Project Old Blue, 1965 C10, Rebuild Version 2010

[aggie91]

Pier and marked for history...

East side of the 91 year old barn...

[aggie91]

Final look after all our work. Looks so much better already!

[aggie91]

We finished off the week and my time at the farm with a great meal of steaks and venison sausage on the grill with baked potatoes and other sides. Now I had to go back to my job the next day so that I could relax and recover from all this work.

[SCOTI]

Looks like some hard work & lots of effort visible. All 4 corners rotten or just hit/miss & replacing for age?

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Looks like some hard work & lots of effort visible. All 4 corners rotten or just hit/miss & replacing for age?

Thanks, we are very pleased with the results so far. Not all corners are rotten. The south wall has 2 or 3 more posts that are rotten at the ground level, many of them have been scabbed together in the past from about 6' high down to ground level. We will only replace the damaged/rotten ones as needed. Here is a picture of one of the scabbed posts. The bottom portion is a cedar fence post and it is rotten at the ground...

[aggie91]

Took in a job to help found this project. I am installing a complete wire harness into an '80 C10. Got all the old harness out over the weekend. Some of the wiring was scary bad and could lead to a host of problems. Glad he decided to have a new harness installed. I will hook up his trailer brake controller in a much more reliable way...There were some wires with 2 or 3 cheap butt splices in them...

Did get some work done on my new power train, got the heads on finally and got the transmission cleaned up ready for paint and new external seals. No pictures of that work though...I will get some tonight, and hopefully paint the trans too.

Pictures of the rats nest of the wiring...

[aggie91]

Spent a few minutes in the garage last night squirting some paint on the transmission. Now to find my flex plate bolts and get the engine and trans put together...

[aggie91]

Well, had to order the flex plate bolts for the LS as the OE ones are MIA. Those came in, but this past weekend was more about the rewire for the customer than time for my own stuff.

Last night I got the factory wiper harness and delay control reworked to function with the universal AAW harness for his C10. The new harness only has a wiper motor power feed wire.

The only wires I have to hook once this is in the cab, is the power wire from the AAW harness, a ground wire, and the dash light wire.

[SCOTI]

Might need to research your connections. I have a delay set-up as well & I'm deciding on the wiring options now as it seems like the best way to go vs. using the original stuff (although it actually didn't seem bad per say).

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Might need to research your connections. I have a delay set-up as well & I'm deciding on the wiring options now as it seems like the best way to go vs. using the original stuff (although it actually didn't seem bad per say).

Did plenty of research to get to this point. I had the OE diagrams to work from for the 1980 C10. In my head it should work as it is wired just like the original, luckily this will be easy to test out. I just hope all the OE parts are still in good working order...

[aggie91]

Just a couple update progress pictures of the rewire job I am doing on an '80 C-10.

Getting close to testing out the circuits...

[aggie91]

Still plugging away on the '80 C10 rewire. It is taking a bit longer than I had hoped on getting this one complete. Most of it is me not wanting to work in the heat after I get home from my day job.

Got nearly all the under hood items complete. Need to get a ring terminal for a 5/16" bolt for the grounds and hook up the 12V battery feed wires. PCM is mounted, Headlight wiring is complete with relay upgrade, fuse block for PCM is mounted and wired in. I put a Key Hot terminal strip and a Ground terminal strip on the inside of the fender for the owner to have some easy access to wire in future items.

As for the '65, I have been collection parts I need, a trans cooler, fittings, VSS connector to replace a broken one, new oil dip stick tube to replace the bent one I had, and a few other minor items.

[SCOTI]

I'm betting that install is going to make a big difference in the trucks reliability from the electronics side of the coin.

[aggie91]

Thanks Scoti. Based on what I saw as I pulled out the old stuff, there was plenty of potential for some electrical issues...

I hope the end result of the install and the owner being happy with it results in some more side work for me.

[aggie91]

Here are some more pictures of the rewire job.

This is the finish up stage of getting the rear lights hooked up. I did not redo the taillight harness from the plug to the lights. I only fixed the issues where the new main harness gets to the plug and the connection to the trailer light plug.

