Rust Therapy - 62 C-10

[Bills65C10]

Originally Posted by 53Sparky

Progress is progress, even when it's slow.

Got some frame work done this weekend in preparation for reassembly. I'm prepping for a small notch in the frame for clearance using a piece of 5" pipe I picked up from the commercial plumbing supply shop down the street.

My sandblasted frame has been calling my name every time I walk by it at work.


Got the bump stop brackets off


Ground down the old welds


Finished with a wire brush wheel


And removed the rear shock supports too.

did you decide how low you were going to drop it? What size c-notch are you using? You are a head of me On yours. I just got my rear end and gearing worked out. I do have my front suspension powder coated and rebiult. Just haven't put it in yet. I like that you are doing your truck on a working man's budget, but the attention to detail is still very good. I think they have more character That way. I can't wait to get as far as you are on yours. Day jobs suck. Very good thread.
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[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by Bills65C10

Did you decide how low you were going to drop it? What size c-notch are you using? You are ahead of me on yours. I just got my rear end and gearing worked out. I do have my front suspension powder coated and rebuilt. Just haven't put it in yet. I like that you are doing your truck on a working man's budget, but the attention to detail is still very good. I think they have more character that way. I can't wait to get as far as you are on yours. Day jobs suck. Very good thread.

Thanks for your comments!

I'm aiming for somewhere around a 4/5 or a 5/6 static drop. I'm using 3" drop spindles on the front and I plan to cut coils away from stock 1/2 ton springs to get the rest of the drop in the front. I'll start conservative and watch my scrub lines because our neighbourhood has some wicked speed bumps.

In the back, I'm going to use 2" lowering blocks and mess around with drop springs to get it where i like the look. I'm going to guess first and then play around with it once the weight is back on the suspension. The C notch is just going to be 2", which equals 1/2 of the frame cut away and half of a 5" schedule 40 pipe.

Yup, day jobs suck, but they pay the bills (sometimes).

[53Sparky]

I got a couple hours to do some more work on the mini-C notch last night.

[Modges'66]

Looking great!
This should work awesome.

[53Sparky]

Got the other notch in this afternoon and finished welding all the way around both notches except for the last 3 inches - my spool of welding wire ran out, so off to AirGas on Monday.





The angle that this picture was taken makes it look like the notch is deeper than it really is. It's exactly a 2" notch.

[Bills65C10]

Originally Posted by 53Sparky

Got the other notch in this afternoon and finished welding all the way around both notches except for the last 3 inches - my spool of welding wire ran out, so off to AirGas on Monday.





The angle that this picture was taken makes it look like the notch is deeper than it really is. It's exactly a 2" notch.

Nice! You could drop the rear 7" or maybe even 8" with the c-notch. I've dropped mine 5" and that's max without a c-notch. Gonna have a nice stance.
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[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by Bills65C10

Nice! You could drop the rear 7" or maybe even 8" with the c-notch. I've dropped mine 5" and that's max without a c-notch. Gonna have a nice stance.

Thanks, Bill - I'm hoping that the stance will be as level as possible and as close to 5-6" as I can get. But the notch is there so I can still have some suspension travel

Today I responded to a Craigslist ad parting out a 1962 C60. I though there might be more to it, but when I got there it was pretty disappointing. There wasn't a single body panel that hadn't been mangled. The roof was peeled up, the cab was trashed, the grill was taco'd. Even the cowls and the window vents were wrecked. All I got was the c60 emblems. I figured someone might want them for their 1960 Chevy or something, and he was going to cut the truck up next week to recycle it for scrap value.



He did have some other heavy hauler stuff there, though, which wasn't for sale.

1965 Fire engine


1965 C80 grill


1956 Heavy


55-59 1 ton


And family inside the 55-59.

[53Sparky]

Scored this air compressor on Craigslist yesterday - $100 for a 2012 60 gallon Ingersoll Rand Air Compressor.

PO says that everything works, but the motor trips the breaker when he uses it at his shop. Monday I will get this thing plugged in at my shop to test for myself, but it got me to thinking...

