Black Betty - How it all started

[NEWFISHER]

Great truck and you are doing some nice things to make it yours. Love road trips to get projects. My wfe laughs and says if there is a car or truck within 500 miles, I'm not interested. Lol

[JWheeler331]

Love the look of your truck and the build thread was nice to read and look at.

[custom63]

What a great ride! And cool story. Awesome your wife is so on board with everything. Keep up the great work.
And thank you for your service!

[LDO]

Well,
as I stated in the beginning, I didn't really build this truck but as of last week, I'm tearing it apart!

Wife got me some new bedwood and a 290 HP 350 to put in the truck and that's what started the madness...I was going to rebuild the 283 but she wanted me to have something new. I will still rebuild the 283 for my son. We're gonna look for a early to mid 80s c10 to put it in and let him work on it until he gets his license.

My plan for the 66 is this:

Raptor liner engine bay and front & rear inner fenders.
New cab mounts.
Detail frame.
New motor.
New radiator.
New Headers.
New tubular upper & lower CAs.
Muncie M20 transmission.
New bed wood.
New idid-it column.
Re-do interior with dynamat and do a better job of routing wiring.
Dakota Digital guages.
Patch panels for front fenders.
wheeeww, that's some list. Hope I can pull it off.

Here are some pictures of the new motor and tear down. My son and I had the front end torn off in no time, then we went and threw the football until it got dark. I want to include him in this build so we work a little in the garage, then we take a break. Wife came home and started singing "something bad's about to happen". Guess it's a song on the radio or something.

[LDO]

School has been cancelled for the past few days due to weather so I made a little progress on some of my 'to do' list. LT1 Burb hooked me up with this pristine high hump and firewall piece and it all bolts on!

Cut out my old low hump and it fits great. Not sure what I'll try to get it bolted to the floor but I'm sure it will come to me sooner or later.

Things are starting to come together (sorta). I'll start building a dolly out of wood to support the bed and the cab and I'll start working on the frame soon.

Here are some pictures of the low hump cut out and the high hump set in place.

[LDO]

Trying to do whatever I can to keep things moving while I wait on weather and $$.

Mocked up the high hump so I can drill some holes.




wife even helped out!


Then I made an adapter for my gas pedal. The high hump came from an earlier year truck with a gas pedal that bolts to the floor and I wanted to use the 66 pedal that snaps on with ball mounts. A little cutting, a little drilling and there ya go. Thanks to member Durg for the idea!



Good enough for now!


My bed full of takeoffs and parts I've painted and prep'd.




My sad front end with my leg sticking thru it...

[piratexpress1369a]

looking good stay at it

[JJ's Sierra Grande]

just found your two threads after seeing your post on Bruce's "it's just a pick up"
I have to agree with the rest, great story and great build. looking forward to seeing where it goes.

[LDO]

Stripping down the firewall.



A little more left to do.


Pretty much there, now I've got to start filling in some 'extra' holes.



Now for some eye candy!
Here is my inspiration for what I hope to have the motor look like with regards to the plug wire routing.

A cross between Bruce 88....


And this picture from Super Chevy


I made some plug wire brackets similar to Bruce's and here is how things turned out....











Let me know what you fellas think. I also installed some heat sheilds, with or without?????

[62 Barnfind]

Love it! Great job on on the wires! Also i like them without the heat shields.

[chris1044]

Function over form. If your running exh. Manifolds that require heat shields...run them.
I think once in the truck it'll be so close to the rails the visual difference will be hardly noticeable. Looks good though either way...honestly I had to look for the shields before I noticed them.

[likaroc13]

Nice job on the plug wires! Noticed your location changed to Senatobia. When did you guys move?

[LDO]

Originally Posted by chris1044

Function over form. If your running exh. Manifolds that require heat shields...run them.
I think once in the truck it'll be so close to the rails the visual difference will be hardly noticeable. Looks good though either way...honestly I had to look for the shields before I noticed them.

Indeed Chris. We'll see how things work out when it's time to lower this motor into the frame. I just wanted to be ready in case I decide to run them.

[LDO]

Originally Posted by likaroc13

Nice job on the plug wires! Noticed your location changed to Senatobia. When did you guys move?

Last July. We really like it here.

[LDO]

More progress on the firewall and mocking up the carb and fuel line routing..

Now I gotta sit back and think about a bracket to mount my summit fuel filter on the empty hole in the front of the passenger side head.

[LDO]

sometimes it's the little things that make me smile.

the 'face' of my ps pump was starting to flash over a little so i figured since it wasn't installed yet, i would throw some paint on it to keep it looking nice.

I wanted to plug up the 4 bolt holes but didn't want to use the bolts and get paint all over them.

Came across these push pins the wife had that fit perfectly, keeps the primer/paint out of the threaded holes and are pretty cheap (free).

just gotta be a little careful, these littler boogers are sharp!

pics....

[Captainfab]

They're only free until the wife starts asking if you have seen all those pushpins she had and can't seem to find.

[LDO]

And that's when I shrug my shoulders, say something like, "prolly the kids, they take my stuff too!" and quietly exit the room.

[Jcox68rt]

A great truck to start with and only making it better! I love it! Keep up the good work

[LDO]

Yesterday and today we had great weather so after getting all the yardwork done I finally got to shoot my parts with raptor liner. I used this on my wife's 57 and the results were outstanding so no reason not to use it on my 66.

[piratexpress1369a]

does that little compressor work ok for painting to

[LDO]

I've never painted anything except this raptor stuff and it seems to spray that ok but I know it's not like painting with a gun, etc.

I would really like to be able to afford one of those high power/cfm units but this one does alright for everything I've needed. It was the largest unit that runs on 110 they had at the time.

[1963c-10]

That's great stuff. Very impressive product.

And I used a 30gal compressor to spray my truck. Can be done if you watch when the compressor kicks in....just a matter of timing.

[LDO]

That's exactly correct. When my compressor would kick on, I would take a break and inspect coverage. I think you've got an hour to use the product once you mix in the hardner.

Keep unopened bottles in an environmentally controlled area. I lost two bottles of chems due to cold/heat.

[Dubnova]

Just keep hit'n it! Great thread and keep at it it looking good.