Projects Flat-N-Low's '64 C-10 thread

Great job!

 

Awesome build! Subscribed.

 

I spent a little time yesterday evening prepping the transmission for paint. I gave it a good cleaning, blasted it air to dry it, and did a bunch of sanding to blend out any chipped areas. I gave it a coat of DuPont etch primer last night, and got up at first light this morning and gave it a coat of chassis black.
It's a 700r4 with upgraded internals (better clutches, sprag, servo). It's got about 20K very easy miles on it. The converter is a 2200 stall with lock-up capability. The cooler lines are some scraps I had in order to keep the ports clean, and the Lokar didpstick is going to get swapped to a stock style dipstick. I don't plan on putting any steel braided hoses under the hood, so the Lokar unit would not look right.

 

Im really looking forward to more pics! You're great at what you do....

 

Hey Alex, consider this... I don't like the eye wash of braided stainless stuff under hood either, but I do like the ability to place the dipstick anywhere it needs to be that come with the Lokar stuff. Get a chunk of black shrink tube that slides over the flexible dip stick and shrink it down and no one will be the wiser... If you need a chunk that big I think I might even have some to send ya.

 

Thank You for the compliment!

I thought about the shrink tube trick, but I have 3 extra stock 700r4 sticks that would all work. One is chrome, the other two are stock black ones. I have one that I chopped the tube and the dipstick down to a more sneaky, inconspicuous length that I'm probably going to use. Plus, GM has a pretty slick dipstick that has a flip tab that locks the dipstick in the outer tube.

 

Had a very productive day yesterday.
I am a real stickler about ergonomics whenever I build a car. It has to "feel" right, from the pedal placement, the column position, and especially the seat. I've sat in a lot of the '60-'66 Chevy trucks, and I've never been a fan of the "feel". You sit too high, the stock seat is overstuffed, the steering wheel is too big, and the pedals are too high off the floor. Because my '64 is essentially a clean-sheet build, I have the perfect opportunity to get the ergonomics tailored to my liking.

I was able to mount the column and the steering wheel, and the shape and size of the old wood wheel is going to be perfect, and it'll give me the '60s vibe I'm looking for.

On to the seat. I had two original '60-'66 stock seats that I played with, even using a pair of cut down stock seat brackets to get the seat lower, but I didn't like it. So, I wound up finding a bench seat out of the rear of an early '90s Chevy Crew Cab dually at the local Pick-A-Part that was in perfect condition for $70. It even has the flip down armrest that tucks into the seat. I put the seat into position, and it was a HUGE improvement over the stock seat, but it still needed improvement. So, with the assistance of Mr. Brad, we fired up the cut-off wheels and make sparks fly:

After careful consideration, it was determined that if the seat brackets had 2" chopped out of them, it would help get the seat down where it needed to be:


The shape of the seat brackets don't allow the pieces to come back together perfectly without a slight gap at the bottom, but that's not a problem. I will build a plate to cover the seat bracket and probably carpet it when the time comes.


This picture shows the new seating position. The seat is now lower by 2", and now that the gas tank has been removed from the cab, the seat is back all the way to the rear. You're not scrunched up anymore, like the stock configuration


The gear selector and the turn signal lever are going to have to be chucked up in the lathe and shortened. Right now, they're much too long.


One of the best things about using this seat in a '60-'66 is that you only have to drill 2 holes for the rear bolts. The fronts line up perfectly with the original nutplates in the floor. Again, thank you Chevrolet!

Next on the agenda:
Finalize the column position and "lock it down"
Gas tank(s) mod.

 

very cool im loving the truck !!
keep us posted

 

Dude, your gonna love that seat! Grant has one in his truck that the P/O did, and in working with ElPolacko over the years that was one of the first things done to a truck in his shop for a long time. I have spent many a mile on these seats, and they are about as good as it gets.

 

Chip, I agree!!
Chevy got it right when they designed those seats. The shape is right, the foam is just right, and I have the bitchin' flip down arm rest which was something I had to have. Even my '55 has this same seat.

