'64 C-10 Stalled Project Rescue

[Arne]

Yeah, things like that happen on this kind of project. You just have to roll with it.

I'm waiting on warm weather too, so I can apply apply some finish to new bed wood. It's been a significantly colder than average winter here, and I'm not sure spring is forecast to be all that great either. The garage isn't warm enough for the poly to cure.

I'm cleaning up some of the wiring under the hood now, and will yank out the gauge cluster for a refresh later this week.

[Arne]

The next task has begun...

[Braunschweiger]

I'm curious

[Arne]

[Arne]

[Arne]

[Arne]

Power booster and matching master cylinder are now in transit. Expected on Saturday via FedEx Ground. A couple other bits and pieces incoming soon as well.

Really pleased with how the refreshed gauge cluster improved the dash and interior. Compare these:

[Braunschweiger]

They did a great job,
another detail that keeps making the truck better.

[rbruno68]

Gauges look great. Besides painting the bezel and the black facing, did you just use elbow grease to clean the plexiglass and the gauges? If so, did you use anything in particular to clean them? This project is in my future too.
Rob

[Arne]

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

They did a great job,
another detail that keeps making the truck better.

In this case, "they" is me. Thanks for the compliment!

Originally Posted by rbruno68

Gauges look great. Besides painting the bezel and the black facing, did you just use elbow grease to clean the plexiglass and the gauges? If so, did you use anything in particular to clean them? This project is in my future too.
Rob

Everything you need to know about restoring your cluster can be found here - https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=559922

Not all clusters will need the entire process, depending on how "new" and "original" you want to make it. In my case, the bezel and black insert were stripped and repainted, the needles were repainted with red-orange florescent paint, gauge faces gently cleaned, red and green warning light inserts were replaced, and finally assembled with a brand new face lens with unfaded numbers and such. My lens was dull, scratched, and the pale green markings faded. The new lens was $45, well worth the cost for best looks.

[88Stanger]

Arne, awesome job sir!! love the look!! Congrats my friend.

[rbruno68]

Great. Thanks for the link.

[Arne]

The remaining tasks on this truck project are starting to look like a final punch list.

• Power brake upgrade should be complete early next week.
• Radio and speakers will be installed within 2 weeks.
• Bed wood - planning to build my own, and I should be starting that in a couple of weeks.
• HVAC - I'm finalizing the custom parts list now, will probably order it all sometime next month.
• May have a small oil leak at the rear of the engine, probably the RMS. <groan!>

That is pretty much it, unless I decide to add a pair of B-pillar trim panels to dress up the outside a bit. It's not an original Custom Cab truck, but it is "custom"...

[Arne]

Power booster, master cylinder and prop valve arrived yesterday. Took the brake pedal out, both to drill the new pushrod hole and to lube the bushings in hopes of quieting a squeak on each push of the pedal. Had the pedal in and out twice before I figured out the squeak is from the brake light switch. Work on this will continue tomorrow some time.

Also got another piece of the puzzle today, a new radio. It's not what I would have preferred to see in there, but since someone in the past felt the need to cut a DIN opening in the dash, and apparently neither the prior owner nor his body/paint man knew about dash repair panels (or maybe liked it that way?) they painted the dash as-is with the big rectangular hole. Here's a shot from shortly after I bought the truck.



So I had to work with what I had, mostly just to fill the hole. I bought the least glitzy-looking DIN mount head unit I could find. This one cost a whopping $18 from Amazon, and is only about 3" deep so it doesn't need any supports on the backside. Does FM, streams Bluetooth, accepts both USB sticks and SD cards, even does hands-free phones. No clue as of yet as to how well it does any of these things. Time will tell.

And it doesn't look half bad in there. The SD card slot actually looks kinda like a bowtie. Still need to do the final connections, but that won't take long.

[Arne]

Radio wiring is complete. That $18 unit is actually not bad, all things considered. It sounds OK, playing through the generic pair of 3½" co-axial mounted to a plate in the stock center dash spot. Never gonna win a car stereo shoot-out, but just to have tunes and hands-free for a phone it works adequately.

The brake and clutch pedals are back in place—cleaned, lubed and re-drilled for the power booster. I'll start removing the current master cylinder tomorrow.

[Arne]

Progress...

[Arne]

Power brake conversion is 90% done. The booster is installed, pedal connected, master cylinder is bench bled. Plumbing the lines is all mocked up. I need to get a port plug for the prop valve before I can complete it all and start bleeding. First couple of parts houses I checked yesterday did not have it. Hoping to find one locally tomorrow so I can wrap this up. Seems silly to have to order something that simple and small off the internet.

Edit - Yesterday I asked at my local O'Reilly's for the brake plug and an adapter that would clean up the connections, and the counter kid said they didn't have anything like that. Today I did a little online searching, and found that both parts I want are said to be in stock at that very same O'Reilly's. So I ordered them online and will pick them up tomorrow.

[Arne]

Picked up the plug and line adapter this morning, and installed them. Did a little gravity bleed through the prop valve. Started the engine to check for vacuum leak at the manifold fitting (nada). Pedal has a fair bit of travel for now, since I won't be able to bleed the system until my bleeding partner (long-suffering wife) is available. But I'm quite sure the power brake addition is basically done.

[Alloyvert]

Arne, did you upgrade all the under dash wiring including both the full dash harness and cluster harness? Asking because I have a new AAW dash harness that I test fitted with the stock cluster harness and the 2 instrument cluster connectors on the main harness appear to be the wrong size (too small) and will not plug into the stock cluster harness connectors. I did a couple google searches and found others having the same issue. Probably not an issue if all the harnesses are replaced, so curious if this came into play for your truck.

Thanks!

[Arne]

I used the AAW dash harness, but the original cluster harness. The connector fit was VERY tight. I got them connected, but it was very hard to do, and who knows how hard it will be to get them back apart in the future.

[Arne]

Brakes are bled, the test drive went well. The first couple of stops locked the rears way early, but a few normal stops to get the prop valve centered took care of that. I no longer have to stand on the pedal to stop when going down hill. The power brake upgrade was successful.

Another step closer to completion.

[Arne]

The truck is slowly becoming a darn nice looking and driving truck. I get compliments on it every single time I drive it. Really pleased with how it is turning out.

[Arne]

I've ordered a custom A/C package to suit my truck today. About 3 week lead time, plus transit, so probably around the middle of next month.

While I wait for that, I'm shopping for wood for the bed. Planning to buy local and mill it myself.

[Arne]

Added a small, red warning light for brake failure to the cluster where the choke knob was long ago. It works as you would expect, being off unless the prop valve detects a pressure problem in one of the two brake circuits. Just like the Hot temp light, it also illuminates while the starter is cranking as a test that the bulb is good.

[Alloyvert]

Originally Posted by Arne

I used the AAW dash harness, but the original cluster harness. The connector fit was VERY tight. I got them connected, but it was very hard to do, and who knows how hard it will be to get them back apart in the future.

Thanks for confirming.