My British Truck build

[VA72C10]

nice progress....coming together!

[abebummy26]

So glad I have watched wheeler dealers so I can understand the stuff you are saying. Nice truck btw.

[Lippyp]

Getting the old firewall plug out turned into a total nightmare and held me up from last autumn to now (I have to work outside and we've had a really bad winter) It had seized solid and the threaded bit it screws into was just spinning round and round. In the end I drilled the head off to get the plug out and then to get the remains of the bolt out had to cut the back of it off with a dremel and then drill it out and use a nut and bolt to fit the new loom. It cause me mucho swearing, headscratching and throwing of tools out of pram (to mix my metaphors!)

Had a good crack at it today despite having a hangover. I've got the engine wired up after replacing some connectors on the loom for the right ones, the carb is back on and almost connected up but I got to a certain point and realised I was missing a few bits and pieces so had to take a trip to the parts store for some hose clips and a box of assorted split pins. I've also got one pair of wires left that I can't find a home for, I'm pretty sure its the supposed to plug onto the reversing light switch but I'm buggered if I can find it on the transmission. Its two green wires.

Anyway, here's some pictures, I also tried the newly polished valve covers on for size, I think they look pretty good. I think I need to place an order with Jegs or summit for some bits and pieces as well, I want a decent billet fuel filter, some new valve cover hold downs and an electric fan controller. I reckon another few hours and I'll be ready to fire her up for the first time in six months and time her up. Hopefully she'll run much better with an pertronix Ignitor conversion in the old mallory dual point dizzy, new hi torque starter motor and a tuned aluminium inlet manifold.

After that its electric fan time and then going through the brakes from front to back with all new hard lines and flexi pipes and adding a brake booster to the currently manual drums. The a dab of grease here and there, make sure all the lights etc work, finish off painting the mirrors hardware and refit them and off for a test. (it all sounds so simple! LOL)

You can see the new loom clipped to the top edge of the bulkhead







Shiny period M/T valve covers, newly polished.





Carb all back on, just needs me to finish connecting it all up, I need to order a new set of plugs and regap them to take into account the new higher voltage coil and get the leads on in the right order!



Had my official "helpers" with me today!

[Flint70step]

Hiya Lippy,I'll defo have to come for visit next time I go across the pond.I built a stage for the Henly Regatta and in an antique shop I found a Route 66 highway marker!!!If you get a chance to go to Henly try to find it.If your standing at the church with your back to the themes,the shop is on your left and on a corner I think.Not trying to send you on a wild goose chase,but thought it might be cool if you actually found itI'm gonna send some e-mails and see if I cant get some work setting up for the Olympics.Who knows,I may see you soon.Be good

[Lippyp]

That'd be cool. I'm a long way from Henley BUT my family aren't as they live in Reading which is a few miles further up the river, in fact my dads family were from Henley, his grandparents lived there, his grandfather was a fireman there in the days when they wore Brass Helmets and had horse drawn fire engines! I may be going down to see my folks soon so I may have to take a sidetrip to Henley and see if I can find that route 66 marker, would look good in my garage!

[Lippyp]

Placed an order with Jegs today for a billet specialities inline fuel filter to replace the fire hazard glass one I had on there, some nice anodized aluminium valve cover hold downs and a Derale fan controller to run the electric fan. Just got to wait a week or so for them to work their way across the atlantic and then probably another week for them to clear customs this end.

[oldblue1968chevy]

You dont have an 'american' auto parts sorta store over there?

[Lippyp]

We do have some specialists here but they don't carry everything you can get over there so although I could have ordered it from someone it would probably have cost me more as I'd have had their mark-up on top. I did email Derale to see if they had a UK stockist but they didn't reply. Normal service stuff is no problem and also some speed parts but sometimes its just easier and just as quick to order it direct from the USA. I think everyone over here uses a combination of the two. I bought my intake over here brand new and the pertronix ignitor kit just as an example.

[Lippyp]

So this weekend I fitted the new billet specialities fuel filter and fuel lines, I then pulled the waterpump, whipped the pulley off and gave it a damn good scrub and clean-up as it was partly black and partly peeling crappy orange paint. Its going to get a couple of coats of POR15 Chevy Orange engine paint tomorrow to tidy it up, the pulley a coat of gloss black (its currently in a bath of DEOX-C de-rusting), I also painted the long curved alternator bracket the other day. With the pump off I can get to the front of the engine, it appears to have a cheap aftermarket chrome timing chain cover (thats missing a couple of bolts that I need to source) it is a bit rusty so got the rust off with some DEOX-C gel and then gave it a polish and wax which will do for the time being. I've given the front of the block repeated scrubbing with marine clean and a wire brush so its grease free, next thing is a blast over with a wire cup brush in my drill to remove anything thats vaguely loose and a final wipe down with some cellulose thinners. Then a few coats of paint by brush.

