1965 C10 LWB Project Build Thread

[JohnIL]

My plan for a new exhaust system escalated quickly!

When I bought the truck, it had an old rusty set of headers. I hate headers, especially old rusty ones. Luckily, the PO included a set of chrome ram-horn style exhaust manifolds. They were brand new, in the box. He bought them for another project and never got them installed. Long-term, I planned to replace the headers with the ram-horns and take it to my favorite local exhaust shop for a proper dual exhaust system. Short-term, I hacked off the obnoxiously loud 3" FlowMasters and welded on a pair of quieter 2 1/4" mufflers and a pair of turn-downs just behind the cab. That was much better, but the mufflers hung too low and the exits where too close to the cab for my liking. The temporary exhaust got me by for a season, but it was time for something better.

I mentioned in my last update that I was hoping to address the exhaust system in the next couple of weeks. On Tuesday, I called the exhaust shop to setup a appoint for sometime next week. That would give the whole weekend to remove the headers and install the new manifolds. The conversation with the cool custom exhaust guy went something like this.

Cool Exhaust Guy: "How about tomorrow?"
Me: "Wait, what? Tomorrow? Umm, I don't think I can be ready that soon."
Cool Exhaust Guy: "OK, how about Thursday?"
Me: "Umm, that might work. Let's try for Thursday."

I absolutely wasn't ready for that conversation. There's no way I could be ready over night, but I was cautiously optimistic I could get it done with a couple of evenings of work. I wasn't sure it was really doable, but I wasn't going to pass up a chance to get the exhaust done sooner rather than later.

As soon as I got home from work on Tuesday night, I headed straight for the garage. I started by trying to remove the headers. Before I committed to this whole thing, I wanted to make sure the rusty header bolts would budge and, if they did budge, I wanted to make sure they wouldn't just snap off in the heads. This was my biggest fear. The PO's lack of follow-through actually worked in my favor this time. When he installed the headers, he didn't bother to tighten the bolts. Some of them were literally only finger tight. To my surprise and great relief, I had the headers unbolted in less than 10 minutes. Next, I used a reciprocating saw to slice apart the temporary exhaust. So far, so good...

It was time to pull the rusty old headers out of the engine bay. There's not way this part was going to go smoothly. Not a chance. After all, the headers where intended for a gen 1 Camaro, not a gen 1 C10. The passenger side header dropped out through the bottom without much fanfare. But, the driver side header couldn't go up without removing the brake master cylinder and couldn't go down without removing the clutch linkage. Either way, I was opening a can of worms. I flipped a coin and removed the clutch linkage. This turned out to be a good thing considering the lousy condition the linkage was in. With the linkage out of the way, the header finally gave up and exited the truck for good.

What I didn't mention before now is that I've never worked on a clutch before. I've always worked with automatic transmissions, so I had no idea what I was doing. Time to learn something new! The clutch linkage went back together OK, but the clutch pedal just flopped around. There was zero tension. Upon further examination, I discovered that the PO didn't bother to tighten the adjuster nuts on the clutch push rod. <start of rant> I'm beginning to think that maybe he didn't own any wrenches. If he did own wrenches, he was too lazy to actually, you know, turn them! The only thing holding the push rod in adjustment was the rust on the adjustment threads. I'm lucky this thing hasn't left me on the side of the road stuck in gear. <end of rant> Once I cleaned up the rusty threads and tightened the adjuster nuts, the clutch started clutching again.

Meanwhile, back on the exhaust project, I pulled the shiny new ram-horns from the box and threw them on the engine. That all went well. The manifolds came with new shiny chrome hardware and even included the necessary exhaust gaskets. It really is nice to work with quality parts. Once I got the new manifolds installed, I realized that the spark plug wires were too short and were laying directly on the manifolds. That was OK. I was ready for bed anyway. It was midnight and I had work the next morning. The plug wires could wait.

I did a bit of quick research before work on Wednesday and found some references to a set of plug wires that were made for an HEI distributor and were long enough to route down behind the engine and under the ram-horns, just like the factory used to do it. AND, my local O'Reilly's just happen to have a set of them on the shelf. This is all MUCH better than my usual luck. The plug wires are OmniSpark part number 9373. Just tell the guy at the counter that you need plug wires for a 1975 Corvette. No kidding, it has to be a Corvette. The rest of the 1975 small block line came with points instead of HEI.

After work, I installed the new plug wires and they fit much better than I expected. I wish I had the 1975 Corvette plug wire looms, but a few judicious zip ties should keep the wires corralled away from the new exhaust. I got the truck running (VERY LOUDLY) and loaded on the trailer just as the sun disappeared for the night.

