Newbie with a '66 Custom LWB

[ctandc]

Not a newbie to wrenchin’, especially Chevy’s, but never owned a ’66. Owned a couple of 67-72’s years ago, and actually had a couple of different 78’s. A guy that works with my wife owns a ’66 C-10 Custom LWB. It was his Great Uncle’s truck, who bought it new from my understanding. He’s not a car guy, but wanted to hold onto the truck and actually paid (handsomely I might add) to have some work done on it to get it road worthy. He actually drove it very little, and offered it to me for a possible project, as my 15 y/o son will be driving soon. I actually passed on it, at a very reasonable price, because I had several unforeseen expenses pop up and it wasn’t in the cards. Well earlier this week he emailed me and told me the truck was mine (free) if I wanted it. So of course I said ‘YES!’. I’ll try to remember to post pics.

It’s a straight 6 / 3 on the tree so nothing super fancy. I’ve already bookmarked some threads about adding disk brakes and other things from the site.

It has a good bit of mainly surface rust, but I don’t know what’s lurking underneath yet. Hopefully I’ll have it at the garage this weekend. Since my son actually saw pics and then went and dug around to see what they looked like fixed up, he’s actually excited. Initial plans are to get it roadworthy, get it tagged and driving….then go from there.

We’ve got plenty of time until he’s actually legal to drive, so I figure maybe we’ll do a ‘Rat Rod’ kind of deal, just to see if it fits him, before I go yanking it apart and upgrading etc.

I’m sure I’ll have plenty of questions.

Thanks for the help in advance.

[ctandc]

As promised pics:













Definitely worth the asking price.

[rideblue00]

Free! Cant beat that. Looks like it has great patina. Welcome, theres alot of nice people here and lot of good stuff to read.

[chevytrucknut]

Welcome. I think your truck is a 65. Vin number will tell you. First number before the "C" would be a 6 for a 66. Free is a great deal. Best truck possible for a father son project.

[70cst]

ctandc from Ohio. on a very truck!

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum

That's a decent looking '65 Custom Cab truck.....can't beat the price

[fleetman]

treasure. what a great vibe.

[ctandc]

Originally Posted by chevytrucknut

Welcome. I think your truck is a 65. Vin number will tell you. First number before the "C" would be a 6 for a 66. Free is a great deal. Best truck possible for a father son project.

I'll run the VIN Saturday. I plan on getting the truck running good enough to get it to the house this weekend. Then get the antique tags on it and start evaluating before I start spinning wrenches.

I showed my son a few old school flat black (I've always been a black primer fan - my first car was a 67 SS Chevelle and it was black primer for a long time) trucks and he really likes them.

First step is digging in and see what we got.

[ctandc]

Well thanks for the info, looks like the truck is a '65 simply from the emblem placement. I told you he want's a car guy.. LOL

[1963c-10]

Great looking truck either way. The VIN will tell it all.

[ctandc]

I've already started buying parts and I don't even have the truck yet LOL...

I HATE points. I hate them. My old 67 SS 396 Chevelle had points. NEVER. AGAIN.

So I know that a HEI would drop in, figured find a parts store rebuild from a mid 70's GM straight six and drop it in. $90 for distributor, then you need cap,rotor, coil, module etc.

After surfing through the search pile here I found reference to Skip White Performance. After checking their website, apparently they are running some pretty good prices on COMPLETE, ready to run HEI systems.

Checked Ebay and what do you know

http://www.ebay.com/itm/350527627030...ht_5202wt_1396

Less than $80 SHIPPED, ready to drop in. I'll get some Taylor (my favorite brand from the multitude of project cars to pass through my greasy fingers) cut to fit wires shortly.

I need to refresh my memory on the conversion. I know the HEI needs full 12v power at all times, where points only gets it at start up (if memory serves).
If I remember right you can simply run the wire from the HEI to the IGN terminal on the fuse panel.

I also remember something about running HEI with the older voltage regulators (pre '70 maybe)?

I'll do some digging.