Project: Grandpa

[fordguy40]

This is my first, but not my last, squarebody. And this project is more of a restoration and an attempt to get this beast reliable and presentable again, so its scope is more limited than a lot of the awesome builds here. Initially thought about lowering it, then going the 4WD conversion route, but finally decided to just enjoy it for what it originally was; a bare-bones, no-frills work truck.

It's a 1980 C30 Custom Deluxe with ~186K miles and has been in my wife's family since new. Only options as far as I can tell were the 350, TH400, A/C, gauges, and radio. Was told that it had last been driven around 4 years ago, but it was regularly getting its fluids changed even while sitting. Only cancer I've found is near the weatherstrip pinchweld at the driver's side floorpan; the rest of the undercarriage and engine compartment are solid and really clean. The plan initially is to go through and get it sorted mechanically and not so much aesthetically; leaving the outside ugly for a while so I can park it anywhere and use it as a "truck". Only upgrades in mind now are 16's, Vintage Air, and an LQ4/4L80E.

Here's the day we tried to pick it up out in the desert. Fired right up with a new battery, but wouldn't stay running, wouldn't go into gear, and had no brakes. We weren't driving this thing home....

[Palf70Step]

Nice looking start5. Looking forward to you updates.

[fordguy40]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Nice looking start5. Looking forward to you updates.

Thanks! Hopefully I'll be putting the old man back to work soon

The fuel system was the first thing I tackled. Dropped the tanks, rinsed them out with muriatic acid, replaced the crusty/melted sending unit in the passenger's side, and all the rubber lines (gotta love modern gasoline). Eventually want to replace these with polyethylene tanks once I start driving it regularly.

Since the truck had been parked out in the desert for a few years, the rats and rabbits out there had destroyed most of the wiring a few times. Spent a couple of hours cleaning up what was previously "fixed" under the cab. Fuel level senders and tank switch now work.

Got to replace the cab mounts.

[Dads79GMC]

Nice clean truck! Best of luck and have fun. Mike

[fordguy40]

Thanks Mike!

[Warrens69GMC]

Nice. Its always nice to keep one in the family.

[fordguy40]

Originally Posted by Warrens69GMC

Nice. Its always nice to keep one in the family.

The wife's grandma is excited to see it running again. Said she'd try to find photos of the truck from way back when

The wiring fun continued into the engine compartment. HVAC, wiper, headlight, and engine harnesses were trashed. Damn things even chewed through most of the plug wires on the passenger's side; guess that partly explains the horrendous miss above 2K rpm it had once I got it running. That it even ran like that is, frankly, amazing. Depending on how bad the wiring under the dash looks, I haven't ruled out just replacing the whole harness with one from Painless...just trying to keep it cheap and functional for now.

With the gnarly engine wiring patched, lots of Simple Green, new dipstick tube, new throttle return springs, fresh plugs, wires, cap and rotor, replaced a few soft or cracked vacuum lines and figured out how to properly route them, Moroso advance curve kit, oil change with zddp, coolant flush, and a carb rebuild, it finally runs like it should after fiddling with the timing and mixture for a bit. It's a Goodwrench 350 with supposedly less than 5K miles, which I tend to believe since it's quiet, smooth, and doesn't leak a drop of anything. Still need to find a TRC dashpot to complete the emissions system so I can get it smogged, but I love the fact it's an HD emissions truck; no cat or EGR valve to deal with and very little else in the way of emissions equipment.

Seemed like the carb was emptying itself when it sat for a while since I had to manually fill it through the vent if it sat for about a week. Noticed when I tore it down that the Q-jet had the later well plugs that don't tend to leak, but it also didn't have its original check-valved filter. A repro pump-to-carb hard line and the correct carb filter and spring seemed to help initially, but after a couple of months it was definitely time for a new pump; just enough fuel was running back down through the pump when it sat that the accelerator pump couldn't give me those shots at startup. Fires right up after a couple of pumps now.

[fordguy40]

Managed to go through the trans. and driveshaft a bit. First, scored a proper TH400 converter cover off eBay. Just couldn't find one of these in the local boneyards.

