I finally got everything tweaked and now the truck is running great, I took it on a 30 minute road trip on my own and then the wife on a 30 minute road trip without issue. That radiator works great and now I need to fix a couple things just to make sure I don't have to dick with it again and then I can drive it anywhere. She is staying at around 190, when its parked after a long road trip it stays about 205 then cools down quickly (5 minutes its approaching 160).
Well I have been busy buttoning random things up on this truck so my parents can use it all weekend. I need to have the wife sit in the cab and apply the brakes while dropping it into first gear so I can appropriately tune it so it will run how it should. ' I thought this was a cool picture opportunity because of where the sun was positioned.
Well I decided to go buy a thrush muffler to silence this thing going down the road. It currently has a glasspack installed and you go about def just driving in this thing. I will post some pictures and a video when it is done.
So I just got the truck back from my parents that borrowed it for the week to clean up the other house. She ran like a top and worked how she was supposed to. This is a great old truck. My dad and i did a full tune up, timed it, and got my feeler gauges out and tuned everything back to factory settings and she purrs like a kitten. I wish I had a picture but this truck had to pull the Stanley steamer van out of a muddy hole it made because it was stuck in the lawn. My dad dropped it in first and pulled that 3/4 ton van out effortlessly. I am happy with this purchase. This thing was packed with so much crap going to the dump that it looked like the grinchs sleigh from dr suess. I will need to give it a bath and buff the paint. It actually looks nice doing it by hand.
Glad your enjoying your purchase and getting to use it as its intended purpose as a truck!They are fun trucks to mob around and they are quite good as work trucks also, your paint looks pretty decent in the pictures cant wait to see how it looks buffed out, I bet the paint will really come back to life....
I still need to get around to that... but I figured if I am going to get it filthy hauling stuff for landscaping the house I should probably wait a little. I have a video of my wife and I cruising down the highway to get to the house to pick up some of my crap. Here it is: LostHope, you would be proud of this I am sure: I was driving home in the '64 C10 last night with the bed full of stuff from my parents house (bumpers for the '40 Plymouth, a bbq, a bunch of other car parts, tools and equipment, etc. and I was at a stop light. Keep in mind I had already been driving for 45 minutes, the truck was plenty warmed up, and I was ready to get home... Low and behold a couple in a pretty nice OT convertible pull up beside me to turn left and the lady in the passenger seat starts bitching to me how the C10 is bad for the environment. Instead of arguing with people that will never understand I just pulled the choke and let them breathe that for about 30 seconds or so ... This thing was belching unburnt fuel vapor and black smoke... I asked them "Is that better?"... Keep in mind my wife was in the car and laughing pretty hard. I am sure that was the longest 30 seconds of their lives. They sped off to get out of the cloud and I quickly pushed the choke back in. The biker behind him that was also turning rolled by my window and said while laughing "cool truck!" A couple lights down I impressed a pair of sexy water buffalo in a truck and their mouth-breathing children as I watched the kid say "COOOL". In all seriousness I felt pretty good about that kid being impressed.
So I found that the motor mount was really bad on the passenger side of the engine and needs to be replaced. It was subsequently tweaking my mechanical linkage and causing a lot of problems when putting it into gear. I will also have to pull the plastic gear for the speedo out of the tranny, replace the speedo cable, and install my tranny modulator. She is running and driving, but without a speedo and she shifts a little rough, so I will replace it and be done with it. We found when trying to tune it up that the distributor vacuum advance diaphragm was bad, so I had to replace that as well along with a full tune up. It seems like she is going to be brand new before too long... which is not necessarily a good thing
Well the C10 was earning her keep yesterday. The folks at Lowe's were worried that the truck couldn't handle the landscaping bricks and were worried about it bottoming out. I laughed at them and just told them to put it in. They were telling me that new trucks can't handle this much load... I laughed again and told them that she didn't have a problem, the guys that were there were amazed. She performed very well yesterday and didn't even bog down with that much weight. It carried it like it was nothing, I guess I need to thank the designers of the 250, the rest of the drivetrain, and suspension for such a stout setup. Thanks to my furry little buddy too for supervising the unloading process! Later (15 minutes after the unload) I drove the C10 to the local car show in Greenwood and there were hundreds of cars there, which is unusual... and 5 times as many people... I had a hard time finding a parking spot. I had several people come up to me during the show saying that they saw me hauling stuff today and that I shouldn't be doing that with a classic. I told them if they own something they can decide how it is used, in the meanwhile this old girl hasn't been retired yet. I had 3 offers within 5 minutes of parking and another couple when I was warming her up when I was about to leave. She wasn't really in the best of shape, still needs washed and doesn't look like a show car at all. I was kind of flattered. Here are a couple shots.
