It’s Just A Pickup

[67dailydragger]

awesome truck man!!!! i noticed in the way you type. we may work at the same place??

[my90k5]

^ I'm on prescription drugs now for depression after reading through his build. Looking in the want ads to see what I might get for mine now.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Hollywood Knight]

This is a very nice build and the detail is great .

[Bruce88]

Originally Posted by indyracer

WOW!!!

I just read this entire thread and when I got to the end of it I noticed that my pants were off and my Rubik's Cube had solved itself.

Amazing, just amazing. Now I am going to just scrap everything related to my truck and take up knitting.

Don’t be too quick to scrap everything, I remember having to learn to knit in the 5th grade and there’s plenty of challenges in knitting, putting it all together to (smile).

Originally Posted by 67dailydragger

awesome truck man!!!! i noticed in the way you type. we may work at the same place??

I hope not, or I’ve failed to show up for work for some time (smile). I’m retired from Boeing and the Air Force.

Originally Posted by my90k5

^ I'm on prescription drugs now for depression after reading through his build. Looking in the want ads to see what I might get for mine now.
Posted via Mobile Device

Sorry to hear about your depression, when I get depressed I go out and work on the truck or something, it might be more expensive than drugs but I end up with something when done (smile)

Originally Posted by Hollywood Knight

This is a very nice build and the detail is great .

Thanks for stopping by, glad you enjoyed it

[Bruce88]

Not that a lot will see it on the truck
But you can (smile) the fuel system is done

The last item to make for the fuel system was the fuel filler shroud.

Somewhat time consuming but the only way I could figure out how to make one. I made a mockup of the shroud out of cardboard, cutting and trimming to fit. Then I made one out of galvanized 16 gage metal sheet (1 foot x 2 foot sheet).







The list of things to do to finish the truck is getting real short

Enjoy your build

[mcbassin]

That looks great! I was wondering how you were going hold the filler tube in place. Nice!

[68GMCCustom]

thats sweet!

[67dailydragger]

I hope not, or I’ve failed to show up for work for some time (smile). I’m retired from Boeing and the Air Force.



oh ok cool, i started at Boeing not too long ago.

[VA72C10]

Nicely done!!!

[y5mgisi]

Originally Posted by 67dailydragger

I hope not, or I’ve failed to show up for work for some time (smile). I’m retired from Boeing and the Air Force.



oh ok cool, i started at Boeing not too long ago.

I work for Boeing in Portland! Put together the 737 control stands.

[VTX-treme]

where in portland? Im in Happy Valley

Glenn

[VTX-treme]

Oh, and, Bruce, one of the nicest builds I've ever seen. Keep it up, cant wait to see it all done.

Glenn

[doosekoop]

Nice work on the gas filler!

question on the tailgate latches do they require opening from both sides or is there just one latch? love the look but thinking i might try and come up with a one lever setup for mine , if i can even remotely live up to your awesome skills!

[Bruce88]

Originally Posted by doosekoop

Nice work on the gas filler!

question on the tailgate latches do they require opening from both sides or is there just one latch? love the look but thinking i might try and come up with a one lever setup for mine , if i can even remotely live up to your awesome skills!

There’s two latches one on each side and you have to open each one by pushing inboard on the black levers on each side. I just added a small black handle to each small bear claw latch you can see the setup in (post #69) http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=318544&page=3

After I installed the small bear claw latches I saw that Mar-K had a smaller latch that could fit in the tailgate side channel, didn’t do any more research on how the Mar-K system works but it looks like there controlled with one handle as I could see from a picture on their web page http://www.mar-k.com/what_s_new_at_mar-k.html . This might be something for you to look into that has a one handle opening.

[67dailydragger]

Originally Posted by y5mgisi

I work for Boeing in Portland! Put together the 737 control stands.

im in the Everett plant, crawling in the 777 wings being QA

[Bruce88]

Attempting to make it go down the road
Not your stock front end alignment

I’m not an expert on front end geometry, I’ve changed all the front end parts on a number of different vehicles to include drop spindles, lowering springs and sway bars, but when it came to front end alignment I went with stock settings. So I’m in uncharted territory for me.

Prior to starting this build thread I had rebuilt the front end with a 1-1/8 DIA sway bar, 2-1/2 inch drop spindles and all new ball joints, rod ends, (A) arm shafts and shocks. The only retained original equipment was the (A) arms and front stock springs. On the rear end I used 4 inch drop springs, new drop shocks and a 1-1/8 DIA sway bar (attached on the control arms). On this build thread I changed the rear drop shocks for some air shocks and reconfigured the shock attach points as can be seen and why on (post #257) http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...318544&page=11 and replaced the tracking arm with an adjustable tracking arm (post #276) http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...318544&page=12 . If your interested in some of the part numbers and some pictures see (post #278) http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...318544&page=12 .

