Papaw's truck - A C1ph3r build thread

[C1ph3r]

Well, I am a few months away from taking possession of my new 1970 C10 LWB. But I wanted to go ahead and start a build thread.

So the truck was bought new by my Papaw in 1970. He had his own carpentry business doing flooring. So this was bought as a work truck for sure. But he took great care of it. It is 100% original with the exception of the paint. It was repainted, factory color, at some point.

It has a SBC 350 and 3spd auto trans. Motor was rebuilt in either 94 or 99. My dad told me but I don't recall when for sure. Since then, it has had about 9000 miles put on it.

I wont take possession of if for a few months as it is still at my dads.

Once I have it will become my DD. So some stuff has to happen.

My plans for it aren't really that grand.
Disk brake conversion in the front.
Wheel Vintique Ralleye in 15x7 with 4" BS. Painted white with chrome baby moons.
3 point seat belt
AC
Air ride
and fix all the little odds and ends along the way.

Anyway, so here are some pics of it. There are some minor rust spots under the paint and small dings here and there. But I think it's in great shape.

[1Bad 37]

Looks good! Can't wait to see the progress!

Wish my great grandpa had bought a '67 Chevy instead of a '67 Ford!

[C1ph3r]

Originally Posted by 1Bad 37

Looks good! Can't wait to see the progress!

Wish my great grandpa had bought a '67 Chevy instead of a '67 Ford!

Thanks. LOL! It's funny, my dad's dad was a GM man. And my mom's dad and her grandfather were Ford guys.

No wonder my parents didn't last more then a little over a year

[Palf70Step]

Very nice looking truck. I'll be looking forward to seeing your progress with it.

[C1ph3r]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Very nice looking truck. I'll be looking forward to seeing your progress with it.

Thanks! I will certainly try and keep this thread going. I have a bad habit of doing things on my cars and not updating my build threads.

[Ta2Don]

Finally made it here!!! Great looking survivor truck you have...

Will be looking forward to your progress!!!

[cooperhw]

Very nice truck and plans. Start enjoying that dude. Resist the urge to "make it perfect". I love it just how it is (the upgrades will rock).

[C1ph3r]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Finally made it here!!! Great looking survivor truck you have...

Will be looking forward to your progress!!!

Thanks

Originally Posted by cooperhw

Very nice truck and plans. Start enjoying that dude. Resist the urge to "make it perfect". I love it just how it is (the upgrades will rock).

Thanks. No worries. I certainly don't want it "perfect". I love its current condition. I just wanna make it a little more modern for daily drivin' and low. Sooooo low.

[hotrodsinner]

Solid start! Clean looking truck and it's all there!

[RDrancher]

Updates?

[C1ph3r]

Originally Posted by RDrancher

Updates?

No afraid not. Truck is still at my dads place.

I am about to order wheels and tires. But nothing special.
12 Series Smoothie Wheel Vintiques Wheels
15x7 4" BS front w/ 215/75
15x8 4" BS rear w/ 235/75

Also, i have some LED dash lights waiting to be put in and a new turn signal lever assembly.

I will also be replacing the carb with a rebuilt unit from National Carburetor

That's about it at the moment. And until my dad decides to meet me to bring it to my house it will just sit at his place.

[RDrancher]

Glad to hear you're staying with 15's. Nice looking truck!

[C1ph3r]

Originally Posted by RDrancher

Glad to hear you're staying with 15's. Nice looking truck!

Thanks. Yeah ideally I would have liked to go to a 16 just for some more clearance and to raise the scrub line a little, but I love the way these trucks look on steel 15s. Hopefully after all the major work is done my next set of tires can be large white walls.

[C1ph3r]

Well, here's the first real update i suppose.

Brown dropped off an awesome box of goodies from Summit.

A full set of 15" smoothie steal wheels, rings and baby moons. I was going to paint the wheels and the moons but I think i may just leave them chrome and gray. I HATE chrome with a passion. but for some reason, i love how it is going to look on this truck.

[C1ph3r]

A quick update. Nothing to major.

Finished painting up my wheels and got the tires mounted. I'll try and get some pics up tomorrow.

Finally picking the truck up this Friday from my dads.

On order is a new carb from National Carburetors. Those guys were super helpful. Getting one with an electric choke and they are building it with the correct linkages to work on my truck.

Got a new set of LED dash light bulbs from a seller on Ebay named yitamotor.

Have a new turn signal lever assembly also ready to go in. The current one is shot.

List of things to do right out of the gate; install new carb, try and get windshield wipers working better than they are, get dash lights working, get turn signals working and install wheels and tires.

Thats it for now. I'll post updates and pics as I start tearing in to it.

[C1ph3r]

Alright. Picture time.

Made some decals for my baby moons today and test fit them and the trim rings on the wheels.

Sorry for the weird angles and for me being in the shot. I could not figure out how to get a picture of these things me showing up all in the middle of it.

[RDrancher]

Looks good. What color did you use for the wheels? Nice and creamy.

[C1ph3r]

Thanks. It is dupli-color's GM color matched white. Paint code 521.

[RaceAGMC]

Cool build neighbor. I'm right over by northlake mall. I've got a 70 also.

[C1ph3r]

Thanks. Awesome. Nice to start meeting locals. Once all the safety items are worked out, hopefully I can learn where meet ups are in the area and get out to them. Seems thr forum admin is just up the road in Rockwell. So I imagine this area has a good gathering at times. Hopping anyway.

