Far North 67

[coldrider]

Time for the exhaust. When I ordered the speed engineering headers, I also picked up their 3” full builder kit. But since I was quickly running out of 2022 summer and needed to get the truck moving again, I saved a lot of time by simply adapting the 3” headers to the existing 2.5” exhaust; you can just see the reducer at the top of this pic.

Like the carpet, a full 3” exhaust will happen some other time

[coldrider]

I have a ton of individual pics of sorting wires, relays, hoses, sensors, etc., but am just going to skip ahead. At this point (mid Oct 2022), she’s just about ready to start.

You’ll spot a few temporary shortcuts I had to take to get back on the road by my deadline (like routing electrical through the Vintage A/C holes) and things that have been on my punch list since day one (prior owners brake line routing), but I’m not at all bothered by them now, knowing the bulk of the work got done in just about 4 months. There’ll be plenty of time down the road to tidy things up.

[coldrider]

First drive day! The terminator x was intuitive enough to get things started by myself, but I know nothing when it comes to tuning, esp. for boost, so I called in an expert (Andrew B at Dr EFI) who was able to remote tune things in a hurry. An initial tune, a quick test drive to log some data, and then a call back for a few adjustments based on what he was seeing and she’s ready to drive!

Was a great day for sure, and just in time because while you can’t see it in this picture, it actually snowed this day.

[coldrider]

And just to put a bow on 2022, here we are a week later storing the truck away for the winter.

[mr.mud1]

Originally Posted by coldrider

Thanks! I've seen some over the top builds on here, so really appreciate the compliment. And as much as I love a clean restoration as much as the next guy, this truck was far enough off that track when I got it that I didn't feel too bad about continuing down the path of swapping in the modern stuff. After all these are General parts, too



Thank you! Its been a fun project so far and has come with a lot of learning curve. Seeing your comment about being close to caught up to present made me laugh. I remember when I started the swap in May I thought I could knock it out by July even though I gave myself the entire summer... I mean, the guys on youtube are swapped out in the course of a 10 minute video. Well, it's taken me a little longer than that, but I suppose I introduced a little more complexity with the blower and I also wanted it to look like a factory install, if that makes any sense.

gorgeous truck.love the upgrades,love the white paint,love it all.no need to feel bad about anything here.you deserve a pat on the back.what a truck.i finished my 72 truck this spring,all stock,i have a 67 Impala wagon,all stock,building the next one,a 39 Chrysler,all modified and hope to go see a guy this week with several buildings full of cars and trucks but up til now,wouldn't sell anything.i have him thinking about selling a few, so i plan to go see him this week or next.he has a Diamond T truck and a 53 Mercury truck among others he may sell.if i buy one or the other or something,the Merc might have to be a coyote swap or an LS type engine in a Diamond T or who knows what.i know less than nothing about this new stuff but time to learn?i did put an EFI 360Magnum engine in the 39 chrysler and it runs,so there is hope that maybe an old dog can learn a new trick?take care,great truck.

[hewittca]

Great series of updates! Nice work getting the truck going again. I have a similar approach with my swap. I'm trying to get it going and functioning so I can drive it to a show we have here in NC in October. Then I'm going to go back and clean up some of the things I did just to get it moving. I'm looking forward to your continued progress!

[coldrider]

Originally Posted by mr.mud1

gorgeous truck.love the upgrades,love the white paint,love it all.no need to feel bad about anything here.you deserve a pat on the back.what a truck.i finished my 72 truck this spring,all stock,i have a 67 Impala wagon,all stock,building the next one,a 39 Chrysler,all modified and hope to go see a guy this week with several buildings full of cars and trucks but up til now,wouldn't sell anything.i have him thinking about selling a few, so i plan to go see him this week or next.he has a Diamond T truck and a 53 Mercury truck among others he may sell.if i buy one or the other or something,the Merc might have to be a coyote swap or an LS type engine in a Diamond T or who knows what.i know less than nothing about this new stuff but time to learn?i did put an EFI 360Magnum engine in the 39 chrysler and it runs,so there is hope that maybe an old dog can learn a new trick?take care,great truck.

Thank you and congrats on the '39 EFI swap. And both the trucks you're looking at sound cool, but I think a Diamond T would be really neat. Good luck with the guy, I hope you're able to work a deal.

[coldrider]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Great series of updates! Nice work getting the truck going again. I have a similar approach with my swap. I'm trying to get it going and functioning so I can drive it to a show we have here in NC in October. Then I'm going to go back and clean up some of the things I did just to get it moving. I'm looking forward to your continued progress!

Thanks, its great having it back on the road!

[cornerstone]

Congratulations on having it back on the road! Beautiful work done to a beautiful pick up truck. I'm not sure what I'm jealous of more, that sweet 67 or the fact that it snowed there.

[coldrider]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Congratulations on having it back on the road! Beautiful work done to a beautiful pick up truck. I'm not sure what I'm jealous of more, that sweet 67 or the fact that it snowed there.

Thanks. I actually like the snow too, but once its on the ground for a few months, I'm over the roads looking like this and am jealous of you guys that are still able to cruise and go to shows

[coldrider]

So I’ve been working on the interior some which was a must-do after cutting the carpet open last year.

