Project Old Blue, 1965 C10, Rebuild Version 2010

[bigmoe]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Korbin work on cleaning the rear end housing and the rear frame rails. He got the rails cleaned up with a wire wheel and got the C-Notches welded in and blended smooth. Shot some flat black paint on all that.

Sorry the pics are upside down. This happens when he uses his phone to take them. They look right on my phone and on my laptop, but end up side down when I load them on here...

When using an iphone hold it sideways with the volume buttons facing downword. Hope that helps.

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by bigmoe

When using an iphone hold it sideways with the volume buttons facing downword. Hope that helps.

I have tried to tell him that before, but some people don't listen to their elders...

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

I have tried to tell him that before, but some people don't listen to their elders...

What??

[aggie91]

Got some time in the shop last night. Got the lower A-arms mounted, but forgot to nuts for the upper, and not pictures.

Also, cut the floor for the high hump conversion. Korbin caught me in the act of throwing sparks...

Decided that was all I had in me last night so, called it a day. Next I will clean up the cut edge with a flap disc, squirt some paint to protect it and get ready for the rivnuts to hold the rear part of the hump in place once I have the front part welded in.

[aotte1]

Thanks for the iphone help, will try, photos are its best feature.
Truck is looking good, thanks for all your build information, and parts over the years.

[aggie91]

Progress has been slow, but it is progress. Between Katie's gymnastics, my work schedule, her graduating from HS, her being recruited by colleges with Gymnastics teams, my time has been limited to put into my truck.

I have been chipping away at the engine swap harness and collecting parts for the truck. Here are a couple pics of the harness that goes to the 4L80e and the two oxygen sensors. Next to finish is a MAF, ECT, and get those loomed up and added to the complete harness. Once those are together, it is just do the final loom for the complete bundle of wires to the PCM. Then on to the fuse block and OBD port...

[aggie91]

This past weekend, Korbin had a goal of shooting epoxy primer on his '73 C10 this is in the shop in bare metal. SO, to make that happen, we needed to clean the shop, hang plastic, and get my truck out of the way. Well, I focused on getting my truck moveable...So focused that I did not take a single picture of the a bunch of work that I had done to get it rolling. So here is a picture of it sitting outside the shop in the sunlight for the first time in about a year. to get it to this point, the complete front suspension has been redone, tubular upper and lower arms, new/refurbished steering components, the leaking brake line repaired, and a mock up motor and transmission put in so that I can determine what I want to do for mounts. Getting the engine/trans in the truck was not required to move it, but it helped get stuff off the shop floor that was in the way...

[aggie91]

After getting it outside, we cleaned the shop and hung plastic to keep paint off of our stuff and the floor. On Sunday, we showed back up, pushed my truck outside again, and Korbin finished masking off his truck. His first time behind the gun shooting a cab with epoxy. Might not be the best part to start with, but he did a good job. I coached him through and helped manage the hose and filling his gun. He did everything from taping it off to mixing the primer to cleaning and tacking off the cab to shooting the primer. He did a good job. Used Tamco DTA, that seems like some great stuff. Supper pleased with the product. Got it all shot, cleaned up and pushed my truck back inside and called it a day. Started about 10am and we left around 1:45pm. He plans to return today and shot the Raptor liner on the parts of the cab while the epoxy is in the topcoat time window. The rest will be done later once the finish body work is completed.

[SCOTI]

Lots going on over there!

[Low Elco]

Lookin' good! Smells like progress!

[88Stanger]

Great job so far! Keep up the good work....

[aggie91]

Small update, not many pictures as I was working and not taking pics.

I bought a kit from CPP to rebuild the stock manual steering box. I was lacking a plug for the end of the box and two bushings for a 100% rebuild, but it did give me the new bearings and seal the box needed. I do not know if the box was ever rebuilt for before I got the truck, so for sure it has not been in the last 37 years. Stripped it all down, blasted the outside of the box and clean all the old grease and grime out of the inside. Got it all back together and found a standard freeze plug that was a tight fit for the end. It really should have a flangeless style plug, but NO ONE local had the correct one. you can see in the one picture that it sticks out past the end, it should be slightly recessed in that hole. I am pleased with the way it feels on the bench, not to finish clean the outside and put some paint on it.

