1965 C10 LWB Project Build Thread

[SCOTI]

John,

You could always introduce your Elky build over in the 'Alternate Tinkerings' forum section.

[JohnIL]

Harald,
I know exactly what you mean. At the time, those early setbacks were aggravating. But, the triumph of overcoming those setbacks makes up for the aggravation.

John

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

John,

You could always introduce your Elky build over in the 'Alternate Tinkerings' forum section.

Scoti,
That's an interesting idea. I just might have to do that.

Thanks.
John

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by JohnIL

Scoti,
That's an interesting idea. I just might have to do that.

Thanks.
John

I helped a co-worker out on his sons A-body Elky & posted a thread in that area.

[JohnIL]

These pictures show the rear drop springs and the lift blocks. The combination gives a 1.5" drop. For reference, the front has a 2" drop. The picture is a bit deceiving. The truck has a bit a rear-high rake.

[JohnIL]

Here are some before and after pictures of the exhaust. The previous owner installed headers and 3" Flowmaster mufflers. It was obnoxiously load and it droned like crazy. I adapted down to 2 1/4" Walker QuietFlow SS mufflers. It's much more comfortable to drive now. New ram horn manifolds and a proper exhaust system will come down the road.

[JohnIL]

Before and after pictures of the steering wheel swap. The PO had a 14" Grant GT installed. It was all wrong for a classic truck. I opted for a 15" Grant 967 instead.

[JohnIL]

Here are the seat mounts I fabricated to get the square body bench seat up off the floor. And, a couple of pictures of the new retractable shoulder 3 point seatbelts. Remember, safety third!

[JohnIL]

Future home of a fancy schmancy double DIN touchscreen stereo. I hate to cut up the factory dash, but it's not pristine, so I won't lose any sleep over it.

[JohnIL]

I've started a fun little fabrication project. In my last post, I included a picture that alluded to installing a double DIN touchscreen stereo in the dash. As the old military saying goes, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy." In this case, the enemy is the windshield wiper motor. Now that I have the new stereo in-hand, it is obvious that there isn't enough space behind the dash for the stereo, without running directly into the wiper motor. In fact, I'm about 1 1/2" short. So, I set about fabricating a "bezel" to extend the center of the dash (where the original ash tray and AM radio were located) out 1 1/2".

I set a few requirements from the start. I want the bezel to blend into the dash as much as possible. That's going to be pretty tough considering the whole point is to make it stick out of the front of the dash, but there are some things I can do to help. Since the dash is entirely made of steel, I'm making the bezel out of steel too. I don't want to dismantle the entire interior so I can weld the bezel to the dash, so I'm opting for hidden bolts instead. And, I'm rounding off the corners of the bezel so it looks a little bit less like a steel box sticking out of the dash. One of the benefits to using steel is that I can integrate a pair of mounting brackets to hold the stereo securing into the bezel.

I started with a simple wire frame made of 5/16" round bar. This established the basic shape of the bezel and provided some additional material for the rounded edges and corners. Next, I welded flat panels on all for edges to close in the outside of the box. Then, I welded a large flat panel on the face of the box with an appropriately sized hole to receive the stereo. With the box closed in, I added a pair of brackets to the back side of the face to give the stereo something solid to mount to.

And, that's as far as I've gotten so far. You can follow along the process in the pictures below. In case it's not obvious, the bolts to mount the bezel to the dash are wrapped in blue tape in the pictures. They're 1/4"x20 bolts with the heads trimmed off. They protrude 3/4" out the back of the bezel. This should allow plenty of thread for washers and nuts behind the dash.

I'm out of town on business for about a week. When I get back to the garage, I'll drill the mounting holes in the dash, cut out the center of the dash for the stereo, and test fit everything in place. Once I'm happy with how everything fits, I'll tidy of the bezel with a skim coat of body filler and give it a coat of paint. More to come...

[JohnIL]

Here are few more pictures of the assembled stereo bezel.

