Well I finally made the deal after two weeks of waiting. A pretty close to stock 1964 Chevy C10 Fleetside is now in my driveway. It has two fenders from a '66 and they tossed in the inline 250 and 2 sp powerglide from the same '66 with only has 30k miles on it. The compression check looked great, so the deal was made. This was a two owner truck before me even looking at it... The original owner bought the truck new and died in late 2011, where the second owner bought it from an estate sale in 2012 and basically let it sit. He was trying to sell it shortly after, but was asking too much. By the time I got to take a look at it a couple weeks ago he was asking $3,500 and I widdled him down to about $3,000 and had him work on a couple things for me on top of it. So this morning the wife and I woke up early and made the 80 mile road trip up to go get it. After crawling under it, going through it, and test driving it again everything was looking good. So we forked the clams over and took off to get something to eat. Here is the picture of me after walking out of the credit union and my new ride: After finding out the gas in the tank was nearly 2 years old right before I left.. I filled the tank up with some good gas and took off down the road. After burning most of the bad gas in the tank it started running way better and I was able to comfortably go about 65 mph without a problem. The truck drove like a Cadillac. We made it home without issue and parked it in my driveway. My wife is actually happy with it, it is her birthday weekend after all and she was looking forward to me getting this this all week. She wants to drive it around sometimes when I go over this with a fine toothed comb; I couldn't ask for more. I will have to adjust the idle screw so it wont die when I pull up to a stop light and will need to replace the speedometer cable. That is it, the other stuff is just general maintenance. Now meet the wife's new birthday gift
Nice score. The wood bed seems to be in good shape, receiver hitch, pretty decent shape overall! You did good for your wife.
Nice truck. I owned one with a 327 for a few years and drove it everyday. I'd buy them all day long in that kind of shape. Great deal!
You can't go wrong with that deal! A good looking. solid truck all around, one that won't eat up your time, and nothing is easier to work on when it does need something. That truck looks real handy. I like it.
Thanks guys! I got her parked in the garage this past evening and crawled under it again to take a look. It looks like someone really took the time to do patchwork to the floors and front sheet metal... but with pop rivets and aluminum (thankfully its just the toe board). Thankfully brand new repop stuff is dirt cheap. I also found out that some of the gauge cluster hasn't been hooked up yet, so I will have to remedy that sometime this week. I found that the 12 bolt 4.11 posi that it has in it is in great shape, I will have to pull the cover and replace the gasket, replace the carrier bearing for the driveshaft and replace the rubber trans mount and trans gasket, new shocks and brakes all the way around. Everything from the trans back is rust free and clean. The wood on the underside is in great shape and the original paint on the frame is prefect on it, it looks garage kept for sure, minus the front floorpan rust (might be a replacement bed). I will be removing the aftermarket mud flaps (hillbilly), have already removed the 4 different thick rubber floor mats, all of the magnets off the dash and removed the mountain division sticker on the rear window. I found that they put in some huge speakers under the seat, but they are broken (blown), so I will have to remove all those and the other crap under the seat. I will need to replace some of the hoses for PCV, the breather, valve cover gasket, carb gasket, exh gasket, lifter cover gaskets and oil pain gasket. I will also need to fix the rear tail lights (one went out on the way home) and make sure the reverse lights are working in it too... and I'll have to replace the tail light lenses too. It just needs a wash and for me to buff the paint on it. It sounds like a lot of maintenance stuff, but I have priced it out and it looks like for under $150 all of this crap can be done and I can be on the road again with a brand new truck. Most of of this stuff too is just stuff I want to replace, it really doesn't need anything, but better safe than sorry. At least I can go through it all and know what I am dealing with. On the interior I will just throw a mexican blanket on the seat for now, fix the wiring (its a rat nest), gauge cluster, and cab light, everything else seems legit and working how it should, including the new heater blower motor that I had the previous owner install, amongst other things
My wife says thank you for the birthday wishes. New update on it: mudflaps are GONE. 15 bolts for a 1 foot wide mud flap... I don't get it.... who thought that would have been a good idea. lol. I went ahead and pulled the tail lights apart and totally understand why they weren't working very well.. someone didn't understand the concept of a ground before they put them back together after "rewiring" it. So I am going to fix a couple things there and in the process I noticed that one of the shocks didn't have any fluid in it... because the huge hole in the bottom of it, I gave it the shake test again and man that thing likes to bounce haha. New shocks tonight and I will start taking care of the brakes too. Shannon is looking forward to going for a couple rides.
