This is going to be a long drawn out build...

[Lated]

I've had a '70 C10 for just over two years now and so far most of what I have done with it is just to keep it on the road since it is my daily driver but that is about to change. I bought a '98 Z28 last Wednesday and as soon as I get it registered/titled it will be taking over the haul my ass to work duty from my truck. I got the car for, at least what I think is, a steal so it wasn't too hard to talk the wife into it. I paid way to much for my truck given the condition it was in but it was yet another in a long string of impulse buys which rarely if ever turn out good. There is rust everywhere. I did a temporary fix on the floors just to keep water from coming in off the road and my foot from going through. My truck is in no way safe in the condition it is in, the passengers side cab corner is rusted away to the point that there isn't much metal left to anchor the seat belt. The same seatbelt that held the car seat for my son for more than a year (we had no other choice with the truck being my only vehicle and my wife and I working opposite shifts). The front drivers side of my bed is held on with a tie down strap. The hole where the mounting bolt goes through the wood in the floor is big enough that the bolt pulled through. Why not just replace the wood or put a bigger washer on it you might ask? Well, at some point a P.O. decided that instead of replacing the rotted/missing wood it would be better to weld diamond plate in on top of it so now I can't get to the bolt. Genius. I suppose I could torch/cut through the diamond plate but that would require a torch or a saw, neither of which I own. Oh yeah, I forgot about the brakes! No idea what is wrong with my brakes. I have drums all around and they look to be fine. There is plenty of shoe and drum left, I've bled the brakes, I've replaced the master cylinder and I know I have enough vacuum but they won't lock up. It's not that they don't work at all, they just won't lock up and they seem to fade really fast. Luckily I only drive about 10 miles to work and back. It also looks like I have a leaky valve seat on the number 3 cylinder that's letting oil in. Good thing that my truck is registered in Colorado even though I live in Maryland. 'Rady doesn't require emissions tests anymore or I would have been in even more trouble. I'm sure there are other things wrong with it but I'm getting tired of typing and if any of you are reading this you are probably getting tired of my *****ing about my truck so lets get on to the pictures.

[Lated]

Here's pics of the floor and my temp fix and another of the passenger side cab corner.

[68chevy68]

Yep, long build ahead of you. I have some trucks worse though. good luck man..keep us posted and pictures coming

[Lated]

Here are a few pics of the truck when I brought it home and one of the Camaro (I know the picture sux but it's almost 1100 and it's kinda dark outside). The last two pics are of the floor shifter I installed because I got tired of having to pull over on the side of the road and either pop the hood or crawl under the truck to pop the tranny out of third gear because the column shift linkage was binding up. One day it got stuck in first and no matter what I did I couldn't get it out and had to drive it home that way. Good for me I was already on post and only about 3 miles from my house. Of course, as soon as I got home and popped the hood I was able to get it out of gear but that was the last straw. I installed a Hurst shifter. The pictures are respectively of first gear and reverse. The very first time I shifted into reverse after installing the boot it tore. I don't think it looks like an overly long throw between 1st and R but I guess it is. Maybe I put the boot on backwards.

[Lated]

Then and now of the 305 (I have a 350 sitting in the shed waiting for a trip to the machine shop, I'm thinking 383) The PO used house wiring to hold the fan shroud on. The shroud and radiator must have come with the engine swap cuz neither fit right. The engine is out of a 81 Malibu if I remember correctly. A couple pics of what I think is causing the rust on the passenger side. The driveres side is just as bad but I don't have any pics of it. Here's the diamond plate I mentioned earlier. When I bought the truck the wiring was horrible. There was house wiring connecting the front turn signals to the back and there was an extra bulb in each tail light, one for signals and another for brakes. The brake wire was the double zip wire like they use for floor lamps. I put a Painless harness in this spring.

