1962 C20 ... long way from home

[sluggy]

I recently bought this C20, running manual tranny and a 327. I have been daily driving it for the past month, its wintery here in NZ right now.

Plan is an LS3 and 6L80 conversion (sitting in the shed), I am going 5 lug all the way around, I have a 70's C10 front end a 12 bolt rear, aircon, rewire... bed is currently non existent, lucky I have a mate who makes timber mouldings, so he will run the decking timber for me and I will reuse the old steel strips cleaned up a bit.

It will be signwritten, all the dings and dents will be left and it will be my daily driver. Chassis is in for blasting and painting in a week.

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum

That looks like a decent truck to work with.

[sluggy]

Making some progress on this. Tray is off, front end off, replaced the floor pans as they were a bit holey, front seat is being reupholstered. Had the frame sand blasted and rust proofed/sprayed. I have removed the 327, and am currently working out mounts etc for the engine. I had bought the front end out of a 77 truck, but looks like I dont need to change the front end, even with the 6l80 trans there is plenty of space between the torsion bar crossmember and the rear of the trans. Also had a mate who machines timber run up some American oak for the deck.

At this stage I am looking to use the 77 perches, and fill the gap between these and the frame rails (pic is just a rough mock up !), and still need to fab up some brackets from the frame rails to the tranny mount.

Can anyone give me some direction on setting up the trans output angle and height in relation to the centre bearing (2 piece tailshaft) ? I should have measured the height of the old trans before removal, but forgot too ...
Heres some pics

[jchav62]

Looking good!!

[sluggy]

Got mounts pretty much done. Trans mount is looking a bit agricultural so will likely make some changes with this. But it is getting there. Pretty happy that I have the angle sorted for the first section of drive shaft.

[sluggy]

Getting closer...80 % rewired, brakes to do, and interior to button up...

[sluggy]

Got the seat back from upholstery, wiring is done but cant get it started so my friendly auto electrical mate is coming today to hopefully get it fired up. I have changed the spindles C20 - C10 classic industries spindles and their brake kit. Just need to rebuild the rear drums. Aircon is complete baring gassing up.

So not far off being back on the road after 2 months of working on it.

[sluggy]

Havent updated this in a while. But its all running and back together. See pics below.
Running sweetly now apart from a fuel issue, I bought a relocate tank for the 62 from POL. The outlet is at the front lower passengers side. I didn't check, but there is no pick up tube, so 3/4 of a tank or less and you stand on it or go around a RH bend with your foot in it and it starves... Apparently the tank is baffled (didnt check) and they have a pick up tube they can supply. Just a heads up if you go down that route. Im going to put a surge tank in to alleviate the issue for ever.
Just did a 200 mile trip in it, ran flawlessly...

[clarsen]

Nice job! You made quick work of that powertrain swap.

[The Rocknrod]

And wheels? The wood looks terrific.

[Rusty63]

very nice work!

[Captainfab]

Looks good Nicely done.

[sluggy]

Originally Posted by The Rocknrod

And wheels? The wood looks terrific.

Detroit steel wheels. 20 x9 at the rear 20 x 8 on the front. 295/40/20 rears 265/50/20 fronts (from memory). Just left them raw steel at the moment, get some natural patina on them and seal them up is the plan.

Rides really nice, But im going to put some sway bars on front and rear, fronts are marginally wrong, another 1/2" backspace wouldve been nice, they scrape a bit on our roads here. We have a lot of two lane twisty turny stuff outside of the cities.

[sluggy]

So Ive been fighting the fuel issue, tank does have 2 baffles in it, but they allow the fuel to move too much, being a fuel injected setup, it is pretty obvious when the pickup is out of fuel.

Initially I made a pick up for the tank, there isnt one suppplied with the tank, that helped a bit but still having issues. So I bought a Fitech single pump in tank job, good for 800 hp, this is a stock ls3 so heaps of headroom.

This appears to have solved the problem, pics below. The only hassle I had is when you swap the internal regulator to the plug supplied, it blows fuel everywhere - I couldnt get it to seal no matter what I did so had to reinstall the regulator.

Pics of internal baffles in tank, fitech set up and where I put it in the tank.

[Captainfab]

What brand of tank is that?

[sluggy]

Performance on line. Fits well but the insides need some work.

[sluggy]

Finally got to the dyno after driving the truck for the last 2500 miles. Made 350 hp (we do metrics down here hence the graph) and a nice flat tq curve. Sorted out the spark tables and is now a lot crisper. Need to get the aircleaner outside the engine bay, the difference between the two lines is bonnet opened and closed...

[Palf70Step]

Great work on what you have done so far! Super looking truck. I am looking forward to future updates.

[sluggy]

Been pottering away sorting out bits and pieces as I get time and get to them. Recently got to the dragstrip and ran a 13.4@101mph which is way faster than I thought it would run, so now I need more power ?

[The Rocknrod]

Originally Posted by sluggy

Been pottering away sorting out bits and pieces as I get time and get to them. Recently got to the dragstrip and ran a 13.4@101mph which is way faster than I thought it would run, so now I need more power ?

1/4 mile time?
You can chase "more power" for the rest of your life. That's a respectable time right there.

[sluggy]

Yeah 1/4 mile time. And yeah you are right, I've been doing the chasing more with another car for years now = money pit...

[notsolo]

Truck looks awesome, engine bay....WOW...Nice complete build...Well done...Can you come help me with my truck...Please...

[Bugeyev8]

Holley hydramat is great for your fuel issue