Nice truck, I've seen very few with Powerglides in them though. They're great trucks to work on and fun to drive. Bob
Brings back good times. I love these trucks b/c as a kid, I learned to drive and all the basic mechanical stuff from my dad's 66 GMC and my grandpas's 64 Chevy. Both of those were stepsides, but yours is way cool.
Way cool, I've been wanting a truck like that for some time now. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
well I pulled the rear drums off.. it looks like a car guy owned this last, someone put antiseize on the hubs for the drums and on the inside of the rear wheels. I inspected everything and even though the brakes are pretty old they are still brand new on the rear. So I am pretty happy with that for starters. The e-brake needed to be lubed so I did that and it doesn't hang up on the rears anymore. While I was under it I found that the carrier bearing was REALLY bad, after removing the driveshaft because the center u-joint wouldn't come out, the housing and mount for the bearing went one way, the bearing stayed in place though. I am going to have to take the driveshaft down to the local driveline place I go to and have them press this u-joint out. I spent about an hour trying to use a vice, c-clamp, hammer and socket and it was useless... I need to get it out in order to get the carrier bearing out (there is 3/4 inch nut that is holding the the back half of the front driveshaft on and thus the carrier bearing in place. I also went through and took a look at the carb and vacuum lines.... they are trashed.. and I am pretty sure that some are original to the truck because I have never seen lines like that crumble so easily... a saltine cracker is more durable. There are huge vacuum leaks on the engine, the pcv is plugged, the breather on the oil fill cap is plugged, and the vacuum hose from the carb to dist and then to the trans is cracked too. This will all explain a lot of the poor running of the engine and transmission. While I am down there I will replace the modulator just to be safe. I also found that the choke cable was hanging up and what was causing it was a loose carb bolt that holds the bracket down... the loose bolts problem.... the previous owner stripped the hole to the point that the threads were stuck in the threads of the bolt... so I am going to have to look for a new bowl for this brand new carb since the gasket is leaking big time. I guess I could helicoil it, but I don't think they make helicoils that small I will post pictures later today.
Nice score. Always liked those old C10s. Did alot of time in a '64 farm truck in my youth. Those 6s will take some severe abuse! Keep pecking away at the little things and you'll have that baby road worthy & rollin' proper in no time!
I'm a big fan of the 60-66 Chevy/GMC trucks. I have a '64 that I'm building right now. They were kind of the "forgotten era" of Chevy trucks for years, but now, people are realizing how good those things were and they have become really popular. There are still a lot of those trucks on the road today, and that's an indicator of how well those trucks were designed.
Safety comes first. Keep surveying the truck for the usual things that need maintenance. I'm wondering what the PO towed because the truck has a receiver hitch, electrical trailer plug hookup, and wide mirrors. The mud flaps were probably mounted to protect what was being towed, from road debri.
Here are some pictures of the carb, you can see that it is leaking pretty bad from the gasket and is going directly onto the exh manifold. I need to get it fixed before I start driving it You can also see the screw that is responsibly for the whole problem (the one that the choke bracket is bolted through) You can see why it was slamming into gear now (no carrier bearing lol) I am taking the drive shaft down to the local DS shop that I go to and since I have done a lot of business with them in the past all I have to do is spot the guy 15 bucks and he will press the bearing out, remove the carrier, install the new one and install a new u-joint. Pretty sweet deal Finally a picture of the ass end. I haven't gotten around to working on the tail lights again, but the wiring is poor, the lenses are broken and its just an overall mess. I worked on tightening the tail gate too because it was making a lot of racket. I need to replace the bolts for the latches and the hinge bushings too.
