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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
With the engine running nicely, it was time to look at the awful gear shifter, and the dodgy wiring, and it soon became clear what was going on...
That is where the shift linkage (the rod going down from the lever at the back) connects to the shift tube in the steering column, the issue is that there should only be one lever sticking out of the column, not two. What we have here is a 3-on-the-tree manual column, not one for an automatic. Looking up underneath the dash and there is also a part of a clutch pedal mechanism zip-tied up out of the way. It obviously used to be a manual truck and at some point it's been converted to automatic, and not very well.
On the wiring side of things there is no key for the column mounted ignition switch, it is locked in park and the steering wheel lock has been removed. There is a panel mount ignition switch on the dash instead. The reversing lights are on a manual toggle switch down where you can't easily see it, and the horn is on a push button on the dash as well. All told, it's a bit of a mess.
Luckily I had found all of this out before I went and collected the bed from the importers, and they had a correct column in their stash, hence the replacement column in the pictures above.
A quick order with Rockauto saw a box full of switches delivered from the US for half the price I could get them here, and probably quicker. It shouldn't be the case, but I put one order in at 8pm our time Wednesday evening, and received it the Friday lunchtime, having been picked, dispatched, and shipped from the US, via France. At the same time I ordered a set of locks (ignition, doors and glovebox) from a Dutch supplier and got them on the Tuesday. Madness...
I then set about turning the replacement column into a collection of parts, which all got a thorough cleaning, the visible parts a quick blast of black paint, anf shoved back together again.
Now, that blue switch there is the ignition switch. The key just turns a pinion, that moves a rack on the end of the rod going into the switch. The switch at the end with the wires connected is the neutral safety switch and the reverse light switch. I was very fortunate I think at this point, the column I had bought came with all of the wiring still attached, just the loom cut off, so I had all the connectors. The wiring in the truck had had the connectors that go to the blue ignition switch hacked off. Some splices and soldering later, and the wiring was back to "stock" again.
*mutter mutter* typed a reply, hit the wrong button, pft it went...
This all brings us to last saturday, and the last job before fitting the column was to sort out the ignition key cylinder. The column came with an original, with key, but I wanted all of the locks on the same key so an aftermarket replacement was going in. But well, we all know the issues of aftermarket versus original.
Original GM:
Aftermarket:
It might not look like a big difference, but see the spring sticking out the top of the after market one? That spring is what forces the tab on the left to stick up and into a slot in the housing, but when you slid the lock in the housing pushed down on the spring, forcing the tab down, and the lock slid right back out again. Some careful poking and prodding saw the aftermarket look like the original.
No photos of the fitting, because is was raining all day saturday, so I left my phone in the house, But suffice to say that with a bit of swearing the column is in and wired up. There is a clamp that holds the column to the bulkhead but you can't get a socket onto one of the bolts because it is directly below the brake master cylinder. You can get the open end of a spanner on it, but only to turn it about 1/8th of a rotation, so turn, flip spanner over, turn etc etc. Gah!
There is 2 issues still, 1 - The detents on the column mechanism and the detents on the gearbox don't match. So When in drive at the gearbox end, the shift lever is floating somewhere Between D and 2. 2 - I have no gear indicator on the dash.
I hope the fix for 1 is just a question of adjusting the linkage. I got it close enough on saturday that I could move the truck, but laying on my back in the rain that was as much as I could be bothered with. And the fix for 2 is easy, order a shift indicator from LMC Truck in the US, just means paying $80 for a <$30 part...
That is a big truck, and if you and your partners ambitions are the same, you will have a lot of fun.
My 79 Blazer was big, and shorter than a short fleetside but I did love it.
They are easy to work on too, and my advice would be not to tear it apart completely
It is going to have to get torn apart quite far at some point, the engine needs to come out and get rebuilt, and there is rot in pretty much every corner of the cab so to get in and weld it the wings, doors, and bed have to come off. At that point there isn't much left to it.
I am lucky that my partner loves these things as much as I do, so she is okay with it. She has only driven it a bit so far, mostly because until I got the engine running better and the shifting sorted it was not an "easy" drive, I think she will love it when I give her the keys a bit more... I am a curse word passenger though. She used to love driving our old series 2 land rover, I think once she gets used to the sheer size of this thing she will be fine with it, the controls are so light! I am also lucky that she is happy to get involved and wield a spanner where she can, though the last few days she has been doing the hard landscaping of the garden while I work on the cars.
That is a big truck, and if you and your partners ambitions are the same, you will have a lot of fun.
My 79 Blazer was big, and shorter than a short fleetside but I did love it.
They are easy to work on too, and my advice would be not to tear it apart completely
It is going to have to get torn apart quite far at some point, the engine needs to come out and get rebuilt, and there is rot in pretty much every corner of the cab so to get in and weld it the wings, doors, and bed have to come off. At that point there isn't much left to it.
I am lucky that my partner loves these things as much as I do, so she is okay with it. She has only driven it a bit so far, mostly because until I got the engine running better and the shifting sorted it was not an "easy" drive, I think she will love it when I give her the keys a bit more... I am a plop passenger though. She used to love driving our old series 2 land rover, I think once she gets used to the sheer size of this thing she will be fine with it, the controls are so light! I am also lucky that she is happy to get involved and wield a spanner where she can, though the last few days she has been doing the hard landscaping of the garden while I work on the cars.
Silly question..... do you have a cab hoist for the engine hoist?
Silly question..... do you have a cab hoist for the engine hoist?
I don't, and I may invest in something when I get to that stage, but at that point it will also be in the garage where I have a winch on an RSJ in the roof apex.
small things... had the door cars off today so that I could get in and replace the locks
Its one of those jobs that's not difficult, but really makes the car nicer for me, one key to operate both doors, the ignition, and I even have a working glove box lock now.
I also removed the non-functioning crappy speakers that were sticking out by a mile (literally 1" thick of plywood used to space them out) which has left me with the unsightly mess, but better than smacking my knuckles every time I tried to open the window.
At the same time I swapped the drivers window winder, the old one had snapped and the previous owner had used hot glue, a screw, and a zip tie to stick it back together, badly...
The crappy pushbutton on the dash was removed, and the horn reconnected to the feed from the loom as that works now that the column is replaced.
And one final job, my new keyring arrived from Aus.
Bigger jobs will start, when the garden is finished...
Been busy on the garden, so not much time to work on this, but I reached a point where I needed to do some fabrication in the garage, and that meant clearing up the garage. The large rear bumper that was on the floor of the garage needed to be relocated, and on the truck seemed the sensible place for it.
The truck has an awful exhaust system...
It is just some bits of box section welded together, and attached to some flexible exhaust tube. All hanging from a couple of self tapping bolts, or at least it was...
One of the worst things, other than the entire thing being really awful, is that only 2 of the 4 "tips" actually do anything...
Luckily fitting the bumper was just a question of balancing it on a trolley jack, and shoving four 1/2" bolts, through the brackets into the frame rails. It isn't in perfect nick, but a bit of elbow grease, a new number plate and it won't look too bad. I certainly think it looks better...
Unfortunately this did mean that where the exhaust system used to bolt there was now the bumper brackets, but no problem, raid the random bracket parts bin for some left over ikea pieces, and all can be fixed
Temporary fix, don't worry, tomorrow I have a 6 hour round trip to the other end of the country for some headers...
