Winter Beater Build 2.0- '66 Short/Fleet BBW

[bigmoe]

Wow what great luck to finally acquire this truck after trying for so long. I'll follow your progress.
I'm curious about the mod to the A arm shaft to move the arm ahead 3/4". I've not seen this done before. Can you expand on your rationale for doing it?

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by bigmoe

Wow what great luck to finally acquire this truck after trying for so long. I'll follow your progress.
I'm curious about the mod to the A arm shaft to move the arm ahead 3/4". I've not seen this done before. Can you expand on your rationale for doing it?

Moving the lower arms forward adds Caster so the truck has a modern caster value that works better w/modern tire technology:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ght=caster+mod

[theastronaut]

I got the passenger side loosely stuck together last night. Tried to check wheel fit but since the barrel is reversed the inner step isn't deep enough now and the drop center hits the caliper, holding the wheel off the hub by about 1.5". I'll probably just use stock wheels with 1.5" bolt on spacers for now until I can find or build 7" front wheels with a skinny drop center so they have caliper clearance and a wider outer lip.

[SCOTI]

I wondered if/how it would work.

Are you going to cut up some 8" steel truck ralleys for the barrels or go aftermarket for them?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

I wondered if/how it would work.

Are you going to cut up some 8" steel truck ralleys for the barrels or go aftermarket for them?

I think I can take the two rims I have, cut them in half, and weld the two halves that have the deeper lips together to make a rim with a skinny drop center.

Factory rally barrels have a wide drop center so they wouldn't have the wide outer lip that I want. I could flip these barrels and make them work but then the outside lip would have the drop center step closer to the outside edge which I don't like.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I think I can take the two rims I have, cut them in half, and weld the two halves that have the deeper lips together to make a rim with a skinny drop center.

Factory rally barrels have a wide drop center so they wouldn't have the wide outer lip that I want. I could flip these barrels and make them work but then the outside lip would have the drop center step closer to the outside edge which I don't like.

Great idea!

[theastronaut]

Since the front wheels didn't work out I found a pair of 1.5" spacers on sale to use with the stock front wheels. They were hubcentric for a Toyota so I chucked them in the lathe and trimmed off the snout to clear the stock wheels' smaller hub bore.




In the rear I relocated the shocks using Frizzle Fry's method and added CPP 1.5" drop blocks. Had to clearance an edge of the rear washer since the new U-bolt hole is closer to the folded edge. I'll drill and mount the upper shock studs once I settle on the rear ride height.









I had bags and cups leftover from the rear of Goldilocks (the No Limit three link kit replaced the original bag setup I bought) so I bought fittings and mocked them up to see how much room the fittings took up. I still need to cut the cups down by 1/2" and run air lines back to schrader valves. I'll post more pics of the cups/fittings once I pull them back out.




The heater box was pulled to clean out the internals and replace the heater core and fan motor, along with removing the under dash diverter box to clean it.




Almost everything is buttoned up under the hood- all new tune up parts, all new cooling system, new alternator, cables, and a newer battery that came with the truck. I still need to figure out and build linkage to adapt the stock throttle pivot to the new carb, change the oil/filter, and replace the valve and pushrod cover gaskets before its ready to start up for the first time.




With the suspension mostly done I had to drop it down to see how it would sit. There are still a ton of small details to button up but I'm pretty happy to make this much progress this quickly. My goal for this week is to get the brakes bled, engine fired up, paint scanned/mixed for the wheels, wheels blasted/primed/painted, all lights working, and the seat and floor mat put back in. If that goes well I'll get a set of new tires mounted and an alignment done early next week so I can start putting miles on it.

[aggie91]

Very Nice as always!

[Paul Y]

And here is me taking an entire weekend to instal a gearbox....

Fantastic work Sir!

P.

[theastronaut]

Thanks guys!! I got it started and running but the carb needs dialing in. I fixed the leak between the throttle body and main body after this vid. Its still running lean, I think the needle is either too large on the thicker/upper idle section and restricting fuel flow too much, or the needle height is too low. I have an extra needle I can machine smaller if needed. The wheels are blasted, I'll shoot epoxy and paint tonight, and the tires should be here today. The brakes are bled, just need to finish the rear bag mounts and drill the frame for the upper shock studs to have it buttoned up underneath.

?66 C10 Start/Run - YouTube

[theastronaut]

One of the old 8" reversed wheels I had ended up being pitted too badly to use so I used the center and rim I had mocked up on the front to replace it. I had blasted both pieces which left a bit of a rough surface. When I tried to press the center back in it locked down and wouldn't budge, the metal had galled and was making deep tears in the surface. Had to press it out and grind those spots down, then smooth the surface with 100 grit on a grinder, then oil both parts to get the center to go in smoothly.






Checking runout after pressing the center in. I matched the backspacing of the other old 8" wheel, 3 7/16". I was able to get it straight to within .020".




Welded in.