[RaceAGMC]

I wish it did. Either there's not much as far as gatherings go, or I just don't know about them.

[C1ph3r]

First real update. Sorry it is a long one. More of a problem journal than anything.

Brought the truck home Friday from my dads. what a drive. 2 hours on the interstate in this old fella. Thank the Lord it didn't rain.

Only got a couple things fixed:
Problem: No dash lights.
Fix: Turns out all the bulbs were bad. Replaced them all with LEDs. While I had the light switch out, I cleaned up the contacts for the dimmer with some electronics cleaner and added some dielectric grease.

Problem: Drive side back up light not working
Fix: This needed a complete housing. Socket was bad. Could not make ground between the socket and the housing. Lucky for me the Truck and Car Shop has a location about 10 miles away. Picked up a complete new assembly and now that works.

Problem: Front side markers didn't work
Fix: Turned out the sockets were corroded really bad. Small piece of sand paper and some contact cleaner got that worked out. Replaced front and rear side markers with LEDs

Problem: horn doesnt work
Fix: trouble shoot wiring and check contacts at horn button when steering wheel is off

Other issues found along the way that have not been resolved and how I think to fix them.

Problem: ALL the side window weather stripping is bad. Well, all the weather stripping in the doors are bad for that matter. So that will be a long road to recovery.
Fix: Planning on buying the door and window weather stripping from Classic Heartbeat

Problem: Turn signals REALLY slow
Fix: New turn signal relay. I also have a new assembly for the steering column. The hazard button is broken also so this will fix that.

Problem: High oil pressure reading on mechanical gauge
Fix: No idea as of yet

Problem: temp gauge reads a little high for my liking.
Fix: research where it is supposed to read and possibly replace thermostat.

Problem: heat riser valve broken
Fix: replace with a heat riser delete. already have the part just need to put it in

Problem: very bad cold start up, faulty choke and general poor performance. Especially when cold. According to my dad
Fix: Starting out with a new carb with an electric choke. Already ordered and on its way from National Carburetor

Problem: windshield washer. There is one, but the hoses are all broken and were never replaced. No idea of the current state of the pump.
Fix: Going to replace with a generic pump under the hood

Problem: no over flow catch for the radiator. not really a problem but I want one
Fix: rig up some sort of over flow tank

Problem: found a rust hole in the lower right rear cab corner
Fix: find a local body shop to fix. Fix that and some of the other areas that could lead to problems.

Problem: LOADS of cosmetic issues.
Fix: fix.replace as needed

Problem: holes in the various defrost and heater hoses
Fix: going with Vintage Air so that will fix that

Once all these general safety and reliability items get fixed, I am calling it phase 1, and the truck is safe to be my DD, on to all the fun phase 2 stuff. AC is phase 2 but it will also fix some other issues.

Also the radio doesn't work. But that's also a repair for phase 2 or 3.

I think that's it for now. All I can think of after having the truck for a day.

[C1ph3r]

Originally Posted by RaceAGMC

I wish it did. Either there's not much as far as gatherings go, or I just don't know about them.

oh thats a bummer. would be nice to hang out with folks before I start asking for favors.

[C1ph3r]

What a mess. Get some coffee, this is a long useless rant.

i am the opposite of Midas. Instead of gold, everything i touch turns into a knuckle busting pile of rusty crap. With lots of cursing. My vehicles are all built with literal blood, sweat and tears.

Started replacing my turn signal lever assembly. Not knowing what all had to be taken apart. Fist my stearing wheel puller slipped and really damaged the threads on the shaft. So that led mt to have to go buy a die to fix it. Then after so trial and error figuring out how the shift lever and the signal assembly come out, i started putting in the new.

Along the way I had to replace the fiber optic cable to the shift indicator and the shift indicator housing.

I ended up putting it back together 2 more times because every time it seemed that I left something off. First was the rubber boot, then was the plastic busing thing.

On the plus side, I am a master at taking the top of my column a part now.
Down side, my horn still doesnt work.

So yesterday was spent teaching my niece how to use tools. But turn more into a if you buy an old vehcicle be preparied for anything.

So we were trying to work on putting in a heat riser valve delete.

I didnt realize all that would have to be removed as for the exhaust. I also didnt realize that how the donut gaskets were put on. i really messed up the downpipe area that the donut fits over.

to get the stock y-pipe to drop down far enough, i had to cut out the muffler. i am sure it wasnt original but wow what a rust monster it was.

so after many trips back and forth to the truck and car shop for parts thinking I was missing something, i finally decided to abandon the stock single exhaust. I needed new down pipes and muffler anyway so, I am upgrading to a Heartthrob true duel with turbo mufflers.

In the long run it isnt what I want because there is no way it will lay frame with all that mess hanging down, but the truck isnt driveable to get to a muffler shop, i dont trust the ones around here anyway, and I am a long way away from laying frame.

So for now, truck is stuck and not going anywhere.

Today's (03/31/2016) plan, get the horn working, get the turn signals working better, and maybe the wipers working better.

Thanks and sorry for the long post. If you even made it this far.

[dfwright]

Oh, my... I don't know if it's any kind of consolation, but I can empathize with you. I have exactly the same problem. Everything thing I touch blows up, falls apart, breaks, or disintegrates.

So, did your steering wheel threads look anything like this when you were done?