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

I tried a fitting in one end of the intake plenum too for a pcv but it created a lean burn condition (on the cylinders nearest the fitting) of all the extra air added after the carb.....

I extended a tube into the center area just beneath the carb so the fresh air/fuel could be mixed evenly and it seemed to work better.

A fitting for vacuum should be fine as there is no fresh air introduction.

 

I think I recently bought a twin of your truck. But I'm going in a little different direction. Still a work truck driver though, not as nice as yours will be!

 

Well, I just re-read all your bed wood posts, and I think if I can't find any old used pieces, I may have to buy a few new ones. I really want to use as many of the old ones as I can. I'm missing some length on some of mine. Hope you are still at it, and post soon!

 

Hi, I just finished reading all of this thread. WOW!! You have an eye for detail like I wish I had. All the time spent to get things just so is were I start to feel like i'm not getting anything done. So I will stop and go onto something else. When things start to come together is when one sees the effort and time is well worth it. Maybe some day I will get there. Love the truck. Thank you for the pictures and detail of all the custom touches. Looking forward to more updates.

Ryan.

 

Lots of detail. Love your build sir. And that 55 is NASTY!

 

nice work

 

Just reread the entire thread, great work. Makes me want to tear my project down and restart.

 

It's been a while since I've posted, but I have been doing à lot of stuff on the truck since then. I have this build thread running on multiple sites, and I was slacking off on keeping this site updated. So standby for multiple rapid-fire postings!

 

Been doing a lot of little jobs on the truck when I have the free time, and this weekend, I pulled the entire front suspension back apart for final installation and detailing. Everything on the front suspension is either new or rebuilt. I also built new brackets and mounted the trans cooler. It's big, kind of overkill, but it was an extra that I had laying around and I put it to use. It's mounted under the core support and tucked behind the bumper, so it's in the airstream but still protected. Also mounted the swaybar (1.25"). All the bushings are polyurethane throughout the suspension. It was a very productive weekend.

 

This weekend's progress
The new aluminum radiator did not work with the upper bracket that I had previously modified for the original copper radiator, so I bought a used bracket from a member, Jonzcustomshop. I needed to gain an additional 3/8" in height, so the best way was to splice my original bracket and the one I got from Jon.



I will sandblast the part and do a little body filler on it, and it'll look like a factory piece when it's finished. I have spent a lot of time modifying every part on my truck to look like it came that way from the factory. .....and nothing has been left untouched.

I also cut and trimmed the radiator upper radiator rubber seal. It turned out really nice.

 

After a lot of mock up, trial fitting, and crimping, the A/C and heater lines are finally done. I wanted the lines to have a nice flow, and to not have anything laying on top of the engine. I wound up using an A/C manifold from a 1989 Chevy truck and welding on new ends. This manifold drops both the suction and return lines perfectly between the passenger valve cover and the compressor. I also wanted to keep the high and low service ports near each other, so I built a bracket that bolts to the battery tray.



In this shot, you can see both the heater and A/C lines as they route next to the engine. The A/C lines route next to the engine, and the heater lines route outboard of those. The hose seperators are from Squeeges (Mesa, AZ).

I also wanted to have the capability of shutting the water off to the heater in the summer, so I used a water shutoff from Sharkbite. These parts can be bought at nearly any hardware store and are used for PEX plumbing. It has a 5/8 inlet and outlet, made of solid brass, and nice quality. I unscrewed the valve handle and will keep it in the the glovebox until I need to shut the water on or off. I also installed a Prestone flush manifold (5/8" in/out) to help get the air out when the radiator is filled. The heater box is at about the same height or lower as the radiator cap, so the chance of getting an air pocket in the system is common. On my truck, I plan to jack up the rear and fill the system from the manifold. The heater lines now route behind and below the heater box, so I had to get tricky with the hoses at the heater core. I found the custom molded hoses (made by Gates) at Summit.

 

I like the quality of the façtory GM engine oil and transmission dipsticks, but in their stock form, they are way too long. I wound up getting an oil dipstick and tube from a 1995 Chevy truck and chopping it down about 12 inches. I also used my tubing bender and bent the tube to the angle I wanted. In this shot, you can barely see the yellow handle. It's easy to access, but it's out of sight.

I really like the lockiñg transmission dipsticks, so I got one from the same '95 Chevy truck and chopped 11" inches out of it. I could have cut it down more, but I didn't want to make it hard to reach.

 

I almost forgot to show the heater hose fittings on the intake mañifold and water pump. They are from Pure Choice Motorsports, and are similar in style to an A/C fitting. I plan to use these on everything I build from now on.

 

I got tired of seeing the truck on jackstands, so I bolted the wheels up and put it on the ground. I needed that! I will be putting it back on stands tomorrow morning because there's still a lot to do. In the meantime......

 

With a couple of days off in a row, I decided to check a few more items off of the To Do List.