Next, on to find out why I couldn't get it to go into gear. Pulled the pan in the hopes that maybe the pressure regulator was stuck and cycled the valve with a long flathead. Threw a magnet in the pan for good measure, filled it with the proper amount of fluid and it gets every gear now; fluid was fresh but about an inch below the edge of the pan when I dropped it. I'm guessing that when the truck was serviced last, they couldn't keep it idling long enough to get a fluid level reading so they just filled it until it read full with the engine off, which turns out to be about two quarts less than it needs. Threw on a new dipstick tube gasket, vacuum modulator, and speedo housing seals and, for now, I have a leak-free Turbo400. Probably going to throw a shift kit in to firm up the shifts a bit.

Also rebuilt the leaky steering box and added a new rag joint. For anyone attempting this for the first time, there's an article on rebuilding the Saginaw steering boxes on fourwheelernetwork that really helps supplement the sparsely-worded instructions and line drawings in the Edelmann seal kits.

Threw in a new set of Moog u-joints, too, while I was replacing the broken driveshaft center support bearing. The ones I replaced were still in decent shape, but being able to grease the new ones is a plus.

[1967KaiserM715]

Great looking truck!

I noticed you said some possible rust forming at pinch weld on drivers floorpan- I would carefully inspect the weatherstripping around the windshield and door, best to stop that asap, before it becomes major cancer.

Good luck, and more important have fun!

[fordguy40]

Thanks for the heads-up! Already replaced the body-to-door seals, but still need to tackle replacing all the weatherstripping attached to the doors. When we found it, the wing window latches had fallen off, so I'm guessing at least some of the water damage could be attributed to that. It will eventually need a windshield and I'm looking into refurbishing the dashpad, so I'll probably find out what's going on back there soon.

[fordguy40]

Since it looks like I'll be waiting a while for the duplicate title, I'm tackling a few small, easy-to-fix things. Still have major things to do before it's roadworthy, like going through the brakes, alignment, tires, and exhaust, but there are plenty of little things to do that give the illusion of progress.

First, got a repro standard tire carrier kit and a used front crossmember off ebay to get the spare out of the bed. And after muscling that thing into place, I hope I never have to use it; once I start welding I'll look into possibly fabbing a crossmember with a winch-type carrier.

Upon dropping that tailgate to get the tire out, I found that the passenger's side trunnion cup on the gate was missing. No surprise given that the thing is held on with three small spotwelds. Luckily, someone had the foresight to toss it in the cab behind the bench, so I had it plug welded and had extra beads run around the outside of both cups for good measure.

The super-crusty battery tray was replaced. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I couldn't find one of these with the support attached. Separated the old tray from the support and screwed the replacement in.

Got a little work done on the interior, too. Aside from the repaint, the interior will easily be the most expensive part of this project. Pulled out the bench, belts, and what was left of the rubber floormat. Replaced as much of the missing stuffing with whatever was handy and duct-taped it all up....good as new for now! Also replaced the broken seat track cable (thanks, TKCR) and I've got a new mexican blanket cover for when I recover the bench.

Soaked the belts in Shout and laundry detergent and pretty happy with how they turned out; not perfect, but they work and are no longer as sticky as flypaper. Really wish they had accurate reproductions of these belts, or at least the sleeves and buckles.

The floor for the most part is in good shape, with the typical rust along the driver's side toeboard and floorpan. Windshield doesn't appear to be leaking, but it will need a new one, so it's getting a new gasket anyway. I'm guessing the cowl may be leaking and the space between the fender and cowl might be collecting debris, which would explain the toeboard rust. Will have this fixed when it goes in for paint, so in the meantime I'm going to leave the new rubber floor out and will make do with the old rubber floor mats out of my F150 so any water that gets in doesn't get trapped. Also replaced the rock-hard body-to-door seals.

[fordguy40]

While I wait for a few parts to complete the brake overhaul, I finished up a few small interior things.

-cleared out the 4 decades worth of dust, dirt, rat turds, and feathers from the dash, in and out. Love that this was such a low-option truck since there's a ton of room behind the dash that would likely be otherwise filled with wires and vacuum lines.

-pulled out the Blaupunkt cd player that seemed to be shoved in there with all the finesse you'd expect from trying to put a round peg in a square hole. Will be replacing it with a 2-post retrofit piece. Luckily, whoever installed it made horizontal cuts to the dash and just folded in the offending flaps, so I folded them back out and all I need to do is have them welded back in place.

-fixed the horn and replaced all the i.p. bulbs, painted the inside of the cluster housing with chrome paint, and polished the lens. While I can see the gauges well enough at night, if I have to pull the cluster again I'll probably be installing LED's given the good results others here are seeing with them.