[Lated]

Passenger side door is about to fall off. Picture doesn't do justice to the amount of rust around the hinges. Next is one of my favorite dumb ideas by a PO. I just love water dripping on my head. Seems like no matter how much caulk I put on it water still gets in. PO fix for the top breaking off of the heater box, more caulk! That was roofing tar behind the glovebox in the pic earlier. The last two are how my truck is now and a possible future that has been floating around in my head (I'm not good with paintshop )

[Lated]

What's left to complain about? How bout taxi drivers! Apparently BWI airport taxis have the right away over old trucks no matter what and he wanted my lane. I ripped his mirror off and destroyed his front fender as well as leaving red paint all down the side of his nice white car. All I got was paint scratched down to bare metal and a small dent right in front of the handle. Insurance covered it and I was going to replace the door anyway. Can't seem to find a picture from before I sprayed primer over it. Enough of the ***** fest for now. Last pic is of the present and future owner of Bob short for Bucket O' Bolts, some days I call him aRTy for Rattle Trap, don't ask, my mom is the one that got me started naming my cars. In case you were wondering the Camaro is C2 aka Coffin 2. My 99 Z28 I had that we traded in on my wifes car right after I bought the truck was the original Coffin. I always called it that because of the way I drove in it. I was convinced I was going to wreck it someday and I didn't have much hope of being extracted from what was left of the car after a 165 mph wreck so they would have to bury me in it . My wife tells me that the shoulder or the median are not designated Camaro only passing lanes, they are in fact not driving lanes at all!! Who knew?

[Lated]

I found a pair of leather bucket seats on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=130151119906) that look nice but they want $170 just for shipping!

[Spray-Bomb]

I have buckets in mine, but if you ever want the kiddo to ride with ya youmight want to keep the bench

These are what I put in mine(they're out of my 90 chevy)

[Lated]

Originally Posted by Spray-Bomb

I have buckets in mine, but if you ever want the kiddo to ride with ya youmight want to keep the bench

These are what I put in mine(they're out of my 90 chevy)

I'd like to keep the bench but I want to put a 5 speed or maybe even a 6 speed in and I think the shifter would be under the seat. I haven't seen any pics of a 6 speed install to base this off of but the shifter for my 3 speed is up against the seat and I know the 6 speed tranny is longer and without some sort of custom shifter I don't think it will work. I also want to do a significant chop to the top and it seems easier to find shorter bucket seats than a short bench but I could be way off on that. Part of the reasoning behind the buying the Camaro was it has seats for four and we just had a little girl two months ago and can't all fit in the truck anyway. It would be nice for the wife to be able to sit in the middle while cruising though. We'll see what happens. The first order of business is coming up with the money to get the floors fixed which may take long enough that I might have somewhere to try and do it myself. The housing office has already gotten mad at me for changing my oil in the parking lot, they'd probably throw a fit if I was doing any body work

[samwise68]

I wish you the best of luck in your build, my rust stricken friend.

i know what it;'s like to be plagued with PO repairs that were ridiculous, along with just nasty rotting rust.

but. i must say. i commend you in every way, shape, and form, for doing what you had to, to keep the ol' girl on the road. that, in my opinion, is the true spirit of these trucks, and a reflection of the people who own and enjoy them. simply perserverance.

also. cute little one.

keep us updated!

-Sam.

[Lated]

Well I have some good-bad news. My 98 Z28 that I bought a month ago and was so proud of is no more. About a week and a half ago I tried to take a corner too fast, lost control, bounced off a guard rail and into traffic where I was hit by another driver. Luckily everyone is ok but not my car. The insurance company is totaling my car after they estimated the damage to my car at $12000 and the value of the car as $10500 and change. Fortunetly for me I only paid $6000 for the car so after my $500 deductable, the $130 ticket for failure to control speed to avoid a collision, and paying off what is left of the loan I am pocketing just over $4000. Best-worst mistake I've ever made! I now refer to the Camaro as "Gold Mine" for obvious reasons. Check out the last pic, if you imagine a straight line following the trim piece between the T-tops extending towards the front of the car you can see that the badge on the front of the car is about a foot farther to the right than it should be. Both front frame rails are bent and all four quarter panels need to be replaced along with the rest of the front clip. I had the option of buying the car back for $2200 but I'm hoping to be moving soon and didn't want to deal with it. Hopefully my check will show up soon so I can blow some money on my truck.

[Lated]

I finnaly got around to pulling the rear end off my parts truck this morning. I'm swapping them because my truck has drums with 6 lugs and the parts truck has front discs with 5 lugs so I want 5 lug on the rear too. I cleaned all the crud off of it with a scraper but didn't get an after pic. Don't think the wife would have been very happy about all the grease I would have gotten on her camera. By the time I got cleaned up it was dark out side. Tomorrow I'm gonna hit it with the scrub brush and dish soap to see if I can get it a little cleaner. Any suggestions for what kind of paint to use on it? I'd like to find something to stop the rust on it. I think I remember hearing about something at Eastwood but any ideas are welcome.

