Old Girl (aka Project Underhaulin)

[C10_ustacould]

Y'all may know this truck as Project Underhaulin'. Clyde and Dawn called their truck "Old Girl", while there isn't much left of the original truck we have decided to honor the name going forward. A couple of months ago my family decided to purchase the truck knowing there were bits that need finishing. I've decided to create a new project thread to document the process of getting her road worthy and finishing up the odds and ends. If all goes as planned my son Connor (C10_Punk on Instagram and here on the board) will be driving her in the coming months. We look forward to getting her on the road and relish the idea or telling her story, a story of good people coming together to help others. Follow along if you like, we look forward to sharing more of her journey with you.

Russ and his crew finishing up a few things prior to loading up for the trip to Florida.


Loaded up and headed south.


Old Girl getting familiar with her knew home.


Her interior...


Up on the blocks for our first project, new springs and drop spindles from Early Classic Enterprises.

[C10_ustacould]

While we had the springs out I snapped a pick with it "laid out".

[CG]

Are you keeping the wheel tire combo? And with the new spindles and springs are you looking to get it even lower than it is now?

[flashed]

I will watch for more .

[C10_ustacould]

Originally Posted by CG

Are you keeping the wheel tire combo? And with the new spindles and springs are you looking to get it even lower than it is now?

We are keeping it for now, but I think there's a 20" wheel in the future. When we got the truck the front was lowered by cutting a coil (or more) off a set of CPP 2" lowering springs and the rear had -5" CPP springs. The scary thing was the front springs were so short we took them out without disconnecting the spindle or even the shock! Dangerous!! We bought a set of 2.5" drop spindles, -1.5" front springs, and -6" rear springs. So far it looks like the front is about the same height (but level) and the rear is about 1/2" lower. I'm fine if it stays right there, but I'm sure the springs will settle a bit.

Originally Posted by flashed

I will watch for more .

Thanks for following along!

[C10_ustacould]

Got her back on the ground, need to get an alignment and then she'll be ready for some shakedown miles.

Here's a before and after of the 3/5 spring vs 4/6 spindle/spring drop.

Before...



After...

[Low Elco]

Diggin' it!

[special-K]

I never heard of anyone cutting drop springs. Goofy. 3" is the max drop from springs anyway. You got it right now. Nice truck

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice work on it and it's so nice to see the truck went to a board member. Pretty cool your son will be driving it. He has to be ecstatic?

[darkhorse970]

Very nice looking truck.

[nlped]

Gahhhh. Sexiest truck for a 16 yr old. My daughters first ride was a 76 C10 2wd with a static drop. The boys loved her. She didn’t get pregnant, she got a 35 on her ACT and was validictorian...so I blame the truck. HahahA.

[C10_ustacould]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Diggin' it!

Thanks, we like it.

Originally Posted by special-K

I never heard of anyone cutting drop springs. Goofy. 3" is the max drop from springs anyway. You got it right now. Nice truck

Yeah, I was amazed when we let the suspension sag and I just reached in and pulled the springs out. Crazy!

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Very nice work on it and it's so nice to see the truck went to a board member. Pretty cool your son will be driving it. He has to be ecstatic?

He's ready to ride, but we still have some work to do.

Originally Posted by darkhorse970

Very nice looking truck.

Thanks, the guys did a good job.

Originally Posted by nlped

Gahhhh. Sexiest truck for a 16 yr old. My daughters first ride was a 76 C10 2wd with a static drop. The boys loved her. She didn’t get pregnant, she got a 35 on her ACT and was validictorian...so I blame the truck. HahahA.

35? That's a free ride to any state school in Florida!

[hewittca]

The truck turned out great after leaving project underhaulin status, but I scratched my head on the front drop spring choice. Anyway, looks like you took care of it the right way. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on it.

[fatbass]

That is beautiful. Even the whitewalls.
I think a blue seat cover would make it perfect.

[C10_ustacould]

Originally Posted by hewittca

The truck turned out great after leaving project underhaulin status, but I scratched my head on the front drop spring choice. Anyway, looks like you took care of it the right way. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on it.

Thanks for following along, we'll definitely going to try learn more about our trucks and have some fun.

Originally Posted by fatbass

That is beautiful. Even the whitewalls.
I think a blue seat cover would make it perfect.

They tried a blue interior from a '71 that had been donated (by me actually ) and it just didn't work. I'd like to work with n2billet and his upholsterer sometime down the road and get the interior redone. I'd like to incorporate something like a plaid insert into the seat as well as thin out the seat a bit.

[C10_ustacould]

Took it in for an alignment this morning, and got her squared up. A few more odds and ends and we'll be able to put some miles on her.

[C10_ustacould]

Very productive day in the garage with Old Girl. Got a few of the glitches worked out; re-worked the tail light wiring, tuned the carb, adjusted the timing, and got the dash lights and temp gauge working. Took her for a short ride, she's making progress, and she's got 10.1 miles on the clock now. Found a couple more things to go after; there is a loud screech when the steering is turned to the right and the carb has a dead spot off idle. I'm pretty sure the screech is a lack of grease in the front end so that should be an easy fix. The carb may take some trial and error, but I think a swap of springs and metering rods will clear it up. Bottom line, we're having a blast working on the Old Girl and look forward putting some more miles on her.

[LakeAnna]

Great looking truck! Looks like it's in nice condition too.

[nlped]

Originally Posted by C10_ustacould

The carb may take some trial and error, but I think a swap of springs and metering rods will clear it up.

Snyper?

[C10_ustacould]

Originally Posted by LakeAnna

Great looking truck! Looks like it's in nice condition too.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by nlped

Snyper?

Edelbrock 600cfm (1406)

[C10_ustacould]

About time for an update on the Old Girl. We've been working on the steering A LOT, many nights under the front of the truck trying to work out a few issues. First we had 2 1/4 turns to the left and only 1 1/4 turns to the right, which we've gotten straightened out, but then the steering box started leaking. The steering was very easy almost like the pump was putting out too much pressure, which I think caused out leak. So, the boy said lets just put a manual box on it. So we did, he quickly found out that wasn't going to be the final answer as it is a lot tougher to drive than it looks. So, I ordered a CPP 500 series power steering box and a new pump, which will hopefully be here by Friday. I also ordered new upper and lower ball joints, I think the screeching is coming from one of them on the driver side but I figure I'll replace them all. We also ripped a wheel weight off last night when the boy had the steering cranked to the right so I'm going to look at trimming the lower control arms a bit. I don't think the CPP box has the turning radius that a factory manual box does but we'll trim if needed. Once that work is done I'm going to take it back to the alignment shop and ask them to dial in the specs that board member BMERDOC suggests for lowered trucks and see how that works.

I hope the New Year finds y'all well and I wish each of you prosperity and good luck with your projects in 2018.

The boy (C10_Punk) digging the ride.

[DPowers]

Along for the ride.

[Dustmaker65]

Think I will join in! Good looking ole girl!

[C10_ustacould]

The CPP kit for adding power steering was a bust. Everything I read said it has the CP50014 box which supposedly fits a '67 frame without the divot. The box in the kit was not that box, plus nothing else in the kit fit either. We are now looking into different accessory drive systems. Hope to gather up parts for the long weekend coming up, would be nice to be able to drive it a little before the boy turns 16 later this month.

Partially disassembled and waiting on a new accessory drive.


These are the choices we are looking at.
Vintage Air (but in black)


Billet Specialties

[nuke1]

Nie truck!!!!! If you want I have a used Vintage air kit I could sell for a decent price and ship it to you!! I hope to have havoc running again soon to make many memorys with my kids in the years to come.