Project: Easy Does It!

[Zylone]

Howdy everyone, I have been lurking here for a long time. I have had my truck for almost a year now I guess. It is a 72 C10 long bed. I stopped working on it for a few months and just recently started back up. Partially because we were doing everything with hand tools and got somewhat burnt out, and the other reason is just life in general. Family, honey do list, etc. Anyhow, the reason I call this project "Easy Does It" is because a sticker I found on the ash tray with that saying, and I thought it was kinda cool. So.. here we go, I am going to try and catch you all up to date with pics from the beginning...

[Zylone]

[Zylone]

[Zylone]

[Zylone]

[Sacramento70]

cool truck cant wait to see more

[oldblue1968chevy]

dude your WILD for goin no shoes out in the shop!!!


commin along bud! whats the plan? that new paint looks good, makes me wanna do mine

[Zylone]

Originally Posted by Sacramento70

cool truck cant wait to see more

Thanks! I will be sure to post more pics as I go!

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

dude your WILD for goin no shoes out in the shop!!!


commin along bud! whats the plan? that new paint looks good, makes me wanna do mine

LOL I know, everyone gives me hell for never wearing shoes. I hate shoes, must be the redneck in me. I have upgraded to flip flops as of late. When it comes to the metal work and all, I will be in jeans and boots though.

The plan is to get it back on the road ASAP. As long as the safety stuff is good to go, I don't care if it is still rough around the edges. I can always do more later. My son, in one of those pics up there is 17 and is itching to start driving.

I am replacing all the springs, shocks, bushings, as well as rebuilding the steering and all. Oh, and also replacing all brake lines, fuel lines, etc. I am contemplating whether or not to keep the manual gear box for the steering or upgrading to power steering before getting her back on the road.

Other than that, I want to start off with a 2/4 drop. My son doesn't want it lowered, but I do! So, later when he gets his own truck, I will probably be swapping it over to air bags.

The 350 that we pulled out looks pretty good so far. At some point, I am going to take it to the machine shop and have them check it out. If it is good, I plan on just building a mild vortec headed street motor for now. Don't want the boy getting too crazy with it just yet. I figure once he gets his own truck, I will probably do a LS1 swap on her.

The transmission that was in it was an SM420. It did not come stock in the truck either. I guess they put it in there because it had a PTO attached and it was a true farm truck. I cleaned it up real well and sold it to an older fella who runs a 67 C10 tow truck and needed another transmission. He was very happy to find mine for sale.

More than likely, to keep costs down and to get it on the road asap, I will probably put a TH350 in it. Down the road, I would like to put a T56 or a TKO in it. Speaking of trans, whomever put the 4 spd in there took a torch to the floor and made a nasty huge hole in there. The high hump cover was just barely sitting over the hole. Not bolted down.

Anyhow, I have been rambling for a while now. I have always been interested in old trucks since I was a kid and never had much of a chance to do much mechanic work so alot of this is new to me. But, we are having a blast! It is not going to be a show truck by any means, but I plan to make it as nice as I can without worrying about a ding here or there. The frame is all out of a can, and will do the rest that way. Rust encapsulating primer, and flat black on top of that. Will probably do the same with the body as well once all the patch work is complete.

One last note, I appreciate this site and am glad to be a member! I have lurked for a long time and this place is AWESOME! Hopefully I can return some help and knowledge in return for everything I have been learning so far here!

[hotrod 80]

Welcome to the forum and keep the updates coming .

[leddzepp]

Making quick progress! Oh, and I usually wear flip flops when I am working too....except when there is a possibility of something falling on my foot.

[Zylone]

WOO, merry early christmas to me today!

The old lady asked if I wanted to go to Sears, and I knew what that meant! So, I got an air compressor, air chisel, impact gun, and air ratchet. SO AWESOME.

I spent most of the afternoon rearranging the garage since it is really starting to fill up now with tools and parts. But, we did give the impact gun a good workout. We got the rear shocks removed and the panhard bar removed. Those bolts were IN THERE! We were able to get one bolt out of the rear bumper mounts but the other three were not budging what so ever. So, need to go get some penetrating oil and soak em good. Oh, also the U bolts for the rear trailing arms. Those are on there pretty good too apparently.

So, after running a few more errands, I took the air chisel to the rivets holding the upper ball joints in place. It about wore me out, but I got all 8 rivets out! WOOHOO!!! FINALLY! Hopefully tomorrow night I can get those two a arms cleaned up and primed. I will be sure to get some pics tomorrow of the updates!

[brian69longbed]

brave for being barefoot in the garage! ha ha looking good. keep the pictures coming!

[red69ss]

that is one unique tailgate,and your right bare feet and welding don't go together

[Zylone]

HAH, I was wondering how long it would take someone to notice the home made tailgate. I almost want to hang it up on the wall. It is a real piece of work. Let me tell ya!

Ok, I really didn't do crap to the truck this week. I was trying to get the heater working damn near every night after work. I finally got it working good. Not to mention, getting blood drawn two times this week made me feel like poo.

Anyhow, here are some updated PICS!! The pics I forgot to upload of the ball joints, and finally after doing some hackery got the passenger bed side off. The driver side is 2 bolts shy and some hackery on the tail end like the passenger side. Oh, and the bed floor has one bolt left holding it all down. Crossing my fingers to get it all blow apart tommorow and spend the rest of the weekend ripping out the rearend and cleaning all that mess up!

[Zylone]

Finally, we got the bed all torn apart and off of the truck. Ended up having to grind the head off pretty much every carriage bolt to get the bed apart. I would have liked to have lifted the whole thing in one piece, but we just don't have room. Dang long bed is LONG! Anyhow, here are a few pictures as she sits now. Hoping to get the rearend and suspension out tomorrow.

[Zylone]

Today's update: I didn't get the rearend out like I had planned. I went to town with the wire wheel on the grinder though. I got most of the top and outer sides of the frame cleaned up. I also got the drive shaft finally taken out, and got the majority of the remaining brake line off. The connection where it drops down from the frame to the rear axle is stripped. So, guess I am going to have to cut it out and go from there. Anyhow, here are a few pics of today's progress. It doesn't look like much, but the dirt and grime was THICK!!

[dfwright]

subscribing... It's good to see what the other locals are up to...

[oldblue1968chevy]

hey man any updates, your like the barefoot bandit of trucks lol