[caminokid]

I know what you mean by more rust then metal. My truck is at least 65% rust! You got something to work with at least. Keep at it and you will get it done.

[ChiefRocka]

Too bad you couldn't use the 'Maro drivetrain in the truck !!!!

[Lated]

Originally Posted by ChiefRocka

Too bad you couldn't use the 'Maro drivetrain in the truck !!!!

I thought about it but I don't have anywhere to park it while I was parting it out. The housing office here gives me enough crap about my truck as it is. I'm also hoping to get orders any time now and don't want to deal with a third vehicle on a cross country move. All that aside, it would have been awesome to have the LS1 and overdrive auto in the truck. Might actually get double digit mileage that way. It feels like the ball joints are giving out on my truck so while I'm replacing them, and now that I have plenty of money, I'm going to do a 3/4 drop, convert the front to disc and put sway bars on front and back. I'm also looking at putting a FCG fuel cell under the bed. I'm tired of smelling gas. I found the axle code on the rear end I pulled off yesterday and its a 3.07:1 so I ought to get a little better gas mileage.

[Lated]

Well looks like the truck is getting parked for a while. The upperball joints on both sides seem to be shot. I thought the truck felt a little strange around the corners on the way home from work. After I got out I pushed on the tops of both tires and they rock back and forth. Theres also something making a rubbing noise like metal on metal so that insurance check can hurry up and get here any time now!

[Lated]

Turns out it wasn't my balljoints like I thought. The outer wheel bearing on the front passenger side siezed up and disentigrated and took the hub with it. Good thing I have a disc brake swap kit on its way. I'll be replacing everything brake related from the booster to all four wheels. The drums and shoes on the rear from my parts truck are like new so I'm going to reuse them but everything else is new. I ordered a Clear Gearz diff cover from Summit and some Rust Encapsulator from Eastwood so I should be able to get the rear end overhaul done at the same time I put the discs on the front. I also ended up getting the Stage 2 suspension package from Performance Online with 1" drop springs for the front and 4" in the back. It also comes with front and rear sway bars and an adjustable track bar so hopefully the truck will handle better. I got the brake kit from POL too, and it has 2.5" drop spindles to make my total drop 3.5" in the front and 4" in the rear. I also go a set of upper and lower tubular control arms from POL. I'm going to replace all the bushings while I have everything apart as well as the tie rod ends, pitman arm, and the idler arm. My buddy said he'll let me use his garage so I won't have to worry about the housing office while I do the drop.

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by Lated

Turns out it wasn't my balljoints like I thought. The outer wheel bearing on the front passenger side siezed up and disentigrated and took the hub with it. Good thing I have a disc brake swap kit on its way. I'll be replacing everything brake related from the booster to all four wheels. The drums and shoes on the rear from my parts truck are like new so I'm going to reuse them but everything else is new. I ordered a Clear Gearz diff cover from Summit and some Rust Encapsulator from Eastwood so I should be able to get the rear end overhaul done at the same time I put the discs on the front. I also ended up getting the Stage 2 suspension package from Performance Online with 1" drop springs for the front and 4" in the back. It also comes with front and rear sway bars and an adjustable track bar so hopefully the truck will handle better. I got the brake kit from POL too, and it has 2.5" drop spindles to make my total drop 3.5" in the front and 4" in the rear. I also go a set of upper and lower tubular control arms from POL. I'm going to replace all the bushings while I have everything apart as well as the tie rod ends, pitman arm, and the idler arm. My buddy said he'll let me use his garage so I won't have to worry about the housing office while I do the drop.

You should take some of that money you robbed from your insurance and use it towards driving classes? YOu sure seem pretty non chalant about speeding, losing control, and almost killing another driver.... How would you of felt if it was your baby in that other car and someone else was driving recklessly and slammed into them? Dont mean to be a dick, but i just had my first set of twins and hearing stories like this makes me sick.

Good luck with the truck though.