I never liked the look of battery cables running over the top of everything, so I got couple of 72" positive and negative cables and routed them the way I wanted. I routed them tightly off of the battery and brought them toward the radiator. I reinforced the shroud with 1x1 inch steel squares and bonded on 3 ClickBond nutplates on the inside. I butterflied the positive and negative cables and ran them down towards the frame. About 10" down, I routed the negative cable to the A/C mount and continued the positive cable through the frame using a thick grommet. At that point, I routed the cable inside the passenger frame rail to the starter. It's clamped in two additional locations in the frame rail. I trimmed the excess length and crimped on a new lug for the starter stud.


Disregard the condition of the shroud, it will soon be painted chassis black.

 

Another item: the coolant overflow
My radiator is an aftermarket unit from a small custom shop in San Dimas, California, and they welded on the neck and clocked on the overflow fitting to point at the passenger side. Well, my passenger side engine compartment is already cluttered with the battery and all of the A/C components, so I had to think of a way to route the line to the driver's side. I decided to use a factory windshield washer bottle as the overflow bottle because I really didn't like the look of the aftermarket tanks and also for the fact that I already had a new bottle and a bracket. I got a 48" piece of 5/16 steel line and bent it to where it runs inside the core support over to the tank. I wound up lowering the tank from it's factory mounts. I shifted it to where the lower bolt hole in the core support is now the upper bolt in the bracket. I wanted a nice, gradual gravity feed from the radiator to the tank.



The washer bottle will be painted chassis black to look factory.

 

Another item: Upper radiator hose
I like the look of rubber hoses, and as cool as I think they look, I didn't want the hard pipe that came from the factory on the V8 models. I wanted to find an off-the-shelf hose that I could source from any parts store. After a bunch of research, I found one. It's a Gates hose, part# 20676, and it's for a 1970-1972 Monte Carlo. I'm using a swivel water neck, but if you cut 15.25" from the long end and .25" from the radiator end, this hose fits perfectly if you're using a factory serpentine belt set-up.

 

Here's a post if what Not To Do:
After I bent my brake lines at the master cylinder, a Scotchbrited them to give a brushed aluminum look, and I then I sprayed them with a satin clear to preserve the look. WRONG! It turned them a nasty dove gray, and they looked awful. So, I tore everything back apart, got the clear coat off with an aerosal paint stripper and re- Scotchbrited them. While I was at it, I resprayed the booster with some SEM satin black. I love SEM products. Now, I can look at the booster and not get spun out about the look of the brake lines. Muuuch better!

 

I didn't post this earlier, but when I was making my spark plug wires, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't use my Sanderson blockhugger eaders because the #5 and #6 sparkplug boots touched the header tubes. I discovered that GM moved the sparkplugs closer to the exhaust valves on the Vortec heads, and some headers will not work because of that. I called all of my buddies and looked through all of the headers that I had, and I test-fit four different sets and each one of them required modification of some kind. I finally decided that an old pair of Thorley Tri-Ys I had in my parts pile seemed to fit the best. I had to cut and shorten the #1 primary tube and reclock the #1/#5 cylinder collector to clear the driver's side motor mount.

The headers were going to be used on another project a long time ago, and the collectors had been cut and removed.

Because of the 2" primary diameter and the small 2.5" outlet, I had a tough time finding a merge collector, but I found a company called Vibrant Technologies that made a very nice stainless collector for a great price ($79 each).



Now that I had the parts, I took them over a buddy's shop (Rob Lindsay at RJ Fabrication in Hesperia, California) to have them make new 2" primary tubes, weld on the merge collectors, and weld on V-band flanges at the end. They did an amazing job. The TIG welds are beautiful and the tubing fit is perfect. After they finished, they dropped them off at Young Gun Performance Coatings in Rancho Cucamonga for ceramic coating. They turned out amazing.

 

All caught up now..........

 

Sure glad to see your thread revived, very inspirational!

 

Glade your back also...Your work is inspirational.......John

 

Wow! Very nice work. I too, used the GM washer jar, and painted it black, for my expansion tank, on my 64 short bed. Thanks for catching us up.

 

thanks for the update, inspirational work sir!

 

Thanks for the update. Truck looks great sitting on all fours!

 

Very nice. Glad to see more.

Ryan.

 

Just checking in on one of the all-time greatest threads... how's things?

 

Hey! I've waited long enough. When do I get my ride????
Truck looks great. Can't wait to see it finished!

 

Between my work schedule and home projects, it's a wonder if I'll ever finish this thing. I'll keep knuckling down, and I'll give you a ride when I see you at the L.A .Roadster Show in June.

 

I'll try to get everyone up to speed on some of the stuff I've been doing lately on the '64.
I had a couple of days off during the holidays, so I stayed busy cleaning and prepping body parts. I want to start getting all of the body parts ready to install for the final time, and with my OCD, that's easier said than done.
Driver's fender, scraped out mud and grease and after an hour, it looked like this


I painted the white areas back to white, shot bedliner on the inside of the fender, and touched up the remaining areas with chassis black

Cleaned and prepped the bracketry and installed a new splash shield.