My air shocks, carrier bearing, and transmission modulator came in yesterday... yay! I picked everything up from the store and immediately headed over to the drive shaft shop. They got that u-joint out of there. It looks like someone didn't know how to install it, mushroomed the head on it, and continued pounding it into the yoke, therefore destroying the yoke. It didn't have a clip on the mushroomed side of the yoke... it didn't need one... and you wouldn't have been able to put a clip in anyway because the ring groove was nonexistent. So I am in the process of tracking down a yoke for the rear of the front drive shaft so I can reinstall it. The carrier bearing and everything else is installed and the u-joints are in great shape; I just need a new yoke and then its back in the truck. In light of it being so damn cold yesterday I didn't feel like being on the cement floor, so I started working on the dash to try to find out why some of my dash lights were not working, my temp gauge was not working, and why my speedometer was not working. I finally got everything out and unplugged after struggling with it.... it has never been out before. So I cracked open the case on it and everything was the same as it was out of the factory. I pulled everything apart on the speedo down to the main base. The speedometer would not even move with a 1/4 socket wrench and a square wood screw head fitting that I happen to have that is the perfect size of the speedometer cable. I then started using contact cleaner and man that loosened up so much that when I spin it I can go about 4 revolutions... perfect. I will reassemble everything after I clean it up. Oh and all of those other issues were just light bulbs, I will replace those tonight as well. So, I will hopefully be able to pick up my drive shaft, head down to the upholstery shop and pick up my other visor for my '59 Apache and fix a door panel on my jap car. Then back home to work on it. Pictures soon
Well I got the gauge cluster cleaned up, fixed, and put together. I reinstalled it and found the choke cable broken. So that was good to know and find out. I also spun the speedo and it seems to work. I also replaced all of the dash light bulbs, it all works a hell of a lot nicer I then decided to install my driveshaft. I had to get a new slip yoke because that one was trashed. Everything went really well and everything just fell together the whole time. It was really nice. I will install the air adjust shocks tomorrow. Then I will mess with the tail lights probably. I will need to order a helicoil kit for the carb and get a new choke cable. I still need to check into the breather/oil cap and the PCV valve. Then I have to reroute my vacuum lines, check out the trans modulator and THEN I can tune everything in.
anyone notice the brackets on the back of the tranny and the e-brake cables in the last picture?? Is that routed correctly??
Take it back, that cab light hanging down is a safety hazard. Nice score. Looks clean compared to some of the old farm trucks I've seen running around. You've already done a ton of work to it. Keep it up! The parking brake cable routing looks correct to me.
Haha. There were some big No No's as far as wiring goes in this thing that I have found so far to the tune of no butt splices and only electrical tape. I would think that would be more of a safety hazard! Anyone know what those brackets are on the back of the transmission? Seems like those should be for the e-brake
I recently purchased '64 C10 long bed stepside which has an ebrake system different than yours. I would send you pix of my ebrake system but I drove the truck to Los Angeles yesterday, and did not bring my camera. My truck has a SM420 granny low 4 speed. The ebrake really holds the truck in neutral on a steep grade. The factory assembly manual has been really helpful in checking to see if things are correct on the truck. The long slot on the bracket behind your transmission looks like it was designed for an ebrake equalizer bar.
GREAT!!!!! Find!!!! just a good ole truck,I love these year trucks,The standard shift one need the 5 speed trans in them.Wish the 65 I bought was as niceBut I am getting the parts together.GOOD one
that is what I though about the equalizer, but wouldn't know. Right now they are not serving any purpose, so that is what was kind of making me question it. The ebrake doesn't work very well in this truck and this may have something to do with it. Do you have a link to the service manual? oh and the next time you are down there with a camera, can you snap some shots of it for me?
Thanks! I am going to be heading out to the garage and getting a bunch of other crap done to it. I just got it registered, titled, and plated in my name this morning without any issues. It seems like every time I head to the DMV these people give me a hard time. I was in and out of there in less than 5 minutes once I sat down. Thanks Green! Still have more to do, I keep finding things that are broken that are essential for it to run correctly... fortunately it is all cheap stuff, but it is just adding to the list, which sucks big time haha.
Damn, I miss my Dad's '64 Fleetside. I remember when he bought it new . He was trying to decide between the pickup and the new Barracuda. My sisters and I learned to drive in the Fleetside. It was green, 8 foot bed, straight six with 3 on the tree that would hang up and a Barden wrap around rear bumper. I would have paid the $3500 in heartbeat and wish I could get my hands on one. It had the painted hubcaps too. Dad would drive when we did our monthly Boy Scout paper drives in the neighbor hood. Remember those? That truck could haul a lot of newspapers.
wow that brings back memories my grandfather had a 65 when I was a kid drunk driver hit him in 1968 and totaled it
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