The wife did this on photoshop since she works with it at her job, it was kind of cool so I thought I would post it:
That old war horse sure rides smooth as evidenced by your little video. Love the choke out at the stop light story. Bet she feels great being used as a truck every day!
Yeah, I decided because she has been such a good truck that today I would have give her a wash and wax. It was like for like 4 hours today... lordy, what a job. I have a buffer, but wanted to see how well it would shine up with just doing it by hand... man what a difference with just two coats... Before I started was on the left, one is on the right is just one coat.. Here is what she looked like when I just got above the belt line for the cab and hood....
I know it, right! I decided to continue with the buffing wheel this time and got the drivers side part of the bed and the drivers door... Man what a difference...
I am trying to... having some problems with it lately. Here is the thread on what is going on: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=813678 What a mess.
I decided to take care of the C10 today after it has been giving me a hard time for the past several weeks. It's a love hate relationship. I want to thank Tom (tommyd on the HAMB) for letting me have a tranny cooler he had laying in his garage. I wound up not using it and returned it, even though it was free. It was a very nice gesture to someone he hasn't really met, but I want to make sure he gets a big thank you. I gave him a ride in the pickup while we talked cars, which I think we both enjoyed. Thanks again Tom!
Really enjoyed reading about the progress you've made on this truck. Looks fantastic and I can relate to several of the issues you've dealt with. Nice find and very nice work!
Congrats on a super score, can't get over how clean your interior door panels and dash are. The funky paint Chevy used on these interiors is an odd one that is tough to work with. Love these c-10's, four of them in our car gang. ~sololobo~
Thanks Jrockbass! I just threw in an HEI from Bubba's because I went through 4 ignition coils, 2 distributors and a set of condenser/points. This Chinese/Taiwan stuff really sucks. The remans from Mexico are even worse. I now am able to drive this without worrying about being stranded on the side of the road. I have successfully driven it about a week straight without problems, except a new issue that has developed. I had only been able to drive it once or twice in a whole month because of these problems. You definitely learn a lot when working on this truck lol.
This was taken by my wife a couple days ago and I thought I would share. I have been driving the hell out of it, one of the lifters is making a lot of racket, so I will have to see what is going on there still..... This next weekend I am getting a pretty nice sway bar kit for the front and some beauty rings for cheap. The guy traded for a project and decided to go a different route with the frame and wheels, so that left new unopened parts in a box, which included the beauty rings and the sway bar. Not bad for $130. I also ordered a new heater core since this one was trashed. I pulled it out and was surprised that it held any water at all (dime sized holes everywhere)... the previous owner replaced the blower motor, but didn't wonder why the motor burned out in the first place.... really nice lol. I also found some good speakers that were in one of the cars a while back so I will use the speaker wire that I bought and install the speakers under the dash somewhere. More to come soon
Nice long bed, it cleaned up real nicely. I've been driving mine since 2001 and can't see any reason I'd get rid of it. I bought mine from the original owner, it came with a shroud.
Well I installed the front sway bar from a craigslist add... the bar and components were way over 10 years old, but still good for $130. I also just got back from the swap meet with my buddy Dave and picked up some cat eye headlight covers... for $6 a piece you can't really lose. I installed them in a couple minutes, so if I don't like them then they can go on the shelf. mmm cheap thrills....
Do you know what size fan to use with this black plastic shroud for the 64-66 c10 with small block, I recently bought one and the fan I have hits on one side slightly?
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