How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10

[hotrodhomi]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Haha- wanna buy it? Looked blue to me in pictures too...

No thanks, I have one already.

[lolife99]

Great idea on the truck ralley wheel FAQ thread!

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Great idea on the truck ralley wheel FAQ thread!

Thought you might like it. I'll just be plagiarizing your posts anyway

[gringoloco]

Took a little break from 'mechanic-ing' to do some wood work. Decided I liked the look of a wood bed, so I ordered up some rough cut, clear SYP(southern yellow pine) and made a bed floor out of it. This is the wood that these trucks came from the factory with, is durable, reasonably priced, and I won't be afraid to throw crap in the back of the truck like I would with expensive wood. I paid $70 for the stack of lumber and spent a few hours ripping, cutting, and grooving the planks. MUCH better, in my opinion, than spending $3-400 on a pre-made kit.

Here's a few shots of what I started with, and some of the work in progress

[gringoloco]

Here's a few more of the 'complete' floor. I had to lay it on top of the steel foor to see what it will look like. I gotta say- it looks sweet!

I used the dimensions from GMCPauls website combined with some from Mar-K, since I'm using their bed strips. All cuts were made with a table saw and a miter saw at the local Air Force base's wood shop. This could have easily been done at home if I'd had the tools, but my garage is full of stuff used to work on cars...

[hotrodhomi]

looks good. What did you do to address the rear where the tailgate steps up to the raised bed?

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by hotrodhomi

looks good. What did you do to address the rear where the tailgate steps up to the raised bed?

With the gate down, there will be a 3" step there. Not much that could be done other than fabricating a custom set of hinges, I guess Good thing the truck is low enough to just drop stuff in over the bedsides

[CheyenneShop]

Wood floor looks GREAT!

Are you going to stain it?

[VA72C10]

very nice! Love the look of a wood bed!!!

[67cheby]

nice work

[lolife99]

Any plans to space the wood up off the metal floor?
I wondered about water/moisture being trapped between the two.

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by theCheyenneShop

Wood floor looks GREAT!

Are you going to stain it?

I have a little bit different than the 'normal' resto plans for this one. We'll see what happens, as I'm prone to changing my mind frequently

Originally Posted by VA72C10

very nice! Love the look of a wood bed!!!

Thanks, me too!

Originally Posted by 67cheby

nice work

Thanks!

Originally Posted by lolife99

Any plans to space the wood up off the metal floor?
I wondered about water/moisture being trapped between the two.

Yeah, I have pondered using some sort of cross strips, but don't want to eat up all of my raised floor space. I can probably spare a 1/4 inch without missing it though. If I decide to bolt the wood to the steel floor, it will get painted and probably rubberized undercoating.
Posted via Mobile Device

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

I have a little bit different than the 'normal' resto plans for this one. We'll see what happens, as I'm prone to changing my mind frequently

Paging P.Tina . . ..... paging P.Tina.....
Is there a P.Tina in the house?

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Paging P.Tina . . ..... paging P.Tina.....
Is there a P.Tina in the house?

Never met her, but I do like the idea of not having to worry about every little scratch, chip, or door ding
Posted via Mobile Device

Edit: I also hear she's cheap, low-maintenance, and doesn't mind hanging out in the Wal-Mart parking lot...

[gringoloco]

Been playing with the truck a little bit more the last couple of days. I spent way more time than I care to share getting the fan shroud aligned- VERY little clearance around the clutch fan on my serp setup- but now it's done and installed for the last time Also finished up the underhood wiring, spent a ton of time chasing down a new lower radiator hose (do you guys' LAPSs suck as bad as mine do? <--rhetorical question), and finished up the last few things on the front suspension which included welding up a wallowed-out upper shock mount hole and finished installing my 1.25" sway bar and poly bushings (more leftovers from the Blazer), which makes the front suspension officially DONE except getting it aligned Unfortunately, none of this is really picture worthy...

Buuuut, you can't have an update without pics, so I'll stick a few up of my 'new' brake booster and bracket assembly with the new master cylinder installed, which also shows the rad and shroud installed (I know, nothing to look at, but I am happy that stinking shroud is installed ). I went with a '68 3/4 ton booster to reap the benefits of dual diaphragm and still be able to use the '71-'72 1/2 ton disc/drum master cylinder. Most guys when upgrading will use the '71-'72 3/4 ton booster, which will only accept the C20 master cylinder. I also prefer the look of the earlier unit's shorter, straighter bracket. I don't like the 'lean' the later trucks' master cylinders have.