[JohnIL]

The stereo installation is done, but not without some unforeseen challenges. In my last installment, I posted pictures of the stereo bezel I cobbled together. This weekend, I dove into the hackery portion of the project. To make room for the new stereo, I had to cut a gapping hole in the center of the dash. It hurt to look at until I got the stereo bezel mocked up and fitted to the dash. You'll notice that some duck tape holding the defroster tubing together. While I was inside the dash, I replaced this mess with a new length of tubing. I also rerouted the new tubing around the bottom of the wiper motor. This provided some extra space behind the new stereo head unit.

[JohnIL]

Once the stereo bezel was fitted to the dash, I spent the better part of an afternoon smoothing the steel bezel out with body filler and primer. While waiting for the various layers of filler and primer to dry, I took care of another little project. The original door limiting straps were toast. The passenger side was only worn out. The driver side was just plain broken. Based on advice that I found here on the forum, I ordered a new set of limiting straps for a Jeep XJ. This design is an improvement on the factory straps because they include a semi-open position which should help keep me from bashing other vehicles in parking lots. The only problem with the Jeep straps is that they are significantly shorter than the factory straps. The doors don't open far enough to be comfortable. They would work OK, but you would have to squeeze in and out of the truck, even with the doors fully opened. The fix was actually pretty easy. I lopped the eyelets off of the new straps, and grafted on the eyelets from the factory straps. On my first attempt, I added 1/2" to the total length of the strap. That was just a bit too much. The door opened about 1 1/4" further than it did with the factory strap. On my second attempt, I only added 7/16" to the length. Believe it or not, that 1/16" was worth 1" of door opening. Now, the doors open almost exactly as far as they did originally, the have a semi-open position, and they have new squishy rubber bumpers to cushion the doors when they are flung open.

[JohnIL]

Back to the stereo installation. I body worked the stereo bezel until my patience ran out. You can see a few sanding scratches in the final finish. Someday, I'll have to disassemble the whole interior for rust repair and paint. I'll tidy up the scratches on the bezel when I bodywork the rest of the dash. I went ahead and painted the bezel tan (actually Krylon Fusion Satin Kahki). This color is a decent match for the factory fawn interior color. My C10 came with silver interior, but I like the fawn better. Someday, the whole interior will be fawn with darker brown seats and accents.

Here is the finished bezel and the stereo bolted into the dash before the wiring began.

[JohnIL]

And, here it is all wired up and working. The stereo connected to my Android phone and my old iPod Nano. So far, so good.

[JohnIL]

I'm trying out a hidden stereo antenna because I really don't like the mast sticking out of the cowl panel. I'm not sure how well the hidden antenna is going to work out, but it's worth a try. The hidden antenna seems to get the best reception with it's above the rear window, near the dome light. It's not exactly "hidden" there, but I might be able to mount it inside the back wall of the cab, behind the dome light itself. We'll see how that works out.

I installed a pair of 6x9 speakers in pre-made boxes and slid them under the seat. I didn't bother to take any pictures because this is only temporary until I replace the factory gas tank with a new one mounted under the truck bed. This will open up the rear corners of the cab for a more permanent speaker mounting situation.

I thought I would get fancy with the front 5 1/4" speakers and mount them in the kick panels. I carefully templated the round holes that I planned to cut into the kick panels. Then, I went to work with a zip disk on my air die grinder. This is where the project went off the rails. If you've every had one of these cabs apart, I'm sure you know exactly what I ran into. I can see you now, shouting at the computer screen, saying, "NO! DON'T DO IT!" But, it was too late. I had already cut a perfect 4 3/4" hole in the driver side kick panel before I discovered cab brace directly behind the center of the hole. Not only that, but the half of the hole opened up into the front wheel well, right at the corner of the kick panel vent. I felt like an idiot, but I was committed. Now I just had to "invent" a way to close off the hole from the wheel well and enclose the new speaker. So, I dug into my stash of 20 ga sheet metal and welded up a "half-can" to seal up the hole and surround the speaker. With a workable solution sorted out, I cut a matching hole in the passenger side kick panel and welded up another half-can. I tack welded the half-cans into the openings and sealed all around them with seam sealer. While I was inside the kick panels, I gave everything a good soaking in rust converter and coated the open with primer. Hopefully, that will help buy me some time until I start digging into the rust repair on the body. With the holes cut and sealed up, I installed the new speakers. I'm happy with the way it turned out, but it was a very time consuming detour in the project.

