"Midnight Rider" 1970 C10 SWB Fleetside

[omodified]

Originally Posted by tutone

I took the time to go back and read your build thread in it's entirety. Very good work on your truck. I will be watching your continued progress.

Thanks for joining in tutone. I checked out your build too. I hope you can bring that original cab back in mix. I love that black and white combo. Admiring your fab skills too!

[omodified]

Working on getting the rear end housing mounted up today. I grabbed some new coated U-bolts from SRI Performace a while back. I pre-calculated the length I need so I wouldn't have too much thread sticking out of the bottom. Like the upper shock mounts, I am reusing the lower shock mounts from my previous build. They are still in really nice shape. I'm using my modified trac bar mount on the right side and the CPP supplied spacer on the left side. I'm also shoving the 4° two inch lowering blocks in there too. I have new nickel plated 3/4" nuts and washers to hold it all together. Installing loose for now...

[omodified]

I received the parts back from the nickel plater, so I took the time to organize it all today.



Included in the parts was the hardware I needed to install the rear springs. I actually had the 4 inch bolts that came with the spring retainers. However, those weren't long enough to work with the 3/4 ton truck arms because of the reinforcement plates. So, I had to use 5 inch bolts instead. For the rear springs, I decided to use my old CPP 5 inch drop springs (RCS603-5). They didn't have many miles on them and were still in great shape. The spring retainers that I previously used were black oxide coated and were a bit faded. I bought a brand new set (RCR-K) that were nicely powder coated from board member Lee72.




Installing the rear springs, I followed the service manual suggestions. I installed the lower retainers first, paying close attention to the clocking of the retainer and the spring pigtail. I torqued the bottom retainers to 45 lb/ft. I clocked the upper spring retainers the same as the lowers and torqued them to 50 lb/ft. It's nice to see the rear end supporting itself and to have some floor space back!

[cangim]

This continues to look really sharp! Nice work, I am enjoying following this build.

[omodified]

Crazy that it has been six months since my last post. I've been waiting on a spot to open up again at the body shop. Unfortunately, not much else has gone on. Well, not really. I was on a roll back in December and then I hit a dead end pretty hard.

Since I discovered my love for these trucks, the vision for my truck has always been with the 15" 73-87 truck rally wheels and white letter tires. I don't know why but I just love the look. I know there are more modern wheels now and everybody is doing 19, 20 and 22's. Those all just look too big to me. This truck has been my inspiration for wheels and stance (thanks leddzepp).



When choosing my brakes, I had to choose something that would work with my 15" rally wheels. I did my research and and I decided on the Wilwood D52 calipers. Everything I read said this would work with 15" 6-lug 4x4 rally wheels. I found a front/rear kit on EBAY offered by CPP. It came with rotors, calipers, brake hoses, brackets. Basically everything I need to install. The downside to running D52 calipers on the rear is that there is no emergency brake. This was ok, because Wilwood also makes a universal e-brake caliper for both rears. All I would have to do is to fab a few brackets for them. So, I started to test fit the rears. I got it all bolted together and it looks great!





Unfortunately, when I try to bolt the wheel on, the caliper hits the weld where the wheel center mates to the rim. This was very disappointing. I spent the next few months researching what went wrong and weighing my options. I found out that the 4x4 6-lug wheel that folks where referring to was actually one that originally came on the 67-72 trucks, otherwise known as a 4 nub. These wheels are pretty hard to come by. I did find where somebody was reproducing them, but it seems they have stopped. They had a few similar styles but warned about brake caliper clearance. So, I decided to look at other avenues. Some guys shaved their D52 calipers to fit the rally wheel. I didn't feel comfortable with messing with the structural integrity of my brakes nor the hassle of having to re-powder coat and figure out the Wilwood logo. Then, there was longer studs and wheel spacers. I tried adding washers to see how thick the wheel spacer would need to be. Half inch was way too much to feel comfortable with. So, I figured my only other option was to increase my wheel size. I kicked this around for months, feeling disgusted and defeated. I thought maybe I could get away with 18" wheels not looking so big. I was ready to settle on Detroit Steel wheels, since my center caps would still work with those. Then, I stuggled finding a tire size in 18" that was 28" in diameter. I can't go any shorter than that because of where my scrub line is with the 5" drop springs and 2" blocks. Do I just do a 6" drop with a shorter tire? Naw, that won't look right. Driving me crazy. Then, I stumbled upon this new Wilwood product...the answer to all of my issues.






This eliminates the need for the external e-brake and having to fab brackets. The Willwood measurements say this will clear my 15" rally wheels with no issues!!!




