1970 C10 LWB "Blu"

[Sarg]

Hey neighbor the truck looks great! Just down the road from you in Albemarle. The next time you go to Dixie Truck Works look me up and stop by (I am only 10 min. from them). I would love to see your truck in person. All the hard work you have done is starting to pay off. I also have been working on an old long bed truck.

[NC_John]

Originally Posted by Sarg

Hey neighbor the truck looks great! Just down the road from you in Albemarle. The next time you go to Dixie Truck Works look me up and stop by (I am only 10 min. from them). I would love to see your truck in person. All the hard work you have done is starting to pay off. I also have been working on an old long bed truck.

LOL- if you want to see my truck in person you need to come over and look at the pile of parts! I'm in the middle of an engine build which might turn into some body work too while it is down. A three day job morphed into a three week job and I am going to try desperately not to let it be a three MONTH job.

I'll surely be at Dixie again before too long but it won't be in Blu!

"I used to have an old truck. Now I have a bunch of old truck parts."

[NC_John]

Hey y'all.....long time, no update.

I've done a bunch of small stuff (refurbed by gauge cluster) and some bigger stuff (lowered it 3" in the front and rear with springs).

Here it is with just the front done:



Now I'm into the BIG stuff. I decided that over the Thanksgiving holiday I was going to pull the engine, reseal it, change the timing set and oil pump, paint it and put it back in....

I ended up taking the entire front clip off to make the engine removal process easy.



Tugging out the small block and Saginaw....



And ready for cleaning and teardown....

[NC_John]

I spent a lot of time doing pre-cleaning on the engine before I started tear-down...



With the front clip removed the truck is all set for some more cleaning....



I spent a few more hours on it with a 3,800 psi pressure washer, copious amounts of degreaser and toothbrushes.



With that done it was time to start disassembling the engine to see what I'm working with...

[NC_John]

I was doing pretty good keeping on the plan until my Dad talked me into pulling the heads to see what the valves looked like and to change out the valve seals. "What's a set of head gaskets cost- nothing!" he said.



Everything looked really good and it was obvious that I was the first one inside the engine. No signs of anybody else ever cracking it open.



I decided since I had it this far apart it would be stupid to not rebuild it properly. It's too much work to do this again in another year or two. I stripped it right down to the bare block.



And made a big pile of parts in the garage....

[NC_John]

I got the machine shop to go over everything for me- the block, heads and crank.

They magnafluxed everything and made sure it was good to go. The block got hot-tanked, bored 030 over, new cam bearings got put in and I had them install the freeze plugs. The crank got checked out and just needed a polish to make good as new. The heads got the works. Decked, new hardened valve seats, new guides and valves. They installed my comp cam valvetrain parts and checked the springs against the lift of the new cam I was putting in.

I got my stuff back and it looked fantastic- like brand new.... Pretty cool for 43 yr old parts...



I got a bunch of performance parts from summit and jegs and some basic parts (bearings, rings, new 030 over pistons) from the machine shop. My garage looks like a UPS truck exploded. (which answers the question - what does a pair of head gaskets cost? about $1,500 in machine work and other parts!)



On Friday I gave the block a final soapy hot water wash with dawn dishwashing detergent and a hot water pressure washer at work. I cleaned, cleaned and cleaned it again.

[NC_John]

Yesterday I took advantage of some terrific December weather (70 degree temps) and gave the block a coat of paint. Chevy Orange VHT. If its as durable as it looks good, I should be all set.



I put the paint on so thick I even had to wetsand some runs out of the timing cover and oil pan (my OCD was kicking in). I also did a lot of the other parts- fan, water pump, balancer, bellhousing, etc... Everything on the engine is going to be chevy orange or hot-rod black. Should look really good and really true to stock.



So the garage is still a huge mess but at least its a more painted/clean mess.



I bought a bunch of sheetmetal too. Rad support, inner fenders....rockers, cab corners, some other small patch panels for the front fenders. With the front end already off, now might be the time to get the brunt of the rust repair done too.

This is way more than I wanted to do this fast but the truck should look (sound, and run) pretty good this spring.

[sprint_9]

Originally Posted by NC_John

I got a bunch of performance parts from summit and jegs and some basic parts (bearings, rings, new 030 over pistons) from the machine shop. My garage looks like a UPS truck exploded. (which answers the question - what does a pair of head gaskets cost? about $1,500 in machine work and other parts!)

Sounds like something my dad would say about the head gaskets and what the outcome would be.