The truck was running super lean so I chucked the metering rod in the lathe and thinned down the idle/low speed step from .083" to 075" and filed the correct length taper in the transition area. It runs a little better, but still not great. I'll try raising the needle height about .010" at a time tomorrow to see if that fixes it.








My sister and brother in law came over to help out, she worked on cleaning up the hub caps and he clearanced the trailing arms for the relocated shocks, filled the diff, and trimmed the rear bump stops.

[theastronaut]

Had to go back into the carb and redo the throttle shaft bore, it was worn about .010" too large and was pulling enough air in that it wouldn't run rich enough to not misfire. Luckily I had ordered the correct reamer and bushings for another project and had enough leftover for this one.








I went through three accelerator pump seals before finding one that wasn't too big or too small. The one that came in the carb was too big and would stick to the bore and not pump for the first 1/4th of throttle opening so there was a bad hesitation. The second was too small and didn't seal up in the bore.




I ran it through a few heat cycles, flushing the cooling system with clean water each time.




The rear shocks mounts are finished. Picked up new tires yesterday. I'll mount the bags and run air lines tomorrow, plus prime/paint the wheels and mount the tires if the paint is dry enough. Back in January I went in with a few friends and bought a Hunter TCX51 tire machine, so I can mount them myself late tomorrow to give the paint more time to dry.

Quick vid of it running now that its dialed in better.

1966 C10 250 Inline 6 - YouTube

[Braunschweiger]

Fantastic, great solutions and implementation, great.

[theastronaut]

I got it together enough to attempt a trip to the gas station late last night. It made it there and back no problem. I stopped at a car wash on the way back and knocked most of the crud off and scrubbed the blue coating off the whitewalls. This morning I drove it to church and lunch, and down to my grandparent's house, almost 20 miles total. Only issue so far was the lower alternator bolt backed out, someone forgot to put a nut on it. Still a ton of things to cross off the to-do list but its driveable now!

[Paul Y]

That really does look rather nice.

P.

[plainred65]

I like everything about it John!

[SCOTI]

Nice!

[Braunschweiger]

A beauty

[LEEVON]

Love it! There is something about clean new suspension and brakes that just makes you feel good. If you have some dish washer powder throw a cup in the radiator and run it for a week or two, it'll clean her out without being corrosive on the water pump and radiator.

[theastronaut]

Thanks dudes! I did use Prestone rad flush when I first had it together and running, that pic is what was flushed out. Since the block never fully drains it took a few flushes before it came out clear. It's stayed clear since then.

I've put a little over 100 miles on it so far. Just like the winter beater '66 it's having charging issues, I had to jump start it the last couple of days. I think the other one was the plug on the alternator, I haven't looked into this one yet other than checking voltage at the battery and alternator post- it's at 11.xx on both . I got a few more parts in this week- battery hold down, pedal pads, door bumpers, tailgate chain covers, and a dome light. It's only getting 9-10 mpg and feels pretty sluggish compared to the '69 I had that had a 250. I'll steal the wideband off my Festiva and start dialing in the carb. It also still has a slight misfire at idle on cylinder #4 until it warms up so I'm going to pull the intake and use a Remflex gasket to make sure there's no vacuum leaks. The rear is too low without a C-notch, not sure what I'll do since I really don't want to cut the frame but it also looks good this low. I can trim the bump stops another 3/4"-1", I'll try that first.



"I'll go to LKQ and get Jeep wipers" hasn't happened yet, so this was fun.






Made even worse by this... it was spraying all the way up to my knee





I got the toe-in down from 7/8 to 1/16".





We're selling my Granddad's house so we started cleaning out his workshop last weekend. I've seen an old Ford F1 ad that touted that they had the lowest bed floor height for easier loading, we've definitely strayed from that as a selling point on new trucks. Having the truck lowered definitely made it easy to roll the hand trucks straight into the bed. Papa had a few of these trucks; I found a full set of stock wheels, a three speed trans, a few pieces of side trim, and deluxe heater controls.

[theastronaut]

I got around to checking the timing with a light, it was low so that mostly took care of the sluggishness. The idle misfire was worse though. I found the tiniest of vacuum leaks at the intake gasket so I ordered a Remflex to fix it. In the meantime I figured out that the distributor shaft bushing was worn, allowing the points gap to vary quite a bit so I hoped that would solve the misfire, but swapping in a better used distributor barely helped.

I ordered a new small cap HEI distributor, I wanted to be able to tune the advance curve but it wouldn't drop in all the way when I tried to install it. I noticed metal shavings on the cam gear, and matching scars on the distributor body. The stock distributor has a chamfer machined into the body to clear the cam gear, the new one didn't so I sent it back. I'll get a stock 70's HEI to replace it.