There where splices of splices when I took it a part. Some were cheap crimp connectors, some just the wire stripped in the middle with a wire wrapped around it then covered with cheep electrical tape.

I did not have another plug set to use to tie the trailer plug together with the main harness, so I used good insulated spade connectors so that if needed the harnesses could be simply unplugged if the bed needed to come off for some reason in the future. All splices and connections are properly made with the correct parts and tools then protected with shrink tubing.

I wish I would have taken a picture or two of what I started with, because it was a mess.

[aggie91]

More on the '80 C10 rewire...

I am real close to finishing this one. I want it gone so I can put some attention to mine...

I hope to start testing out some of the circuits after work today.

[Low Elco]

Dadgumint! Karl's updating and I missed it! Glad to see you're doing well.

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Dadgumint! Karl's updating and I missed it! Glad to see you're doing well.

You have not missed much on the '65 at this point. I have been using this thread as a place to post up other stuff I have been doing, kinda like Grizz1963 does with his thread.

Got to get this '80 rewire out of my way and get a bit more done on the '65!

[aggie91]

The rewire of the '80 C10 is complete and the owner now has it back. Glad to see that one completed. Should be straight forward for him to get the LS running. Took in another LS Swap harness rework. Got about 30 minutes into it already just getting the loom and factory harness tape off on the wires.

We have named the red '86, Red Dawg. We figured out the starting issue after replacing the ignition switch, which when using a volt meter lead us to that being the issue, turns out the two fusible links at the starter where toast and the PO had made an attempt to repair, there was enough to read voltage, but the load was to much once you tried to start the truck. Got those replaced with new fusible links and the truck start fine now. The picture is the "fusible links" that the PO had repaired...

[aggie91]

Finished up another LS Swap Harness...
DBC, 6.0/4L80e, Relocate the PCM under the Dash, Move Alt connection to Passenger side, Move Coolant Temp to Passenger side

Mocked up on my Engine...

[aggie91]

We also moved my '65 to our shop in Tyler. Soon to have the 6.0 & 4L80e installed!

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

We also moved my '65 to our shop in Tyler. Soon to have the 6.0 & 4L80e installed!

Are you finding the used motors/set-ups easy enough? I've been watching for a 6.0/4l80e myself.

[aggie91]

I can find 5.3/4L60e setups just about any day of the week. The 6.0/4l80e is harder to find and fetch a bit more money around here. Sometime you have to get a complete donor vehicle to get a good price on the parts you need...I lucked out on my 6.0/4L80eset up. I bought a wrecked truck from a local street sweeping company, sold parts off it and kept what I needed and then scrapped the rest.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

I can find 5.3/4L60e setups just about any day of the week. The 6.0/4l80e is harder to find and fetch a bit more money around here. Sometime you have to get a complete donor vehicle to get a good price on the parts you need...I lucked out on my 6.0/4L80eset up. I bought a wrecked truck from a local street sweeping company, sold parts off it and kept what I needed and then scrapped the rest.

Gotcha. I've been watching a box truck w/a 6.0/4l80e. Not sure what I can get for the carcass w/o the drivetrain as it's a fairly large object (not something you want just sitting around). While I know 5.3's get the job done, I have no desire to add boost/complexity & don't like the gearing of 4l60e's.

[aggie91]

Well, its been a couple months with little work getting done on this truck. I have been working on my custom harness for the engine/transmission, but back to waiting on parts for it to move forward.

We did move the truck to my shop in Tyler and I got to work on it over the holidays some. I tested positive for COVID 12/17, so I ended up being quarantine until 12/31 for work. I was to be on vacation and going to my parents for Christmas so that did not happen...

Owen was able to come home for about a week after graduating from RTC with the Navy. He started is 2 week quarantine before he begins his A-School in Great Lakes on Jan 11th.

Korbin and I have spent some quality shop time on our two project over the last few days. Seems we have both gotten a bit of motivation to work on our junk.