New C10 Owner - Washington State - 1970 long bed build - Follow along!

[MotoPhotog]

Hi all!

33 year old Darren here from Enumclaw, Washington. I've been lurking the forum since looking for a C10 months ago, and I appreciate all the knowledge here without all the typical forum trolls. Lots of good info here, and I look forward to learning more. I'm a 2 wheel guy (Bultaco, Peugeot, 70's 2 stroke Yamaha/Suzuki) type, guy... but I've always loved late 60's early 70's 4 wheel also, so here I am. I have the tools and space, just don't have a lot of knowledge and time. After making a purchase, I figured I'd share a few photos of my "rolling, driving" project C10. Its a 70 Long bed, and its in what I'd consider above average condition.

Dream/idea of the truck: DRIVER. I've had a 69 Chevelle show car that my dad and I took FIFTEEN YEARS to build. It sat and sat and ate my pocket away, never drove it. Finally finished it enough to drive, never wanted/felt comfortable taking it anywhere so I parted ways with it to a guy in Oklahoma. I want to drive this. I want my wife to enjoy it (she already took it to work! ) Its going to sit outside. It rains 7 months a year here. its going to have a motorcycle or 2 in it, at some point. Looking for a usable, drivable, long, and low comfortable cruiser. No notching, cutting, fabbing. Think paint/chrome, engine, 20's, and that's it.

Keys going for it:

Already lowered 6"
No rust
Clean title, paperwork handled, title en route.
Gold c/10 "custom" Interior appears stock, and is in pretty great shape.
New headers, exhaust, distributor, alternator, battery.
350 is "ok", sounds healthy, starts right up.
Bed is all steel, no rust, tailgate works great.
Dash, lights, taillights, signals, radio, power brakes, power steering, all work.


Things to address immediately:

Headlights point at the damn ground.
Warn Bushings, new shocks.
Fuel smell inside the cab
Tires have some slight cracking/rot
Re-torque heads, manifold, headers, exhaust.
Horn doesn't work
Door locks


Things I'll be doing in the next 6~12 months:

Not only for looks, but also for safety. Used wheels/tires are on the agenda asap.
Every panel needs some sort of love. We'll be pulling dents. Which should be fun.
truckbed to receive the line-x treatment
Slowely and surely purchasing a few upgrade/replacement pieces of exterior trim
Sand/prep/prime for paint.


I brought it home and the first night it sounded like an old bed. The rubber bushings on the left side are shot. I shot everything I could with WD-40, but realize I need to grease all the points on the A arms and swaybar, and it MIGHT come back to life. New bushings are probably in the future. The headlights point about 4 feet in front of the truck. Apparently this was never driven after dusk! We noticed I filled the tank over fill, (no idea how many gallons are behind the seat there) but we had just under 1/4 tank and I think I fit 14.4 gallons? The smell dissipated over the length of the drive home (45 miles) from Bremerton, Washington. Maybe over filled? I read that the breather hose that leads out the bottom dryrot/cracks, and should be replaced?


We've owned the truck for less than a week, 2 nights ago I jacked the truck up (the floor jack cleared by 1/4 inch) and removed the drivers side front tire, and could actually jiggle the shock. That's no good. So I pulled them out for some Monroe specials. (cheap) But they work wonders. Couldn't believe how much they stiffened things up.

For now that's where I'm at. I'll be loading a few photos next.

[summitflier]

Hi neighbor, good luck.

[MotoPhotog]

Roof is white - body is a dark blue jean color.

Just rolling away from the previous owners home, grabbing some fuel, heading home. You'll notice the 1/2" deep. 2 feet wide push in on the front section of the bed. The bumpers, lights, grill, tailgate, and hood are pretty good. The exterior of bed and front left quarter need some work. But solid. No rust.



This is also the first car from the 60's or 70's with NO must smell I've ever owned. I think it was stored indoors actually.




Crooked plate removed. But not before I took a photo. New plate out back.




Replacement panels unpainted.






Wife wasn't really behind the idea of another vehicle, but she not only enjoys it but she's surprised people give her thumbs up and looks, besides its dented! Either way she'll enjoy it/drive it as much as I will. Power brakes and steering, and new shocks up front make it a pretty smooth ride. No rough bumps or touching "bumpstops" yet, thusfar.

[MARKDTN]

Looks like a great start!

[Already Gone]

Cool looking truck and welcome to the boards.

[trac209]

Nice truck congrats. I like seeing truck builds that aren't trailer queens for sure.

[CST10]

Love a long bed. Nice truck.

[LPoole]

nice looking truck. welcome. haven't had my truck long either. my wife gave me crap about mine too... until she drove it. now she loves it. no p/s, p/b though. that would just spoil her lol. subbed

[rattle69]

Nice score! Love the color combo

[Dentguy]

DB

I told you this is a great forum!!!!