In your experience, IF the motor is indeed the culprit, is a direct replacement of the motor a more cost effective solution vs rebuilding or repairing the old one? Especially when considering down time, longevity of repairs, etc?

[53Sparky]

Well. It's been way too long again since I posted anything on this forum. Not long after my last post, my wife began to feel exhausted all the time, and she had quite a bit of pain. It took a while to figure out, but we eventually learned that she had a form of cancer called Multiple Myeloma. Naturally, everything related to the truck went on the back burner. I was by her side for 4 rounds of chemo, followed by a bone marrow transplant, and then a slow road to recovery after that. The bone marrow transplant left her completely vulnerable to viruses and any contagious diseases, so we stayed away from large crowds and wore masks if/when we went out. Sound familiar? Yeah. We were social distancing way before it was cool. At the end of January 2020 we got the news that her cancer had been beaten back enough to be called in "complete response". We had a great time for the month of February, getting to go out in public again (carefully), and then COVID hit. It was time to retreat back indoors and resume social distancing again. Work has been very slow, but my wife is feeling much better so I've had some time to get back into the garage and work on this truck.

Here's the new workspace.

[53Sparky]

The cab is in a different corner.

My daughter went a bit crazy with the label maker.

[53Sparky]

I installed CaptainFab's Power Steering conversion. It was easy to do - all the materials were well made and fit without modification.

Having a mag drill and a 7/8 annular cutter made it really easy to get the holes cut properly.

[53Sparky]

Today I finished installing the rest of the steering components.

I found this link to be helpful, but there isn't a lot on this site for the early X frames, so I documented a bit more carefully for the next guy.

[53Sparky]

FYI, there is a correct way (and an incorrect way) to install the connecting link. The castle nuts need to point FORWARDS on the truck. Not that i learned the hard way or anything. I'm just saying this so that the next guy doesn't waste a bunch of time trying to make it work the wrong way.

I'm sure that there are other solutions to this geometry, but on a 60-62 frame, your results might look somewhat similar to this if you use the square body donor parts. I hope this is helpful for anyone reading this.

[53Sparky]

Here's a sneak peek of what's on the docket for tomorrow.

[SkinnyG]

Sneak up on the 11-1/4 just to be sure, cut to fit.

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Sneak up on the 11-1/4 just to be sure, cut to fit.

I hear you, loud & clear. Thanks!

[53Sparky]

I shortened the frame today following the method outlined by SkinnyG on his thread. However, I only took 8" out of the middle section instead of the 12" he removed, and I'll take 4" off behind the axle once this is all welded up. I think his plan shows 8" removed from behind the axle. The end goal here will be to remove the same 8" and 4" sections from the bed sides which will result in a 7' bed on a 119" wheelbase. I've played around with some photochops and I think the proportions look right to my eye.

I didn't weld it today, but everything is back to square and level. I'll try to get that done tomorrow night or Tuesday after work.

[SkinnyG]

Excellent job!

I think the "X" makes the task considerably easier to keep things aligned.

[bsarts]

Glad your wife pulled through.

Cool project.

[88Stanger]

Prayers you all get through these crazy days, especially for your wife.
Nice work on truck. It will be nice to see more work on the truck done, that we can assume the wife is doing good.
God Bless you Both

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by bsarts

Glad your wife pulled through.

Cool project.

Originally Posted by 88Stanger

Prayers you all get through these crazy days, especially for your wife.
Nice work on truck. It will be nice to see more work on the truck done, that we can assume the wife is doing good.
God Bless you Both

Thanks! It was touch and go for a while there, but she's a rock star, and we had a lot of people praying for her/us. I'm glad to be blessed with time in the shop again.

[53Sparky]

This took longer than expected but I finished chopping the frame today.

[88Stanger]

Damn, awesome job on this Frame!!!! I had a similar issue with the idler arm on my 66 frame, thanks for sharing. I am sure that will be of some great help to someone. I eventually went for Rack & Pinion instead... cost alot more .... Anyways, your work on this frame is just outstanding!!! Great job!!! cannot wait for future progress....

[53Sparky]

Merry Christmas, friends!

[53Sparky]

Got this from my daughter today. Just in time to start some body work soon!