I do love a muscle truck, but really if I was to do anything to this one it would be a suspension lift rather than a drop, but there aren't many options out there for the front of these 2wd trucks, if it was a K10 then it would be easy. Maybe when it gets to welding up the cab I will lift it off the chassis to make life easier, and maybe it will go back down with a couple of inches worth of spacers...
Now the importers idea of "really good condition" and mine differ slightly, as the tops of the stake pockets are fairly trashed from I guess having straps hocked onto them, and the passenger side rear corner has taken a hit at some point pushing the bottom in and twisting the tailgate mounting post. There is also a rather nasty dent you can see in the photo ^^ above the drivers side lights that will be a curse word to pull out, but ho hum, it is still a lot better than what I had before.
Now while the patina might look lovely to some, it is not my thing and the unpainted surface rust will soon turn into full on rot in our weather, so before it got bolted down out came the scotchbrite pads, rattle cans and hammerite...
Should keep it protected until I get round to giving it all a proper paint job. i need to get other stalled projects sorted and space in the garage before that happens though.
Back in October I spoke with a company that deal with importing from the US, to see if they could ship replacement bed parts for me seeing as you can get everything to build a brand new bed in the US. They offered instead to import me a good condition, dry state original as they were out in cali at that moment in time buying trucks / parts and filling containers. So after exchanging a few photos a deal was done, a deposit paid, and they would put a "very good condition" bed and tailgate into the next container coming over, due to get here around early December. Roll on to March and I get the mail that it was actually landed and ready for collection so a plan was devised. First was to strip the old bed off the chassis, as I had no way of lifting the bed instead my partner and I took it apart in big chunks, removing the tailgate, the 2 sides as complete pieces, the wheel arches, and the front panel, leaving just the floor on the chassis. The floor could then just about be slid off the chassis between us and dragged out of the way. Then I hire the biggest box truck I can on my license, drive 3 hours north, and get loaded up...
You can see that a) It is upside down, and b) it fitted into the truck with about 2" to spare (luckily one of those trucks where the whole back is a tail lift), and c) I also picked up 2 solid front wings and a replacement steering column...
No photos, but getting it turned over and onto the chassis was rather interesting. The process involved unloading it out of the back of the hire truck onto the road and using a combination of an engine hoist that wouldn't go high enough, a friendly next door neighbour, and some cursing we flipped it over and back onto the wheel boards. We then rolled it back onto the tail lift, lifted it up high enough I could reverse the truck underneath it, slid it off the tail lift onto the chassis and then carefully pulled the truck forward. All rather entertaining.
In all honesty, with 4 or 5 people you could probably lift it on by hand, but this got it done, and all in time for me to get the hire van dropped back off before the curfew kicked in and things got "awkward"
(it's not pushed all the way forward yet here for good reason)
And in the process of removing the old bed my partner managed to break a spanner, not saying that she isn't strong, but I think HBM quality isn't great. Luckily they were only purchased as some spares.
Bookmarked...I'm looking at importing a C10 at the moment, prices in the UK are just ridiculous.
I can't say that prices are great here, but working in my favour is that it isn't the most desirable. It's a longbed while most people seem to go for the shortbeds, it's a squarebody, and most people want the earlier 1st or 2nd gen trucks, and it's a C10 rather than a K10, I think if it had been the 4wd version it would have been more desirable. People here seem to love the dually as well... I prefer the longbed as the bed is actually useful. It's a working ruck, and already been put to use haulding sheets of 8'x4' ply and sticks of 2"x4" for building a shed, if it was a show truck then maybe a shorty would be nicer, but no matter what I wanted something I can throw stuff in the back of and not care too much, put the thing to use.
Not many photos of the early jobs, I wasn't really documenting stuff..