I half-heartedly tried to save the tired bench by contacting a couple of local upholstery shops to have them fix a couple of sagging springs and recover it. The first shop quoted me new seat prices and months of wait time and the second shop just said, “we’re not interested”. Well, I wasn’t that interested in spending my time on it either, so I just gave it away to a kid fixing up his K10. My seat was in better shape than his and he was excited to have it, so off it went.

[coldrider]

So what to put in? The TMI and Snowden stuff is great, but I didn’t want to spend that kind of money. After looking at a bunch of ideas in various seat threads, one that I really liked was the king ranch swap by buspilot23 here, which is really clean.

I know, I know… I’m talking about putting F-brand parts in a C10. Don’t hold it against me yet, it might get worse depending on what you think about the other non-chevy brands.

The trouble with king ranch seats was finding them. The salvage yard here hadn’t had any in years so I started to look through everything else. I tried to stay with the rear seats out of an f150 because of the dimensions, but the only thing available was grey or black and I wanted to keep a brown interior. Ended up walking out with like-new rear heated leather seats from a ‘15 Ram Laramie Crew Cab for $230. I didn’t love the longhorn patches, but it wasn’t a deal breaker and I don’t even notice them now.

A quick test fit after getting them home to see how high/low they sit relative to steering wheel, back window, etc. The headrests are on sitting on the shelf for another day, they need cut way down to work.

[coldrider]

At 62” wide, not only are they wider than stock, so are the mounts. The outer legs are so far out they sit directly above where the floor slants down to the door sills. Plus, the center legs land in an awkward spot on the floor hump.

About this time, I went back to the KR seat thread and saw how easy that installation looked (trim front ears & bolt down). While I considered taking the seats back for a refund to look for something easier, I decided to keep them because trying something new or different can be half the fun of projects like this, even if it takes a little longer.

[coldrider]

With the decision made on the seats, it was time to get the carpet and seat belts picked out. I went with ACC carpet #17901 in color #4640 Dark Saddle (cutpile) and Seat Belt Planet shoulder belt kit #500106-V01 in color #35 Dark Brown.

Both companies were great answering questions and sending color samples.

[coldrider]

Again, I was trying not to drill or cut the truck if I didn’t have to. I wanted to pick up factory holes if I could.

Since the seat legs sit so far back and I don’t have a tank in the cab, I was able to use the gas tank pedestal and bolt holes to pick up the rear of the seat, and the old rear seat holes in the cab floor to pick up the front of the seat by using some 2.5 square tubing that also leveled the seat out nicely

[coldrider]

On the seats themselves, I removed about an inch from the rear of each mounting flange so I could tuck them as far back in the cab as possible (without sacrificing seat back angle). Then I welded the seats together to make the rest of the mockup and install a little easier. Totally unnecessary but didn’t hurt anything either; both sides still fold up & down independent of each other. From there, the seat got stuffed back in the cab so I could locate and add the flanges needed to pick up the gas tank bolt holes

[coldrider]

On to the seat backs. They have tabs on them that secure them to the rear wall in the Ram, but all they do in the c10 is scratch things up, so I cut them off. To keep the seats from folding forward on their own, I welded 3 posts to the lower seat back and connected them to the seat base with heavy extension springs so the backs are always being pulled to the rear.

The easier route would’ve been to weld everything solid, but this way, I can still easily access behind the seats, and better yet, I can still fold the seat bottoms up. I’m finding that I love this feature for working under the dash, no more twisting into uncomfortable positions trying to get around the seat, I can just fold them up and crawl in.

[coldrider]

To close things out, these were definitely more work than what I’ve seen other guys do so I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone looking for quick and easy.

But overall, I’m really happy with how things turned out esp. for the price. The seats are comfortable, have cup holders, sit lower (better for me at 6’2”) and provide more room & access in the cab just about everywhere.

And If I ever change my mind, I can always go back to stock with no harm done

[coldrider]

While I had everything out for seats and carpet, I added some dynamat. I used a 36 sq ft box (dynamat xtreme) which was enough for me since I was only targeting the large flat areas most prone to vibration. If you’re a cover-every-square-inch kind of guy, you’ll need a second box. Not shown are the final pieces I added to the upper footwells and backside of the door panels.

While I’m doing what I can for noise by sealing everything up, adding dynamat, firewall insulation, and mass backed carpet, the truck won’t ever be “quiet” given my choices under the hood.

[coldrider]

Installed some Altman latches. I’m guessing I spent about 6 or 7 hours on these, but that included quite a bit of time with the driver side lock to get it to work properly with the key (after locking, returning the key to vertical to remove it from the door would unlock it).

I went ahead and installed the Honda civic seals, too. I had to remove about 2” from the civics to make them work. There’s another thread here that says so no cutting is required, but not for me. No big deal, I’m glad they were too long rather than too short. Picture shows the cross-section of the seal I removed (right side of pic) vs the Honda seal (left). I haven’t noticed any difference in cab noise.

No more slamming. Everything works just like I was hoping it would and both the latches and seals made a difference.

I should’ve taken the time to paint all the screws before assembly… another rainy-day project for the future, along with some seam sealer to clean up the edges.

[mr.mud1]

i said it before,saying again,nice work,gorgeous truck,i love the Longhorn seat,looks like it grew there.the latches look good.what's not to like?
all the best.

[KyleSeal]

Ive been contemplating doing the Honda seals. My Precision ones I really have to slam, which is quite annoying! Those Altman latches are great, I welded mine into the door and I really enjoy them. Easy to adjust.