Project: 1966 Stepside LWB

[McMurphy]

Oh yeah!
Some stock white hubs would look cool, especially if you found them with the bowtie emblem in the center and painted it orange or black to match!

Yours is coming along man, always good to see an update from you!

[b2948kevin]

I almost forgot. I am looking for a truck bed box to put in here. I need to be able to pack my breakdown kit with me in case I get stuck somewhere.

Bed dimensions are 50x16.5x97" on the inside of the bed. I would like one that goes across the width of the bed and opens on each side.

[J.Cagle]

Originally Posted by b2948kevin

I almost forgot. I am looking for a truck bed box to put in here. I need to be able to pack my breakdown kit with me in case I get stuck somewhere.

Bed dimensions are 50x16.5x97" on the inside of the bed. I would like one that goes across the width of the bed and opens on each side.

Me too! I want a white one with the butterfly doors and paddle handles. the old style for my long stepper. You need a white grille in that thing man!

[McMurphy]

There are some stock hubs at the bone yard where I got my tranny, but there is only 2 or 3 of them. I could go stomp out there and shoot a pic for you if you want...

Just dear god, please paint the rim of your spare to match. It grabs my eye every time I see a d-side shot of your rig. my OCD shudders at the thought of you getting a flat, and putting a mis matched wheel on

[b2948kevin]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Just dear god, please paint the rim of your spare to match. It grabs my eye every time I see a d-side shot of your rig. my OCD shudders at the thought of you getting a flat, and putting a mis matched wheel on

Hahaha! Tell us how you really feel, McMurphy... If those wheels are your favorite things ever, just say so...

Ok, I will. It's all in the plans. I have a request in the photoshop forum right now to get some mock ups and see how the white would look.

Also, if you get a chance, the hubcap pics would be sweet, but don't make a trip for me.

Originally Posted by J.Cagle

You need a white grille in that thing man!

Yeah, I know... I have it but I just took it off to do some testing on the headlights. They aren't working at the moment.

[McMurphy]

I will try to remember to swing by the bone yard this afternoon, hopefully the sun will still be up...I will have to shoot you some phone-pics though, did not bring a camera to work with me.

[b2948kevin]

So, as I begin to drive my truck around a bit, I started to notice some whine from one of the front axles, so I decided that bearings were necessary. I went to Napa and bought 2 sets of axle bearings for the front.

Below is a pic of the part numbers you need. These come with the bearing and new race.

[b2948kevin]

I started on the driver's side by pulling the wheel and the dust cap, and when I did, I noticed that the grease looked surprisingly good. Someone had recently changed or serviced the bearings on this side. I ended up just repacking them and reinstalling them because they looked almost new.

[b2948kevin]

Here are some pics of the brake assembly. Pretty nasty right now. I realize that I need new pads, but I plan to be doing a disc brake swap in the near future, so I didn't work on these.

You may even notice that I need a new tie rod end.

[b2948kevin]

On the passenger side, the bearings hadn't been serviced recently, but they didn't look shot to me. Even so, I decided to replace these ones for good measure.

[b2948kevin]

I didn't get any good pictures of this, but to remove the races from the hub, use a punch from the backside of each race and punch them out while rotating locations in a circular pattern. There are cutouts for this in the hub and they will fall out eventually.

Here is a pic of the new race installed.

[b2948kevin]

Thanks Chevelles. A lot of this is new for me, so I appreciate you guys fielding my noob questions.

Ok, so I visited the local pull a part in Lynwood today. It only had 1 63 Chevy, but I am going to keep my eyes on their inventory. Looks like they will be having a half off sale soon so I want to take advantage and grab some parts that I will need in the future. Any local guys know of better places to pick parts from?

Plans: power steering box and pump, brake booster, disc brake conversion parts. I know I will need captain fab's adapter brackets in the near future.

Questions:
What is the best year to pull the power steering equipment from?
What disc brake equipment should I be grabbing, and from what year? I plan to add aftermarket drop spindles soon.
What is the best year to grab the brake booster from?

[b2948kevin]

I spent some time checking out the back brakes today. I just want to make sure that everything is working well back there. It all started well on the driver's side with the pads and drum being in pretty good condition.

[b2948kevin]

Then I got to the passenger side and found what you see below. Two big grooves in the drums with matching tongue in the brake pads. It drove me nuts trying to get the drums off. It kept catching and I couldn't figure out on what. It wasn't until I loosened the adjuster a bunch that it finally gave up.

Ok, I have a theory of why this might be. There are 2 types of pads available for this application, the bonded type and the riveted type. Although I haven't confirmed yet (just noticed this while reviewing the pics), I think that the pads that are on there are riveted even though you can't quite see the rivets, and they caused the huge gouges in the drums because they were left on far too long.

I bought all new bonded pads for both sides today and have 2 new drums on order right now. I haven't found a compelling reason to change the rear axle out yet, so I want to make sure it's in good condition to last a while.