I took the manifold off last weekend to swap gaskets and found the source of the misfire... conditions in the head aren't the best for valve sealing. It has all the symtoms of burnt valves- misfire, lack of power, bad fuel mileage without the burnt part. I'm guessing the neighbor that took the truck to get it running must've left the intake open while he had it. There is no smoke or blowby so I'm optimistic that the cylinders and rings are ok. I've pulled a spare head out of storage to take to the machine shop to be skimmed and rebuilt with bigger valves and better springs, and I'll do some porting and add a lump port kit to help flow while its apart. He has a cam grinder so I'll take my extra cam and see what he can do with it.








The misfire isn't bad enough to not drive it, so it's up to about 500 miles on it now. The brakes seem to be holding a slight amount of pressure once they get some heat into them, and I've made sure the pushrod from the pedal isn't adjusted too far out so I have some investigating to do there. I'm guessing it's something inside the M/C, which I need to swap to a dual unit anyway.

[The Rocknrod]

Wow, I'm impressed. Great work.

[theastronaut]

It rolled over to 150k on Mother's Day.




I wasn't sure what to do with the bed when I first got the truck, it doesn't really match the condition of the rest of the truck. The inside looked extremely rough from sitting outside for the last ~8 years with the drains plugged, and it looks like they didn't shoot clear over the inside of the bed when it was last repainted so it was super faded. I've thought about swapping on a new bed, but that would be later down the road. I had some free time yesterday so I wanted to knock the worst of the ugly off until then.
I scrubbed the sides with steel wool and CLR, then coated them with Penetrol. The floor needed a lot more scrubbing with a stiff wire brush to get the loose rust off, then I rolled it with old leftover tractor enamel I had laying around. The paint was still wet in these pics, I used matte black paint so it dried duller.












Did a quick clean up on the interior.






I found a $250 boat with a supposedly good Mercruiser 165 on Marketplace. It's the same engine as the 250 but with a better cam, finned aluminum valve cover, and different intake/exhaust manifold. This should let me get the current head swapped out sooner than waiting on the machine shop.

[theastronaut]

The boat turned out to be a typical boat... problematic. The owner said that the "tires are good, we just moved it from 2.5 hours away". One tire was flat when we arrived, they pumped it up and it had a audible leak. We limped it to the nearest gas station to grab a can of fix a flat, then to a parts store to pick up a tire plug kit. Made home, then found rust in the ports when I pulled the intake. There is orange paint under the black paint on the block so it looks like a truck block was swapped in at some point; I doubt it has the hotter Mercruiser cam. At least the valve seats aren't pitted, they actually cleaned up pretty well. I'll drop it off at my machinist since it's not usable as-is.










After getting it home I noticed that it had a 90* sweep 5k tach, and factory six cylinder tachs are super rare so I was hoping I could graft it onto a block off plate and use a decal to make it look like an original tach. After getting it out and doing some research I found out that it's a generator driven tach and uses the signal from the boat's alternator. The boat had a bigger pulley than the truck so the calibration would be off, and I didn't want to swap pullies and have less charging at low rpm. So another disappointment out of the boat.








I tracked down the source of the brakes dragging- the stock drum brake master cylinder has a built in residual pressure valve that is meant to keep pressure on the wheel cylinder cup seals so they don't suck in air when the brakes are released. I wanted to replace it with a dual circuit m/c anyway, so I've been researching the best way to upgrade. A disc/drum system needs a hold off valve for the front circuit so the discs don't activate before they system builds enough pressure to overcome the drum's shoe return springs. The rear brakes don't need to lock up before the front so a proportioning valve is used to limit rear brake line pressure. GM used a combination valve with both built in, and I had a new one leftover from another project but the proportioning valve isn't adjustable. I want to be able to adjust the rear to get the most out of them without lockup, which will change with different tires and different brake pad/shoe compounds when they're eventually replaced.


I pulled the combo valve apart to see what was inside. The hold off valve simply unscrews. In the middle is a shuttle valve that activates a warning light switch in case one of the circuits fails. I deleted that. The proportioning valve in the rear was more complicated to delete, if you gut it there's a weep hole that is exposed and would need to be blocked.








The theads for the prop valve were an oddball 3/4-20 and I couldn't find a readily available adapter or plug, so I machined my own to accept a 1/8 npt to 3/4-24 inverted flare adapter. I'll use an external Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve to set the rear bias, and a 10 psi residual valve for the rear wheel cylinders. Those parts and a new master cylinder will be here later this week.









When I had my last blue '66 dad found a red '66 about a mile from their house and bought it. We went through it and got it back on the road, but he ended up selling it around the same time I sold mine so we've both been truck-less for a few years. He knew his neighbor had a blue '64 that had been in the family since '68 and had asked about it over the years, and finally got the call that they were ready to sell it last week.








His new '64. Its had a 350/350 swapped in, 5 lug swap, power steering and brakes, old Sears underdash A/C installed, has a newer bed floor, and it's fairly straight and solid. He's wanting to drop it and go with wheels/original caps like mine so we've been rounding up parts to start wrenching on it.

[SpudWrench]

Why not throw a small block v8 instead of going through the trouble of boat motors. The sbcs are a dime a dozen and getting cheap again now that everyone is LS swapping the world 😂