the '61

[Dustin07]

my 4th attempt at a 60-66. This time I think I got it right the is the only pic so far, I dropped it off at a local to get the timing dialed in for me and drill out a snapped bolt (oops).

'61 C10...
on a '68 frame...
'71 burb front xmember...
power disc brakes...
power steering...
coils upfront...
swapped hood from my '62...
just swapped the SBC 350 from my '62 (donor) to this truck 2 weeks ago...
th350 / 2200 stall (pulled the 3500 out of it, too much for my little motor)...
body dropped by way of lowered cab mounts. cab now sits flush with bottom of frame.

long term plans are hard to say. considering a satin black / two tone job and I have had my heart set on laying it out, but I really just want to DRIVE it right now! lol

[Dustin07]

thinking flat or satin black, with green cab from the window body line on up, haven't decided for sure, part of me really likes the way it looks right now.

[allaboutchevelles]

I like the looks of it now also. I would try to patina the hood to match and keep rolling. Looks good!!

[Dustin07]

thanks, I agree. there is something about that look that I just don't think an actual good flat black will beat. but it does have that yellow cream color you see on the front on the passenger side door and fender as well. so I'd have to figure out how to come close to that blue, then patina a few parts. I'd like to stop the trouble spots as well, so sand, paint, patina.

[Chiefjrock]

That's a great body style...can't wait to see what ya do with the paint.

[Dustin07]

it killed me to get into the jeep this morning to drive to work and see the '61 sitting in the driveway lol. I need to get the driving lights fixed (brake lights yes, driving lights no), adjust the brakes, replace a snapped bolt on the torque converter, and mount the radiator.

it seems as though the frame horns on the '68 frame are slightly closer together and the radiator doesnt' sit as low as I'd like it to so need to do some finagling.

[Dustin07]

how do you guys pick what order to do work? Interior vs exterior? suspension vs paint, etc. how do you pick where to start??!! LOL

Part of me thought about starting at the front bumper and working back. part of me is thinking about just working on the interior first.

[Dustin07]

ok here we go... one from before we dropped the 350 in it. it was rebuilt, as I was told, about 2years ago. driven rarely since then. maybe 5,000 miles or less. it seems to run great now. I have driven the '61 around town a bit. It leaks trans fluid, a tad motor oil, and coolant lol. Going to try to get all of those things fixed before xmas, THEN start diving in to the rest.

[Dustin07]

sorry, all these pics are off my phone....

as you can see, the '61 grill is in pretty good shape, just missing the darn chevy emblem from the middle! I want to try to get this chrome plated if possible, but need to figure out what to do about the middle...



all things considered, i think the interior is in great shape! its complete basically. that is the large hump i believe, and its been converted to column shift with power steering, which to me is HUGE. I love bench seat, and I didn't want to shift between someones legs.

[Dustin07]

really, the worst rust on the whole truck i think is the sills, and they really aren't bad enough to justify replacing the whole thing. there is completely missing pcs of metal from cancer, but I think they are easier to fix probably with metal strips rather than an entire sill replacement?

[Dustin07]

rear window replaced with a slider. obviously not exactly perfect... I may try to make it so though. I kinda like the slider idea. just needs some tweaking. i'll get to it.... someday.



body is basically straight. just a few small dings and dents here and there. I will try to fix most of them myself.



bed needs replaced, but is there

[Dustin07]

I love this truck. its basically my dream truck, and almost in good enough shape to drive to work. needs a little electrical work (brake lights and driving lights acting weird), and the leaks fixed, but the heater does blow hot air / defrost works. Only thing I want to fix is way bars. when turning at speed it leans so much that it almost feels like the tires will rub.

[Dustin07]

the glass is basically all good, but seals all need to be replaced. I am tempted to have a local shop replace the seals for me AND maybe just have them give the interior a real nice paint job and finish up the metal/rust work on the interior. I know it could be expensive, and its a lot of stuff that I could probably do on my own, but it would be nice to have that part done professionally and get it all knocked out at once.