I looked everywhere for this particular seat, but all the ones I found in the wrecking yard were thrashed. Beat to death. Low and behold on one of my "recon" missions, I peeked into a early '90s quad cab and GM used this seat as the rear seat in those trucks! It looked like nobody had ever sat in it. I was on that thing like a rat on a Cheeto. Every time another person would peek into the truck, I would start growling like a pit bull protecting his food bowl.

 

Moving right along!
Keep up the progress.

 

I have been working on mounting the A/C condenser for the past couple of days, so I figured that I should post up the progress. I have an original condenser that came out of a parts truck, but it's so fragile that it feels like it's going to crumble when you pick it up. Plus, I am converting the system to R134, and I need an efficient condenser designed for the current refrigerant.

I was able to find a guy on Craigslist selling a condenser out of a 1999 Z06 Corvette, and after he rattled off the dimensions, I knew it was going to work perfect. Here's a picture of it sitting on top of the core support. The width and height is perfect, but the inlet and outlet fittings were going to be a problem.




So, I got out the cut-off wheel and commenced to cuttin'


I had some square tubing in my scrap pile and made some pieces to cover the removed areas and tacked them in. I also chopped off the original outlet line because it wasn't going to work for my application.


The stock Corvette mounting tabs were not consistent from side to side, so they got whacked.




Grabbed some aluminum from the scrap pile and made new mount tabs and make my buddy Mike Jones TIG them in place.




Fast forward a little, and I drilled the core support for the AC bulkhead fittings, and shortened and reshaped the dryer clamps. I chopped up some new fittings to accept hoses at the inlet and outlet lines and had Mike TIG them on. I installed the old mock-up dryer and started mocking up the lines and have a couple of the hoses ready to crimp. I still need to get a #10 female straight fitting for the inlet line at the top and cut the hose to length. The mounting tabs will need to be drilled for mounting bolts and rubber isolators. Once this gets done, I'll blow it all back apart and send it back to the sandblaster to get it touched up due to all the grease and oils from working on the condenser. After that, I'll do a little body work, and it'll be ready for primer and paint (chassis black). Speaking of black, everything you see on this core support will be painted black because I do not want to see anything behind the grill of the truck. I always think that it looks wrong when I see shiny stuff behind the grille or body-colored core supports. You have to hide that stuff!

 

That looks bitchin'!

 

Damn nice!

 

It was a good day today. All it cost me for Mikey to do the welding was an In-N-Out Double Double and Animal-style fries. He's a cheap date.

 

Thanks, Chip!!
As you can agree, A/C is MANDATORY for us guys in the Desert Southwest!! It's been in the triple digits out here with lots of humidity for the last few weeks. It's freakin' awful.

I laugh at how many cars I used to remove the A/C from when I was a kid because I thought it robbed horsepower. Now, I won't even build or buy anything that doesn't have A/C.

 

The nice thing about the AC is that when you drive it to Phoenix to help Chip with my C10 you wont get sweaty while crossing the desert.

 

Ya, last week Grant and I BOTH chickened out on a work day 'cause it was 119 out! He didn't want to drive the thirty some odd miles down to my place, and I didn't want to work out in that mess!

Damn straight A/C is a needed item 'round these parts!

 

You are doing such a great job here. I really admire the crafty, sneaky, parts swapping, too. Gary

 

I was hoping to have it done by the Goodguys in November and sneak over to Phoenix and go to Dino's Open House, but it's looking unlikely.

And to think, my wife was talking the other day about us going to Phoenix in August (!) to go visit her folks. It may even happen earlier, though. The mother-in-law might be going in for surgery soon, and the wife wants to be there to take care of her Dad, who is absolutely lost without his wife to take care of everything. He pays the bills and drives her everywhere, but she does everything else.

The sneaky, stealthy parts swapping is a real passion of mine. I truly believe in "hot rod recycling", and try to use whatever I have in my spare parts stash or something that I can easily access. I refuse to pull out a credit card and order out of a catalog unless I have no other option. I'd rather try to make something work and then make it all look like it came that way from the factory. It's always fun when guys will look at your stuff and say, "Hey, my truck didn't come from the factory with that part".