Almost forgot, since I snapped the end off of one of my tranny cooler lines while removing the radiator, and the other had a compression fitting already patching it, plus the fact that they were a mangled, PO hand bent mess, I decided to bend up a new set. Used a couple of 6' lengths of 5/16" pre-flared steel line from Advance- like $3 each. What a pain, but MUCH cleaner, better looking, and safer than before. Also, in the process of installing the new brake booster assembly, I dropped the steering column and figured while it was out, I might as well 'shorten' it 3" (Thanks for the write-up, Putter) to give me some elbow room (I'm 6'6")...

All in all, the progress feels good, but I think I should have accomplished more given the time spent. Seemed like everything was fighting me the whole way, one problem after another, but that's how it goes sometimes- hopefully the next round will go a little more smoothly and be more pic-worthy

[lolife99]

Great work as usual.
I bet those tranny lines were fun,...

[propanemudtruck]

Those are great pics of the bed, I never realized how simple they are. Should've known I guess. Oh and good job on the shroud too!

[ChuckDriver]

Nice work, love the bed wood!!

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Great work as usual.
I bet those tranny lines were fun,...

Yeah, 'fun' is definitely the word

Originally Posted by propanemudtruck

Those are great pics of the bed, I never realized how simple they are. Should've known I guess. Oh and good job on the shroud too!

Thanks! Waaaaay too much time in that silly thing...

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Nice work, love the bed wood!!

Thanks, hope to be installing it soon

[gringoloco]

Little bit more progress today... Started by bleeding the brakes to complete yesterday's booster/MC replacement. Wrapped up the last of that messy-ness and moved on to the interior, a MUCH cleaner place to work

Below is what I started with and basically set about gutting the interior from there Upon pulling the carpet, I was pleasantly surprised to find only surface rust and NO rot whatsoever. Plenty of holes from POs drilling for various things, though

[gringoloco]

Next, I set about taking care of what little rust I did find lurking. I started by using the shop-vac to remove all of the loose dirt and then attacked it with CLR. This stuff rocks!

It took care of most of the rust and even got back to bare metal in a few places. Whatever didn't come up with the CLR was wire brushed and hit with rust converter and then coated in rust encapsulator. This will hopefully keep it away, for a while at least...

[5150.4.67]

Gringo,
Where did you mount the prop valve? I'm guessing on the cross member 73 and later style?

[VA72C10]

Looking good man! Nice floor on that truck!!!

[gringoloco]

I also tore into the dash, spending a bunch of time tearing it apart, removing the heater components in preparation for the Classic Auto Air kit, and re-wiring quite a bit as I went through it. At least with the seat out, I was fairly comfortable lying on my back working under the dash

While I was in there, I replaced the dash cluster circuit. I did it with the cluster in place, as with the recently 'shortened' column, it is impossible to remove the cluster without dropping the column, which I didn't feel like doing two days in a row. Actually wasn't to bad to do the swap behind the dash, just a little tight, but nice to have the other components removed. Check out the old circuit- amazing I hadn't started a fire

Also got around to mocking up the new floor covering (sorry, no pic- but, soon) and the new shifter, as I have always hated the silly Mega-Shifter. This is NOT a '70s Camaro- not that there's anything wrong with that, I just don't prefer the slot mags and air shocks look. If you look back on the earlier pics you'll also see a barefoot pedal to go with the '90s stepside bed- this truck was a true 'custom'- just needed a 'Heartbeat' logo somewhere The Lokar is well made and the perfect height, but will require some more head scratching before it is permanently installed- clearances are tight with the 700r4 in the tunnel...

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by 5150.4.67

Gringo,
Where did you mount the prop valve? I'm guessing on the cross member 73 and later style?

Yes, it is mounted exactly as a '73-'87 truck would be. I was VERY tempted to bend new lines for it, but restrained myself due to time concerns, so I just painted them black; it will leave me something to do after the truck is 'done' I need this thing road-worthy by mid-June...

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Looking good man! Nice floor on that truck!!!

Thanks! I was happy to find so little cancer lurking under the carpet, as I knew it had been wet before and wasn't sure what to expect.