-replaced the broken ashtray door springs and added an accessory power point to where the cigarette lighter would've been.

-made new gaskets for the bulkhead connector and passenger's side kickpanel vent. So far, this seems to have fixed any water leaks into the cab in the area of the firewall.

-installed new pedals....quick and easy.

[LT7A]

Good, clean work. That truck is lucky to have you.

[fordguy40]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Good, clean work. That truck is lucky to have you.

Thanks! That I started with a neglected, but not too abused, platform definitely helped.

[Togart]

Your truck reminds me of the 1980 C20 my family had when I was a teenager. Its where my square addiction began. Looking forward to seeing where your build goes.

[fordguy40]

Originally Posted by Togart

Your truck reminds me of the 1980 C20 my family had when I was a teenager. Its where my square addiction began. Looking forward to seeing where your build goes.

I absolutely need to find one of those caps for this rig.

And thanks for the encouragement....been going back and forth with what I want to do with the driveline, specifically because it needs to be smog-legal, but I've settled on it looking pretty much the way it came off the lot; b.e. mirrors, painted bumpers, stock color. About the only thing changing will be the 16.5 wheels. Would love to have 16" steelies and the poverty caps, but for whatever reason, Wheel Vintiques doesn't make them in white. Buying them powder coated makes them significantly more expensive and still heavier than a regular ol' set of aftermarket aluminum wheels, so I'll likely be throwing on a set of AR62's to keep it period-correct.

[Togart]

Were you looking at the powder coated US Wheel series 659's? I bought the primered Series 62s (15") for my C10, they're decent, except they didn't fit over my rear drums.

[fordguy40]

Finally got my duplicate title and was able to finish up the brakes and change the oil in the 14-bolt.

Brake pads and shoes looked nearly new, so all I really had to do was replace the soft parts. Installed new wheel cylinders, parking brake cable boots, and hose out back...pretty straightforward. The front was a little more challenging. Looks like someone tried to remove the driver's side brake hose and rounded the fitting off. Was pretty sure the brake lines were swollen shut, so they absolutely had to come out. Ended up cutting the line close to the fitting so I could get a socket over the retaining nut and out came the hose. Wouldn't have been able to do this job without a shortened 3/8" flare wrench and a set of crow's foot flare wrenches.

Bent up a new line for the driver's side, installed the new hoses, and rebuilt the calipers and master cylinder. After flushing/bleeding the system a couple of times, the brakes feel great; pedal's nice and firm and the truck no longer pulls to the right under hard braking.

[fordguy40]

Finally got around to tackling the doors; all new weatherstripping, springs, and hinge pins. The doors rattled like crazy and the driver's side door in particular had to be slammed pretty hard to get it to latch.

The new pins and bushings made the most difference in how the doors closed. The plastic bushings I pulled out of there didn't look too bad given their age, but the new bronze bushings made a huge difference and made closing the doors a one-finger-push deal.

The driver's side hinge spring had broken a long time ago and was probably the single best thing fixed this time around; not having the door constantly fall closed is really underappreciated. Replacing this spring was easily done with the door off, body-side hinge mounted to the truck, a long flathead screwdriver and hammer to tap them home.

Luckily, I didn't have to replace any of the more costly door mechanisms. The regulators and latches were in good shape, so I soaked them in diesel for a week and they cleaned up pretty nice.

The most involved task here was rebuilding the vent windows. I will say that the Precision weatherstripping exactly duplicated the original parts and fit perfectly. They'll be who I look to first when I get around to the wife's '79 Camaro and my '70 Mach 1. I did end up using the LMC rivet and tool kit to put everything back together and it wasn't as bad as I'd typically read it was going to be. I think this was because I shortened the rivet tool to about 1" long and used a vise in order to squeeze the rivets instead of trying to pound them with a hammer. The rivets are so hard and the window parts so awkwardly-shaped that getting the driver and hammer in place with the parts somehow held still is nearly impossible and will surely result in partially-squeezed rivets and/or bent vent window frames. It's still a PITA to be sure, but the tool does work and an extra set of hands to hold everything in place on the vise makes things a lot easier.

A note about LMC's vent window setting rubber; for my '80, it was too thin. Ended up ordering a roll of 5/64" tape from Bob Drake which seems to be the right stuff.

