Prroject sixTsix

[sixTsix]

Well fella's, the journey to make my truck a road worthy beast has begun so I figured I start a build thread. Now with that said, this will not be a off the frame at this point. This will be somewhat of a budget build. Although most of the work you guys will see as of this point has alrdy been done, I'm gonna post anyways. So I hope you guys enjoy the read and progress of my ol'turd. The P.O decided to try and go the ratrod way with it....and well it wasn't nowhere near what anyone would consider a rat.



The day I picked my 66 up. It started out rougher than I would have liked, but seeing it, driving it changed my mind about just how rough it was. Blinded me some would say. I was like Arnie in the movie Christine, it didn't matter how rough it was , I was in love



As seen here the interior was pathetic to say the least. I mean who the hell puts house carpet in a car/truck and expects it to look good. So immediate action was need here before I could even begin to think of any other ideas. So with very little money and a day or so of beer drinking and wrenching I turn the toilet room you see above to this



So, after playing around with it a bit and driving it which was a death hazard, terrible brakes and front suspension gone, I decide to park it for a month or so. As it sat in my driveway, and me reading the forums, seeing everyone making progress on their rides, I decided it was time to do something about the terrible rattlecan black paint. So I was pounding brews one day and decided to sand a bit and see what we had underneath the rattle can job. And hell maybe have some patina or faux-tina. So here is what I came up with before coming to a stopping point. At one point during the process the faux-tina was taking nice shape



But for some reason, I think the beer was talking to me, so I kept on sanding and ended with this



Now, with the intro out of the way, time to get down to business. I ordered ECE- 4/6 drop springs, disc brake conversion w/ new SS brakelines, and complete front end rebuild kit, with sway bar kit as well. So let the games begin right!! Considering I'm off till the 27th of May I figured it would be perfect time to get started on the ol'turd. So here we go.
Today I pulled it over to my work area, considering no other projects were in the way. Jacked the truck up and commenced to prep work before complete tear down.
As you can see here , still running manual drums, manual steering and 50 yrs of road grime





Balljoints and tierods are shot....As to be expected lol





Prep work begins with this handy little product here. Now most probably are aware of or maybe have seen or used this stuff before, But needless to say it works pretty good for cleaning



As stated above the stuff works great, But if you used it straight (not deluted) do not spray on painted areas because it may strip the paint right off.
Here you can see the results of how well it works with a pressure washer







I'd say it worked pretty well considering I was using a very small pressure washer.
So today begins my teardown, and more pics to come as more progress is made.
I did take before pics as far as ride height and stance so I could compare as it is now and what it will be like finished. So here they are.





UPDATES TO COME.......

[Ta2Don]

and Welcome aboard!!!

I'm along for the ride!

[65Gregg]

Hey neighbor, good to see you getting to make some progress!! Are you going to Texas Hoedown this weekend?

[sixTsix]

Originally Posted by 65Gregg

Hey neighbor, good to see you getting to make some progress!! Are you going to Texas Hoedown this weekend?

GREGG how ya doing buddy? I didn't know the Hoedown was this weekend. Ill have to see how the progress is coming on the 66. I doubt if I do go ill be driving it. Ill have to look up where its located. But if I do go, Ill shoot a pm and let you know!

[sixTsix]

Well after a few distractions, I was able to make some progress this evening. So as of right now got my tie rods busted loose, center link out, along with pitman and idler arm. I did not separate the tie rods at the spindles for the simple fact they are going to be used for a brief measurement for the new tie rods, but in the end theyre going to scrap.







Now comes the fun part of separating the center link from idler and pitman. the old parts are hell to get apart lol.

Come tomorrow, I will have more progress to report. As I plan on having it tore completely down.

[sixTsix]

Made some more progress today. Got a good start I would say.
So we seen where I left off last night. So this morning I got up, had my morning cup of kick in the a$$...and got after it. Loosened up the castle nuts on the spindles and with some beating with the old 5# sledge got the ball joints to give way







Once I got them to bust loose I decided to add a little extra safety to the process and wrapped a chain around the spring and LCA



Dropped the shock.....



And with the help of my ol trusty jack ...out came the old on the passenger side





Dropped out the UCA as well as the LCA new shafts and bushings will be installed





These nuts were a PITA to get to thanks to the hedman long tubes.





passenger side demo'd



Now time for the drivers side







Proceeded to the UCA shaft removal. This process wasn't too bad with a 24" breaker and a 35MM axle socket.



