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

Hey Alex, how about some more?

 

Well, I feel like one hell of an underachiever. Awesome work Alex. I'm going to go out and try to get mine running cool enough to get me to a dryer climate.

 

Wow! I hadn't looked at this, i figured it was just another airbagged belly flopper.
Man was I wrong, this is a first class job.
I see ill be stealing some of your great ideas for my '64 shortwide.
Damn, nice!
Love the ET's with the ET caps, I have a set of Crestlines for mine.

 

My work schedule has been hectic lately, but I have been doing some stuff on the truck in my spare time. Most of it has been bodywork on the inner fenders and core support, and making A/C lines. I should take some pictures, but I thought that people might find them a little boring.

I'm guessing that your crazy summer work schedule should be tapering off soon, and you'll be heading to Arizona for the winter like last year? Winter in Arizona is fantastic, and that'll give you a jolt and you'll be back to kicking butt on your truck.

Thanks for the kind words! I've had a bunch of Chevy trucks of the 73-87 style, but my favorite was always the '60-'66 style because they were always treated like the stepkid, and I always thought that they were the coolest looking. It only took me about 30 years to finally get one.

There is a huge trend on the '60-'66 trucks to drop them on the rockers and put 20" wheels and rubber band tires on them, but I am not a fan of that look. My initial idea was to lower the truck by using very easy to find arts, do some creative fab work, and keep it all within a very reasonable budget. I've puts lots of man-hours into stuff that nobody will notice or see, but that's the kind of stuff I like. 99 guys may walk past the truck and never notice but it's that ONE guy who does that makes it all worthwhile.

Feel free to copy some of my ideas. Hell, PM me from time to time and I'll help you in any way I can.

About the wheels.....Holy crap, I went through Hell trying to figure out what to run. They had to be 5-spokes, they had to be 15", they HAD to have straight spokes, they HAD to have the right offset, and they HAD to be a 5x5 bolt pattern. Sounds easy, but it wasn't. I literally looked for months and nothing seemed to work. The ET Supers fit the bill perfectly, and the funky oval center cap is kinda cool. I'm real happy with them.

What sizes are your Crestlines? A bit of trivia...Crestline was the first manufacturer back in the '60s to make 15x10 5-spokes in aluminum. Companies came along later and made their own versions, but Crestline was the first. A set of original 15x10 Crestlines bring big dollars, if you can find them. They are a great looking wheel.

I promise I'll start posting pictures again of what I'm doing and get this thread spinning back up again.

 

Sorry, double post.

 

What a great build. I really like your approach and creativity. Not a big fan of long beds in general, but I like this one a lot. The side profile just looks "right"

 

Oh my this truck is TITS!! Good job

 

Great attention to detail. You make the changes look like they came from the factory....Awesome build.

 

Alex , I don't know how I missed this thread but sure am glad that it found me ! What a nice piece of work that you're doing on that pickup . And here I thought that you were just the cool guy that hung out with Brad . Now I know that he's the cool guy that hangs out with you !! Looking forward to your future posts .

 

Holy crap, Phil Whetstone commented on my thread! Thank You for the kind words. You are one of my all-time favorite pinstripers, and to have you think my truck is OK has made my day. Regarding the '64, there is something planned for the exterior that I think you'll really like. It kind of ties in to where we all were last weekend (The Hot Rod Reunion). Brad, Tom Clark, and I are going to tag-team it, so I'm really excited.

About the "cool guy" thing, thanks for reminding me that Brad is a couple of months behind on his friendship payments.

 

this truck rocks, nice work

 

Those tag team sessions can work out pretty good , just be sure and save the beer until you're finished .

 

Wow Alex! I saw this thing on a wheel thread, and commented on the oval cap ET's, but I never saw the build thread till now! Impressive!

 

It's been awhile, but that does not mean that I haven't been bustin' on the '64. As a matter of fact, I have been doing a lot of work, but it just wasn't exciting enough to post up pictures. Most of what I was doing was bodywork on the inner fenders and prepping the under-hood parts for paint. Man, I have a real respect for the guys who do bodywork for a living.
If you remember, I took out a 2" lower section of the inner fenders to compensate for the 2" Z we did on the chassis. It was important to me to have it all look factory, so that meant that I had to do some welding and bodywork. Here's a shot of the driver's inner fender right before we primed it.

And the passenger side:

So after a bunch of sanding and prep work, the parts were ready for paint. Brad offered to do the spraying, and another buddy, Ryan, offered up the use of his shop. A big thanks to Brad and Ryan for doing this!




The funny part of this is that the paint we used was a Frankenstein mix of a couple of black enamels and it turned out perfect. I'm a stickler for chassis black, and it has to be the right sheen to look "right", and this batch has the perfect eggshell sheen I was looking for. And to top it all off, instead of using the high-dollar Iwata spray gun, we used a $15.99 Harbor Freight special and it worked incredibly well.
The next step is to assemble all of the stuff on the core support and start installing parts! More pics to come...

 

Very nice thread here. Very informative. Everything I looked for (comparatively) was in this thread. Kudos.

 

Thanks for the inspiration to keep my 66 c-10 build going. Truck looks great. Are you going to run bias-ply tires on this truck?
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No, I'm running radials. I like the ride and the handling of a radial over a bias ply, and plus, this truck will be pulling a racecar trailer from time to time.

 

Alex-
I just found your build thread. I don't know how I missed it all this time. I think my boss is going to fire me for reading it all today. Oh well I'm tired of work anyway. It's looks great and I like your wheel choice. Thanks for the tip about CLR and scotch brite pads. I've never used them on my rusty junk before. Can't wait to see it finished!
Rick

 

Rick-
I tossed this thread onto the HAMB not too long ago. I also have a parallel thread on this same truck on www.67-72chevytrucks.com. I basically did a cut/paste from that thread and created this HAMB thread. With my crazy work schedule, I don't get as much time as I would like to work on it, but it's coming along.