[b2948kevin]

I did one other thing on here just for the benefit of McMurphy's OCD . I took the wheels off and painted them a near flat white. I think they look pretty good. This is something that I planned for a while and just got around to it. It's one of the last big cosmetic changes that I will be making for a while.

Sorry about the low light. It was getting dark when I was finishing up at 4pm. Crazy that it gets dark so early this time of year in the Pacific NW.

[b2948kevin]

One other thing. I pulled the old nasty rotted sheet of plywood out of the back and discovered that underneath all of that is an old nasty rotted original wood bed! I will replace it eventually, just not sure if I'll buy a kit or cut it myself. I am pretty sure that I will need new metal strips as the ones that are in there look beyond a good wire wheeling and rustoleum.

[J.Cagle]

If you ever decide you want to make your replaced rocker panel match, its not hard with an orange truck. I just bought a 63 that is orange. Someone had sanded and spray painted over some logos on the doors. I just sanded the area smooth, sprayed a few coats of chevy orange engine paint( matches great!). Then I buffed the old paint on the rest of the truck. After this take a fine gray scuff pad and knock some of the gloss off the spray paint area. It actually matches very good!

[McMurphy]

I miss your updates man!
I blame the weather for your hiatus though. All your driveway shop work isnt really possible when winter hits the Pacific Northwest!

I got the repair patch panels in last night that you did on page 2-3 of this thread and just got done looking at how you did it.
Am going to tackle this job, if not this weekend probably soon then. Depends if I want to set my hood project aside and wait for parts to come in.

Hope to hear from you soon!

[b2948kevin]

Hey guys, thanks for the comments. I am still around, but I've just slowed down on working on this project as I've taken a new position at the same company that I've been working for. This means that I am deep into ramping up on the new role and just don't have the time that I used to. Also, this time of year, sunrise is about 8:00am sunset is about 4:30pm. That means that I don't even see the light of day! This will get better soon, and in June, sunrise will be at 5:10am and sunset will be 9:10pm. Weather does have something to do with it, but lack of time and lack of light are the real killers right now.

Cap, I think you're right. I looked closer when I got everything off, and the pads I had on there were riveted, but they weren't worn down to that point yet, which means they aren't the same pads that did the damage. Basically, you're right .

The truck is driveable and I drive it around the neighborhood occasionally, but I still don't have headlights or brake lights that work, so I don't want to do a lot of driving on it yet. I am sort of thinking about just putting new brake pads on the front and scrapping the idea of putting on drop spindles and disc brakes for a while. One way or another, I need to get the headlights and brake lights fixed so I can begin driving it to work. This will really help me to get motivated to get it in tip top shape.

[McMurphy]

Well congrats on the new position, hopefully it came with more $$ as well !!

Yours is one of the threads I am going to use as a reference when I do these patch pans, and figured I would bump the thread to make it easier to find again!

Glad to see you are still with us, have a great weekend !

[b2948kevin]

Yeah, no problem. Let me know if you have questions about anything and I could give you any spedific details required.

Just remember that this is going to be difficult. Pace yourself and don't get burned out. It's great to have it done!

[b2948kevin]

Ok, here's the story: I got a little demotivated after my front brake overhaul because I took it out for a spin and it's still not stopping real well. I can get it stopped, but it's kind of white knuckle every time and I am not quite sure what to suspect. I don't trust that I can adequately stop during an emergency situation. This is all after 4 new pads, 2 new rotors and a bunch of time.

Anyway, after some troubleshooting and some test driving, I started to believe that I would be needing to upgrade to disc front brakes because these drums would never work adequately. Anyone agree/disagree? This is going to set me back probably a grand (spindles, calipers, booster, MC, etc.) which I'm not in the mood for right now.

I started to think about option #2. What if I was just to replace the hydraulic cylinders, go over all the brake components again and make sure everything is tip top (replacing anything that needs it), split the brake lines, put a dual MC and a booster on there. This would still cost some $, but I think less. Would this get me good stopping power, or are these drums just not going to work well ever?

Couple questions: Does anyone see anything out of the ordinary with my brake pictures? Any parts missing? Anything not quite right in there? Also, how do the emergency brakes connect? Do they engage all 4 brakes?

[Captainfab]

Are there not any '73-'87 trucks in the wrecking yards over there? What about craigslist? You can convert to front disc brakes for a lot less than $1K using OEM parts. Yes your option #2 would be a little improvement, with adding power to the master cylinder. That is what I have on my '66 Suburban. It is definitely better than manual brakes, but still not like power discs.

[McMurphy]

The whole front cross member, with upper and lower A-arms, with brakes and spindles should only run you $100 at a bone yard. $150 max and that is if they chop the frame for you.
The will be used, but the whole cross member will bolt on. Proabably the easiest and cheapest way to go.

Your current problem could take a lot to chase down. Anything from clogged, or pinched brake line, bad master cylindar (doubtful tho), or stuck/missing brake parts at one or more wheels.