My approach to this was, I broke one side loose and then unthreaded the shaft from the opposite side bushing nut. Then I was left with just the bushing removal.







So after some good solid hours of work, the end result is the front end is out.





I still need to remove the LCA shafts and LCA balljoints. As well as demo my brakelines. But hell I think I made some decent progress today with out getting too crazy! Or busting too much ace.

So far the Zep degreaser and the following two items have been my best friends.





I know a lot of you guys are all about the PB blaster, but if you haven't, you should give corrosion X a try. I had 0 problem with any bolts or nuts. All came off with ease.
I may end up removing my brake lines this evening, But as of right now Its time for a cold brew and a little relaxing. Time to sit back enjoy the fruits and get more ideas.

[donthekawguy]

I'm at the same point with my truck. Just waiting for the controls arms to get back from powdercoating. I have almost all the parts I need but also have to wait to find someone to weld up some cracks I found on the drivers side. Are you upgrading the LCA u bolts? It's easy and cheap insurance.

[southGAkidd]

sweet truck man, cant wait to see more!

[sixTsix]

Originally Posted by donthekawguy

I'm at the same point with my truck. Just waiting for the controls arms to get back from powdercoating. I have almost all the parts I need but also have to wait to find someone to weld up some cracks I found on the drivers side. Are you upgrading the LCA u bolts? It's easy and cheap insurance.

Hey bud, yea more than likely I will be upgrading the u-bolts. The ones I pulled althought threads were in pretty good shape, I am a little concerned on the intergrity of the metal in the u-bolt itself ya know. I myself, at this point am waiting for a friend of mine to pick up my C.A's and take to blast and coat for me.
Fortunately my frame rails are in decent shape considering their age lol. Dnt get me wrong the finish looks like hell but I plan on freshing up the rails as I go along with this project.

[sixTsix]

Originally Posted by southGAkidd

sweet truck man, cant wait to see more!

Thank buddy. As all of our truck are, they're never ending project haha.

[sixTsix]

I couldn't take it anymore. So after a needed break I got after the brake lines. I demo'd out the master cylinder as well as the front brake lines, only leaving the rear piping since I have to reused that line with the brake line kit I got. Unfortunately, during the process I striped the rear flare fitting at the "T" in the front. So I will have to cut the flare out and re-flare it. Not that big of a deal but another task that needs to be done.
Oh yea another thing that I will be doing once I start running the brake lines is, my Hedman long tubes are coming out. They are just in the way at this point.

I did however find out why my passenger side drum always grabbed harder than the driver no matter how I adjusted them,.....check this out

this is the line that was going to my driver side drum. I also found that the rubber portion of the brake line had rotted thru and was no good ...but no leak probably since the port was plugged.

[donthekawguy]

That looks pretty nasty. I still need to get my brake lines off. Maybe tomorrow if I get motivated enough. lol

[sixTsix]

Well, just my luck. So my wife was sick last weekend . Somehow I didn't get sick ..........
DUN
DUN
DUNNNNNNNN


Until Tuesday. WHY ME!!..WHY ON MY VACATION!!??? So needless to say from Weds morning until yesterday I was pretty much down. I made myself go to the Texas Hoedown, which when I got there I was regretting because of how I felt. Once I got In and started moving around and had a couple of beers I was happy that I went & felt much much better. Anyhow I seen a lot of really cool c-10s there which were very inspirational, & I'm sure someone at some point will do a great write up on the event. I did get to finally meet 65Gregg in person, really cool dude with a hellofa truck. (btw Gregg if you happen to get sick, lets hope not hahaha I apologize ..should've warned you ).....

So no progress until today, which wasn't a lot of progress, but it was something, So here we go.
Today I decided to Not powder coat my C.A's. To be honest I didn't want to wait for leave time & at some point down the road couple of yrs I imagine I will be tearing it down to re-work the rot & powder coat frame ECT... So I prepped and epoxy shot my uppers. To start with I soaked them in my good ol 5 gal bucket with a solution of the Zep degreaser and water for 3 days. pulled them out and pressure washed them to get remaining grime off them. Then Did a rough sand out of both uppers. Degreased and hit with my epoxy. I think they turned out pretty good....

Prepped:



This C.A here was beat up pretty bad on the end so I reworked the lip/edge, still not perfect but hellofalot better than preivous



Three good coats of epoxy later .....