Replaced the wobbly window cranks and floppy interior door handles with LMC pieces. Other than having to modify the window crank retaining clip slots slightly and the knobs having a chrome cap instead of brushed, they were good reproductions of the originals and bolted right up.

Finished up by putting the faded original door panels back on since they do the job and fit the look the truck's going to have for a while. Can't really do anything about the speaker holes in the doors, so I cleaned up the hacked edges of the holes and put the speakers back in until I decide what I'm going to do there. Bought the bellows from LMC to run the speaker wires properly into the doors, but I'm going to have to loosen the front clip so I can slide the fenders forward enough to drill the holes in the factory spot on the body. Going to leave that for when I actually get a radio in this thing.

Only thing I wish I'd done different is maybe adding acoustical tiles to the inside of the doors to tune out some of the hollow "tinny-ness" when they're closed. But at least they're solid, rattle-free, and close super easy now....to this point, rebuilding the doors has made the most difference in how comfortable the truck is. We'll see how I feel after I fix the spectacularly duct-taped bench...

[fordguy40]

Finally got around to testing the truck with the SK400 shift kit and reverse cushion kit installed. So far, they do everything they advertised; 1-2 is smoother (was rougher before), 2-3 is a bit more positive (couldn't feel it at all before) and it no longer feels like I got rear-ended going into Reverse. This is not a "shift kit" in the sense most of us are used to in that it doesn't give the firm, quick shifts of a performance kit but corrects the sloppy, slow shifts that these were tuned for from the factory. The transmission's likely worn out, but the kit made a noticeable difference in shift quality. Going to play with the modulator setting to see if I can delay and firm up the 1-2 shift a bit.
Also added a Jeg's steel pan because it has a drain plug. Overall, pretty happy with everything for around a hundred bucks.

[fordguy40]

Been a while since the last update, but Grandpa's been hard at work hauling landscaping materials for the house and my bike out to the desert without missing a beat. He's also picked up a few things along the way; ACC rubber floor, exhaust with Thrush Hush mufflers and h-pipe, full-foam bench out of a '75, new tires, suspension and body bushings, shocks, control arms, new distributor, and hood lock/kill switch. Still have a new hydroboost, mini starter, new seat foam/upholstery, and wheelwell toolboxes to install...pics to come.

[fordguy40]

USA1 Industries upholstery and OER foam for the full-foam seat. Other than having to trim the seat back foam down a little at the bottom, it went together pretty easily. Also replaced the end support springs in the seat bottom frame.

[rodstored-72]

ford guy, very nice start. cool back story & nice to see you doing this. I am rebuilding an '86 to be used as a daily driver.
...."The new pins and bushings made the most difference in how the doors closed. The plastic bushings I pulled out of there didn't look too bad given their age, but the new bronze bushings made a huge difference and made closing the doors a one-finger-push deal.

The driver's side hinge spring had broken a long time ago and was probably the single best thing fixed this time around; not having the door constantly fall closed is really underappreciated. Replacing this spring was easily done with the door off, body-side hinge mounted to the truck, a long flathead screwdriver and hammer to tap them home....." this is a very true statement!!! I am in the same boat on my pass. door. I was wondering if you might share a little more detail on how you (proceedure) repaired the hinges?

thanks!!

rodstored-72

[fordguy40]

Thanks, rodstored! My posts are pretty long-winded, but hopefully there's some useful information in there somewhere.

The hinges weren't too difficult to repair. It can probably be done with the doors in place, but there's all the room you'll need with the door removed. If I remember correctly, once I got the door off by unbolting the hinge from the door, I cut the old pins in half with a Dremel to remove, installed the new springs, installed the pins and door-side hinges, then reinstalled the doors. If you're doing this by yourself, a jack-mounted door dolly is a huge help.

I could be wrong, but I thought the door spring setup for the '81-up trucks was different and that they use a coil spring instead of the torsion setup used by the earlier trucks. In that case, there's a v-shaped tool for those if I remember right that would allow you to install and remove that spring without having to disassemble anything.

[rodstored-72]

ford guy, Thanks for the response, I will look into doing this more then. I wanted to get a feel for the work from someone who had already done recently... I personally enjoy the story time so not long winded to me... I have a new perspective on the build threads now that I am doing one myself.... as much work as the work you are describing when keeping build thread up to date!...

thanks again!