First thing this morning, I dropped the truck off at the exhaust shop. The shop owner was happy to be working on a classic truck. I'm sure he gets tired of replacing rusted out mufflers on late model commuter vehicles. With any luck, I'll be able to pick it up by noon tomorrow. All of this happened so quickly that I didn't get any pictures of the shiny new manifolds or the freshly hidden plug wires. I'll add some pictures after I get the truck back home in the garage. But, I can tell you that the engine bay already looks much better. No more rusty headers and rats nest of tangled plug wires.

More coming soon...

[JohnIL]

And, now we have pictures!

The exhaust shop delivered on their promise. I picked the C10 up, complete with its new exhaust system, this morning. I'm very happy with the results. As I expected, the shop did an excellent job. The new pipes are tucked up as close to the frame as they can get. And, the new mufflers are tucked neatly up under bed, in front of the rear end. The pipes terminate with tasteful chrome tips flush with the rear bumper. From the rear, it looks 100% hotrod. The sound is throaty, without being obnoxiously loud. I definitely like these mufflers.

I'm also including some pictures of the engine bay that show the new ram-horn manifolds and the absence of plug wires. Now, I have space to do some more engine bay clean up. New chrome bits (valve covers and air cleaner) coming soon.

[SCOTI]

Looks like a clean install from this perspective.

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Looks like a clean install from this perspective.

Thanks Scoti. Perspective is hard to capture under a vehicle. It's really difficult to take undercarriage pictures without a lift. They did a really good job with the installation. The pipes are almost perfectly symmetrical and they go to great pains to avoid unnecessary joints and welds.

[JohnIL]

OK, it's not really my C10's birthday. The truth is, I have no idea what day my C10 rolled off the assembly line. But, it is my 1st anniversary with the truck.

One year ago today, I drove down to Missouri and brought back the '65 C10. Over the past year, I've done quite a bit of work to the truck. And, more importantly, the truck has given me a lot of enjoyment. The truck gives me something positive to daydream about and it gives me a good reason to be productive in the garage after work and on weekends. These old machines are memory makers.

So, here's to old trucks! Happy birthday C10!

[JohnIL]

I've been on the road, away from the garage for a couple of weeks. But, before I left town, I had a weekend tackle a couple of fun (and functional) projects.

Backup Lights & Camera
This project is both fun and functional. The truck left the factory as a base model, with almost no options. The original owner didn't bother to pay for frills, like backup lights. So, I ordered a set of repo backup lights from LMC. The installation wasn't too difficult. By far the hardest part was working up the courage to drill the giant holes in the factory quarter panels. The wiring was tedious, but not difficult. I added a new circuit to the auxiliary fuse block I installed earlier this summer. The Saginaw 4-speed transmission had a faulty backup switch. After replacing the switch, the backup lights came to life. The new lights are a welcome safety improvement and they look pretty sharp too.

While I was wiring up the new backup lights, I took the opportunity to add a modern convenience, a backup camera. Last fall, I installed a touchscreen stereo with a camera provision, so that part was already done. To simplify the installation, I chose a camera that mounts to the license plate mounting screws. It was just a matter of running the camera's input cable into the cab to the stereo. Then, I tied the camera's trigger wire into the new backup light circuit. Now, when I shift the ancient clunky Saginaw into reverse, the camera wakes up and displays on the stereo screen, just like our modern daily drivers. This is another giant leap forward in terms of safety. The mirrors on these trucks are pretty pitiful, compared to modern vehicles. The additional visibility the camera provides is a huge improvement. Now, between the camera and the mirrors, I can see both the rear corners and directly behind the truck.

What's Next?
I'm getting the truck ready to attend the LMC Southern Illinois Truck Showdown on Sept 2 and I have a few small projects I'd like to complete before we go.

• New Water Pump - I have no idea how old the existing pump is. A new one is cheap insurance.
• Engine Bay Cleanup - I already started this when I replaced the exhaust system and rerouted the plug wires. There's a long way to go. I want to install new chrome valve covers and air cleaner to replace the old rusty ones. I want to clean up the vacuum hoses. I want to relocated the cooling overflow tank. And, everything needs a good cleaning. The engine bay is no where close to perfect, but there's no reason it can't be gussied up a little bit more.

[SCOTI]

LED's for the back-up lighting?

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

LED's for the back-up lighting?