Again not a lot of progress but I think what I did turned out pretty good, and am happy with the semi-gloss factory looking finish,....MORE TO COME............

[Bomp]

Got my attention.
Sub'd

Glad your feeling better.

[sixTsix]

Appreciate it Bomp. I'll try to not disappoint ya since my build isn't nowhere near as crazy as your's, lol. But I have to give you credit man, you got one nice build going on there!

[65Gregg]

Glad the beers helped you feel better! It was good meeting you as well, although I am sick. Not your fault, I'm sick because I didn't find my lens cap LOL. keep making progress.

[McMurphy]

As we are fond of saying around here, a little bit of progress is still progress !!

Looking good so far !!

Keep posting, it is motivating to see the works of other folk

[Zackarymc]

pretty sure you bought your 66 from a guy i know.....sorry for scrapping the inline so quickly.... neighbors would have complained if it sat out too long.

[65Gregg]

I don't know what's happening with sixTsix & his build, I've driven by his house several times but haven't seen any activity. Hopefully he'll check in.

[TJ's Chevy]

Admire your suspension parts in all their glory now because they'll never look as nice again. Nice work! Be sure to polish those once in awhile.

[sixTsix]

Originally Posted by 65Gregg

I don't know what's happening with sixTsix & his build, I've driven by his house several times but haven't seen any activity. Hopefully he'll check in.

Well to be honest it has been slow on my ride. To start off as I was getting ready coat my lower control arms, I realized that on each control arm the shaft bushing threads were stripped on the control arms. To the point it looks like the LCA's were machined with out them. Ok so onto my quest to getting lower control arms. During this I had some health issues arise that I have been dealing with the last month or two. So that slowed it down as well. And to top it off We ended up being 3 guys short at work for the last 3 months so I've been slammed at work , and combined with the Texas summer heat I haven't been as motivated as I should have been. But now that it is cooling off here in Ol Tejas, and im getting my health issues resolved, I can begin to get back after it.
I did get my upper LCA's assembled and back into place. As well as some of my breaklinnes, master cylinder and proportional valve. Son a little progress has been made, but due to circumstances it hasn't been as productive as I would've liked. Hell my plan was to have it back together by now ...but you know how it goes.

Originally Posted by Zackarymc

pretty sure you bought your 66 from a guy i know.....sorry for scrapping the inline so quickly.... neighbors would have complained if it sat out too long.

Zack no worries man. I just seen you classified a day too late I guess. Hell I was just going to pick it up for a future project or turbo it out and drop it in my 66 lol...no biggy man

[sixTsix]

"""pretty sure you bought your 66 from a guy i know....."""

Out of Huntsville? Because that's where I picked it up at

[Zackarymc]

the dude totally painted it black and called it a rat rod... just like all his crap its all so sad! .... good to see someone got it thats going to do it rite. The idiot that had it before you takes brand new trucks crops sprigs and cuts off exhaust and calls it bad ass. guy is a total joke! Keep going on yours its worth every penny!

[airspeed247]

^ I remember my first online forum. lol

Glad to have finally run across this build!

Unfortunately after I got out of the military I was at school full time when I picked up this truck with hopes of eventually building a rat out of it. Almost looked exactly how it did when the OP got it, except the rear brakes didn't work at all and the manifolds were cracked. (Fortunately someone gave me the headers so the driver didn't have to suck CO2) lol. Luckily I was able to get it to function just enough to get to work and back with the limited resources I had.

Knowing that it was temporary, and because I'd never tried it before, I cut the front springs to test the height and tossed on some easily removable Krylon. Even after toying with the ride height and color to see if I could convince myself to make it work out (I agree 100% it still wasn't "rat" but closer than it was), I decided it would do better in another's hands. I was fortunate enough to meet up with the OP and it's coming along great. That indoor carpet amongst other things had me scratching my head too. Lol, definitely subscribed and looking forward to its progress.

[sixTsix]

Well I don't have pics this time around, but I did make some more progress with more to come. My brake lines are complete minus securing them to cross member. I went back in and re-did both my cross member pieces, wasn't happy with the fit of the previous lines. Got my lower ball joints in the new LCA's, LCA's are assembled rdy to go now. So I have a short day tomorrow due to a trip to San Anton, but I will get started on reassembly. That's the plan anyways lol. Then depending on when I get back Thurs, will be back at it.

BTW just Fyi for those following this build and are thinking of running new brake lines, don't even think about it get the nickel/copper/iron lines. That stuff makes running new lines a dream.