71 C10 LB: Code Name Sloth

[rechinca]

Not as much to finish off this week. Ended up having a small piece of metal in my eye from Saturday. Got under my full face shield and safety glasses so spent Sunday and Monday not working on it much. Just a fleck on the eye they were able to get off but what an irritation! The firewall and cowl are in primer and sealer now, but the windshield frame hasn’t cured and with the high temps here (100-105), I have limited times to paint as this is an outside build on the driveway. I set up a makeshift booth with an easyup and tarps, but it just keeps the heat in. Monday I should be able to get the last of the sealer on and be ready to throw some paint on it Tuesday and Wednesday.

Did get a bunch of little parts cleaned and painted, some small bolts getting the rust knocked off and parts sorted. Took the pedal assemblies off. The brake/clutch assembly was in need of cleaning and I painted the pedals/arms. Took the accelerator pedal assembly apart, cleaned and painted the parts. I figure I couldn’t put it all back together in good faith without doing it.

Discovered the front cable for the emergency brake was fraying and the accelerator cable was suspect in a couple of spots so ordered up a bunch of pets again. Pulled the gas tank while the seat was out so I could inspect it. Super clean on the inside, not a speck of rust I could see! But holy crap, that last couple of gallons were FOUL! Going to scrub the cab down and probably epoxy the floor before it goes back together. Seat and tank will com back out next summer when I do the floor and cab corner repairs, but I figured it’s all out right now so I’d like to get some preventative done now.

And finally, I painted the main part of the Emergency Brake assembly. Decided to use a silver paint to coat it and then next week I’ll paint up the arm and pedal.

[rechinca]

Almost forgot pics of the Emergency Brake assembly.

[cornerstone]

Love the flags you've got on display, I'm also a proud American who appreciates law enforcement.

E brake looks fantastic too!!

[Ol Blue K20]

I'm glad your eye is ok. I've had that happen before and its miserable. E brake looks great.

[rechinca]

Baby steps right? Went to paint the orange (516) and realized I was short. Forgot last I ordered paint I was only doing the cowl and not touching the firewall. So I started with getting the firewall and lower portion of the windshield frame started. Which means I can start working on the motor today. I have to say, this orange has always been my favorite color. Glad I decided to go a few steps further taking the motor out and taking care of the firewall. Lots of work and probably will get pushed a couple more weeks to around Thanksgiving.

[Ol Blue K20]

Nice...

[rechinca]

Good news is the windshield area is painted. Bad news in the motor department. #3 cylinder obviously sat with water in the cylinder at some point. Would need a total rebuild. Wife said go for it so ordered up a GM crate 350. Was going to go that route probably in the spring, but decided better to do it now while the front end is apart. At least it’ll be easier to replace now. So hopefully in about 10 days, we will start that part of the episode. I guess in the mean time tomorrow's episode will be start the front and front to rear brake lines, sway bar and painting a couple areas of the floor pans.

[1971Stepside]

Wife said go for it

Some of my favorite words to hear

[Ol Blue K20]

New engine too, it's going to be nice.

[rechinca]

Here is the worst one. Disappointing? Yes, but on the other hand it was an anemic 165hp out of a 1972 Impala. So in that case, not really that big of a loss.

[rechinca]

Came in two days ago, but so windy here I haven’t been able to paint it up! Killing me just staring at it on the engine stand.

[TA_C10]

Subbed. Great progress so far. Looking good. Long Beds rock

[rechinca]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Subbed. Great progress so far. Looking good. Long Beds rock

Thanks TA, I have been following your build as well.

[rechinca]

Alright, valve lash set, transmission picked up from the shop (bearings and seals only!), booster and bracket installed, emergency brake pedal assembly (had to unbolt the drivers side of the dash) and new cable, and brake lines on the crossmember installed.

My take on "pre-bent" front line set from In-line: quality is good, but they sucked in the fact they should have put the set in a larger box and not folded those complex lines. On top of that, none are labled and due to the facts mine were destroyed and rotted when I took them apart and no labels it was a HUGE problem installing them. They could have easily put them in the same size box as the front to rear line, not folded them and I would have gladly paid the extra shipping. I let them know my disappointment and was met with we will try to do better. I'd also pay a few dollars more for simple labels and an instruction sheet with vehicle specific pics.

