Over 25 Years Later, Finally My 71 C-10 Truck Build

[VA72C10]

cool! a dependable and fun to drive truck!!!

[hgs_notes]

Plugged in the gas gage wire and it appears to be working. I used some wire ties to hold the wires along the frame rail. I tried testing the horn connector for power and it was a fail. Not sure if it's that crappy grant horn set up or something else, but really don't care. I need it to be legal, so I'll eventually need to get it working. I need to swap the correct neutral safety switch so the reverse lights work, then I could call the electrical system done. Upgrades with relays to come later. I'm spraying the bottom side of the hump cover so I can bolt it down. At 60 mph it was wanting to lift up.

My back spasmed this morning and kinda took the wind out of my sails. I was hoping to swap the power steering pump out. Might be a couple days.

Punch list:
Front bumper top brackets (paint)
Polish other wheels
heater box
fat mat (almost there)
adjust e-brake cable
tailgate letters
eustations to match panels
horn
inner fenders (need new nuts, paint bolts)
Cowl shims
Washer pump
finish exhaust
carpet/pad
upholstory recovered
alignment

[mcbassin]

Sounds like you are getting very close. I can't wait till I get to this point.

[hgs_notes]

Just continuing to plug away at my punch list. Yesterday I got the hump cover undercoated, sealed with 3m strip caulk and bolted in. Also has fat mat on the inside. Couple days ago I got the lighter hooked up and it has power now.

I went out last night with the intention of getting my clutch delete plate installed. I had it painted and marked where the holes need to go, but then couldn't find my self tapping screws. My garage has become a disaster area between the truck reassembly, selling parts that I won't need, shipping supplies, parts for things I will need to keep, etc. So I spent a couple hours just cleaning off my work bench. I got a few new parts today with more on the way. New harmonic balancer, larger diameter with nice timing marks so I can get a more accurate adjustment. New spark plug wires, universal with the ends off so I can cut them to fit my wire looms properly. Still waiting for the kickdown cable bracket and another little bit that I'll be using to hold my manual throttle cable to the firewall. The classic industries parts should be here tomorrow.

Couple pics...



ps, still didn't find those damn screws.

[VA72C10]

nice parts

[Dieselwrencher]

Great progress! Sorry I haven't chimed in in a while. I've been pretty busy working on PITA Dodges.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

nice parts

Yep. They'll look good and the almost new wires that are on it now will look great on my Jimmy.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Great progress! Sorry I haven't chimed in in a while. I've been pretty busy working on PITA Dodges.

I have no expectations of people chiming in, except for VA72C10. That is a requirement. We all gotta pay our bills. Barely looked at the truck today even though I was in the garage. Still cleaning up and sorting parts. I have a blazer rear seat I was getting ready to ship out, maybe tomorrow. That one came with 3 passenger belts, kind of rare. I have a lot of big parts to get rid of also. You need to come up here and get them.

[hgs_notes]

I got the clutch delete plate installed. Other than that, I just oggled my new parts.

[67cheby]

i really like that harmonic balancer, how much was it ??

[VA72C10]

Obligatory post






Was going to say nice progress...but....you know....







It's more progress than I've made on my truck in a week though

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

i really like that harmonic balancer, how much was it ??

It was $47.82 when I ordered mine. Prices fluctuate. But free shipping. Also available through summit.
Amazon.com: Professional Products 80000...

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Obligatory post






Was going to say nice progress...but....you know....







It's more progress than I've made on my truck in a week though

I've mostly been working, cleaning and sorting parts for sale, etc. I want to change the power steering pump, but don't want to clean up the mess it's going to make. It'll take me a month to install the parts I just got the way it's going lately. And I keep looking at my jimmy and thinking about getting going on that again.

[mcbassin]

very nice parts! You're just that much closer.

[Palf70Step]

As usual I am running slow with my comments, but your work leaves me awestruck. I am going to have to keep that harmonic balancer in mind as I redo mine.

[hgs_notes]

Wonder if this may have affected how I timed my truck. I always ended up doing it by ear and feel and vacuum because using the marks made it run like crap. Only off by 10*. This is with the key ways lined up.


The new one is not quite on yet, about 1/2" to go. Here's the story, in most cases installing the balancer is pretty straight forward. Just use the bolt in the end of the crank and pull it on, or when the engine is on the stand you can beat it on with a mallet. In my case I have an oddball crank that never had a threaded hole in the end of it. The balancer was just installed and left that way. Until now it was never a problem because I only worked on that part with the engine on a stand. Hammering a balancer on with it in the truck is just not happening, and don't think I didn't try. I even lifted the radiator up and used a piece of flat stock through the grill onto a piece of plywood, but it wouldn't budge.

