.

Hoping this new blueprint vortec 350 goes in with no issues, going with the carb for a while and then I'll install my Holly sniper.

Nice to finally be clearing out all these boxes I've had unopened for a year sitting around.

[hdrolling]

Old engine is out, bye bye knock! Seems it came from a 1973 from the block number.

I assumed I could go to any parts store and get new engine mounts, WRONG. So I'll have new ones tomorrow, today I'm going to try to touch up the engine bay with some rattle can paint.
Also decided to skip running for a few hundred with the carb and were going straight into installing the Holly sniper.

Looking forward to hearing this new Blueprint Vortec 350 fire up!

[hdrolling]

Finished installing the new engine yesterday, too a bit but these guys did a lot of extra work keeping the wires clean and porting the headers before installing.

Installing the engine, Holly sniper and new electric fans is a bunch of wiring!

And then we couldn't get it to start, plenty of fuel, spark and we rechecked grounds/plug gap/wires/ fuses/ ground and p0wer directly to the battery but she just wouldn't fire.

Rained today and its outside so we didn't get to mess with it, tomorrow I think I'll give them some time to try the fix it after doing their research all day today and if it doesn't work I still have my Holly carb that I know works.
Should be easy enough to add a fuel regulator to lower the fuel PSI and then just pull and replace the sniper. If it starts with the carb at least we know its either the wiring or the ECM.

Four days of pulling and installing and a no start, but it looks great! I have some center bolt wire loom plates to clean up and make the spark plugs look cleaner, and i have some more split wire loom coming in the morning so I can conceal the rest of the wires.

Ready to get this think back on the road!

[hdrolling]

Up and running, need to get the hood on to get out and let it tune but I was able to take it around the neighborhood today. I did decide to order the Holly distributor/ coil and hyperspark so the sniper can adjust the timing on it own. I do have a extender arm for the sniper throttle, its hard to press right now and if you give it too much the truck takes off. The extended arm is suppose to help with that. And I have the progressive linkage part coming so all four butterfly's don't open at the same time, suppose to bring the second set on after I get to about 30% throttle.

And I have a black 9" brake booster and all blackout brake parts for under the hood coming, that huge gold one is an eye sore.

Rain all weekend so I'll get her in the garage and start cleaning up the wires and get the sparkplug wires in the loom holder.

[hdrolling]

So the extended arm for the sniper should be included, 100% more drivable. Holding off on installing the progressive linkage because the truck is running so well, I have it but will hold off until later.

All the holly hyperspark parks arrived but it didn't include a spark wire to go from the distributor to the coil, I ordered one from MSD that is out for delivery but still waiting for the weekend to install.
I did order an AC wall hole cover, got tired or looking at the plastic I have in its place and its going to be spring at the earliest before I can order and install a vintage unit so I want the bay to look nice.
Found a nice piece of trim that covers the top of the radiator, has the Chevrolet logo stamped into so it should match my other covers with the bowties.

And my new brake parts came in, tied of seeing the messy gold booster. This black out setup should take up less space and be a little cleaner looking.

[hdrolling]

Couple more pics and then I probably won't update again until I'm done cleaning up the engine bay.
Parts list I have ready to go in, new black brake booster, Holly sniper distributor/coil/hyperspark 2, firewall heater delete cover panels, radiator cover panel, spark plug loom brackets. And then a lot of black wire loom to clean up all the wires.

Still need to find a shop that still does old alignments with the spacers and install the new Black widow mufflers, the flowmasters drone pretty bad.

[hdrolling]

Installed the little black brake booster today, still need to bleed the lines but it looks so much cleaner under the hood without that big gold booster.

As far as my sniper, I installed the hyperspark 2/coil and Holly hyperspark distributer. The trucks ran great!

But I decided to still get custom tuning done from Mad-Science motorsports, first tune is night and day from what I was using. And I still get like 3-4 more revisions to get it fully dialed in from my data logs I send in.

The tuner said with the holly wizard tune I was running I was I was at least 50-100 hp off from what the engine is capable of. I can feel it with just the first tune.

Here are some pics of my engine bay progression, when I bought it/ first attempt to clean it up and current.