Don't worry about your boss, he'll understand. I heard that he's a car guy......

And another thing...I don't know if you saw the "donor" Suburban that I used for the front suspension and rear axle. You can see it in the background on Post #9. It's Terry Finch's old brown Suburban!! I'm sure you remember that thing. He drove that thing for years, then he sold to a buddy of his (Dave Gaus) who is my neighbor. I wound up with it, and the rest is history. It was possibly the best donor vehicle I have ever had. All of my buddies used parts from it, and when it was all picked clean, I got almost $300 for what was left. One of our friends even used a portion of the roof skin to fill the top on his '34 Ford sedan!

 

Looking good Alex! I'm deep in C-10 world too right now with "endlessearth's" '64 in for a humpy little 355 and Tremec TKO 500 conversion and engine compartment detail.

 

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. I may even have some spare parts if you need 'em.

Oh, and when are you going to get a '60-'66? If there's anybody who could use a truck, it's you. You're always hauling parts around, and a "Chip Style" truck would be too cool. I had a good chuckle on your T-Bucket thread about you and Judy road-tripping and hauling stuff home in that thing. I could never get Lynn to ride in one of those because it would mess up her perfect hair (her words).

 

Soon mang, soon. But with Judy to hold onto radiators in the 'Bucket, it's hardly necessary...

 

The weather has been cold and rainy for the past few days, so it has given me an opportunity to turn up the heater and the tunes in the garage and get crackin'.

Today's project was assembling the A/C condenser, the receiver/dryer, and the lines on the newly painted core support. I'm real happy with the results:



I don't like the look of a body-colored core support poking through the grill of any car or truck, so everything had to be black. If you recall some posts from a few months ago, I modified the core support to accept a 2001 Corvette A/C condenser. It meant that I had to cut pockets in the uprights to give clearance for the inlet and outlet fittings. I used a couple pieces of 2"x 2" square tubing to fill the cutouts and Mig welded them in. The hard line at the inlet on the bottom of the condenser is a combination of the factory Corvette line and a #6 A/C crimp fitting that I had a buddy Tig weld together. The factory outlet line at the top of the condenser was chopped off and a fitting to accept a #10 Beadlock style A/C hose was Tig welded on. All of the fittings were bought on ebay for cheap, the hose was extra pieces I had laying around, and a buddy crimped them for me. The dryer was also an ebay special ($14.99). I put some heat shrink on the dryer clamps to tighten them up a little bit and to also insulate the dryer from metal-to-metal contact. The core support actually looks better in person versus the picture because the camera flash really does a number on the stain black and makes it look blotchy and shiny.



Next task: Install all of the rubber seals on to the inner fenders.

 

Nice truck!

 

HHHMMMMNNNN, shrink tube over the dryer straps! Duly noted and consider it stolen for my next install...

 

WOW!! I just finished reading through this thread. The junkyard tech is an art that you have perfected. I like that you are making parts to "look" and work like factory but still holding true to factory original. I wish I had that skill. I like the subtleties of making stuff clean, ergonomic and better than when originally designed. The truck you're building is awesome, I'm subscribed and looking forward to updates.

 

Thank you for the nice compliment.

I've always been this way, and it stems from my days when I had huge dreams and no money. I'd read all the magazines and see something that I liked but knew that I could never afford it. I would hit the wrecking yards, swap meets, and look through all of my buddy's scrap piles and build whatever I could. I found out pretty quickly that if you did your homework and spent a little time with a grinder and some paint, you could have something that worked, was super cheap, was often stylish, and fooled nearly everyone. I still love having someone stare at something you built for a long time with a confused look on their face. They just can't figure out what they're seeing. It looks factory, but it's not like anything they've ever seen. I tend to spend way too much time worrying about the details, but that stems from my 30 years in aerospace where everything has to be right. I've always said that if I had 100 people look at my stuff and only 1 guy figures it out, then I've done my job.

 

Great thread?!!!

 

Dead on the money.

 

Thanks for the comments, guys! I've been on a roll, and today was a big day. It was time to start bolting stuff together for the last time. No more mocking up and taking it all back apart.

I realized that I had never taken any pictures with the engine installed. It's been installed for a few months now, but I've been focusing on other stuff, so I apologize. Here it is:


We had to to be extra careful installing the inner fenders and core support, and I'm lucky I had Brad helping me. This is definitely a 2-person job. We had a few issues to contend with and a couple of holes needed to be slotted slightly, but that's to be expected when you're putting one of these things together and trying to make it all fit right.



Here's a teaser shot of how the inner fender lower edge sits in relation to the frame. It looks factory, and that's what I was going for. I don't want anybody to figure out that the chassis has been Z'd. I've got more time in those dumb inner fenders than I want to admit, but it was all worth it.


In all of the excitement, I forgot to take pictures of the core support installed. I can't believe I forgot to do it, but take it from me, it looks good. I promise to take pictures of it next weekend when I get back on it. I have a big list of things to accomplish next weekend, and if it all goes to plan, the front sheet metal will be on the truck.

A big thanks to Brad for the helping hand. We thought we were in for trouble when the driver's fender to door gap was huge and we were completely out of any more adjustments. We couldn't move the fender back anymore. After about 45 minutes of racking our brains, Brad figured out that the driver's front cab mount needed to be shimmed up. Once we jacked up that corner, the gaps came in perfectly. I was thinking the worst and figured that the inner fenders and core support all needed to come back off and get tweaked. What a relief.