[Lated]

Originally Posted by lyrikz

You should take some of that money you robbed from your insurance and use it towards driving classes? YOu sure seem pretty non chalant about speeding, losing control, and almost killing another driver.... How would you of felt if it was your baby in that other car and someone else was driving recklessly and slammed into them? Dont mean to be a dick, but i just had my first set of twins and hearing stories like this makes me sick.

Good luck with the truck though.

Pardon me for trying to make the best of a horrible situation knowing that fortunately no one was harmed by my actions. Next time, I hope to God there isn't a next time, I'll make sure to inform you and everyone else with all the details like how I was so shaken up by what happened that I couldn't even dial my phone to call emergency services, I had to have someone else do it, or how when I made it home at the end of the day it was about all I could do to keep from crying while holding my 2yr old to keep him from wondering what was wrong with daddy because all I could think about was how easily I almost orphaned my two children or maybe the look on my wifes face that I hope to never see again. I didn't post what happened asking for anyone to jump up on a soap box and berate me for driving recklessly, I've done enough of that myself the last few weeks, I was just excited to have the money to do some work on my truck. Congratulations, or should I say good luck, on twins. I can't imagine having two of 'em going through the same stages at once. Potty training just one has me pulling my hair out.

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by Lated

Pardon me for trying to make the best of a horrible situation knowing that fortunately no one was harmed by my actions. Next time, I hope to God there isn't a next time, I'll make sure to inform you and everyone else with all the details like how I was so shaken up by what happened that I couldn't even dial my phone to call emergency services, I had to have someone else do it, or how when I made it home at the end of the day it was about all I could do to keep from crying while holding my 2yr old to keep him from wondering what was wrong with daddy because all I could think about was how easily I almost orphaned my two children or maybe the look on my wifes face that I hope to never see again. I didn't post what happened asking for anyone to jump up on a soap box and berate me for driving recklessly, I've done enough of that myself the last few weeks, I was just excited to have the money to do some work on my truck. Congratulations, or should I say good luck, on twins. I can't imagine having two of 'em going through the same stages at once. Potty training just one has me pulling my hair out.

Ya, sorry about that man. I just saw the pic of your kid and i was just like WTF is he doing risking losing him ya know. Or him losing a father.

Anyways, back on track on the build. Have you thought maybe theres to much rust on that truck to fix? Or is it fixable?? Ever thought of starting with a better base?

[Lated]

Originally Posted by lyrikz

Have you thought maybe theres to much rust on that truck to fix? Or is it fixable?? Ever thought of starting with a better base?

I have thought at times that there is too much rust at times but I've gotten attached to this one and I'm gonna try to stick with it. I've put too much into this one to get rid of it now. I'd like to learn how to do the bodywork myself although the floor probably isn't the best place to start but it looks like I'll get plenty of practice before it's all done.

[Lated]

It's been awhile since I've updated this so here goes. I have loads of parts waiting to go on the truck. I've stripped the front suspension/steering off the truck and I should be able to drop the lower control arms off tomorrow to have the balljoints pressed in. Once I get those back and put on I can put on the uppers the new springs and the drop spindles and get the new discs on and move onto the new tie rods, etc and then finally get to the rear end. Anyone know how much grease the control arm shafts hold? It seems like I just keep pumping away without getting anywhere.

[Lated]

I finally got my truck finished enough to drive home last night. I'm not sure how well I like the stance now, I might have to look into lowering blocks to drop the back an inch or two. I still need to adjust the brakes. There is a little give in the pedal before the brakes engage and the pedal doesn't quite come up all the way and the brake lights stay on. The wheels came off my parts truck. I think the PO said they were off a van. The front passangers side tire rubs when turning left quickly but top leans out just a little (too much camber?) but that should get fixed when I get the full alignment and it also has different backspacing than the other three. The tire on the other matching wheel is completely bald so I put the spare on. I'm going to swap it with one of the rears to see if it stops. The bolts that were included with the new diff cover are too long and I had to use extra washers to get the cover tight. I haven't had a chance to make it to the hardware store yet for shorter ones. I know some won't like the clear cover but it's my truck and I like it, which is good cuz I'm probably the only one who will ever see it now that the truck has been lowered. I would have liked to find some synthetic gear fluid but all I could find was the green stuff that's in it. I'm going to have to buy a new jack. It was a challenge getting the front end down now that the one I have is too tall.

[1966gmc]

That clear cover is wicked looking man.What part of MD do you live in?