New to me 66 C10

[Lakeside65]

Hey guys. It’s been about a year since I was last on here. I had a build thread going for my 65 but stopped posting whenever I decided to part the truck out. 6 months went buy after parting out and I found a running and driving 66 in Bixby, OK. Drove out on a Wednesday and cruised it home to Missouri that night. Here are some pictures of her over the last few months I have owned her. I am working the bugs out right now. Planning to pull in the shop soon and paint the cab and front clip to match the patina blue, and I will pull all of the trim off, order new clips and try to straighten the trim out as much as possible. I have new springs, shocks and shock relocators for the rear that will be dropped 1” more. I’m also planning on a blazer tank swap between the rear rails and doing a bolt in notch.

[88Stanger]

Well, welcome back. Nice start on the new ride!

[Lakeside65]

Well, here we are almost 2 years later and I'm back with another update on my first build. Life became a priority as we just had our first baby 5 months ago and that put a hold on the truck for awhile. I ended up tearing everything down, doing some fab work on the rear of the truck, bagging all four corners and completely rebuilding/replacing just about every suspension part, new wheels and tires, boyd's fuel cell etc etc. Anyway's, all that is left to finish is wiring, and install the new carpet and reupholstered seat. I am so anxious to see how it runs and drives with the Holley Sniper and all of the new suspension. I will get some photos uploaded soon.

[Lakeside65]

Hello Everybody,

As promised, here are some progress pics through the fab process. I originally cut out all of the cross members thinking I was going to do a real step notch but later decided that I didn't want to loose all my bed space. I had to notch one crossmember to clear the rear end. I also included photos of my seat, old and new done by Lambs Auto Upholstery in Springfield MO. One of my favorite parts so far is cleaning up the radio hole where the previous owner took a pair of tin snips to clear out room for a late model radio. I bought a manual valve bracket from ThorBros and had my dad 3D print a bezel to cover the old hole. I am super happy with how it turned out.
I went ahead with the Boyd's fuel cell and in tank pump with plans on going LS in the future. I also welded in a filler neck to the inside of a jerry can that will mount in the bed of the truck and will fill the tank under the bed.

The truck is currently getting the wiring finished up by Rust2Rodz here in Marshfield MO as well as getting a Holley Sniper installed. I really wanted to do this on my own but we just had our first baby girl and that has taken priority over the truck. That should be done soon and I will make sure to grab some photos of everything once I get the truck back. Stay tuned, hopefully I am back on the road this year after about 14 months.

[Lakeside65]

More Photos...

[Lakeside65]

One More for now

[Lakeside65]

Well I got an update from the shop today that the wiring is very close to being finished up and got a nice shot of the DD gauges in place. The driveshaft should be ready tomorrow and then the truck is off to get the exhaust built next week before it comes home. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Side note, does anybody have any sort of a panel or anything in their truck on the lower half of the door that would cover that nasty 6x9 speaker hole? Looking for suggestions, thanks!

[jmarkha1]

A great job on the dash - especially the stereo hole.
Someone added a stereo to mine - probably with a cold chisel by the looks of it - now filled for 3 small gauges.
The speaker holes - mine had 6x9s in the doors - they were welded up but due to the metal pressings on that panel, they'll probably need a lot of fine tuning to get just right. I was going to make up some panels covered with brown leather to attach to the them - to match the upper panels.

[The Rocknrod]

Nice work, thanks for the updates.

[Lakeside65]

Originally Posted by jmarkha1

A great job on the dash - especially the stereo hole.
Someone added a stereo to mine - probably with a cold chisel by the looks of it - now filled for 3 small gauges.
The speaker holes - mine had 6x9s in the doors - they were welded up but due to the metal pressings on that panel, they'll probably need a lot of fine tuning to get just right. I was going to make up some panels covered with brown leather to attach to the them - to match the upper panels.

Thanks! I was super happy with how it turned out. I think I will probably end up having some panels made to match the seat. I can’t believe that someone would cut up the doors and dash like that but oh well.

