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

[Steve-W]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Here are some handy lines...
"It's a different kind of love, it can't compete with you."
"No matter how much time I spend with it, it is not a replacement for you."
"I just love having something to work on. If it wasn't this, it would be something else."
"Don't worry, it doesn't love me back like you do."

ok..how about these:

"Honey, as soon as it's finished, I'll take you somewhere special" (NOT telling her it's a car show...)
"No matter how much time I spend on the truck, I always come back home to you"
"sweetcheaks..perhaps you should get a hobby aswell" (hmmm..as long as it is poledancing)
"Love my car more than you? right! like you love shopping more than me"

[hgs_notes]

Good ones. Those will warm her cockles. Whatever cockles are.
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[67ctener]

That thing turned out great I love the color! Almost like the med blue poly
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[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 67ctener

That thing turned out great I love the color! Almost like the med blue poly
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Thank you. Kinda like that but with a touch of green. I wish I could take it for a ride right now, but it's 2 F outside, and icy. Gonna be a long 4 months.

[Steve-W]

2 weeks without an update..i'm going cold Turkey here

[~Whitey~]

WOW. Just went through this whole thread and you have done some amazing work. I was wore out after going through the body work and what not, but had to keep reading. You did a fantastic job on everything. I hope I can get all the body lines and gap as nice as you have done. Great looking truck!!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Steve-W

2 weeks without an update..i'm going cold Turkey here

You're kidding right? This one is in storage for another 3 months or so. I had to move it out of my 2 car garage so I had room to work on the jimmy and sometimes let my wife park inside. If you want updates from me you need to look at the junkyard jimmy thread.

Originally Posted by 69swb

WOW. Just went through this whole thread and you have done some amazing work. I was wore out after going through the body work and what not, but had to keep reading. You did a fantastic job on everything. I hope I can get all the body lines and gap as nice as you have done. Great looking truck!!

That's a long read aint it? Lots of work. People complain about the cost of body work and paint (I was one of them) and I've learned they probably don't get paid enough.

Thanks for the props. Gaps and body lines can be a real pain. In some cases it won't work without cutting and welding. I got fairly lucky with this one. Can't be afraid to bend things, twist them, use shims, do it over and over. Once the doors are set the rest is easier. The jimmy panel gaps will not be as close. They'll look ok in 2d pics, but in person you'll see misalignment, but that's ok. It's my beater.

This thread will be revived in a few months when I pull it out of storage. Man I miss having it around.

To do list:
Exhaust
Replace tach
Possibly vintage air install
Interior upgrades?
I need to look at replacing the wear items in the front suspension
Might take a road trip with my son

[sduckworth13]

Your truck looks great, nice work.

[71' Custom]

[gdavis]

I know why you are thinking about Black and Blue is. The color of your hands and knees and bruses you get doing this build.

[hgs_notes]

Thanks for the props guys. I really appreciate the feedback. Yesterday I went to the storage place and pulled the cover off it. I got a sample swatch for interior turquoise vinyl from SMS and needed to see if I had a match. It was a damn good one, so now I have a supplier for the material. SMS also said they can supply embossed scroll design, which is awesome.


And while I was there, I could not resist firing it up and polluting the air with a little engine revving sound and fumes. Probably another 2 months at least before I can really pull it out and keep it out. But if I can get the scratch together to buy materials and get someone to recover it, I'll try and pull the parts while it's parked there so I don't have it laid up when I want to be driving it.

[hgs_notes]

I've lost so much this past month it is hard to describe how good it felt to fire this up and drive it out of storage. Its back where it belongs now.
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[hgs_notes]

Last night I ordered more exhaust tubing, 2 new stainless dynomax mufflers, some clamps and hangers. I have a plan for the time being of where I'll route the exhaust. I'm going to go from the X-pipe and then outboard the frame rails, back to the area under the front of the bed where the mufflers will mount, then back and over the axle with the outlet behind each tire. I might have to fab up some mount brackets to put on the frame for the hangers. It seems to be the simplest route back without having to go through the rear suspension, shocks, track bar and around the fuel tank, which fills the space behind the track bar from rail to rail on the frame. I've seen pics of a few chassis that have gone similar routes.

Also stopped by the upholstory shop yesterday and got my name on the list. Might have to wait until june or july and the cost will be around $700 plus materials. I found that SMS has the material I need available. I'll bring the truck to her next week for measuring so I know how much to order. The plan is to use a french seam cover over the dash pad, recover the visors and arm rests like you will see in this thread...
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=524985

crsweet91 does some fantastic work, but the shipping costs make it a better choice for me to have someone local do it. If I can get the OEM style door panels at the same time I will to ensure a good color match. And the seat plan is to make my 60/40 split bench look like the same style as the OEM bench. I will use the cloth inserts in the side seat positions, except I want her to shape the bolsters a bit more like a modern bucket seat for side to side stability, then use the OEM scrolled embossed material down the middle of the center section. The passenger seat will just be a mirror of the driver side and match up with the center section. Will be a cross of old school look with newer style comfort. I'm pretty excited about the idea.

[mcbassin]

Glad to see you back at it on this one.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Glad to see you back at it on this one.

Back on this one, still working on the Jimmy, fixing odds and ends on my daughters new beater (94 LeSabre), etc. etc.

Its good to stay busy right?

Summit shipped parts today.

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

...... Its back where it belongs now.
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Absolutely!

