Project '74 Custom/10

[WarBeard]

I have had this truck for almost a year And I want a thread to myself to Document all the things I do to it. So some of this may be old news to people but it will have updates.



It's a 2WD with a 350/350 combo Long bed Bought for $800

Some cool thing's I like about it.
74 grill is in really good shape
All 4 wheels have matching hub caps WITH trim/Beauty rings on white wheels.
all the emblems are still there. I was told the regular ''Custom 10" Emblems are kinda hard to come by?
Bench seat with no rips
Original steering wheel with no cracks and horn button still intact.
Delta tool box in the bed.
Step bumper with tow hitch....

I could go on and on I just had to vent and I live in a home that don't give a About trucks! So I let it all out here!

[WarBeard]

I was under the hood and discovered it has all new belts and hoses and a new water pump..Sadly the Fan clutch is frozen..Its probably what took out the old water pump. So a trip to the parts store got me a new Fan clutch. Installed it and what-ta ya know No more engine vibration.Auto zone Part Number: 922797

I also need to find out what kind of fan belt to use if I go and strip off the AIR pump and the A/C compressor..I would really like to get rid of all the stuff not needed or not in use under the hood. Just to clean it up a little. If it don't work it don't need to be here.

[WarBeard]

Found some New 31/10.50/15 tires for the back of the truck replacing the old dry rotted 235/75/15'. My local Discount tire did the swap for free, So I had Domino's pizza send them a few pie's. The 31's fit nicely on the back giving me a little bit of rake to the stance.

[WarBeard]

Cleaned up the Interior today and Today the Old man got some tunes! I found and installed a new 2 knob radio so I did not have to cut up the dash. Also the truck originally came with one 4x10 speaker in the center of the dash, so I replaced that. Sounds good for 30 watts of 1 speaker power. Very clean install and not chopping up Vintage parts!

The carpet and the Dashboard are way to nasty to reinstall. So I have to find a cover or a doner dash. I think I will change the color from blue to black. Door panels are in good shape just need a little bit of sanding and some paint.

Also took the gauge bezel and the lens and cleaned it up got all the dust out. While I was under the dash I removed a TON of wires and brackets left by the PO. Now my under dash wiring harness looks stock again.

[WarBeard]

Polished up my caps and trim rings today. Used steel wool and water to clean them up. Trim rings had a lot of surface rust and took some elbow grease to get it to shine again. Turns out I have one chrome hub cap and 3 aluminum or stainless ones? Lots of scratches and dents not perfect but ten times better than before. After getting a lot of opinions about wheel color I'm going with gloss white as opposed to gloss black. I have a mile of dirt road to get back to my house so I guess these will be dirty all the time LOL.

[WarBeard]

Next 3 coats of gloss white went on the wheels (Tires are getting replaced).

Pop the cap's N rings on and here ya go....First is a before and after.


One piece at a time!

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

Fan clutch went out on mine a week after I got it several years ago. Sounded like I was starting a jet engine everytime I got it running.

[WarBeard]

Got rid of my smog pump and all the related lines and hoses/wires. Also, I removed all the nonworking A/C components...the under-hood looks much cleaner now. 2 less pulleys to turn and I bet its about 50 pounds lighter. Now with no smog pump I had to get a shorter fan belt to the alternator. Now after removing the metal lines that go into the exhaust manifolds this left 8 holes that needed to be plugged. I got them from Home depot.


Here is the part number I used. I stuck the plugs in the freezer and ran the truck around the block (That was loud) so the manifolds were hot making the holes a little bigger and the plugs smaller so it was easier to install. Can anyone find the crack in the manifold???? This will have to work till I find another one or install some headers.

[WarBeard]

While I was at Auto-zone I saw these lock pulls and I figured they looked nice and matched the wood on the dash and are made of steel.These are replacing the ones I got from Classic truck parts. They were more expensive, made of plastic, were not threaded correctly, were to short and broke two days later.....

[slammed427]

Do you have any pics of the engine with the smog pump? My 74 didn't have one, kinda curious to see where it was supposed to go.
Posted via Mobile Device

[WarBeard]

I don't but it was directly under the alternator on the passenger side. It used the same belt as the alternator. Removing this got rid of many metal and rubber lines running everywhere, Makes the engine look less cluttered. Also I was told that the A.I.R system is what made my exhaust manifold crack by somehow making the exhaust temps much higher than they needed to be. Don't know if this is true or not.

