First ever C10 project

[Alex41]

First I'd like to say Hello, my name is Alex and I'm an alco....sorry, wrong forum, I'm a long time car guy, first time C10 owner. I recently purchased this 1981 monster from a guy locally who bought it for his son when he was only 15. They fixed it up from it's sad stock state to what you see in the first pic, only the wheels, bumper, mirrors, and door handles were plasti dipped black. It sports a mildly cammed 350 with a long tailshaft 350 trans and a 2.73 posi 10 bolt...more on that later.

So far I've taken about 5 pounds of under glow lighting off of it, removed a rear leaf, rewired most of the missing comforts, bought new wheels, and replaced the entire rear end.

Funny story about that 10 bolt...it's supposed to be plenty strong but one or two wheel hopping burnouts will snap an axle in a heart beat. I had the wheel and half the axle pass me last Saturday when we tried to do a small burnout coming into our housing complex. My son was worried but I just laughed hysterically for about 5 minutes. I tell people all the time not to keep in it when it wheel hops but what do I do?

So I took the rear end apart only to find the rest of the axle is very stuck in the carrier. This forced me to buy a whole rear end. The local junk yard sells me one that LOOKS like it will work but turned out to be 3 inches too long. I went back and spent 3 hours trying to find a suitable replacement with no luck. The owner tells me he will have one pulled from his other yard and brought over the next day. Well...I get there the next day and there's a rear end that measured up correctly but had a few extra bolts on the cover. I quickly grabbed it up and went home. Dude sold me a 1974 30 spline 3.40 geared 12 bolt.

There will be more to come of this little project to include more of a drop and maybe an engine and trans swap soon.

Big thanks so far to this community for a fun and informative place to learn about C10's. Alex.

[73Super8]

Looks awesome! Great story about the axle. The things we'll do in the heat of a burnout. Cost me an engine once. Lol.

[Alex41]

Thanks guys. I may just have found a Diamond in the rough here. I took the whole interior out the other day to re wire the stereo and found 0 rust on the cab floor. The bed is a bit wavy but the kid who owned it did all his own body work. Can't be mad at the next generation trying to learn something for themselves.

[Gregski]

truck looks really clean, nice

[Alex41]

I may have gotten the deal of the year today. I just purchased a 69,000 mile LS2/4L65E with pedal, radiator, wire harness, and fans for 4,000 bucks. Greatest thing about this deal was the guy I bought it from was super cool, liked the idea of me doing a c10 swap, and we took it out together. We drove the car into his garage (with lift ) at 9:30 and by 11:50 the engine and trans were on the ground.




I also got a wild hair and did a little painting on the old beast. I really hate the orange but this two tone is pretty sharp. I may just rock this color combo for a good while.

[UKNOWME]

Dude, I love that two tone and the new wheels! Congrats and good luck with it!

[83swb]

Badass truck, that things going to rip with that ls2! I'm jealous.

[Alex41]

Thanks guys. The engine is pretty stout as it sits but I'd be remiss if I didn't put at least a cam in it before putting it in. Eventually I would love to twin turbo this set up but that's a ways down the road.

[Desert1957]

FYI , "Wheel Hop" while doing burn outs can break ANY rear differential.

10 bolt rears can take a lot of HP if set up correctly.

[LSX408]

Nice truck!

[Alex41]

Ok guys...Long overdue update here. I started tearing into this project on March 15 and now I'm just waiting for my PCM to return from my tunner. HOPEFULLY I've done everything right and this starts up and drives properly on the first try. Here are a few in progress pics I was able to take.











This is how NOT to make a cross member hump. I set this against a tree and barely pushed it with my foot to bend it.



So I made this...

[Alex41]

Got the suspension where I want it so now it's on to the alignment shop.

[1774btcrew]

Looks great! It is really coming along!

[Alex41]

Thanks.

I forgot to update the engine pic. I got these valve covers from a member here for a smoking deal.

[Rich84]

That engine looks sick..Luv it.

[MikeB]

Coils will mount where, to the top of the valve covers?

Also, was that an 8.5" 10-bolt that broke? Those things will typically handle abuse, at least from a small block with street tires. Nice score on the 12-bolt!

[Alex41]

The coils are on the truck remote mounted under the cab and wheel wells. That pic is with the engine running.

That was a 8.5 10 bolt I broke but like some one mentioned before, wheel hop will break anything. lol.

[MikeB]

Some seriously long coil wires, then.

[Alex41]

Actually they are no longer than your typical SBC style plug wire. I was able to use a kit from my local parts store that was a universal DIY kit and re used the LS type coil ends. Bit of a pain but I got it in the end...no pun intended..lol.

[willyp]

Good to see you again Alex, Love the 2 tone with the orange/white. Beautiful truck!

[Alex41]

You too bud. Thanks for finding my thread...reminds me to update the engine bay pics ..lol

[Alex41]

I was inspired recently by a thread from....I can't recall his name right now... but it is in the project section as one owner SWB. He put some smooth panels in his inner fenders so since I had to take mine off to strip them, I went for broke..lol.








Then I found some 73-80 inner fenders in a junk yard for a whole 18 bucks for the pair, stripped them, cut the jack area out, and smoothed them to match the firewall. Also...went a little crazy on the intake. All thoughts and opinions are welcome...won't offend this guy..lol. Thanks for looking. Alex.

[c-man405]

Holy crap you took a good looking truck and made it awesome! I defiantly need a ls2 in my life with a nice engine bay like that. But one thing that sticks out to me is the crazy factory brake lines coming out of the master cylinder. Other than that, you have one sweet truck!!

[Alex41]

Originally Posted by c-man405

Holy crap you took a good looking truck and made it awesome! I defiantly need a ls2 in my life with a nice engine bay like that. But one thing that sticks out to me is the crazy factory brake lines coming out of the master cylinder. Other than that, you have one sweet truck!!

Thanks, and YES...I TOTALLY hate the brake lines..lol. I've been wondering if the coils coming off the master cylinder are really necessary. If not I'm game to re do the whole thing since I want to do a disc rear brake conversion anyway.

[GMC Guy]

dude. Beautiful. how does it drive??
Wheel specs please! and i like the gas struts for hood springs, how easy was that?