Soon to be C10 owner

[ShortHaul]

Hey everybody! Checking in here from Nor Cal. I’m new to C10’s but not new to classic Chevys. Love this site, the community and support, products and vendors, and of course the never ending source of awesome truck porn in the build threads. Big fan of automotive forums in general, ChevyTalk, 348-409, Pro-Touring.com, Tacomaworld (gasp!) and I’m so glad to see such a strong community here in the c10 world.

So... been on the market for a c10 for a few months, and finally found a winner. It’s down in San Diego, so the wife and I are going to fly down next week and buy it, then maiden voyage road trip her home. +-500 miles! It’s a 1970 SWB Fleet, fresh built crammed roller 350, th350, a few good suspension upgrades, new interior goodies etc.

I’m stoked! Can’t wait to go pick her up, and really looking forward to the road trip home. Funny I just listened to the C10 Talk episode where Ronnie and his buds go up to Montana and buy the truck, then drive it home to AZ.

The plan is for it to be a daily driver/around town pickup, then slowly go through it piece by piece.

Anyways, glad to be here, thanks for having me! Can’t wait to get the truck home and start wrenching on it, plus it’ll give my ‘62 Impala a friend to play with

[Getter-Done]

Welcome to the Forum.
You will enjoy that parts are readily available for these trucks.
More so than the Impala's. I have a 63 Impala.

[1968 baby blue C10]

Nice score man! definitely looks like a solid truck. love that seat. You're going to love how these trucks ride, assuming your has four corner coils. Mine even with about the maximum (unmodified frame) drop rides like a Cadillac.

[ShortHaul]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Welcome to the Forum.
You will enjoy that parts are readily available for these trucks.
More so than the Impala's. I have a 63 Impala.

Thanks! And you’re not kidding, I just scored a hood and a set of wheel tubs in mint shape for $100! The Impala stuff is wayyy more expensive.

[ShortHaul]

Originally Posted by 1968 baby blue C10

Nice score man! definitely looks like a solid truck. love that seat. You're going to love how these trucks ride, assuming your has four corner coils. Mine even with about the maximum (unmodified frame) drop rides like a Cadillac.

Thanks! This one is a leaf spring rear, if I’m not mistaken only the 67-68’s came with the trailing arm/coil spring rear suspension. But nonetheless there are plenty of ways to upgrade the suspension.

[1968 baby blue C10]

Originally Posted by ShortHaul

Thanks! This one is a leaf spring rear, if I’m not mistaken only the 67-68’s came with the trailing arm/coil spring rear suspension. But nonetheless there are plenty of ways to upgrade the suspension.

My dad’s 72 he had back in the 80s had coils on the rear. Maybe they were standard on 67-68 and an option on 69-72, I’m not sure.

[hewittca]

Looks like a nice truck to start with. This is the tactic that I always try to stick to. Find something that's a reliable runner (or only needs a few simple things to get there) and get some enjoyment out of it right away by driving it and getting to know it's quirks. Then you can move onto fixing or modifying the things you really want to do. Keep us updated!

[1968 baby blue C10]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Looks like a nice truck to start with. This is the tactic that I always try to stick to. Find something that's a reliable runner (or only needs a few simple things to get there) and get some enjoyment out of it right away by driving it and getting to know it's quirks. Then you can move onto fixing or modifying the things you really want to do. Keep us updated!

Hey man how have you been? I don’t know if you remember but you helped me a lot with my front end color questions a while back. I don’t know if you’re still subscribed to the thread or not but I finally got the bumper painted, I went back factory argent. Here’s a link to the thread if you want to check it out: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=752969

And sorry op I didn’t mean to side track your thread.

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by 1968 baby blue C10

Hey man how have you been? I don’t know if you remember but you helped me a lot with my front end color questions a while back. I don’t know if you’re still subscribed to the thread or not but I finally got the bumper painted, I went back factory argent. Here’s a link to the thread if you want to check it out: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=752969

And sorry op I didn’t mean to side track your thread.