I hope this week to also pull the rad and get rid of the crappy old electric fan and start making the aluminium fan shroud for my new Volvo T5 fan. I also need to source a 1/2" NPT to 3/8" NPT reducer so I can fit the temp sensor for the fan controller into the remaining hole in the intake manifold. I also picked out the spot to mount the fan controller.

Just a few pictures, the front of the engine, the goop on the chrome is DEOX-C Gel to get the surface rust off.



at the end of the morning with a bit of polish on the chrome and a good clean up, now pretty much ready for paint.



Water pump after a degrease and clean up



and after one coat of POR15 Chevy orange engine paint, it'l need at least one more coat, maybe two.



All the tapped holes have had the appropriate sized tap run through them to clean up the threads and the bolts are de-rusted now. The pulley will get some gloss black paint later this week.

Just knocked off now for a sausage, bacon and mushroom butty and to watch the German Grand Prix, hopefully I should be able to get some more done this week now the kids are off school and the weather looks good. Need to order some bolts for the timing chain cover as I'm missing a couple (bloody previous owners!) along with a never ending stream of odd small bits and pieces, most I should be able to source over here though.

[Lippyp]

Time for another small update, my focus has changed slightly now with the news that we've finally sold our house after four years of trying so I need to get the engine back together and running so I can move the truck out onto a flatbed truck to get moved (its not road legal yet and needs all the brakes going through before theres any chance of that happening and I don't have time to do it before the move) So as the kids started school last week I had an entire morning today to myself and its finally stopped raining for a day. Heres what I did with it.

Refitted the freshly painted waterpump with new gaskets, refitted the pulley, its just had a quick blowover with black paint and really needs stripping but that'll get done properly after we move. I cleaned up the rusty old valve covers with a wire wheel, gave them a coat of wax to hold the rust at bay, dressed out the flanges so they're flat, glued new cork gaskets to the covers and refitted them. I have a pair of polished mickey T alloy covers to go on eventually. Refitted assorted hoses and pipes and the power steering and alternator belts. This afternoon I want to gap the plugs up for the pertronix ignitor I fitted and refit them and the leads and then fill her up with fresh coolant. Then I'm pretty much ready to try and fire her up.

A couple of pictures

[mcbassin]

That engine looks great! Very clean work.

[Lippyp]

Another update, well just click on the liok and you'll see, she finally runs, fired up first time, still needs a good tune-up and the timing setting, I need to dig my timing light out and then tweak the mixture settings on the carb but I am so made up with how well she started. The new high torque starter is awesome, spins the engine so fast it catches almost instantly. The pertronix ignitor seems to work good as well.

1967 Chevrolet C10 Pickup first fire-up -...

[VA72C10]

congrats!

[Lippyp]

Damn, think after all that the water pump may have started leaking, guess it didn't like being cleaned up! Had a go at timing it today, got it running well, then second guessed myself and screwed it up again so I walked away from it to get my head back together and I'll have another go at it another day when I've got a vacuum gauge to sort the carb settings out too.

[67cheby]

nice work

[Classic Heartbeat]

I just found this thread. Great work Lippyp!! You might want to think about where you want to place the temprature censor for the electric fan though. It needs to read the temprature of the water in the radiator, not the engine. The fan cools the water in the radiator, so it needs to know when that water is hot, not engine temperature. WES

[Lippyp]

Thanks Wes, I might see if I can find a radiator specialist to solder a bung into the radiator one end, trouble is most of them seem to have dissapeared over here with the advent of plastic tanked aluminium radiators in modern cars. My local one has gone out of business. The old school places that would recore a radiator, rebuild a distributor or starter all seem to be a dying breed sadly.

Just a couple of teaser pics for today. I finally got my camper shell on, mainly so it can be shifted to our new house attached to the truck which is being trailered there. Ironically I've finally got her under cover.....three weeks before we have to take the tarp garagae down and move house.

[von guido]

that will definatley turn heads on the M6!
on a side note..if you want a plethora of american license plates, I can ship them over with a small fee of Yorkie bars lol!

[Lippyp]

Von Guido, it sure does, it also see's off lots of young lads in vauxhall corsas at the lights who seem to think that it's endowed with a smokey old diesel engine for soem reason!

I'm happy to trade Yorkie Bars for license plates, what have you got and whats the current exchange rate?! (I take it you're either an ex-pat or have spent some time here! LOL) Unless of course you're a girl, because they're not for girls you know!