[allaboutchevelles]

Dustin, If you have a welder and an air compressor then its not that hard to replace the rocker panels. You can buy them for around 40 dollars each and its just a matter of cutting the spot welds or drilling them out and most of the replacement rockers fit pretty well. Just weld them back on. The way im trying to do my truck is from the inside out, if thats makes any sense. I would fix the stuff that is hard to get to first and work your way outside to the body. Like if your going to paint the truck I would go ahead and finish the motor work and inner fenders, radiator support, wiring, and stuff like that before paint. if your not driving it I would paint it before replacing the windsheild rubber and paint while glass is out. Thats just my .02 cents

[Dustin07]

thanks for the tip, I didn't realize the rockers were just spot welded in and wasn't sure if it was really going to be worth it to jump in, but i know those panels are pretty cheap, so I should just give it a try.

i'm leaning inside out as well. reason being is because all the seals need to be replaced, ALL of them, and I figure painting the dash, fixing the floor/doors, etc all makes sense while windows are out and seals are being replaced... those things are more important than a shot of paint on the exterior I think

plus it makes the interior more woman friendly lol

[Dustin07]

So i had my local mechanic help me with my timing issue and we discovered the heater core needs to be replaced. I found new ones on LMC for $69-80 each, sounds cheap. is it an easy swap?

also, i have the regular heater, 2 switch. is it worth upgrading to the 4 switch deluxe while i'm doing it? seems like a very cheap upgrade. just wondering how hard it really is.

[Narxoleptic Customs]

On the body mounts, can I get some pix of what u did to lower them?
Posted via Mobile Device

[Dustin07]

I didnt do it but I'll try to get picks of what the previous owners did tonight or tomorrow. basically it looks like they welded an extension on... its weird.

[Narxoleptic Customs]

Oh, I forgot it's on a later frame. Nevermind. Great looking too!!
Posted via Mobile Device

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by Dustin07

So i had my local mechanic help me with my timing issue and we discovered the heater core needs to be replaced. I found new ones on LMC for $69-80 each, sounds cheap. is it an easy swap?

also, i have the regular heater, 2 switch. is it worth upgrading to the 4 switch deluxe while i'm doing it? seems like a very cheap upgrade. just wondering how hard it really is.

Someone on this site found aluminum heater cores at NAPA for around $40 IIRC. I know in my 66 Pontiac I have to go with newer material heater cores because the modern antifreeze/coolant will eat the older stuff up.

Upgrading to a deluxe (which I am doing) is relatively simple so far a couple of the after market parts catalogs have all the components you need as far as switches and all, but there is a heater box up grade as well.
Regular heater cores are only 6" and the deluxe are 9.5", there is also a recirculating vent damper and cable involved. Not hard at all, just takes a little looking at to get it all straight.

I had a heater box of both kinds, and easily combined the best of all parts between the two to make one good one. There is a pic of my heater rebuild with all the parts involved for the box part of it.

I think I am going to go with Vintage air some time in the future though, as it supplies both heat and AC from an under dash mounted unit.
But more to follow on that at a later date

Good luck, hope some of this helps ya.
Feel free to pop over to my thread and take a look, I will answer any questions I can, just keep in mind I have no clue what I am acutally doing ....

[creep]

I'm digging the color combo. The blue, black and white really seem to "pop" without being in your face bright. I would say reuse those colors if you were to paint it.

And your truck wasn't leaking fluids, it was marking it's territory.

[Dustin07]

thanks for the feedback, i'll check out your thread. is the deluxe really worth the hassle? what do you actually gain from it?

[Dustin07]

Originally Posted by creep

I'm digging the color combo. The blue, black and white really seem to "pop" without being in your face bright. I would say reuse those colors if you were to paint it.

And your truck wasn't leaking fluids, it was marking it's territory.

LOL thats what i said