[tinydb84]

How did you get those tubes out? I tried to get mine out and they just started to oval the head of the bolt.

[WarBeard]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

How did you get those tubes out? I tried to get mine out and they just started to oval the head of the bolt.

I used a flair nut wrench with WD-40. But this truck has been in Arizona its whole life so all of the hardware is pretty easy to get in and out. If you cannot get the nut out just cut the pipe as close to the nut as you can and then just weld it closed.

[flashed]

WOW ,those hubcaps cleaned up nice ,I need one similar to those except the white painted kind. Nice truck ,did you have to cut the dash out for the radio ? My 74 has the non working stock AM radio in it and I sure do need some tunes .

[WarBeard]

Originally Posted by flashed

WOW ,those hubcaps cleaned up nice ,I need one similar to those except the white painted kind. Nice truck ,did you have to cut the dash out for the radio ? My 74 has the non working stock AM radio in it and I sure do need some tunes .

Yeah a little elbow grease went a long way with the hub caps. The trim rings had a lot of surface rust and I thought I might have to throw them away.

The radio...No I did not have to cut the dash it fits perfect. I got it at Auto-zone and it is made by DUAL. It sounds OK only using the one speaker. It does have RCA pre outs for an amp if you want to make it louder.

[WarBeard]

So after not having front brakes since I bought it, I went out today and got some parts.

New master cylinder
2 new calipers
2 new rubber brake lines
copper crush washers
brake fluid.

Next weekend I will have 4 days off and I plan to replace the front braking system. The rear was done by the PO and has new shoes hardware and drums. Rear hose seems to work fine so I will leave it alone for now.

[flashed]

I replaced the front brakes on my 74 a while back and the brake lines were by far the hardest part of it as the fittings had been over tightened and rounded off. I am in the process of replacing the rear shoes and wheel cylinders ,just got finished with the passenger side that was leaking ,hopefully get it finished up tomorrow after church so I can start driving it again monday. I miss my 72 that has been in the bodyshop forever but I really like this 74.

[WarBeard]

Body shop jail is the worst! I have much nicer stuff to drive but I keep going back to my '74 there is just something about it, even if it doesn't have brakes at the moment.

Looking forward to have a completely new braking system!

[flashed]

Im looking forward to the same but I messed up on mine last night ,got to take the drum brakes back apart ,mismatched the shoes .Thats what happens when I try to hurry and not having good light to work with. Keep us posted on your truck progress.

[JRANGER]

Yeah your truck looks like a lot of work just like mine

[WarBeard]

Originally Posted by JRANGER

Yeah your truck looks like a lot of work just like mine

LOL My floor is not nearly as bad as yours was. Only my hand fits through it!



Well today I jacked up the front and pulled off all the front brakes except for the hard lines and the combo valve. It's getting a new master, calipers, rubber hoses and pads. Also I will repack the bearings and replace a lug bolt that is stripped.

Don't make fun of my tree stump jack stand! I thought long and hard on how to lift my truck the most Redneck way possible!

[WarBeard]

Got er dun!...Well except for the bearing repack and the stripped lug. My wife's Jeep blew a head gasket and I got in a hurry to get this thing back in drivable condition.

This truck stop's like a Ferrari Now!!!!!!!!

Better than my newer vehicles.

While pumping up the master cylinder I think with all the new and pedal movement I ripped the bladder in the power booster Probably not hard to do with nearly 40 year old rubber. So I had to go to the store and get a new power booster.

The new booster was much bigger than the stock one but mounted up just fine. Hopefully bigger means stronger. Having brakes for the first time since I bought it and made this thing a real pleasure to drive. Who would have figgured?

Next up is trying to find out what is ticking in the engine. I'm thinking Loose rocker, bent pushrod, broken valve spring.etc

[WarBeard]

Sorry folks~ Shows over, Got an offer I couldn't refuse on the '74 and ended up selling it. I miss it already.

Now to spend some time on the '89 Suburban.