Now a 6-8 week wait to get them...ugh. Time to check the front wheel clearance.



.

[omodified]

Happy to report that the Wilwood D52 does clear the front wheel with no issues. Keeping the wheel dream alive!

[omodified]

Originally Posted by omodified

I used all of my old steering components to mock up the steering. My biggest worry is where things line up with the modified engine crossmember. As I feared, there are some clearance issues with the tie rods. I consulted with Piedmont Traction and he is going to work on adapting some NASCAR parts to work with my setup. Can't wait to see how that works out but it sounds like we are going to heim joints.

Follow up to this post... Had a chance to work with some new steering components. Piedmont Traction has been working hard at mocking up some retired Joe Gibbs Racing Gen 6 steering parts to fit this truck. Everything fits well. Like a dummy, I forgot to take pictures of the tierods installed. This setup will be nice because the adjustable slugs will allow us to dial in bumpsteer way better than the factory setup.












When we stepped back, it was obvious that the idler arm mount needed to be upgraded in appearance. I took the current idler arm mount and idler arm to work and blue light scanned them. This will allow for reverse engineering and redesign in CAD. Here is what we came up with.








Here is the centerlink model.






On to manufacturing!!! To be continued...






.

[omodified]

Since I'm waiting on the body shop and waiting on my rear brakes to show up, I thought I would start a different kind of project...glass. I did a little research of C10 glass around the time I tore this truck apart. I learned then that all of my windows were out of a 1972, except the windshield. That one was a replacement windshield, from overseas. I know it would be next to impossible to find original glass for my exact year, so I will need to buy new. I would love to find a way to get original style glass with the correct markings. Time to scour the web for info...

How did I know that my glass wasn't original you say? I'm glad you asked, because I wanted to document my research inside my build thread. ***Sorry if you already read my original post about LOF Codes***.


LOF Glass Markings


Soft-Ray
This indicates that the window was tinted from the factory. It will be green in tint. If the marking does not include Soft-Ray, then the window will be clear.

FLO-LITE
The truck glass was manufactured by three different processes; Plate, Float (Flo-Lite), and Laminated. 90% of the examples I found for our glass were marked Flo-Lite and Solid Tempered. Plate windows were also marked with Solid Tempered. Windshields are the only piece of glass that were laminated. They were marked with FLO-LITE and Laminated.

Date Codes
Codes are two letters. This define where and when your glass was made. An example would be NT where N = January and T = 1970.

Month codes: N January, X February, L March, G April, J May, I June, U July, T August, A September, Y October, C November, V December

Year codes: G 1964,1977; J 1965,1978; A 1966,1979; Z 1967,1980; X 1968,1981; V 1969,1982; T 1970,1983; N 1971,1984; Y 1959,1972, U 1960,1973; L 1961,1974; I 1962,1975; C 1963,1976

Windshield- glass made 1 month before your truck’s build date
Vent- glass made 2-3 months before your truck’s build date
Door- glass made 1 month before your truck’s build date
Backlight- glass made one month before your truck’s build date

Plant Codes
The most common plant code on all of the examples I found was Plant 7. I did however see a small percentage of windows marked with Plant 10. Plant code marking seems to be mostly common with GM trucks as you don't find these much on passenger vehicle glass markings.

LOF Glass Plant Code
3= Sherman,TX
4= East Toledo,OH (tempered)
5=Ottawa,IL
6=Rossford,OH
7=Ottawa,IL
8=East Toledo,OH (laminated)
10=Lathrop,CA
16=Breckenridge,PA
C=Collingwood,ONT Canada

LOF Glass Models


DOT Number
This number defines the manufacturer of the glass by a number given by the Department of Transportation. All LOF glass will say DOT 15, which tells you Libby Owens Ford made it.


Marking Placement
Windshield- bottom corner, in front of passenger seat, seen from inside








Vent- driver forward of hole seen from inside, passenger forward of hole seen from outside








Door- bottom corner, near vent window, driver seen from inside, passenger seen from outside






Backlight- bottom corner, behind driver, seen from outside








I also did some research on companies out there that offer remaking these logos on plain glass. For years, the two companies have been Pilkington Classics and Auto City Classic. It seems that people have preferred Pilkington due to how well the glass is made in thickness and shape. Plus, Pilkington actually bought LOF back in the day so they have that going for them too. I found several people that were happy with Auto City Classics but it sounds like the glass in made not in the USA and a few folks claim to have issues with this. I decided that Pilkington is probably the way to go and gave them a call. After several attempts to get somebody that knew what I was talking about, I was told that Pilkington (parent company) absorbed the Pilkington Classics line back in 2021. They will continue to reproduce glass for classic cars but have discontinued the logo etching service. They weren't even sure where the stencils ended up. So, I decided to give Auto City Classics a shot. I talked with Dave as he seemed to be the expert in LOF markings. I had to email the examples of what I needed so they can make custom stencils for my LOF markings. There is a setup charge for each one. They quoted about three weeks for a custom order like this. I went ahead and placed my order and I will report back with how everything turned out.