So yesterday I got my drill angle adapter out and started drilling the crack end out. There was a shallow hole there already, I just had to deepen it and tap it out. That took a little over an hour. Then tapped it and started installing the balancer. The threads stripped. So I drill it out for the next size up and tap it again. But I don't have that size bolt around and the local stores that would have it are now closed. My neighbor had one that was about 2 inches too long, but I made it work with a stack of washers. Then the threads on the bolt started to strip so I stopped right away and pulled it out. It was a softer bolt so today I'm waiting for the stores to open so I can get a good hardened bolt and pull it in the last 1/2".

The new power steering pump is set in place, just need to attach the hoses and tighten it down when the pulley can go back on. I should have just done this back when the engine was out or the front clip was off. What a pain.

[VA72C10]

That mighta had somethin to do wit it



Did you make that mark?

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Did you make that mark?

I just highlighted it. Got my bolt, trying to finish it up now.

[hgs_notes]

Just using the crank bolt to install it might have worked, but having friends that are mechanics and have the right tool for the job is priceless. So the balancer is on, the power steering pump is replaced and it steers better, but still growls and is harder turning right for some reason. Hard to blame the pump. I also replaced the return tube because it looked like it was colapsing a bit. The supply line is good, so maybe I'll have to look at the steering box. Any ideas are appreciated.

I didn't check the timing yet. It's been too many days so when it was back together I just drove it. I stopped at a local scale a couple weeks back and with a full tank of gas and me in it at 250 lbs it weighed 4020. I checked again today and it was still the same. It weighs less than my taurus I drive for work. Here are a few pics from the drive, oh and triple digits on the speedo are obtainable.

[Palf70Step]

Very Nice!

[67cheby]

looks BEAUTIFUL, CONGRATS

[VA72C10]

Looking good....but it just hit me....gray centered coys or boss 338's.....just sayin

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Very Nice!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 67cheby

looks BEAUTIFUL, CONGRATS

Doesn't it though?

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Looking good....but it just hit me....gray centered coys or boss 338's.....just sayin

Everyone has those.

I went through the old photo albums and found a bunch of my truck from back in the day. I'll post 'em up later. Humble beginnings is a generous statement.

[VA72C10]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Everyone has those.

you know there's a reason for that

[hgs_notes]

At the beginning of the thread I have a short story about the history of my truck. I found some of my old photos, scanned them and want to share them with you.

This first one is the oldest one I have found. It should be 1984, not long after I got my license. It had a hard life to this point. My dad got it around 1975 and it was the family vehicle for a while, and it was used to haul wood and garbage for several years. It was never garaged that I can remember. The front got smashed when I rear ended a car a few weeks after getting my license. Dig the smiley face?


Then in 1987, I was in the Navy and transferred to Idaho Falls, ID for nuclear plant training. I had my own little apartment and I had some money, or what seemed like it at the time, a credit card and a motorcycle. I also had a neighbor who said he did bodywork. We worked out a deal where he would fix the rust and get it in primer and take my bike in trade. Turns out he was crap at bodywork, but did sorta do the job. I really didn't know how bad it was until years later when I needed to fix some things. These are pics from right after he was done. I had already lowered it with 3.5" drop coils, added dual exhaust and header and bought the new wheels and tires before I drove it from MN to ID. I was ahead of my time I think with the lowered and flat black look. So many things I see in these pics can start another story. The little thingy hangig from the mirror is a plastic state of MN keychain I made in 8th grade in Mr. Phillippe's (pronounced flippy) class. My dad had him as a shop teacher also. It still hangs from my mirror. That wood gage bezel I made in shop class my Sr year. We had a CNC lathe and milling machine I wrote my own programs for. This was my mill project and I still have it. It'll go on the garage wall someday soon.




The girl I met the day before my birthday in 1987 ended up getting married to me. We were introduced by the gal in the car behind my truck there. I worked with her husband, she worked with my future wife. We met, had some drinks, danced. I went to another bar to play some pool. The gal and my wife followed after me and found me by finding my truck. Turns out she kinda liked it. And me too.


Then I had to go to nuclear welding school in San Diego. I parked the truck at my parents place and bought a 1983 Toyota Celica GT for my drive SW. I loved the truck but needed something a little easier on gas and dependable. I'd had a few breakdowns with the suped up truck and after spending a few hours in the middle of a mountain pass in WY in December you get a different perspective on what you drive and why. I stored the wheels and tires in the garage and set it on blocks in the backyard. Yech. It ended up staying there for a couple years.