Nope. They're incandescent bulbs. I think they're probably standard 1156's. I thought about LEDs, but I don't care for the looks of the LED panels. I like the factory style lens better. So, I went with stock replacement taillights and backup lights. If I ever decide to go LED, I'll just swap out the bulbs for LED equivalent bulbs. We did this on my son's G-Body Elco and I like the results. Brighter lights and less current draw, but with a stock look. Modernized, but keeping the classic aesthetic.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by JohnIL

Nope. They're incandescent bulbs. I think they're probably standard 1156's. I thought about LEDs, but I don't care for the looks of the LED panels. I like the factory style lens better. So, I went with stock replacement taillights and backup lights. If I ever decide to go LED, I'll just swap out the bulbs for LED equivalent bulbs. We did this on my son's G-Body Elco and I like the results. Brighter lights and less current draw, but with a stock look. Modernized, but keeping the classic aesthetic.

Exactly. I like the appearance of the traditional lenses w/brighter output that requires less power draw (thus heat). Same thing for headlights as well. I do not care for the 'retro' LED front lighting that alters from the old-school headlight look. Absolutely no Halo style.....

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Exactly. I like the appearance of the traditional lenses w/brighter output that requires less power draw (thus heat). Same thing for headlights as well. I do not care for the 'retro' LED front lighting that alters from the old-school headlight look. Absolutely no Halo style.....

I'm with you 100%. Halo's are cool on full-on autocross builds, but I don't like them on restos and restomods. Not my style. Holley makes some nice stock-looking LED headlights, but they're crazy expensive. I'm hoping the price will come down over time. In the meantime, I'm pretty happy with the HD replacement bulbs and wiring harness from LMC. They're much brighter than the original bulbs. They're hot, but the HD harness comes with heavier wiring and a relay that keeps the higher draw off the original truck harness.

[JohnIL]

If you're a long time reader, you know that my truck has a 1979 low-hp detuned 350. It's certainly nothing special, but that doesn't mean that it has to look like garbage. I had no history on the water pump, but it was covered with rust and scale. A replacement was only $45 at O'Rielly. That's cheap insurance to make sure coolant is flowing as it should. And, it gave me an excuse to tidy up the engine bay while I had the accessories off the front of the engine.

The new water pump got a coat of Chevy Orange. While I was in the neighborhood, I knocked the loose paint off the front of the engine and gave it a fresh coat too.

Then, I replace the rusted (formerly chrome) valve covers and air cleaner. To dress up the chrome valve covers, I painted the raised center section to match the engine color. To dress up the chrome air cleaner, I added a "350 Turbo-Fire" sticker, like the one's Chevy used in the '60's and '70's.

Next, I replaced the PCV hose with a custom bent hard line to get it off the top of the shiny new valve cover.

Last (and this doesn't show up in the pictures), I painted the radiator overflow tank flat black and relocated it in front of the radiator. It looked very out of place in the engine bay. Now, with the black paint, it disappears behind the front grille.

Now, I just need to spend some time with soap and water washing away the dust that has accumulated on the firewall, core support, and inner fenders. It's not perfect, but it already looks MUCH better.

[rbruno68]

I can see this is how I will work on mine. Little bit at a time. Do a handful of small things in a weekend and still enjoy driving all the while. Truck looks great.
Rob

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by rbruno68

I can see this is how I will work on mine. Little bit at a time. Do a handful of small things in a weekend and still enjoy driving all the while. Truck looks great.
Rob

Thanks Rob. That's exactly the idea. At some point, I'll have to take the truck off the road for longer periods for bigger projects (disk brake conversion, transmission swap, body repairs, etc.). But, my goal is to be able to enjoy the truck while I'm working on it. Of course, it would be more efficient to just tear it all apart and do everything all at once, but that would disable the truck for years. This way keeps the truck drivable. I like to drive the truck, even if it's nowhere close to "finished".

John

[JohnIL]

Over the weekend, my son and I took the C10 to the 2nd Annual Southern Illinois Truck Showdown in Marion, IL. I didn't get many pictures because we were so busy talking to people about their trucks.

The show was fantastic. There were hundreds of classic and custom trucks in attendance. This is, by far, the largest show we've ever been to. We had a great time. We met tons of great people and saw tons of great trucks. The 60-66 era was well represented!

We met Robbie from United By Trucks. If you haven't seen his YouTube channel, you should check it out. After meeting Robbie in person, I appreciate him even more than I did before. He's gracious, sharing, and passionate about old trucks. He treated my son and I like old friends. He's an excellent ambassador for the classic truck community.

We live about four hours from Marion and we had to make the drive over night. So, rather than driving the C10, we opted for towing it behind my daily driver pickup. That feels like a cop-out, but I didn't want to take the chance of breaking down along the interstate in the middle of the night.