[omodified]

I was told today that a space is opening soon at the body shop. Once the cab and donor frame are out of my garage, I will have enough room to start mocking up the bed. Time to send the original passenger bedside to the blaster. I hope he doesn't uncover any surprises!!!

[omodified]

I got the bedside back from the blaster and I took it to the body shop, Hawk Restorations. There are a few surprises, but I think this piece is worth keeping. Let's keep it original!

Two creases had a lot of body filler in them. A few tiny pin holes on the bottom. Lots of holes to weld up. A few dents to pull.

[omodified]

I dropped off my NOS driver's bed side at Hawk Restoration. This will give them a good reference for working with the passenger side.

[omodified]

Welding up holes and ready to pull on some low spots.

[omodified]

Using the NOS gold surface to check progress. The contour was off quite a bit where the larger crease was. It's getting much closer now.

[omodified]

The repair areas are looking great now. All of the holes that were filled have been sanded flush now. You can still see the creases but a skim coat of body filler will make them disappear!












Next, the bedside was sprayed with OSPHO metal treatment. As much as the bare metal has been touched over the last several days, we need to make sure that the epoxy primer will adhere to the metal. OSPHO will promote outstanding adhesion.

[a.c.ward]

As former owner, manager of a body shop specializing in these trucks, the shop doing your work is doing a phenomenal job. nice

[omodified]

Originally Posted by a.c.ward

As former owner, manager of a body shop specializing in these trucks, the shop doing your work is doing a phenomenal job. nice

Thank you sir for the compliment and thanks for stopping by.

[omodified]

Since I placed the order for my glass, I thought I should get started with rebuilding vent windows. I've been collecting nice parts for this so hopefully it turns out good. I've read where some people have failed miserably trying to do this. However, there are several posts about it on this board as well as 3-4 good instructional videos on YouTube, so I feel pretty good about it. I had six vent windows out in the barn and I bought a pair that had pretty nice chrome from Ebay. Of the six in the barn, two were black frames, and three chrome frames were lefts. So, I ended up with two pairs to choose from. The pair on the right had the least amount of rust and the best chrome.




Starting to disassemble the passenger side. Most of these parts came from out West, so it was a breeze to get apart. Basic hand tools and a 9/64 drill bit to remove some of the rivets.










Passenger finished.




Now on to the driver side.












I got a long enough plastic container to fit all of the parts in. Time for a soak in Evaporust.



.

[omodified]

The cab found it's way to the body shop today. It's had plenty of time to shrink up and now it's time for the final work before paint. They also asked me to bring the rear wheel tubs so they can be fit checked against the bedsides. Now is the time to make any needed corrections. I actually have two pairs of NOS wheel tubs, but these are the better pair. Stuff is starting to happen now!!!
















The bedsides are in black epoxy now. Any factory tooling marks that are visibly shared between the two will stay. Everything else is getting skim coated and smoothed out.

[omodified]

Much to my surprise, I received my glass order at work yesterday. I wasn't prepared to bring it all home as there were a few pretty large boxes and I was already hauling something. So, I just brought one of the boxes home with me. Inside was the back window and both vent windows. I am really impressed by how quickly they put my order together and got it to me. The quality that I can see is great! The logo etching looks really nice and even to the above average C10 enthusiast, these logos look legit. Here is how it turned out...

Back window



Vent Window

[omodified]

Now that I have the new vent windows, I can start putting things back together. The vent window frames and hardware turned out great from the Evaporust soak. I forgot to take photos before I began assembly, but you will get the idea as I go. Here is one photo I managed to catch of glimpse of the parts in. Anything that is raw metal, I left it that way. For the chrome, I used a multi-speed Dremel tool with a small buffing wheel, along with some liquid chrome polish. I polished out most imperfections I could find. This stuff looks practically brand new!!!




Now for some assembly. The first step for me was to set the vent window into the sash. I did soak the mounting stem in Evaporust, so it looks new again. Then I polish the heck out of the chrome.




