68 C10 longbed (slow build) DD

[stoutguinness]

So I just joined the forum and thought I would start my thread tracking the progress of my 68 C10 long bed. I am the main provider and I want this to be my daily driver, so this will be slow progress haha. I picked up this truck for pretty cheap (under 1k) and drove it 40 miles to get her home. The brakes seem soft and the fluids old. It's sitting in front of the house right now but hope to start working on it within this week. First step is to drain all of the fluids, i.e. brake, oil, radiator, transmission. It a little over 60k on the ODO but who knows how many miles.
My father in law was pretty excited when I showed him the truck and he brought me to his storage and gave me an aluminum manifold, carb and HEI. So I scored there. Just need to clean them up, buy the odds and ends needed, and then he wants to help install. He restores a lot of classic cars and has several guys he uses for various things so I'll be taking advantage of his connections. He's already talking about having is body work guy fix the dents in the bed. I already ordered a new ignition key and door locks set, just waiting for them to get in the mail. And I definitely need to replace the ugly mirrors. Also on the to do list is to put in power steering. Anyways, enough ranting, here are some pics.

[stoutguinness]

Here are some pics of the parts my father in law gave me







The list is fairly long of the stuff I need to do with it but I figure I will just mention them as a fix them.

[stoutguinness]

So not much progress yet. I started by pulling off the old bumper. I started flushing the breaks but am having trouble with the driver front. I think I'm gonna have to pull the wheel off to be able to get a wrench around the bleeder. With only the three wheels done so far, I already feel an improvement. There was definetely some air in the lines. I went around the truck to go get a stand and noticed fluid on the floor. So there it sits until I have the time to fix it. The leak was the heater core. Not sure why it suddenly decided to start leaking, but it did.
Wife is due any day now so all of my extra time is spent taking care of her. After the baby is here I'll hopefully be able to get more work done. I already bought a new heater core so it's just a matter of time.
I'm considering just ripping into the engine a little while the fluids are low. I really want to have my truck as a DD but this could be a good time to take the intake manifold off and change some things out. Considering taking the valve covers off too so I can take a peek and clean it up a bit.
I have all the new fluids sitting in the garage waiting to be swapped out. I also have new ignition and door lock cylinders to put in the truck. I'll start posting more pics when progress is actually made haha.

[stoutguinness]

So I made a little progress yesterday. Worked out a schedule to hopefully start doing an hour or so of work every monday. So my daughter wanted to help out and removed a bunch of silicon while I was at work. The previous owner decided to seal the heater core housing with silicone which made pulling it out a pain. He siliconed EVERYTHING. Including glueing the heater core to the housing. Anyways, cleaned up all of the silicone from the housing and my daughter cleaned up the firewall.


And then she started the primer and paint. I helped with some of the angles, but she did most of the work.

[stoutguinness]

While we were waiting for the paint to dry between sprays, we decided to address the battery pan. We wire brushed it to loosen all the acid deposite and hit it with air. Then we primered and painted.
before

after (still wet)


We also started to rewire the negative and positive wires. The cables that were on there were completely eroded. When I went to remove them the bolt just kept spinning and not loosening. Felt a little loose so I decided to pry it up and saw that the connector had split from the erosion (you can kind of see how bad it was in the second pic). I want to find a diagram or something to make sure everything is wired right before I continue though. Previous owner seemed to cut corners so I want to make sure it's right.

[stoutguinness]

Another update. Actually got a lot done over the weekend. Forgot to take a lot of pictures but I'm sure I still took more than anyone wants to see haha
Finally replaced the old heater core with the new one. But I had to file down the old brackets in order to get them to fit without bending the outlets on the new heater core.






I didn't have time to wait for new seals to come in the mail for the heater core and the local parts store doesn't carry them so I made my own. I didn't want to cement glue it on like the previous owner. I want to be able to easily take it off in the future so that I can put in a proper seal. So I used a foam tape to line the sides.


Had to drop the inner fender to get it back in. It just didn't want to fit haha.

[stoutguinness]

I also rewired the battery cables. They were in really bad shape and the positive cable was eroded through on the terminal connector. There was battery acid erosion on everything. Is it just safer to get a new battery with this sign of damage or could I clean it up and use it for a couple weeks until I can buy an optima? It's an interstate green top battery and has charge but the condition of the cables make me wonder if it compromised the battery.
Here's a pic of the terminal connecter on the positive battery. If you look close you can see how the metal is eroded and the bolt just spun in place when I tried to loosen the bolt (the erosion was on the bottom side so I couldn't see it and ended up just prying it up to reveal that it was eroded and soft).

This was the Negative cable and it wasn't in much better shape.

[stoutguinness]

Unfortunatley that wasn't even the worst part about the battery cables. The positive cable was completely exposed and sitting on the frame. It appears to have caught fire at some point and the PO had electrical tape covering previous damage to the cable. Gotta love PO's. The wiring is the worst part of the truck and it all needs attention.