Somehow I missed your update on that topic. I'll go on over right now and take a look!

[ShortHaul]

Time for an update...We got the truck!

We flew down to San Diego, caught a bus to Escondido (1 hr north) and met with the owner. He was a serious hot rodder, with projects left and right, been in the car business a long time. This truck was a project he never got around to tackling.

Initial impressions were good, about what we expected. Fairly straight and not much rust. The drop rails look great, rockers and cowl are in perfect shape. Cab corners are decent, one has been replaced, other has some minor bubbles but no through holes.

Interior is good. Still getting used to the digital gauges and dash. It’s nice that they all work, but I’m feeling a little bit like KITT in Night Rider. We’ll see if they stick around...

The initial drive was a little disappointing. The PO states it has a newly built 350, bored 30 over, cam and rollers. TBH it feels pretty gutless... it’ll at low RPM it’s a dog, but picks up around 2800-3k, but then it just shifts up (th350). It works all right, but not the torquey 1st-2nd pull I’m used to. We’ll see if we can iron that out.

Idle is lopey as all get out, idles at around 500 rpm and feels like it’s gonna stall all the time. But it doesn’t. Yet...

Anyways, we scooped it up, hit the road West to the beach and enjoyed a beer at the Pizza Port Brewing one Solana Beach, then sushi at our all time fave spot Station sushi.

Next it was a ride up the 5 to Dana Point where we turned in for the night.

[1968 baby blue C10]

Nice dude, glad to see you’re already being able to enjoy it. Got to test the reliability somewhat as well.
And yeah those gauges are a little crazy, took me off guard when I first saw the picture of them hah

[ShortHaul]

Time for another update from the road...

We made it up to Dana Point the first night and promptly experienced our first “Roadkill” moment. My wife had tracked down a hotel for the night on Hotwire, for a great rate since it was last minute, turns out it’s at the Hilton in Dana Point, pretty swanky joint by my standards. We pull up and are greeted by the Valet Guy, who is looking at the truck like it’s from another planet! And remember, this truck has a huge lope at idle, the whole damn thing is shaking and wants to lurch forward... He says “ummm can I help you?” I just pull past him and park it right in front, next to his Valet stand. He is too dumbfounded to really say anything lol! I don’t think he’s ever seen a rig like this. Parked next to us was a new Mercedes sedan and a Maserati. Meanwhile there is a big crowd of folks at an outside patio bar area enjoying cocktails and a fire pit, and they are ALL staring at us, and the truck. My wife was turning red at this point.

So we get checked in and unload our bags then I go back to park the truck. I wasn’t going to let the Valet kid touch it. As I go to fire it up, it won’t start. So there I am, cranking it over and trying to start it, it’s catching but dying again and again, at this point the whole group of people outside is literally staring right at me. I’m sure they are all wondering where the F this hillbilly came from!

So there I am with the hood up, and the air cleaner off, looking through the car and motor. And mind you, I’ve only owned the truck for about 2 hours now. I’ve started it a total of 3 times and each time it’s fired right up... now it won’t start. Plus I’m exhausted from a looooong day... I go sit in the cab and Think it over... I come to the fairly obvious conclusion that it’s flooded, so I let it sit, hood up for a while and then open the carb up fully and fire it. It fires up, finally! Then I give a big smile and wave to the group of people who were undoubtedly entertained by my presence, and lope my way into the parking garage...


Pics are me in front of the lobby, and then downstairs in the parking lot

[1968 baby blue C10]

Been there man so I feel you. Never quite in that situation though haha Could be the timing needs adjusted somewhat, just advanced enough to make it hard to start when warm.
And those people just don't know what a real vehicle looks like.
I bet it sounded SICK in that parking complex

[preciador6]

nice score.

[ShortHaul]

Gonna continue this over in the build thread! follow along over here!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=762766