Next is applying setting tape. Some original parts and materials are just impossible to be found. In those cases, I research extensively on what products work the best for people overall. From what I gathered, Precision Replacement Parts makes the best gaskets and seals available for our trucks. For the setting tape, I used there PN GST002. The roll comes with enough material to do both vent windows. I cut the material in half, and used scotch tape to evenly tape it to the new vent window bottom where it will insert into the sash. You end up with a little extra material hanging off both ends, but I left that there. It will get trimmed later.






At the bottom inside corner, the angle is about 70 degrees. Because of this, you end up with some extra setting tape there that will never tuck into the sash correctly. So you have to carefully trim some away. I started with cutting a small slice directly toward the corner on both sides.



Now I folded the two sides of the tape over each other where the slice was made. When it was neatly folded, I took a razor blade and just pushed down directly toward the glass, in the same direction as my previous slice. This ensure that I won't scratch the glass.




Next, I removed the tiny pieces that the razor blade cut made and laid the setting tape back against the glass so nothing is overlapping. Repeat for the other side.






Next, I applied some kerosene with a rag to lubricate the setting tape. When you do this in the shade, the kerosene will stay wet just long enough to allow you to get the window easily into the sash. Once it's in the sash, you can apply heat (sunlight) and the kerosene will gum up making the setting tape lock into place.




Something I learned on this step is that you need to know how far to insert the window into the sash. You can go too far. If you are taking a vent window apart to rebuild or replace the glass, make sure to get some kind of reference for glass depth. It is not impossible to pull the glass out a little once you have set it, which is what I had to do later., but it's not ideal.

I got the glass most of the way in by hand. I used a rubber mallet for a few soft final blows.




Last thing to do is trim the unwanted setting tape away from the window. Don't forget to take off the previously applied scotch tape too. It's ok to leave the little bit inside the sash. It's not going anywhere. Time to bake in the sun for a few hours!!!

[Chevys4life]

Great job, photos and instructions on the vent windows!!!!

[schovil69]

Nice writeup, some good tips in there!

[omodified]

Originally Posted by Chevys4life

Great job, photos and instructions on the vent windows!!!!

Originally Posted by schovil69

Nice writeup, some good tips in there!

Thank you both. I try to leave some details in here in case I ever have to do it again. Maybe somebody else can benefit from it as well. Stick around while I finish up the vent windows...and everything else lol.

[omodified]

Now that the cab is out of my garage, it freed up the space where I will assemble the bed and check fitment. Before I can do that, the body shop will need to finish my panels obviously. I also need a stand of some sort to make the work easier. I kicked around building something myself. In then end, to save time, I decided on a DJS Fabrication truck bed dolly. It is already designed and made for the application. I just added some roll bar padding for extra protection. Can't wait to start using it.

[omodified]

Working on finishing the vent windows. Next step is to clean the division bars. I originally bought NOS division bars to use. After seeing the condition that these originals are in, I couldn't see a reason not to just restore them. This meant scraping the window seal out of the channel. I used a small flathead screwdriver to pry the old seal out. It's brittle but it mostly came out in one piece. I used a putty knife to scrape out any larger pieces that were left behind. I softened the remaining glue with acetone and used a stainless steel wire brush to clean it up. I made a final wipe with acetone and a rag. Last thing to do was polish the stainless beads with the dremel and polish. This thing looks better than the NOS pieces that I have in the closet!!!






Now that the division bars are ready, it's time for assembly with rivets. The remaining steps aren't for the faint of heart. It is tedious work but can be done with a helper and some patience. There were several places I found on the internet that I used as references to help with these steps. One thing I learned was about using a specialty tool to compress the rivets instead of the typical tool that is supplied with the rivets that you use with a hammer. In the end, I used this tool along with the standard tool. I probably could've gotten away with using the standard tool for the whole project.










I removed the chrome division bar trim to polish it in a previous step. This piece was actually in really good shape with only a few minor spots in the chrome. The biggest spot to repair was where the handles slide across to lock the window to the frame. The dremel did a great job with these spots and they almost look new again. I need to reinstall these to the frame for the next step.




Next up is installing the vent post seal. It was impossible to find an original so I went with the next best thing. Precision VPW 1110 67. Since they will be visible, I'll be using stainless rivets to make the install.










Position the seal on top of the chrome trim. Push each rivet through the hole and tape the heads down inside the division bar channel. Square the tool onto the rivet and crush in place.









The next thing to do is install the vent window seal to the frame. I can't do that on this round due to the condition of the vent windows seals that I have. I found NOS seals a while back. The packaging wasn't great but the seals were still soft and pliable. GM uses a mold release powder on these. It has stayed on too long and now it's dried up and is rather hard to get off. I will let these soak in some soapy water overnight and wash them down. Hopefully they will look brand new again.