My goal is to have the truck sorted well enough to drive it to next year's show. That means that I need to get cracking on the power disc brakes and the overdrive transmission.

It was fun weekend. Now it's time to get back to work on that truck!

[JohnIL]

The Expanded-Use Antique license plates on the C10 "wake up" on March 1. So, over the weekend, I roused the truck from winter hibernation. I connected the battery, pumped the gas three times, hit the key, and the old small block jumped back to life. It was definitely good to hear. I warmed up the engine, took a quick spin around the block, and pulled back in the driveway.

There's still salt on the roads, so that's about it, until we get some spring rains to wash away a winter's worth of sodium chloride. There's rain in the forecast this week. So, soon...

I have a mountain of parts for the truck, but I don't know how much I'll have time for this spring and summer. Over the winter, I had carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists. Once that started to heal up, I dug into a kitchen remodel that I promised my wife over 20 years ago (Better late than never?). I hope to have that wrapped up before the Easter family gathering. Then, it's C10 time, right? Not so fast.

This is my son's last summer at home before he goes off to school and we have a lot of work that needs to be done to his car before it's ready to travel (and sit in a parking lot for nine months). We need to focus on finishing the bodywork on his 1983 El Camino and getting it all one color, even if that color is primer gray. We also need to install the snazzy new cruise control unit he got for Christmas.

Just because you can't have too many trucks sitting in the driveway, I picked up a GMC OBS utility truck a couple of months ago. It needs some mechanical work, so it can start earning it's keep. I don't think I'll bother posting much about the OBS on the forum, but you never know.

And, because that's still not enough trucks sitting in the driveway, my son (yes, the same son) is working on buying a square body Chevy. He says he wants a pickup to drive to school so he can keep the El Camino safe at home. He's paying for the pickup with his summer job earnings and he wants to try to fix this one up himself (with a little bit of help from Dad, of course). It's hard to argue with a teenager who is actually taking personal responsibility for his own ride. Assuming he gets a truck purchased, this one will definitely end up with a build thread on the forum. And, if a square body does materialize this spring, it will very likely jump in line ahead of the El Camino.

With all of that said, here's what I have stockpiled for the '65 C10:

• Power Brake kit
• Front Disk Brakes
• Front suspension bushings, tie rods, etc.
• Power Steering kit
• New Steering column
• LED Headlights
• Hidden tailgate latches and support cables

That's a lot of work and there's no way it's all getting done this summer. There are too many other competing priorities. For now, I'm going to install the Holley RetroBright LED headlights and the tailgate hardware. That may be it for this year, but these minor improvements will add a lot of safety, functionality, and convenience. I'll do short write-ups when I do these installs. The more time consuming work may have to wait until the boy is off to college.

Anyway, I'm glad that spring has arrived. It's finally classic truck season again!

[SCOTI]

That's a pile-o-work on the docket! Despite that, there's a bunch that should occupy too much time/effort to knock out so hopefully things go smoothly.

Kudo's to the young-gun for his direction as well....

[JohnIL]

We have a new addition to the family truck fleet. My son scored a 1977 C10 long bed over the weekend. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's a good starting point and it was in his price range. Now, he's impatiently waiting for his bank account to recover so he can start buying parts. Once he does, I'm sure there will be a build thread shortly after.

It came with a newer drive train, theoretically from a late '80's van. It appears to be a Vortec 350 and a 700r4. We'll run the block numbers soon to verify the specifics. It has been converted from TBI to a carb. It carries 50 lbs of oil pressure and it sounds good.

His plans include getting fixing the mechanicals, preserving the body, and pick away at the past sins, as funding allows. It has lots of good (not too far gone) patina and he plans to keep it that way. He even likes the mismatched yellow hood. With any luck, this will become his daily driver when he wanders off to college this fall.

Oh, and the red wheels are DEFINETLY getting repainted. He plans to go back to the stock white color. The original hubcaps needs some polish, but they're all in pretty good shape.

[SCOTI]

Nice!

[Braunschweiger]

A nice truck, he'll have a lot of fun with it.

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Nice!

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

A nice truck, he'll have a lot of fun with it.

Thanks gentlemen. He's pretty excited to get started. He just needs his summer job to pick back up so he can make a little cash. In the meantime, he has plenty of free clean up work he can do.

[rbruno68]

That is a good score.
Rob

[JohnIL]

Now that spring has finally arrived in Central Illinois, it's time to get back out to the garage. The good news is, I have plenty of fun projects to work on. The bad news is, not all of those projects are on my '65 C10.

As I posted recently, a few weeks ago, my son picked up a C10 of his own (a '77 Silverado). We've spent most of our garage time getting it back on the road. There's still quite a bit of work to do, but it's getting closer to roadworthy.