For a while I just used the truck, and that was fine, but then the weather started to get cold and I realised that as soon as the temperature dropped below about 5c outside it was basically undriveable. It came with a reproduction 2-barrel Rochester carb on it that has a pipe that runs through the inlet manifold and draws in a small amount of air into the choke mechanism. It had been wired permanently open, so no matter what the choke never did anything. If you did adjust it so that the choke came on when cold, the thing wouldn't start. Combine that with the wrong dissy hold down clamp meaning that the timing would go out, and it was a warm weather only drive.
Basically the 2-bbl carb is just far too small for the engine, and to get it to run it was running rich to the point of being eye watering to stand behind. When I bought the truck it came with a bed full of parts, which included a Holley carb with manual choke and GM cast iron inlet manifold for it, but where is the fun in that, instead I went shopping...
Edelbrock 650cfm carb, and bits to get it stuck on. A second order had to go in to get the correct accelerator / kickdown cable mounting bracket and kit to convert from the stock steel fuel pump to carb fuel line to 3/8" hose.
But with it all fitted up, and about 2 seconds of cranking to get fuel into the carb and it jumped into life first turn of the key.
This made the truck so much nicer to drive, and after some tweaking of timing and kickdown cable it doesn't go too badly for best part of 2 tonne.
You know how it is, stuck in lockdown, three(!) stalled projects, no mojo, and needing a new project like I need a hole in the head I was doom-scrolling through facebook groups for American cars in NL and cam across a C10 for sale at a good price. Asked my partner what she thought, and well lets say she is not to be relied upon as the voice of reason... So now I have this
It is a 1977 Long bed "fleetside" C10, 350ci engine with a TH350 autobox, and needing work. We went to see it, told it was daily driver blah blah, thats all fine until we get there (1.5 hours drive away) to find the guy has pulled the brake system apart to convert from non-vac assisted to power brakes. All well and good, but he hasn't had chance to finish it so it can't be driven. Useful... Anyway, agree a price based on him finishing the conversion and it driving okay when we come back a week later. When we go back, the work is finished, and we head out for a drive. Now, the list of issues starts
- It has no choke, so best to let it warm up before trying to drive anywhere - column mounted gear shift is sloppy - No parking brakes, only the parking pawl in the gearbox - Smokes when cold or giving it some... - Rot, lots of rot, mostly confined to the, front wings and door bottoms, but the can is going to need some welding at some point
This was back in September 2020, and I have been slowly chipping away at the list of issues...
Photos from the advert.
EDIT: It seems that some of my images don't show, there should be 5 in this post...
I am in the same boat, I need a $30 part but being quoted another $50 for shipping and customs costs.
Could you use someone like myus.com to get a US postal address and have them forward it on to you? If that saves you money depends on what the shipping costs are within the US, and whether the $85 shipping costs include import tax / duty as some shipping companies handle that at checkout rather than invoicing you when it lands.
I bought this back in October - '77 C10 with a 350. Got a few issues to fix, but since then it has had the load bed replaced with a rot free import from Cali (currently mat black), I have a replacement steering column for it as it has a 3-on-the-tree manual shift column but a th350 auto box fitted, (so no detents on the shifter) just waiting for a lock-set to arrive to get everything on 1 key. Oh and swapped the far too small 2 barrel Rochester carb for a 605cfm Edelbrock setup.
Hi Alex, great news on the job front, best of luck. curse word news on the car front, but as others have said it sounds CV-ish, the way it changes with road speed would definitely point to something in the driveline / that rotates.
You know the usual, if you want an extra pair of eyes / ears / hands, just drop me a whatsapp, even if its just someone else to bounce ideas off.
I was thinking about you recently! Thinking back to the help you provided, the much needed mental support that help provided for me as well as just the enjoyment of not always working on the car by myself. Also thinking of your projects...
We're doing fine, having escaped the Covid virus so far, yet also followed the rules pretty closely to minimise risks. It's still a trying time though, with loads of boredom on one hand and loads of frustrations on the other (working remotely is very different to working at the office at least in my job).
