Uber Cool's 1963 C10 LWB Fleetside in England

[uber cool]

Yes miniature helpers do have their uses.

[uber cool]

tonight's update
Stripped and re greased front bearings, all looked good no water ingress or flat spotting on the bearing, in fact grease was nice and clean.



front wing removed and going to use a combination of the existing wing and the donor one off martin

[uber cool]

Busy weekend. Ordered a new 2 piece propshaft on Thursday from local propshaft manufacturer, gave them a drawing and picked it up 24 hours later.



Now lets hope the measurements are correct............. phew! its fitted well, just need to remove the centre bearing carrier and redrill to suit. first need to removed the rivets.


bearing carrier redrill and refitted with 3/8" bolts

Nice to have something completely new that I know will now give years of fault free running.


Next onto the front suspension, after many many hours of scrapping and cleaning I could finally see all the front suspension. All in good condition, only the pitman arm to replace. Cleaned all the grease nipples on the front suspension and pumped full of new grease, always satisfying to see/hear the clean grease going into the bearings that have probably been dry for decades.

Then 2 coats of satin black on all the steering and suspension parts.




Certainly looks 100% better than before!


Next up I mocked up the front air bag. Top brackets will be a 6mm steel plate bolted across the crossmember upper spring pocket. Not finalised the bottom setup yet. But thinking of making up some sort of alloy spacer to go between bag and bottom of spring pocket. This way the arms have not been altered and hence could easily be converted back to springs in the future



rear bumper looks better in an off white colour

Good weather this weekend so also got my 59 Apache out to collect the propshaft and run some other parts collection trips


All in all a good weekend.
More on the front air bags during the week

[Ta2Don]

Rockin' right along...

[uber cool]

No photos for tonight, but a bit more done. Parts arrived today from Rockauto, yippee!

So front brake flexes fitted, new pitman arm fitted. More of the front air bags mocked up.

More packages arrived with exhaust parts so will be running with twin back boxes exiting either side at the rear with 3" stainless tail pipes.

Also ebay purchase of an ashtray arrived from USA, so no more ugly gaps in the dashboard. Not bad considering it was outside and pouring down!


I've actually sold the truck to a mate for what I had in it. As I have 2 other projects also needing funds, a 59 Apache and a 66 Galaxie 500. So he is paying for the remainder of the parts to get road legal. It's his first american truck and first fun ( 2nd) car for many years so he's really excited to get it on the road and will carry on the build thread once we have it road registered, he also has some great plans for it, which I'll let him explain once its in his hands. he is ona post a few pages back as Ratz.

We have a target of getting it to the next local hot rod meet on 7th August, which includes the need to register it! A stretching target, but I think we'll get there. Also I wont be leaving this forum, I've made some good friend here and like it, so will just be slipping into the 47 to 59 message board with my Apache, I'm sure you'll still talk to me???
Target for end of this week (sunday) is stopping and driving under it's own power.

[Grizz1963]

Good news for you Andy.

I hope Ratz takes over the build thread and continues to update as he goes along.

[ibrown50]

47 - 59! ......I'm sure we'll still talk to you and as Ratz has bought your truck we'll have another member on here from Blighty

[Palf70Step]

[uber cool]

well spent most of the day faffing about with the exhaust, try to get it to clear the axle when raised or lowered. Wish I'd thought about lifting the wood bed up sooner, that certainly made it easier.





As it's now going twin rear silencers had to cut and shut the Y piece and various angled elbows to the 2 rear silencers, what a pig of a job, must have cut and trimmed the tube 20 times, each times with a trial fit. But think I have it sussed now and will assembly tomorrow.

Oh and i think the bed wood will come up nice with a bit of sanding and vanish :-)

[mjh1965]

It's a shame you have sold it . But as the others have said if Ratz is taking over the build thread that's great . I like you have made some good friends on this forum . If you do start a build thread for your 59 post the link on here before Ratz takes over . Good luck with the other builds .

[uber cool]

found a use for some of the rotten bed wood that keeps falling out on my head when I'm underneath it :-)


Mark came round this weekend to do some more work with me on the truck, he prep'd one of the rear side and then painted.




I finished off the exhaust system, sounds real nice and a deep rumble.



Also made new front brake lines and got all gears forward and reverse whilst on axle stands

[mjh1965]

Looking good Andy
Are you still going to do the paint work patina ?
The rear exhaust looks good it'll be a shame to see the truck go but I guess with the two other projects on the go I can see why .

[uber cool]

Yep patina to follow

[ibrown50]

Andy the truck is really taking shape, aren't you regretting selling it?........... I am and it's not even my truck

[uber cool]

No, because I'll still get to see it at hot rod shows as he doesn't live far away. It will be like my mistress!

I still have theses to play with




But back to the C10,

Ran the compression check today 150 PSI on 5 cylinders and 144 PSI on the last, pleased with that. Also found the inlet manifold not seated correctly, which explains the rough running. Tomorrow going to strip and rebuild the carb as I think the needle valve is stuck open as it's dumping neat fuel in the inlet manifold, it was like a lake of fuel!

[Ratz]

Hey boys,
As Andy has said i don't live all that far away from him, and believe me i will be round his more often than he thinks lol.
But on a more serious note i will be keeping up the thread and cannot wait to have it on the road and just maybe meet up with you all, as you have been so kind to Andy and the truck.
Over with Andy tonight and working on the rubbing down and paint finish
Intentions for next year is to drive it down to Le Manns

[mjh1965]

Originally Posted by Ratz

Hey boys,
As Andy has said i don't live all that far away from him, and believe me i will be round his more often than he thinks lol.
But on a more serious note i will be keeping up the thread and cannot wait to have it on the road and just maybe meet up with you all, as you have been so kind to Andy and the truck.
Over with Andy tonight and working on the rubbing down and paint finish
Intentions for next year is to drive it down to Le Manns

Ratz if you intend to drive to Le Manns in the truck ,you are more than welcome so stop and take a break at mine in Kent . I guess Andy will be with you as he stopped at mine this year on his way home , from Le Manns

As for being around his house more often than he thinks . Rian and myself are always at each other's doing something to do with the truck . So much so that a little while ago Nicola Rian's wife said do you want a key

[uber cool]

Other side painted

[flashed]

Looking better all the time .

[uber cool]

Thanks, nice comments always appreciated

[uber cool]

more parts ordered from USA :-) But now the 2 week wait :-(

still plenty to do ........................if it ever stops RAINING !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[uber cool]

Aha, but I've realised one thing you can do really well whilst it's raining heavy!
Colour sand the read bed..................and yes, my neighbours now know i'm bonkers

[uber cool]

Mark came round tonight with his new 16" smoothies, so we gave one a quick rattle can paint job and swapped the tyre just to get the look. He's also going to order some chrome hub caps too.





meanwhile at the front of the truck the manifold is back on and not leaking

[Ta2Don]

Keep em guessing

[uber cool]

having fitted and removed the exhaust manifold 3 times and tried different new gaskets I couldn't get it to seat properly, having a 0.6mm gap between manifold and gasket on the Siamese'd exhaust ports.


a light misting of matt black spray paint and a flat sanding block revealed the problem. Times like this you wish you owned a milling machine. Alas I dont, some many hours later of flat sanding and filling they are nearly good to put back on.

Enlisted the help of the wife and eldest daughter to paint strip the hood, think they did a better job than the boys at the weekend.