Here's a pic of the new positive cable with a guide in place to make sure it doesn't get too close to the exhaust manifold.



I also took apart the door panels in preperation to change the locks and the ignition with a new set that has matching keys. Only cost 25 bucks and cuts the key chain down in size. The glove box is also put back together and ready to go. I also completely drained the radiator and filled with new fluid and made some mock ups for an overflow reservior.

[Tinkermc]

looks like you are off to a good start

[stoutguinness]

Thanks! I've got a full time life with a newborn and full time work and school so progress is slow but I hope to make this a dependable daily driver. Hope to have it driving again within the next two weeks and then little things here and there to improve on reliability and looks.

[VA72C10]

nice looking truck! Looks like a solid foundation for a daily driver! Nice work so far!

[stoutguinness]

Thanks! Not a show truck by any means but it's a desert truck so rust doesn't come up as much. It's never going to be a show truck but I hope to make it nice.

[Tinkermc]

that helper you have looks like a hard worker just a tad short!!!

[stoutguinness]

Yeah she loves workin on the truck with her dad, as long as she doesn't scrape any knuckles haha.
Posted via Mobile Device

[stoutguinness]

So a few weeks back I had ordered a new ignition/door locks combo and decided to try and get the ignition done last night. I ordered new because the old key has a crack in it and the ignition likes to stick. Didn't want to end up with a broken key and couldn't justify cutting a new key for an ignition that soon needed replacement. Anyways, I follow the manual to the T trying to get that pesky key switch out and it won't come out. Got a little impatient after an hour of finesse and became frustrated. Took a drill and PB blaster to the ignition and still no luck. So I just ordered a whole new set up from LMC (more than I was hoping to pay for the ignition) but should be here in a couple days. Now I need to go back and just drill all the way through so that I can remove the old unit. My hope is to have the truck running again by Monday (pending the arrival of the new parts).

[ChevyNewb]

I had the same issue with my ignition "insert metal rod and turn" my ass! finally got it out, but it was a pain...

[stoutguinness]

Wish I was that lucky haha. I think I would of had more luck had my key and cylinder not been so warn. I even tried hammering an old screwdriver in there and turn with a rod in the little insert hole thingy but it didn't like me much. At least I'll have a whole new ignition switch now.

[stoutguinness]

No progress since Wednesday. Hoping to get more done this weekend but I thought I would share a pic of my previous project.
1961 Ford Thunderbird... The first year of the bullet bird. My favorite year. Couldn't afford to keep it at the time. Hope to own another one again. It had a performance engine installed before I got it. I loved this thing. haha

[stoutguinness]

So the ignition parts still haven't come in yet but I was able to just drill it out enough for it to still work. The key cylinder doesn't lock in place like it's suppose to but I was at least able to take it for a drive. The brakes are still not consistent though and I don't see a leak anywhere so I might just have them looked at by someone with more know how than me.
Posted via Mobile Device

[stoutguinness]

So I did a lot this weekend but to no avail.
I changed out the old fuel lines with some temporary FUEL RATED rubber lines. The PO had non fuel rated rubber lines in there and they looked bad inside. Glad I changed them out. The plan is to use the fuel rated lines until after I get the new intake manifold and carb on the engine then bend up some metal lines. There was also a small leak in the fuel in line of the carborator on the carb itself. So I picked up some new seals and replaced that while I had the lines off.



I then decided to install the HEI and new spark plugs and wires.



Got everything all cleaned up and removed some really bad wiring.
Then I went to start the truck and it turned over but no start. Gave it some more pumps of the gas because it sounded like a lack of gas but still no start. So I looked under the hood to check the Distributer and noticed that the fuel inlet was leaking again. So I gave it a small turn to tighten it and it popped out and gas went everywhere.





The threads are stripped out... Not worth the hassle to try and get this one in working order again so I'm just going to tow it up to the new house and install the new intake manifold and carb there. I'm moving up 30mi. to Reno. Much bigger home with a 3 car garage.

I also scraped and cleaned the intake manifold to get it ready for installation.



haven't decided if I should rebuild this carb or buy a new one. Any suggestions?


This is the Carb on the Intake Manifold before I cleaned it up.

[Tinkermc]

Get this small junk working and then you can drive and fix

[stoutguinness]

Yeah that's the plan. I wanna drive it
Posted via Mobile Device

[stoutguinness]

So I didn't get much done the last few weeks. All of my free time has been spent moving into my new home. I got the truck running but not as safe as I would like. I used the red gasket seal to hold the fuel inlet in place without leaking and adjusted the distributer by ear and it ran better than before! But I don't feel safe driving it like that more than I have to. The next step is going to be replacing the intake manifold and carb and start driving it. That will hopefully be within the next month but I need to get settled in the new house first. The garage is still full of boxes for now. I did, however, go to hot august nights and see a lot of nice classics. I could share hundreds of pics but I'll just share the chevy trucks on here.

[stoutguinness]

here's a couple more




Not our years but it was still post worthy!

[Tinkermc]

I'd like to go to Hot August nites myself