71 C10 Project "Dangerous Dinosaur" Build Thread

[the hippie mechanic]

It's about time I got around to making a build thread for my truck so here goes. The truck is a plain jane dark green 71 C10 LWB. This build will pretty much be un-doing neglect from over the years and getting the truck to pass inspection. There may be more that comes along later but for now passing inspection is the goal. There is rust in just about every body panel but somehow the cab corners have survived. I have one solid fender to put on the truck and I'm on the hunt for a second.

One of the first things was to replace the old broken grill and the exhaust manifold. The PO snagged the grill with his plow and it was toast. A previous PO Also managed to snap off the bolts that hook up the exhaust pipe inside the manifold, so the integrated manifold was pulled off and a new manifold was bolted up. Next were the body mounts, some were ok but most were completely worn out. This messed with the door gaps and I'll have to adjust those too. I'll save that for when I hang the rust free fenders. Next came the front brakes. The old ones came with the deluxe "worn groove" and had to go. The bearings were in good shape so I reused them and the new rotors and pads are looking great.

[the hippie mechanic]

I'm having some light issues and LockDoc recommended making sure I had good grounds so I went around and replaced them. The old battery ground cable was no good and would flop right off the post so it was replaced. The head to firewall ground strap was broken and the frame to cab one needed cleaning up, and then I added a fender to frame and radiator support to frame ground on top of that. The lights are much brighter now but the driver's side turn signals still don't work when the headlight switch is on. There are a few other rat's nest wiring problems I have to clean up so we'll see if they fix the turn signals. I started on my bumpers as well. The truck came with a bumper that doesn't have parking light sockets so I don't think I'll be using it. I have some parking lamps from a slant nose grill that plug in where the 71 style lights go but I have to figure out a good way to mount them. Apparently zip-tying them to the grill won't cut it I cleaned up the bumper anyway and primed it in case I need it. I started fabbing up my rear bumper as well, there is a trailer hitch in the center of some gas pipe and it will bolt up to the frame. I capped off the ends of the pipe tonight but it was too dark for pictures. Some of the welds are pretty, some are pretty ugly, but they all hold. I'm still working on welding skills. I have to get some heavier angle bracket to make the rear bumper mounts and put some supports on the top of the trailer hitch, then it will be done.

[WarMonger]

Looks good. I'm subscribed

[the hippie mechanic]

Last for tonight was the new windshield. The old one had a big crack on the driver's side so I pulled it out and put in one from a junk yard truck that was nice and clear. My dad helped me rope and soap it into place and it should have a nice seal now. Unfortunately it was too dark for decent pictures when we finished. When I pulled the old one I discovered that the roof had rusted away all along the inside of the cab, then a PO had very cleverly bondo'd and painted over it. Since the only proper remedy would be major cab surgery or a new cab I will have to leave it for now. The best I will be able to do is getting rid of the dried out sealer in the drip rail and re-sealing it. There were seams in each corner that I did my best to seal up and I used Eastwood rust transformer where it was needed around the lip for the gasket. It was starting to get dark so the picture isn't great, but that brown and dark brown around the windshield lip is seam sealer and Eastwood product, not rust. That's it for tonight, next up will be finishing the rear bumper and checking on the distributor. Right now the straight six doesn't sound too healthy above idle and hopefully some tuning will remedy that. I have to get better at taking pictures while I work and I will post pictures of things I left out tomorrow.

[the hippie mechanic]

The Dino has a tail now!! Er- tailgate. Picked up some goodies from the junk yard today including a rust free tailgate and hardware, retracting seatbelts, and a correct mirror that attaches to the cab roof, not the windshield. The interior pieces were all tan except for one seatbelt, which seemed to be a replacement. I think this was the Saddle interior option? I put the tailgate on tonight and did a some modification to the linkage between the tailgate latch and the handle. I didn't trust the linkage to stay in its hole since the little steel sleeves GM put in at the factory had rusted away so I drilled a hole in the end of each rod and put a cotter pin in the end. Here are some pictures from the last post of the new windshield, primed front bumper, and new cab mounts. The perches for the cab mounts under the radiator had been mangled by a PO so I made some steel supports to make the bushings sit correctly on the frame.

[Hartje]

Looks like good progress so far! I'm finally getting to a position where I can start replacing and changing things on my garbage.

Keep us updated!

[the hippie mechanic]

I started on the distributor and trying to get the straight six to run right above idle. I opened up the distributor with the intention of replacing the points but the points in there were practically brand new. I cleaned the contacts in the distributor cap and on the rotor, lubed the weights under the points, and buttoned everything back up. When I was adjusting the timing to see if that fixed the problem I notice a fuel leak above my fuel pump so I fixed that too. My vacuum advance didn't seem to be working right so I tried a different vacuum line and it worked better. I discovered a PO had stuffed a ball bearing in the vacuum line, and I removed it. It made the vacuum advance work better, but still not great so I replaced it. I replaced the wires going to and from the coil as well, which really made it idle better. One wire was very frayed and greasy and probably wasn't a very good conductor. I have a brand new vacuum advance, good timing, clean contacts and fuel flow and the motor is still struggling holding RPMs above idle, so I will be replacing valve seats or piston rings next. I did a compression test and he results came back 105, 105, 105, 100, 110, 105. I'm going to put a tablespoon of oil in one of the cylinders and see if the compression changes. I'm looking at redoing the rings or valves, or both. Any advice from people who have had to do this before, or anything else I could troubleshoot before ripping into the engine?

I decided to use the bumper without the parking light sockets and I'm making brackets to mount the parking lights on the bottom of the bumper. I also started on getting the windshield wiper motor to work, I replaced a blown fuse and checked to see if the motor will still turn. It does, so the problem should lie in a switch or wiring.