Family Project 65 C10 SWB "Old Blue"

[1963c-10]

Nice work Jaime. Glad to see you getting the kids and your father involved.

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by 1963c-10

Nice work Jaime. Glad to see you getting the kids and your father involved.

Thanks! Things definitely wouldn't have gone as smoothly without dad around to think things through. He's more patient than I am! The kids are just a bonus...I have five, and while I'm working they'll slowly trickle through to help out with some little something, in between their "day job" of playing in the yard.

[JamieGallien]

Got the old seat out. I plan to just give it a good cleaning. I've always loved the look of it. Floor is in pretty good condition, just rot in the front corners. Removed the body mounts. Everything came right off without effort. Even the bushings still looked to be in pretty good shape...for 50 years old. The hardware on the other hand....

[JamieGallien]

More body bushing pics. And the drivers front of the pan. Lots of surface rust, and a hole under the old repair in the upper left, but the majority of the floor pan is solid!

[JamieGallien]

I have a new Walbro 392 255 liter per hour external fuel pump with isolation mounts. I'm going to use the silverado fuel lines for most of the fuel run. The drape down the drivers side of the transmission to just past the gear selector linkage, then they 90 over to the drivers side frame. Almost like they planned it that way (SOMEBODY did...grace and favor!) I'm going to mount the fuel filter and pump inside the frame right there. I'll run high pressure rubber line from there with fuel injection clamps holding everything secure.

[JamieGallien]

The ebay stainless headers came in today! They look great on the truck. Very thick flanges, excellent welding, they look to be high quality...go figure! We'll see how they hold u to heat and time.

No clearance issues at all, once I get the old transmission cross member cut out

[JamieGallien]

Removed the old throttle linkage and pedal mounts. This engine is DBW, so I'll be mounting the Silverado pedal assembly with sensor direct to the inside of my firewall.

[JamieGallien]

Removed the gas tank...

[JamieGallien]

If you've ever smelled gas inside the cab of one of these trucks and wondered were the leak is...these hose clamps and the filler tube are the answer...

[JamieGallien]

Where we stand today: ready to pull the body, sandblast and POR the frame, run exhaust, install fuel pump and lines, install a new gas tank.

The concrete blocks are to keep the power of that 5.3 from flipping the truck over...or to protect my knees from the bumper braces...either one depending on the need. :-D

[Jeff La]

Those stainless headers look great Jamie

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by Jeff La

Those stainless headers look great Jamie

Thanks, they fit great, other than needing angle boot plug wires...most headers require those though.

[JamieGallien]

UPDATES with lots of pics. Not all interesting stuff, most pics just so I can remember what I removed from where, LOL! Removed both doors to get ready to lift the cab off.

[JamieGallien]

The gears on the passenger side window regulator were so rusty I couldn't get the window down. WD-40 to the rescue!

The top of the door jambs look great, no rust. The bottom...not so much...

[JamieGallien]

Removed the bolts and pushrod from the 1992 Chrysler LeBaron power master cylinder that my dad and I installed about 20 years ago.

Also removed the clutch pedal arm and linkage.

[JamieGallien]

Removed the steering assembly and lifted off the cab.

[JamieGallien]

Jake, one of our #GodsGarage students helped me cut the old manual transmission cross member out to make room to run dual 2.5" exhaust off the LS motor.

[JamieGallien]

Cut the old z-bar clutch linkage bracket off. Also removed another bracket that I'm not sure what it was for, drivers side, extended from the frame about 5 inches inward...exhaust hanger maybe? My dad and two youngest sons helped with that one (put one picture of a swing and a miss...dad is a brave man...lol)!!

[JamieGallien]

Cut off some other old exhaust hangers and started scraping 50 years worth of dirt from the frame. Had to give up my scraper...the boys said it looked like fun and took over!

[JamieGallien]

One thing I was really concerned about was the bed. I don't have any intention of doing much body or paint work at this point; I just want to get it driveable and safe for now, rat-rod style. The only reason I'm pulled the body was to cut those trans crossmembers out, but I can't see having the body off without cleaning and POR-ing the frame. Back to the bed, it has a solid steel sheet welded into it. I've never really looked at how it was welded, although I did love having a solid bed in the truck. The bolt heads for the bed mounts are covered by the sheet of solid steel. I was worried this was going to cause problems with bed removal. Fortunately we discovered that the sheet was only tack welded, and only to the wood supports, not to the bed sides! YAY! A-grinding we will go...

Should have the bed steel removed this evening!

[1963c-10]

Looking good. nice to have all the extra hands around to help!! Especially on frame cleaning

[JamieGallien]

Worked on removing the bed last night. I got the rest of the spot welds cut, but then found that the sheet of steel has bolts welded underneath, going through the outer rail that used to hold wood down. I was able to get underneath and remove most of the nuts (or break the bolts off...cheap hardware), but there's still something under there holding the steel down. Hopefully I can find it tonight.

[JamieGallien]

Finally got the bed steel out of the truck. I finally figured out that it wasn't just tack welded. They had drilled through the sheet from the bottom and placed bolts through the side rails and the sheet, then welded the tops of those bolts and ground them flat. What a pain, but we won...

[JamieGallien]

Next step is removing the bed. I had to remove the step braces to get to one of the last bolts holding the sheet of steel in, then we started removing the bed to frame bolts. All but on had to be cut/ground off from the top.

Now I need to get new bolts to re-attach the bed cross members to the side rail, since those were attached by the bolts that were holding the bed steel in. Once I get that done we're ready to remove the bed.

[JamieGallien]

Didn't get much done last night, just bought some bolts and washers to hold the bed together while I remove it. Once that's done I can start cleaning up the frame. Hopefully I can get that completed this weekend.