While my son was working this weekend, I took a break from his truck to spend some quality time with my own. I checked a couple of modernization/practicality upgrades off my list.

Tailgate Chain Delete
I like the "old truck aesthetic" of the tailgate chains, but I open and close the tailgate enough to make the chains a pain in the rear. And, the chains don't support the tailgate level with the bed. They sag and the tailgate hangs at an odd downward angle.

So, over the winter, I went in search of a tailgate cable and latch conversion. I wasn't really excited by the ones available on the market. They're expensive and overly complicated. So, I set out to build my own.

I started with a set of tailgate cables for a '07-'16 Silverado. They're cheap and readily available.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGRDN4DP...lig_dp_it&th=1

Next, I found a set of stainless steel spring-loaded latches. Again, cheap and readily available.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B41XJ77B...lig_dp_it&th=1

The rest was simple fabrication work.

• I welded a flange nut (inserted backwards) into the corner stake pocket. This acts as a bung to hold the upper end of the support cable. The cables come with shoulder bolts for this end of the cable.
• Next, I cut and shaped a length of 1 1/4" angle steel into a bracket that acts both as an anchor point for the lower end of the cable and as a mounting point for the latch. I mounted the bracket to the tailgate using a pair of rivnuts (one at the top of the tailgate, one at the bottom. You have to avoid the middle of the tailgate because a hole here would be visible from the outside. The latch is mounted to the bracket using a pair of 8-32 stainless machine screws threaded into holes tapped in the bracket.
• Then, I mounted the latch striker plates to the corner stake pockets, above the cable mounting bolt. I had to fab a couple of 1/4" thick steel spacers to give the striker plates the necessary clearance for the latches. The striker and spacers are mounted using more stainless 8-32 machine bolts into holes tapped in the stake pocket.
• I repeated the whole operation on the other side of the truck
• I sprayed the brackets and spacers flat black to match the truck and set them aside over night.
• The next morning, I assembled the whole works.
• Finally, I cleaned up the installation by removing the tailgate chains, bolts, and brackets, and touching up the rusty holes with some more flat black.
• Someday, when I redo the body work, I'll weld in patches to smoot out the empty bolt and bracket holes.

LED Headlights
Last summer, I installed a set of high intensity headlight bulbs. They were better than the original T3's, but they were still a far cry from the LED headlights we're used to on our daily drivers. I didn't feel safe driving the '65 at night with all of the modern vehicles (and their glaring headlights) on the road. So, I stepped up and bought a pair of Holley RetroBright headlights. They're pricey, but if you plan to drive your classic truck at night, they are totally worth it. Safety is a good place focus your project budget.

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Holle...SAAEgJCL_D_BwE

The installation was fairly simple. Just pull out the old bulbs and pop in the new ones. The pigtails on the RetroBrights plug right into the factory headlight harness, or in my case, the upgraded headlight harness I installed last summer. I had to correct the headlight aim a bit, but that's to be expected whenever you remove and replace the bulbs.

I'll also note how good the RetroBright's look. Most LED bulbs look much too modern for a classic vehicle. Holley did a very good job making the RetroBright lenses look like vintage bulbs. They look right at home on a '60's pickup. You can see a comparison shot below between the RetroBright (driver side) and the high-intensity incandescent (passenger side). The RetroBright is a lot "whiter" than vintage, but the lens pattern mimics the old T3's much better. When they're turned off, you have to look closely for the "Holley" logo to know they're not vintage bulbs.

Last night, after sundown, I went for a drive to try out the new lighting. The results are impressive. The RetroBrights are significantly brighter than the old high-intensity bulbs and they do a much better job of throwing light sideways toward the ditches. This is a huge safety advantage, especially when the critters are twitterpated and frolicking near the roadways. The low beams don't seem quite as bright as those on my '21 GMC, but the high beams throw light WAY out ahead of the truck. This upgrade makes a huge improvement in terms of safety and practicality.

[SCOTI]

Nicely done x2.

[JohnIL]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Nicely done x2.

Thanks Scoti! I don't know if I'll get the chance to do any of the major upgrades this season (power brakes and power steering), but these little projects will make the truck a whole lot more usable in the meantime.

John

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by JohnIL

Thanks Scoti! I don't know if I'll get the chance to do any of the major upgrades this season (power brakes and power steering), but these little projects will make the truck a whole lot more usable in the meantime.

John

Time w/the young-gun & his project is a worthy reason. They're only this young once & we're never guaranteed a tomorrow.

Help them all you can while you can is my core belief.