[The Rocknrod]

Originally Posted by Lakeside65

Thanks! I was super happy with how it turned out. I think I will probably end up having some panels made to match the seat. I can’t believe that someone would cut up the doors and dash like that but oh well.

I know, I always cringe when I see it. But then I have to rethink the 70's and 80's and...

[Lakeside65]

Originally Posted by The Rocknrod

I know, I always cringe when I see it. But then I have to rethink the 70's and 80's and...

Fair enough, lol I enjoy the challenge of fixing it atleast.

[Lakeside65]

Well I wish I had a better update but I sure don't. The shop that finished up my wiring and installed the Sniper EFI for me is having a heck of a time getting everything the truck to fire. It will crank all day but won't try to fire until we left off the starter. It's all brand new wiring, brand new alternator, we've tried two new battery's, we had the starter rebuilt. They ran a relay for the ignition wiring for both the sniper and the CDI box for the hyperspark distributor. They played with it off and on for a week and we're not sure what to try next. We're going to try a new ignition switch, then who knows what. Anybody ever run into an issue like this with a Sniper system?

[Lakeside65]

Finally a good update today, we were able to locate the issue with the EFI and get the truck started for the first time in over year! Off to the exhaust shop she goes.

Side note, if anybody plans on using a holley sniper with the hyperspark distributor and CDI box, there is an ignition wiring go to the sniper itself, the CDI box and the distributor that ALL must have 12v when cranking. Hope this helps somebody in the future.

Unfortunately, I am headed out of town thurs-sun this week so by the time the truck makes it home from the exhaust shop, I might have one night to work on it. I'm looking forward to sharing some more photos once I get it home and get the carpet and seat installed as well as the bed. I've got parts on order to put together the jerry can filler neck to the boyds side fill tank and I am anxious to see how that works out as well. Stay tuned!

[Lakeside65]

Hello All,

I finally got to bring my truck home from the shop today. It's been a long and expensive 8 months of somebody doing the work for me, lesson learned. Time to tie up some loose ends and hopefully get some miles in before the weather takes a turn. I hope to have some good progress pictures after this weekend, but for now enjoy a photo of my garage not being empty

[88Stanger]

awesome!! I am excited to see your progress. I have bagged all 4 four also, going to with similar EFI (MSD's version - still built by Holley, matches my Dist. box, wires and so on)

[Lakeside65]

Made some good progress over the weekend, got the bed on and bolted down and finished up the fuel filler jerry can.

I attempted my first drive to o'reillys (about 5 miles from the house) and I got about a mile up the road before the truck started stumbling and running like crap. I knew these snipers could be kind of weird so I made my way back home to try and figure it out. I had to drive by the city golf course on the way, and at this point the truck would not go over 10 mph and was popping and backfiring like a gunfight, I'm sure everyone watching was real impressed. Anyways, I limped it back to the driveway and knew I needed to check the timing so I hooked up the light and set static timing to 15 degrees in the ECU and hit the key, and it backfired like a 9mm going off. Scared the crap out of me, my wife and my baby sitting there watching. Long story short, I found the distributor hold down bolt had loosened and the distributor had spun enough that when I set static timing and the ECU couldn't try to make up for how far off it was then it had to fire with an exhaust valve open. I'm not too knowledgeable compared to most, but that is the only thing that makes sense to me. Lesson learned the only way, the hard way. After I got timing set everything ran smooth as butter and I got the first 10 miles on her. Of course, I ran into more issues. The pinion seal is leaking which wasn't a big deal with the bed floor installed, but with the bed floor out that gear oil is slung EVERYWHERE and I can only assume the cars behind me might get a bit of it as well. Hopefully I can get that fixed this week. I am so close to being back on the road and it is an awesome feeling! Enjoy some photos of the truck and fuel filler attached.

[The Rocknrod]

Cool, we all have to do some adjustments when we first start and drive em. That 5 Gallon Jerry can looks neat.