I drove the truck with the drop and new components prior to this build thread tear down. One thing that stood out was that it went around a corner nice and flat a definite improvement over the rolling body of a stock suspension. Another area that was a little bit annoying was that it didn’t seem to want to return to straight ahead after going around a corner and where it tracked nice and straight, at a higher speed above 50 MPH it was sensitive, not that it was loose or wandering it just took more concentration to keep it straight. The front end alignment man at that time said it would improve as the new front end components wear in and that the front end was set to factory specs. After 1000 plus miles prior to the tear down the condition didn’t improve.

As all the parts where coming back together on this build I started looking around our forum to see if anybody else had this similar sensitivity in steering and how they fixed it. I didn’t find anything that was directly pointing to solving this problem, I guess I’m the only one that has this problem or it’s just peculiar to my truck. I did find two very interesting threads on our forum that was dealing with making our trucks handle (No Limit ’72 C-10) by robnolimit http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=436621 and (Make it handle) by robnolimit http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=419251 , both threads are worth reading if for nothing else but an understanding and planning out your suspension components.

My personal opinion is that the factory didn’t design our trucks to go down the road at 60 -70 MPH they where more concerned with it handling as a work truck at lets say 20 – 45 MPH. As I remember driving the trucks of this era none of them seemed comfortable to drive at a higher speed and could use some help stabilizing them. One area in the front end geometry that could use some improvement was in positive caster that would help in higher speed driving, this was one thing noted thru out the two above threads. I set out to find out how much positive caster that could be adjusted into some stock (A) arms and if it would help. I think it did help and the frond end man stated in his opinion the trucks alignment is dramatically improved.

As I like to do before any modifications that I make, I want to see what the factory did and how they set it up and then see if I can make any improvements. The below pictures are scanned from a 1972, 10-30 Series Truck, Service Manual and show how they make some of the adjustments, measurements and settings. The Dimension (A) shown in the picture and on the chart, I was unable to verify or use, for some reason the measuring point on the lower (A) arm was not there, in fact it looked like it had been cut out, for what reason I don’t know. The alignment tools/rack only reads actual caster as the truck sits but with the frame up or down in the rear it might limit the amount of shimming and positive caster that can be obtained. For example if the frame was 1 DEG up in the rear and I shimmed for maximum positive caster I would only be able to obtain about a 3 DEG positive caster reading actual on the alignment equipment. My truck frame is at 0 DEG. Note per the service manual the third column in the alignment chart is the preferred settings to use.

Most alignment shops don’t want to do alignments on lowered vehicles or align them to other than stock specifications. I found an alignment man with over 20 years experience and he had worked on many different kinds of vehicles including hot rods. After explaining what I thought would help my front end and a test drive, he thought it might help and was willing to do it. Three hours of rack time and test driving and the truck is set to the alignment printout below.





It may look a little odd to see all the shimming on the front bolt and minimum shimming on the aft bolt, but this is the only way to obtain maximum positive caster on a stock upper (A) arm.

One down side to shimming for maximum positive caster with this front end configuration is that the front wheel will be offset about 1 inch aft in the wheel well, as can be seen in the picture below.



Enjoy your build

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by Bruce88

Attempting to make it go down the road
Not your stock front end alignment

I’m not an expert on front end geometry, I’ve changed all the front end parts on a number of different vehicles to include drop spindles, lowering springs and sway bars, but when it came to front end alignment I went with stock settings. So I’m in uncharted territory for me.

Prior to starting this build thread I had rebuilt the front end with a 1-1/8 DIA sway bar, 2-1/2 inch drop spindles and all new ball joints, rod ends, (A) arm shafts and shocks. The only retained original equipment was the (A) arms and front stock springs. On the rear end I used 4 inch drop springs, new drop shocks and a 1-1/8 DIA sway bar (attached on the control arms). On this build thread I changed the rear drop shocks for some air shocks and reconfigured the shock attach points as can be seen and why on (post #257) http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...318544&page=11 and replaced the tracking arm with an adjustable tracking arm (post #276) http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...318544&page=12 . If your interested in some of the part numbers and some pictures see (post #278) http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...318544&page=12 .

I drove the truck with the drop and new components prior to this build thread tear down. One thing that stood out was that it went around a corner nice and flat a definite improvement over the rolling body of a stock suspension. Another area that was a little bit annoying was that it didn’t seem to want to return to straight ahead after going around a corner and where it tracked nice and straight, at a higher speed above 50 MPH it was sensitive, not that it was loose or wandering it just took more concentration to keep it straight. The front end alignment man at that time said it would improve as the new front end components wear in and that the front end was set to factory specs. After 1000 plus miles prior to the tear down the condition didn’t improve.

As all the parts where coming back together on this build I started looking around our forum to see if anybody else had this similar sensitivity in steering and how they fixed it. I didn’t find anything that was directly pointing to solving this problem, I guess I’m the only one that has this problem or it’s just peculiar to my truck. I did find two very interesting threads on our forum that was dealing with making our trucks handle (No Limit ’72 C-10) by robnolimit http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=436621 and (Make it handle) by robnolimit http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=419251 , both threads are worth reading if for nothing else but an understanding and planning out your suspension components.