Blackdawg just posted some awesome and clear pics of his drum brakes this week... take a look at:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=467164&page=2

See if that helps you any. He happened to mention that his brakes had been cannibalized for the parking brake levers inside the hub. (which is why I mentioned missing parts)

Good luck, hope that helps you man!

[b2948kevin]

Scope:
Suspension and braking upgrade for my 66 Chevy C10

Assumptions:
Brakes are

• currently stock drums with manual single piston MC
• Existing suspension is all original and ball joints and bushings likely need replacement
• Any crossmember and suspension purchase will not need additional parts
• Upgrade will be done in my driveway in the PNW where it rains a lot
• I have restrictions regarding this project becoming an eyesore in my driveway, and I will need to either be quick, or have the ability to patch things up so that it doesn’t look too bad each night
• There are no dependencies around need to be able to drive this within a short

timeframe. This is not my daily driver.

Requirements:
All wheels need to be able to be interchanged
Brakes need to function way better than the POS drums
Master Cylinder needs to be assisted
Suspension must have the ability to be stabilized to increase roll stiffness (even if done later)

Functional Spec/VROM:
The purpose of this section is to show options to meet the requirements within the scope and assumptions above. Note that this is still a work in progress and may need tweaking. In areas of uncertainty, I’ve estimated high. I also recognize that there may be other ways to achieve the requirements that I’ve not shown below. I’ve picked the most likely avenues given my current knowledge on the subject, which is likely to change.

Summary:
Option 1 – Parts Swap, Stay 6 lug (Total: 836 - 1055)
Option 2 – Parts Swap, Move to 5 lug (Total: 1006 - 1255)
Option 3 – Full Crossmember and Suspension Swap, Stay 6 lug (Total: 971 - 1575)
Option 4 – Full Crossmember and Suspension Swap, Move to 5 lug (Total: 1091 - 1695)

Details:
Option 1 – Parts Swap, Stay 6 lug (Total: 836 - 1055)
•Spindles
o CPP brand 2” Drop Spindles from SummitRacing.com – 250
•Captain's Booster Adapter Plate
o From the Capt himself – 65
•Master Cylinder and Booster ('88-'98)
o Pick and Pull – 26
o Parts picker – 85
•Proportioning Valve
o Pick and Pull – 13
o Parts picker – 45
•Calipers (‘73-87 for 1.25"heavy duty version)
o Pick and Pull – 22
o Parts picker – 50
•Rotors/Hubs
o Aftermarket 6 lug version from performanceonline.com - 180
•Wheels (6 lug) that support the larger diameter of the disc brake components
o Craigslist, likely – 100-200
•New Ball Joints – 80
•Misc - 100

Option 2 – Parts Swap, Move to 5 lug (Total: 1006 - 1255)
•Spindles
o CPP brand 2” Drop Spindles from SummitRacing.com – 250
•Captain's Booster Adapter Plate
o From the Capt himself – 65
•Master Cylinder and Booster ('88-'98)
o Pick and Pull – 26
o Parts picker – 85
•Proportioning Valve
o Pick and Pull – 13
o Parts picker – 45
•Calipers (‘73-87 for 1.25"heavy duty version)
o Pick and Pull – 22
o Parts picker – 50
•Rotors/Hubs
o Pick and Pull – 50
o Parts picker – 80
•Wheels (5 lug)
o Craigslist, likely – 100-200
•Rear end (5 lug)
o Craigslist, likely – 300
•New Ball Joints – 80
•Misc – 100

Option 3 – Full Crossmember and Suspension Swap, Stay 6 lug (Total: 971 - 1575)
•Full Crossmember and suspension
o Still getting quotes, but so far, 400-800
•Captain's Booster Adapter Plate
o From the Capt himself – 65
•Master Cylinder and Booster ('88-'98)
o Pick and Pull – 26
o Parts picker – 85
•Proportioning Valve
o May be included in the crossmember purchase - 0
o Pick and Pull – 13
o Parts picker – 45
•Rotors/Hubs
o Aftermarket 6 lug version from performanceonline.com - 180
•Wheels (6 lug) that support the larger diameter of the disc brake components
o Craigslist, likely – 100-200
•Misc – 200

Option 4 – Full Crossmember and Suspension Swap, Move to 5 lug (Total: 1091 - 1695)
•Full Crossmember and suspension
o Still getting quotes, but so far, 400-800
•Captain's Booster Adapter Plate
o From the Capt himself – 65
•Master Cylinder and Booster ('88-'98)
o Pick and Pull – 26
o Parts picker – 85
•Proportioning Valve
o May be included in the crossmember purchase - 0
o Pick and Pull – 13
o Parts picker – 45
•Wheels (5 lug)
o Craigslist, likely – 100-200
•Rear end (5 lug)
o Craigslist, likely – 300
•Misc - 200