[leadfoot067]

nice truck!

[MotoPhotog]

Thanks for the welcome!

[Fatherof3]

Congratulations on a great find!

Also great to see another classic C10 on the road here in Puget Sound

[5567Cruiser]

Congrats, very nice truck, I am sure you will get many thumbs up on that one. Welcome to the site and if you have any problems there are other members with years of experience with these trucks to give you good advice.

[WarMonger]

great looking truck

[70's luvr]

That's cool you're wife like driving it!

[68 Stepper]

Great lookin truck!

[MotoPhotog]

Thanks guys.

Going to pick up some wheels on the cheap today. Tires are almost gone, but they'll be better than the dry rotting tires that are on it.

I'll post here with all my updates.

Very cool to see so many folks not only in the PNW, but literally in my backyard, on this forum.

[MotoPhotog]

1st upgrade, first issue.

I drove all the way to the coast today after work, and just got home. All in all, my ass sat in a truck for 6.5 hours on top of a 8hr day. Well heres the story with some photos.

The wheels are 20x8.5, with a 6x5.5 bolt pattern off of a 2002 Chevy Tahoe.

Issue is the back plate against the drum. The centering hole is 3" across on the rim, and the drum is 3.5. Thus, I am missing about 1/4" of clearance needed to have the wheel all the way on, secure, mounted.

How do I go about fixing this issue fellas?

Thanks in advance.







Back of wheel.




Too tall of a tire, but I'm hoping these clear for a few months. If they rub i'll have to just keep them off to the side til I pull the trigger on new tires. I'll likely go 45 series on those new ones.

[magwakeenercew2jh]

Originally Posted by MotoPhotog

1st upgrade, first issue.

I drove all the way to the coast today after work, and just got home. All in all, my ass sat in a truck for 6.5 hours on top of a 8hr day. Well heres the story with some photos.

The wheels are 20x8.5, with a 6x5.5 bolt pattern off of a 2002 Chevy Tahoe.

Issue is the back plate against the drum. The centering hole is 3" across on the rim, and the drum is 3.5. Thus, I am missing about 1/4" of clearance needed to have the wheel all the way on, secure, mounted.

How do I go about fixing this issue fellas?

Well, I hate to say that this is another good lesson on situations where "on the cheap" isn't. I've done this kind of stuff too many times.

With this one, it's clear that somethings got to go. Round peg doesn't fit in a smaller round hole, and all.

Sooooo, I see two options.

1) Turn the centering lug down by almost a half inch;

-or-

2) Scour e-Brail for 6 lug spacers with six studs. Making sure, of course, that the spacers have 3.5" centering holes and are wide enough to fully envelop the centering lug.

Neither option is inexpensive. Unless you know a machinist. That option (#1) would be the much preferred of the two. And, maybe the less expensive.

Good luck.

[swamp rat]

I could be wrong but i don't think that backing plate is stock by any means, maybe it can be removed easley?

Welcome from Spanaway by the way.

[magwakeenercew2jh]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

I could be wrong but i don't think that backing plate is stock by any means, maybe it can be removed easley?

Welcome from Spanaway by the way.

Oh, yeah...From Coarsegold, as well.
I wondered about that.

I know very little about 6 lug stuff.

[leadfoot067]

it doesnt look to me like the wheel will take a bigger hole, your best bet it remove the axles and have the center machined down..it wont hurt the axles at all..the drums are hubcentric,and your going to lose that,but the ones ive done this to it hasnt been an issue.

[magwakeenercew2jh]

I have to add, that's a beautiful truck.
Whatever you do, it will be worth the time and effort.

I took the liberty of showing you a new shoe in the front. I don't have time to do the rear tonight. But I did smooth out a couple of your dings.
Personally, I'd be happy to run that rig WITH the dings and all.

Here you go. If you want the rear done, too, let me know.

BTW, There are people that would KILL for those rallys.

[MotoPhotog]

THanks guys. Yeah, for sure, everything is a learning process. I learned long ago its 10x better to put the white flag up and ask when theres a problem/issue, vs guessing or acting like you know. I'm 100% open about the learning process.

@mag, wow, cool thank you. The wheels are quite drasticly different and from what I saw when mounting it, though a tight squeeze, I think they might fit.

I should have taken a photo of the truck lowered back down with 1 wheel on. Oh well. These wheels are called "MB Bruisers" 20x8.5 tires are 265/75/20.

Not sure they'll fit the front. Either way, didn't have 2k to drop on new wheels right now. So its going to come along as business flows. As we all know what that's like.

My friend Mark and his father own a machine shop. Maybe they're comfortable turning them down 1/2" or a touch more, to clear.

After a long long long day yesterday, I was in no mood to poke around, remove drum to see if that aluminum "centering" section can be removed.