[rechinca]

Almost forgot the (drive) shaft in a condom pic. The carrier bearing was junk and the middle u-joint was not seated correctly (snap rings were not seated either) causing the middle yoke to be junk. And to think I almost tackled this myself. It was out of balance and in piss poor shape overall. Cost me some money, but this should stop it from tearing itself apart and cure the vibration issue.

[rechinca]

Man it’s the littles that get you slowed down on projects! Finished up with the front brakes. I had put it off as I was worried about the reality of the stock calipers and rotors fitting with the modular spindles/brackets. All for not. Great figment once I realized I had the brackets facing the wrong way. Any rate they fit great.

Heater boxes in and out are in. Let’s just say, some seals are made WAY better than others. I had two sets, one was way better. NO comparison.

And for those that don’t have one yet, BUY A DAMNED ASSEMBLY MANUAL! It saved my bacon on the steering column. Flashback to the main reason to park this truck for extensive work 18 months or so ago, went to replace the turn signal switch and found I had been driving it around with no nut holding the steering wheel on and the column together. PO said his “mechanic” had rebuilt the column for him and yet it shifted horrible. I pulled the wheel off with zero effort. So it got blown apart, all new bearings, cleaned, lubed and repainted. It is a pain but that assembly manual was a necessity as I don’t trust anything the previous mechanic did. All back together and installed.

Tomorrow going to finish off the last of the brake system, get the PS pump installed in the brackets and hopefully clutch/flywheel installed. Lots to do!

[Ol Blue K20]

You might get it back together before the rain starts.

[88Stanger]

Nice Progress so far! Great work, keep it up!

PS Really like the American flag and the Blue Line flag in the background!

[TA_C10]

I agree on the assembly manual, doing great work here man. I do wish however the assembly manual wasn't missing all the bed floor assembly pages.... But Mar-k has some of those and with the help of others on this site we can figure that stuff out.

[rechinca]

TA since I haven’t messed with that portion of the truck, I didn’t even notice that!

[rechinca]

I posted some stuff on the main thread page due to issues with braking system. In short, this truck had a piss poor PB conversion with a cheap bracket and the rod from the booster to the Vesak was cut and welded to another rod at an angle. I wanted to put it back as close to factory correct as possible with the correct bracket and booster/MC set up. Put in the first reman’d booster and pedal was barely off the floor. A lot of folks posted in the past of similar issue with no resolve. It was so far out of adjustment, you could not get enough out of the adjustment at the pedal.

After 2-3 weeks of parts swapping (3 of 4 boosters that were reman units from NAPA were all wrong) and some investigation, I found the rods put in the BACK of the booster to the swing arm were wrong. About 1 3/8” too short! I only figured that out when I started looking at threads with pictures of brackets and boosters. Once I got that resolved, my pedal is at “normal” height off the floor. If you look at the pics, you will see how much of a difference there was in the rod. Shout out to the page outintheshop.com, he had the measurements on how long the rod should be with excellent pics and measurement documentation of units he has removed from trucks.

I did have some issue bleeding initially, but it was a dry system facing uphill on the driveway. I finally just cracked the rear bleeders and used 35 psi on the compressor to force the fluid down. Left the bleeders cracked a bit and got them bleed good. Also added Russell Speed Bleeders to help out down the road.

[rechinca]

Took a pic before I covered it til next week. Now that the boy is home from school for a few weeks I can used that lineman strength to help set the motor and transmission in place next week!

[rechinca]

Been a lot of starts and stops, waiting on parts, finding more stuff broken, and if you saw my post on the main forum page, wrestling with an engine/manual trans going down hill on sloped driveway while trying to have all the mounts line up. Got to say I felt a lot like Charlie Brown kicking field goals!

But finally, today it aligned and the engine is in! And the fan clutch is leaking, BAD! Back to work tomorrow so I have a couple of days to get one ordered up. But it’s getting closer. I am aiming for Tuesday or Wednesday start-up and breaking it in. It sure looks pretty.

[cornerstone]

You've got a ton of work done man! It really does look great.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking very good.....