Yes I try to enjoy the Granada where I can. Also still want to do things to it as well. That leaky engine is a continuous bother in my head haha. The cancellation on the indicators and a front end alignment are to be addressed as well.
But as a car it's fun and at least it is behaving!
Would love to hear from you in more detail as well.
Good to hear you are keeping well. It has certainly been a tough year, luckily for me I already did some working from home, so switching to being full time at home rather than some days in the office wasn't such a big shift for me. Combine that with my wife working from home rather than living in Brussels during the week and it's actually been fairly good for us in some ways.
Projects are never finished, working on the cars is as much the fun as driving it I think. At least that should be the case, I have been really struggling to find the motivation on the big american car that is stopping me getting anything else into the garage, so I did what any sensible person would do, went out and purchased a Chevy pick-up truck
Hey Alex, good to see you are managing to get out and enjoy some of these nice days we have had. I was out running the other week near you (on the 20th Feb) and wondered how you were getting on and if you were out enjoying the sunshine, but now I look and see that you were!
My beach buggy had no seat belts, I always took the view that the strongest thing between the front of the car and me was fibreglass so in the event of a crash I would rather be thrown out of it. That was a late 50's car, with a 70's body on it, I guess as it was unsafe in the event of an accident it should be banned from the roads...
Having had my hands on the car, I shall add my thoughts here...
- The brake disks are fine, max 0.07mm run out. This was only measured on the outside face, and whilst there might be variations in thickness, I very much doubt it, that would cause brake pedal vibration rather than wheel wobble.
- I don't think the tyres are out of round, as there is no vibration when driving down the road. If they were far enough out to cause vibration and pull under braking, I think you would notice something the rest of the time. The car rides very smooth considering the big V6, lowered and upgraded suspension.
- Without changing the tie rods (is this possible on your rack Alex?) its going to be very difficult to pin-point any other issues in the steering / brakes. The play is too much great to be able to get a good alignment of the steering, let alone anything else.
- The car needs a 100+ km on it, to shake down / bed in / generally smooth everything out.
75 years ago, almost to the day, Operation Market Garden attempted liberate the Netherlands. To commemorate this, a group organised a convoy of military vehicles, leaving from Leopoldsburg in Belgium, crossing the border, up through Valkenswaard (liberated on the 17th, and where they rested for the night), through Eindhoven (liberated 18th Sept), and all the way to Arnhem.
Seeing as it passed within a mile of our house, I went off to waytch and take some pictures..
There is another group doing a different convoy on monday, who are camping in Valkenswaard overnight, so I plan to go have a look around on my way home from work. They refused to join todays group as they objected to the large amounts of vehicles on the road today that would never have been used in OMG. It seems that most people remember it as the yanks doing it, but in fact the airborne assault (Market) was mostly american paras, with some british and polish regiments, but the land based assault (Garden) was mostly British forces, with a some Irish and Canadian regiments as well.
Another vote for Span in Someren, they made up new lines for the power steering on my Oldsmobile when one blew, took a few minutes on a saturday morning.
If you need it, I have a drill press with a Morse Taper (MC3), so can handle the larger industrial style drills. Unf I only have 14mm, no 14,25 mm. A 9/16" is 14,285 mm, so close also.
As for thread locking - loctite 542 is a medium strength designed for sealing hydraulic and pneumatic fine thread fittings.
If you want a second pair of eyes / hands to help set the wheel bearings, you know I am always happy to come over. I'm sure you have it right, but I know what it's like when you just don't have the confidence in your own work.
With the rack, rather than a helicoil would it be easier just to tap it out to a larger size and either use an adaptor or have a new line made up?
Whilst I can weld, I fear a full exhaust system - especially without the car on a lift - is beyond me... kiwiparts would be my first call - he made the roll cage for my buggy as well as doing full sports / race exhaust systems from scratch, but a bit of a trek over towards germany.
If I can be any help, let me know. I do frequent trips around belgium if you need parts picking up.