[hgs_notes]

Gots me some parts. Still another section of tubing coming.
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[hgs_notes]

Another very brief update. One of the new parts was a flat bottom for the 14" air filter. The one I had was about a 1" drop, and I had about a 2" stack on the throttle body. But I think the throttle body is a bit shorter than the holley carb I used to have because the bottom of the air filter was resting on the distributor after the EFI swap. So the flat bottom raised the filter just enough for me to have to replace the all-thread that holds it in place. A quick run to the hardware store and I fixed that. So now the air filter is about an inch higher and no longer pushing into the plug wires.

I got the fender for my daughters beater painted (hope like hell it matches ok) tonight. Once I swap that out, get it wet sanded and polished, I think I'm about done fixing her car up for a while. Put a stereo in it the other day. Total pain because the old stereo was stolen (before we bought it) but the plugs were cut out and I had to do a bunch of splicing, and then the main power lead was dead, requiring another splice. But she loves it and that makes me happy.

Before, it was white...


After, now light blue metallic (good practice for me with the Jimmy)

[Low Elco]

Looks good, glad it's home.
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[Bomp]

Nice work. You gotta keep the young ones happy.

[Roninwolf]

WOW! What a job you did on this truck took me hours to read through it and it all and it started from me seeing the wheels on the truck when you started and they are the same as mine. Couple of questions did you get the new center caps from summit when you ordered the bumper bolts and are those 275/60's on front and rear?

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I got the fender for my daughters beater painted (hope like hell it matches ok) tonight. Once I swap that out, get it wet sanded and polished, I think I'm about done fixing her car up for a while. Put a stereo in it the other day. Total pain because the old stereo was stolen (before we bought it) but the plugs were cut out and I had to do a bunch of splicing, and then the main power lead was dead, requiring another splice. But she loves it and that makes me happy.

Sounds like Dejavu .. I just put a stereo in my daughters car and also have a fender I have to paint to go on it. haha.

I was considering the magnaflows for mine, usually go with flowmaster 40's on my stuff but I have heard a lot of people talk really good of the magnaflows and have been wanting to try them out. I did try a set of the flowmaster 44's on my truck, but I took them off and sold them.. too much drone sound in the cab. I'm sure it's going to sound awesome! Let us know how you like those magnaflows when you fire it up! Truck looks great!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Roninwolf

WOW! What a job you did on this truck took me hours to read through it and it all and it started from me seeing the wheels on the truck when you started and they are the same as mine. Couple of questions did you get the new center caps from summit when you ordered the bumper bolts and are those 275/60's on front and rear?

Thanks for the kind words. Its a long read isn't it? I did buy the center caps from summit, but don't remember if it was with the bumper bolts, doesn't matter. There are a surprising number of options on the wheel center caps. Mine have a small flare on the back side that fits into a chamfer cut into the back of the wheel, and you have to be a precise as possible measuring the inside diameter of the hole or the outside diameter of an existing cap if you have one. There are caps that are within thousands of an inch, order the wrong ones and it wont fit in the hole or will be too loose.

The rear tires are 275/60-15 and the front are 235/70-15, which makes them very close to the same diameter. My wheels are different widths front and rear, I think 8.5 rear and 7.5 front but I don't remember exactly. Bought them about 1987.

I haven't worked on it lately. Our weather has been crap, snowing right now again as a matter of fact. Just so I can call this an update though I will talk about my interior plans. After I had the upholstery lady look at what I had and told her what I wanted she said no problem but that to make my seat look right the frame where the 2 sides come together would need built up to square them off more. So I told her that I would either plan on doing that when the covers were removed or look for another seat that would be an easier job.

For work last week I had to stop by a junkyard, and once my job there was done I asked to look around at some seats, they said no problem. After about 5 minutes I found a tahoe with a with leather seats, front buckets and a split bench middle row. The bottom flips forward and the back will fold down flat like on my wifes Denali, the middle position has a fold down arm rest, which my current seat does not have and that I kind of miss having. So that's what I'm getting, maybe today. For $100 I think it will probably save that much in labor on the recover job and I get an arm rest, and a seat that will fold forward very easily. Also, it doesn't have head rests built in and is a low back style so it should fit perfect at the rear window. I was going to remove the head rests on my current seat.

One issue I have with my current seat is that it is pushed into the forward position, but it pretty tight against the back of the cab. I cant get it to fold forward to gain access behind it. Its stuck. And if I do get it to fold, I have a hell of a time getting it back up and catching the latch.

So now I will have 2 seats to get rid of, my current one and a 67 original bench that I was also going to try. I'll post pics of the seat once I get it home. Its about 75-80 miles away from here.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by ~Whitey~

Sounds like Dejavu .. I just put a stereo in my daughters car and also have a fender I have to paint to go on it. haha.

I was considering the magnaflows for mine, usually go with flowmaster 40's on my stuff but I have heard a lot of people talk really good of the magnaflows and have been wanting to try them out. I did try a set of the flowmaster 44's on my truck, but I took them off and sold them.. too much drone sound in the cab. I'm sure it's going to sound awesome! Let us know how you like those magnaflows when you fire it up! Truck looks great!

Quite the coincidence.

I hope it sounds right. The drone is terrible now. Unfortunately I might not get to work on it for a little while yet. Too many brands in the fire right now. I want to get the paint on my Jimmy first, and have a few home improvement projects going on also. Also have to work a few more weekends coming up. Eventually the weather will improve and I can get more progress done on some of this load.

[hgs_notes]

Hey Whitey, pics of the fender installed. I know the color is off. Better than busted and better than white (no offence ).

Before...


After...