My personal opinion is that the factory didn’t design our trucks to go down the road at 60 -70 MPH they where more concerned with it handling as a work truck at lets say 20 – 45 MPH. As I remember driving the trucks of this era none of them seemed comfortable to drive at a higher speed and could use some help stabilizing them. One area in the front end geometry that could use some improvement was in positive caster that would help in higher speed driving, this was one thing noted thru out the two above threads. I set out to find out how much positive caster that could be adjusted into some stock (A) arms and if it would help. I think it did help and the frond end man stated in his opinion the trucks alignment is dramatically improved.

As I like to do before any modifications that I make, I want to see what the factory did and how they set it up and then see if I can make any improvements. The below pictures are scanned from a 1972, 10-30 Series Truck, Service Manual and show how they make some of the adjustments, measurements and settings. The Dimension (A) shown in the picture and on the chart, I was unable to verify or use, for some reason the measuring point on the lower (A) arm was not there, in fact it looked like it had been cut out, for what reason I don’t know. The alignment tools/rack only reads actual caster as the truck sits but with the frame up or down in the rear it might limit the amount of shimming and positive caster that can be obtained. For example if the frame was 1 DEG up in the rear and I shimmed for maximum positive caster I would only be able to obtain about a 3 DEG positive caster reading actual on the alignment equipment. My truck frame is at 0 DEG. Note per the service manual the third column in the alignment chart is the preferred settings to use.

Most alignment shops don’t want to do alignments on lowered vehicles or align them to other than stock specifications. I found an alignment man with over 20 years experience and he had worked on many different kinds of vehicles including hot rods. After explaining what I thought would help my front end and a test drive, he thought it might help and was willing to do it. Three hours of rack time and test driving and the truck is set to the alignment printout below.

Attachment 804041

Attachment 804042

It may look a little odd to see all the shimming on the front bolt and minimum shimming on the aft bolt, but this is the only way to obtain maximum positive caster on a stock upper (A) arm.

One down side to shimming for maximum positive caster with this front end configuration is that the front wheel will be offset about 1 inch aft in the wheel well, as can be seen in the picture below.

Attachment 804043

Enjoy your build

Bruce, they sit in the wheel like that from the factory.

[y5mgisi]

Interesting. I might like to give that method a shot when i go threw mine.

[Bruce88]

When is a build done
Some would say never

I believe mine is at the 99.9% complete stage, all the parts that I’ve decided to use have been installed/assembled. The only thing to do on my to do list is to drive it and break it in along with making sure every thing on the truck works as intended, plus some fine tuning of the engine.

I never did this build to go to a high end car show, it might find its way into some local shows (smile), but I built it to drive and use as a light duty truck. There’s plenty of things others could find as flaws with the truck but it’s their problem not mine (smile). I could have bought a brand new truck for less than I have in the cost of just the parts and work that I have had done, but it’s the truck that I want do drive and use.

I guess you could say it’s never going to look better than today, you know just from the normal wear and tear of normal use. Took the truck out of the shop for its first wash and wax, just the first of many to come (smile).

I wouldn’t say it’s the best place to take some pictures of the completed truck. My driveway has a dip running from one side to the other and is not totally flat in any one area so the truck isn’t straight with anything in the pictures and it can even generate a little twist in the body depending on where it sits. Maybe I should find some place a little better and with better lighting but until then hear are some pictures.









No I didn’t fall down (smile), just my attempt to give you a ground shot perspective of the truck.



Id like to take this time to thank everyone that has stopped by this build thread with complements, encouragement and interest. And to this forum for giving me a place to share this build with you. It’s hard for me to find the words to describe the positive influence and help this build thread and forum has had on this build, but to say thank you.

Where I consider the build complete, I will keep this build thread open and updated with what’s happening with the truck that you might find of interest and of course any questions that you have Ill give it my best shot at answering.

Thank you and enjoy your build

[hgs_notes]

I've enjoyed my build, and enjoyed following yours. I learned quite a bit and appreciated the thought and detail you put into your posts. I'm almost done with mine too, we'll say 97.1% and just love driving it again. BTW, yours would definitely have a good showing at most car shows, even thought that wasn't the intention of your build. Same as mine, it was built to be a real nice driver, but my wife insists it's a show truck and said I can't haul anything in it. We'll see. I have a load of braches in the yard waiting for a ride right now.

[bobshotrodblazer]

Awesome job. I've followed your entire build and also used many pointers you used. Big hats off to you. I've done 6 of these trucks/blazers over the past 30 years. You are a pro.

[VA72C10]

Excellent job!!! Truck looks fantastic!!! And I agree...it would fare well at many shows!

[mbgmike]

I have been watching this build and I am truly amazed. I appreciate the time you took to do the detailed photos. My hat's off to you also.

[greystoke]

Bruce...great job restoring your truck. Tons of great information within your build thread and I agree with the previous posts that this truck would be a favorite at any carshow. Thank you for letting us share in your build and I was wondering if you have any plans to build another vehicle?

[Pop's C-10]

This whole thread is like a how-to..i like tha fact you are using tha side mounted spare & tha CB antenna is iceing on tha cake...