 

I'm just diggin' on the fact that your doing some super tidy "salvage yard" type tech. With all the stuff we can buy off the shelf these days for our cars and trucks it's cool as hell to see someone do nice stuff with otherwise cast off parts. I know you and Brad and I think the same way, but for many it's sort of a lost art...

 

Awesome build! Love this thing...I really like the way your going about this and everything is just as it should be as you finish it! Great attention to detail!

 

F-N-L, thanks for all your truck archeology. Love your fab work so far down the road. Great info on front suspension work, cheers!

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I agree that it's becoming a lost art, and a lot of that stems from the magazines peddling new parts and the car-related shows that are almost infomercials for the supporting vendors. For me, I still view this hobby like I did when I was a young kid that had no money. I wanted cool looking cars that sat right, sounded right, and worked right, so I HAD to be creative with the limited funds I had. That meant a lot of research, a lot of time crawling through the wrecking yards and swap meets, and a lot of sacrifice of the "fun" things in life. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing, because I'm still having just as much fun doing this now as I did back then.

Thank You! This has been a project that had bounced around inside my head for many years. A '60-'66 Chevy truck, lowered with simple, easy to find factory parts, a dependable small block, an overdrive transmission, air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, and NO expensive paint job. I wanted it to be dependable, comfortable, and just "worn" enough that I'll want to drive it anywhere, in any weather.

Attention to detail doesn't cost hardly any more than slamming something together. You might spend a little longer sanding, grinding, and painting, but the finished product is worth every bit of the effort (at least to me it is).

Thanks! The front suspension was another one of those things I wanted to do for awhile. The caster mod was my idea, but the chassis "Z" was something that Brad has been talking about for 20 years. Either way, I was screwed on that deal. I was either going to comply, or he was going to steal the truck and do it without me knowing. I was on the fence about the idea because Brad wanted to fire up the Sawsall and start as soon as he could. I just needed a a very detailed game plan before I bought in on it. Once you chop the frame, there's no turning back, and my conservative side just needed a little assurance that the plan was well thought out. It turned out even better than I expected.

 

I did something tonight that I have never done before. I rebuilt my steering box rag joint. I had been shopping around for a new rag joint, but them little suckers are spendy and I couldn't bring myself to pay $75 for a piece of rubber. So, I started shopping around and found that Borgeson sells a rebuilt kit for $16. It comes with the metal reinforced rubber disc and all the hardware. It was easy. I even wire-wheeled the parts and painted them, and I was done in less than an hour. I'm going to do these rebuilds from now on! Definitely a money saver.

The original grungy rag joint from my '79 Suburban donor. After 200K miles. it was pretty messed up.


Here's all the parts laid out, cleaned up and painted, with the Borgeson kit (rubber disc and the hardware).


Finished product. The bolts holding the reinforcement bracket on look mismatched, but Chevy used two different sized bolts to attach the rag joint to the column. The steering shaft was two different sized holes to match the different bolts.


I plan on finishing the steering box and column installation this weekend, and I'll post up all the details.

 

I did the one on Grant's truck last month and there was virtually no rubber left in the disc!

 

Had a little time today, so I installed the steering box and tied it into the column, hopefully for the last time.

Clean and painted the steering box (1979 Chevy truck) and installed the rebuilt rag joint. The intermediate shaft is from the same '79 Chevy truck, just had to adjust the length a little to account for the different style of u-joint.


The steering u-joint is a Borgeson that I got for cheap off of ebay. It's brand new, but the only problem (for me) is that it's a shiny one. I would have preferred a steel one that I could paint black, but for the price I got it for, I can't complain. The steering column is a bit of a "Frankenstein" concoction. I never cared for the stock steering shaft on the 60-66 GM trucks because it's a solid shaft from the steering wheel to the steering box and won't collapse in a crash. So, I took the steering shaft and the lower bearing retainer out of a '67 column that Brad had kept for parts, and with a little bit of effort, got it all to work. I changed out the lower bearing while I had it apart. Man, it operates as smooth as silk.


Next up: Install the master cylinder, prop valve bracket and prop valve, and start plumbing brakes.

 

Nice looking steering set up!

 

Wow: Great work, Looooookin good

 

Your truck is bad ass. I had one of these in high school.Nice job!!