With the stereo and speakers completely installed, it sounded great, at least while I was parked in the garage. When I took the truck for a drive, however, the stereo was pretty much drowned out by the road and wind noise. The doors and windows seal reasonably well, but the cab is still very noisy at highway speeds. The cab is basically an uninsulated metal box.
Obviously, I'm going to need to do some sound proofing and deadening to improve the listening experience. I'll post a separate thread to get some advice from those of you who have fought this battle before.

[SCOTI]

Fair amount of effort on the stereo install. Glad things worked out to your liking.

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Fair amount of effort on the stereo install. Glad things worked out to your liking.

Thanks Scoti. This definitely didn't go the way I planned. If I had known I would run into the wiper motor, I would have shopped for a shallower head unit. And, if I had know what I would find behind the kink panels, I probably would have installed the speakers in the doors instead. Now that it's all done, I happy with it, but it was a lot more work that I planned on.

John

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by JohnIL

Thanks Scoti. This definitely didn't go the way I planned. If I had known I would run into the wiper motor, I would have shopped for a shallower head unit. And, if I had know what I would find behind the kink panels, I probably would have installed the speakers in the doors instead. Now that it's all done, I happy with it, but it was a lot more work that I planned on.

John

What's that saying about 'hindsight'.....

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

What's that saying about 'hindsight'.....

Exactly!

[bigmoe]

Originally Posted by JohnIL

Once the stereo bezel was fitted to the dash, I spent the better part of an afternoon smoothing the steel bezel out with body filler and primer. While waiting for the various layers of filler and primer to dry, I took care of another little project. The original door limiting straps were toast. The passenger side was only worn out. The driver side was just plain broken. Based on advice that I found here on the forum, I ordered a new set of limiting straps for a Jeep XJ. This design is an improvement on the factory straps because they include a semi-open position which should help keep me from bashing other vehicles in parking lots. The only problem with the Jeep straps is that they are significantly shorter than the factory straps. The doors don't open far enough to be comfortable. They would work OK, but you would have to squeeze in and out of the truck, even with the doors fully opened. The fix was actually pretty easy. I lopped the eyelets off of the new straps, and grafted on the eyelets from the factory straps. On my first attempt, I added 1/2" to the total length of the strap. That was just a bit too much. The door opened about 1 1/4" further than it did with the factory strap. On my second attempt, I only added 7/16" to the length. Believe it or not, that 1/16" was worth 1" of door opening. Now, the doors open almost exactly as far as they did originally, the have a semi-open position, and they have new squishy rubber bumpers to cushion the doors when they are flung open.

When I did this mod on mine I removed and sliced the rubber in half so the doors would open more.

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by bigmoe

When I did this mod on mine I removed and sliced the rubber in half so the doors would open more.

Moe,
That would certainly do the trick. slicing the rubber bumper would effectively lengthen the strap. Any idea how much of the rubber bumper you removed?

John

[bigmoe]

Originally Posted by JohnIL

Moe,
That would certainly do the trick. slicing the rubber bumper would effectively lengthen the strap. Any idea how much of the rubber bumper you removed?

John

Probably about 60/40, keeping the thicker piece in.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by JohnIL

Moe,
That would certainly do the trick. slicing the rubber bumper would effectively lengthen the strap. Any idea how much of the rubber bumper you removed?

John

I cut my bumpers in thirds. Worked out well and was right about at the same opening as the stock stuff

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

I cut my bumpers in thirds. Worked out well and was right about at the same opening as the stock stuff

That makes sense. I'll bet your modification added about the same amount of travel as mine. And, your way didn't require and welding and grinding!