Family Project 65 C10 SWB "Old Blue"

[JamieGallien]

Pulled the bed off using our custom built bed lift (100 year old maple tree).

[JamieGallien]

Removed the wheels and spacers. Cut off any remaining exhaust hangers, etc.

[JamieGallien]

Started sandblasting rust and dirt from the frame to prep for painting/sealing. I had plenty of help with that part!

[TJ's Chevy]

One awesome project! In for the ride.

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

One awesome project! In for the ride.

Thanks! Apparently I'm in for the ride too...

[Lokin4AReason]

looking good ... keep it up =0)

[Jeff La]

It's a great family project you have going and having the boys involved is priceless. Please get those boys and yourself a better respirator for sand blasting. The sand breaks up into some really fine particles and those masks leak so bad they are breathing in some bad stuff. Again love the project and have been following along.

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by Lokin4AReason

looking good ... keep it up =0)

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Jeff La

It's a great family project you have going and having the boys involved is priceless. Please get those boys and yourself a better respirator for sand blasting. The sand breaks up into some really fine particles and those masks leak so bad they are breathing in some bad stuff. Again love the project and have been following along.

Thanks! They didn't last long enough for it to hurt them. There was plenty of wind that day too! But yeah, for long term sandblasting, especially in enclosed spaces, a real respirator and SHIRTS are a good idea, lol!!

[JamieGallien]

Got some REALLY important stuff done last night...A/C in the shop!! <edit> Forgot to mention, God blessed me with that A/C unit for $75...can't beat that!

Also took some pics with my daughter. She had her first school dance thingy last night. Yes, that is my "I will kill any man that crosses my daughter" look.

[JamieGallien]

I got started on reworking the wiring harness. I used the information from Brendan at lt1swaps.com, he knows this stuff inside and out. I'm reversing everything so that the main harness exits under the intake and goes into the cab. I'll be mounting the pcm and tcm under the dash, along with the relay box for all the power going to the harness. I'm going to have to extend the power and ground on the driver's side coil connector, everything else looks good to go.

[Jeff La]

That's alot of spaghetti you have there. Don't envy you on that job.

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by Jeff La

That's alot of spaghetti you have there. Don't envy you on that job.

It actually only took about an hour altogether. The key is having a printout with what wire goes to what pin with the wire color noted. From that point just remove what has been programmed out of the computer or isn't needed by the computer to actually run (egr, oil/temp sensors, etc). http://ltwswaps.com has all the info you could need to do it.

Turned out pretty well. Still looks like a mess, but everything that connects to the engine is loomed up now and separated out. Now I just need to connect all the pinks via a relay pack to key on hot and the oranges to battery always hot. I'll be replacing the ugly blue tape with some good electrical tape too. Making progress!!

edit: Since my setup is DBW, I also kept out the four wires that control the cruise control so I can wire them into a CC stalk on my steering column. I can't wait to drive this thing!

[JamieGallien]

Ordered the parts to completely rebuild the front suspension on the truck today. I shopped around and found all MOOG parts at Rockauto.com as cheap as the chinese junk that's out there. I was amazed. Shipping was only $35 too. I've listed the parts and prices below for anyone looking for a c10 front end rebuilt kit in the board search feature:
Brand Part Desc $ea qty $total
MOOG K6023 Ball Joint $ 14.47 2 $ 28.94
MOOG K6024 Ball Joint $ 15.81 $ 0.00 2 $ 31.62
MOOG K6098 Control Arm Shaft Kit $ 24.89 2 $ 49.78
MOOG K6147 Control Arm Shaft Kit $ 28.79 2 $ 57.58
MOOG ES370R Tie Rod End $ 9.95 2 $ 19.90
MOOG ES350L Tie Rod End $ 11.14 2 $ 22.28
MOOG ES350S Tie Rod End Sleeve $ 9.12 2 $ 18.24
MOOG K14 Idler Arm $ 44.79 1 $ 44.79

[JamieGallien]

So....I got all my suspension parts in last week, but I've been trying to figure out a safe way to disassemble the front end with the thing stripped down to the frame. There's no weight to compress the spring with a jack, and all of the compressors I have access to won't fit to compress the spring. Here's what I settled on as a solution. I drilled out one of the body mount washers just enough to pass the bolt of the spring compressor. I also used an old pulley to add some width. I'll run this up through the hole in the bottom of the lower a-arm and compress down from the top of the spring. Problem solved, I hope!

[JamieGallien]

We removed on side of the front suspension this weekend. I used a couple of crank pulleys to give lower support for the spring compressor. Worked great. Popped the tied rod ends and upper/lower ball joints loose with a fork. Unbolted the upper and lower a-arm bushing rods and pulled it all loose. We got started on the other side then the rain hit.

[JamieGallien]

Documented the spacers in the upper a-arm to have a starting point for alignment later. Also a good pic of the original tie rod bar orientation.

[JamieGallien]

Got the rear shock removed. My boys felt the need to help me clean up the old truck some more. I plan to remove the idler arm and the passenger side a-arms tonight. Next step after that is a final cleanup with the sandblaster then on to paint! Can't wait for the new parts to start going on!!

[JamieGallien]

Last night I got the passenger side suspension removed. We're ready for sandblasting and painting....then....NEW PARTS! (Also a couple of pics of the upper a-arm spacers, so I have a starting point for alignment when i reassemble everything.)

[JamieGallien]

Wow. It's been a little over two years since I've updated. Unfortunately it's also been two years since we've worked on the truck. I got to the sandblasting part and just stalled, partly because of reading/discovering the dangers of sandblasting. Regardless I was excited to get back on it this weekend. My dad and some of my boys pitched in.

We got almost all of the frame sandblasted (finally). We made use of "black diamond", a carbon-based blasting material that can be purchased at Tractor Supply for about $7 per 50lb bag. Not only is is safer than silica based sand (although you still need a respirator, etc), it cleans up the frame better/quicker AND it's easier to wash off. We got all but the rear underside done this weekend. I hope to finish the blasting in the evenings this week and get it painted with POR this weekend!

Side note: I'm blown away by how much my boys have grown in the last two years...

[JamieGallien]

A couple more pics of the blasting job. I hope to have pretty steady updates this winter. We shall see!

[scdude37]

awesome project, and glad to see you back at it! Love the swap, and i would really love to do that to mine, I already have an 04 silverado 5.3 but pretty far out of my experience, so i will probably just fix up the 283 and run it for awhile that way.
Cant wait to see the next updates!

[JamieGallien]

Originally Posted by scdude37

awesome project, and glad to see you back at it! Love the swap, and i would really love to do that to mine, I already have an 04 silverado 5.3 but pretty far out of my experience, so i will probably just fix up the 283 and run it for awhile that way.
Cant wait to see the next updates!

Nothing wrong with an old 283! That's what this truck had in it when I got it. It was a sweet running engine...still have it in fact. The only thing that really matters is getting it running so you can enjoy it!

[JamieGallien]

More pics of the cleanup from this past weekend. Almost ready for POR/paint! My sons Noah and Sam helping me out with more blasting and removal of the spare tire cross-brace and old muffler brackets.

[Jeff La]

Those boys have sure grown. I see now why you delayed this project, you knew you could get way more work out of them

[JamieGallien]

We decided to do a test run of the POR on the a-arms, just for iron out any kinks before committing to doing the whole frame. I wanted to make any mistakes in a small way first, lol.

We blasted, cleaned, then put the metal prep on. It left a white, powery coating. Then we did two coats of POR two hours apart. It turned out way better than I expected. The coating is like glass and hard as a rock.

Looks almost too good for an old truck...can't wait to finish the entire frame this weekend!