Next stop was Bangor, WA. Now married and both working, no kids (DINK...duel income no kids we used to call it) we bought our one and only ever new vehicle. A 1989 Toyota SR5 extended cab with the V-6 and 5 spd and 31" tires. We loved that truck and put almost 100,000 on it before selling it because there wasn't enough room in it for the extra kids the wife was dropping out. So we drove the 2 toys, but I missed my truck. I had my dad get the wheels back on it and arranged for it to be transported out to WA. I started looking in junkyards for better body parts. Got a wild hair up my butt and decided to clean it up and paint the frame and stuff like a real show truck I thought it was at the time (I was clueless btw).







This was my friend Damon helping me out. All my work back then was done in the yard. Didn't even have a shade tree. We put the hoist on some plywood. It sorta worked but the ground was uneven and the wheels sunk and the whole thing wanted to tip over. Note the tow strap from bumper to hoist.



I was going with a blue look. I had some blue hammerite paint and was going to do everything I could reach. That stuff actually held up well. My trailing arms still have it on there after all these years. That axle is under the 2wd blazer I'm parting out.




This last pic has my pal in it. I bought him as a pup from a classmate in highschool. He loved to go for rides. He also like to run like hell and not come back if he ever got out of the house or yard. The only way we could get him back was to get in one of the vehicles and find him, then open the door and call him. He'd jump in everytime. He was put down a few years later but I still think of him often.

[VA72C10]

Very cool! Love the back story! Makes me appreciate the build even more

[hgs_notes]

Been a while since I had an update. My garage time has been lacking and what I did get I was using to get parts together for sale or shipping. Today though started with the wife wanting to go to a local auction. Farm, estate auctions are going on around here about every weekend and it's one of the things we both like to do. There was a snowblower and yard sweeper listed that I thought might be useful so we took the truck. It was about a 8 mile drive each way and she loved it. I took care of a few things that annoyed her the last time. We're both really looking forward to next spring and taking it on some cruises and shows. Didn't like what we saw at the auction, so we didn't stay.

After taking care of the other family chores I got some garage time. I wanted to get the reverse lights working. The problem was that the neutral safety switch was for the van tilt and the wire plug is different, so it wasn't plugged in. I bought a new switch for a truck, but when I took out the van one the tab that goes into the hole inside the column shift tube was different. The truck switch has a much sorter tab and didn't reach the hole in the tube.

Truck switch...


So rather than try and finagle that one in I tried using a couple small jumpers to go from the van switch to the truck plug. The jumpers worked, the switch, not so much. It would power the lights when in low and no matter how much adjustment I tried it just wasn't right. The neutral safety circuit wasn't working according to the shift pattern either, so that was a waste.

Back to using the new switch. In the pic you can see a small groove in the tab that goes into the column. I cut a small piece of plastic, sawed a groove into that, found a piece of scrap metel that fit the grooves and put them together. It's actually pretty tight. The worst that could happen is the plastic extender would come off and the switch would quit moving and would need to be jumpered in an emergency.


Had some difficulty getting it adjusted properly. The holes for the switch mount screws were too far out of wack. Remember this is a van tilt and needed to be modified to fit. So rather than try and drill new holes for the screws I just used a hose clamp. Hell of a lot easier than trying to use those screws up under the dash. Infinite adjustability also. Anyway, reverse lights work.


Had some more time so I worked on the manual throttle cable. The original cable has a steel thingy on it that locks it to the firewall. Well that bit wasn't working anymore. I tried using some short pieces of vacuum tubing slid onto the cable on both sides of the firewall, but they slid, no dice. I wanted something that would look better than some clamp or whatever on there and finally found this...
Amazon.com: Kreg KJSC/MICROBIT Micro Depth Collar...
It's a collar with a set screw used to hold a certain depth on a drill bit. In this case I have one on both sides of the firewall clamped to the cable and it holds it there and looks pretty good also.


The test drive went great. Sat at 65 mph without my foot on the pedal. Poor mans cruise control.


I also took a few minutes to install some new technology. A button programmed to open and close the garage door just like the fancy one in my wifes denali. Just the old school version...


One other thing, if any of you ever drive in the rain, ever, you have to use rain-x. I've used it for years and it works as advertised. You hardly need wipers at all. I only mention it because I did that this morning also, we had a chance for rain.