[aggie91]

The other task was I wanted the engine and trans to sit at a specific height in the chassis so that the trans oil pan was not below the bottom of the frame. I wanted it to sit a bit further rearward than where I ended up with the current set up, but I am happy at this point. For now, I used a truck oil pan on the engine as the bottom of the front cross member is actually lower than the bottom of the frame rail in the stock chassis. The current height and front/rear position is OK and none of the oil pans hang below the cross member of the bottom of the frame rail. I cut out the hump to switch to a high hump because I am using a 4L80e, and thought I would need the clearance. But now, I think I could have gotten away with the stock low hump floor. I'll set it back in to verify, but I will stay with switching to the high hump as I have a floor mat that fits the high hump. Here are the pieces I fab'd up for the engine stands off of the front cross member. They will use 3 holes on each side of the engine in the cross member to located them. I need to do some finishing on them, then back in the truck to tack weld, then back out for finish welding & paint and then back in to finish up the install with the actual 6.0 and 4L80e with will be powering the truck.

[aggie91]

Figured it was time for an update, although no pictures.

I fabbed up the new motor mounts, took the pieces back to my house to clean up the edges on the disc sander and have since managed to loose 4 of the 6 pieces. Looks like I get to do that job all over again.

I got my headers in that I think I will be using so that's on the list of to dos.

Well, I got my daughter all moved into her dorm at the University of Nebraska last weekend. Been spending time since then putting my '06 Duramax back together and catching up on household chores. Hoping to make progress on this truck late this week and this coming weekend. Time will tell.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Figured it was time for an update, although no pictures.

I fabbed up the new motor mounts, took the pieces back to my house to clean up the edges on the disc sander and have since managed to loose 4 of the 6 pieces. Looks like I get to do that job all over again.

I got my headers in that I think I will be using so that's on the list of to dos.

Well, I got my daughter all moved into her dorm at the University of Nebraska last weekend. Been spending time since then putting my '06 Duramax back together and catching up on household chores. Hoping to make progress on this truck late this week and this coming weekend. Time will tell.

You're not alone w/this issue . . ......

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

You're not alone w/this issue . . ......

and if and when I do find them, it will be well after I remade the parts and will ask myself, "Why in the hell did I put those there?"

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

and if and when I do find them, it will be well after I remade the parts and will ask myself, "Why in the hell did I put those there?"

Oh.... I know the dance. It happens to a 'guy I know' all the time.

[aggie91]

Good News! I found the missing engine mount parts, and turns out they were at the shop this whole time. I had tossed them all in the box with the headers I had bought. At the time I did that, I had cleaned up the brackets at home, the headers had arrived, so, I need to check fit on the headers so it all has to go to the shop.

So yesterday, I spent 8-9 hours at the shop with Korbin. Took a break for lunch and a short beer break when a female friend came by to hang out for a bit while she was out running errands. Korbin and I got a good bit of work done on my truck. While I put the steering together, he started doing the final fitting of the high hump parts to the cab floor. After lunch, we worked on the engine mounts. Called it a day once we got to fitting up the reinforcement cap for the mounts. I will get those finished up this week when I go back on Tuesday or Wednesday.

[aggie91]

Engine Mounts -

Once the parts had been found, we focused on finishing those up for the afternoon. Got every part mocked up on the engine and frame cross member before she came by with a few beers. Once that refreshing break was over, we got back at it. Got the engine positioned and set down on the fabricated parts. Got them tacked into place, removed them and moved to the bench for welding. Once we had them out, Korbin went back on fitting the hump sections. He finished that up and helped me with the welding of the mounts. It is NOT our best work welding, but they are strong and for a prototype set, they will work for now. Decided to cap them as they are fairly tall, the cap will give some needed structure and strength.

I know the welds are not the best looking so I don't need to hear any crap... I had not welded anything in 6-7 months, so instead of doing some practice beads to dial in myself and the welder, I just went at the mounts. These will get me to my goal, and might get replaced with a better solution that I will try to market for the generation of C10.

So for now, get a few laughs at the following pictures.

[aggie91]

more pics...

[SCOTI]

Nice.

The bracket parts in the header box logic was sound. Easier handling of important items so they don't get lost when transferring everything from A-to-B.

Not taking them out of the box immediately upon arrival @ location B is where we go wrong. I feel it's solely because of CRS syndrome

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Nice.

The bracket parts in the header box logic was sound. Easier handling of important items so they don't get lost when transferring everything from A-to-B.

Not taking them out of the box immediately upon arrival @ location B is where we go wrong. I feel it's solely because of CRS syndrome

The day I took the box to the shop, I was in a hurry and just dropped it off. Never even crossed my mind again until I decided to see if the headers fit before making more brackets...

I have been told that gray hair is a sign of knowledge leaving the body. If that is true, then I am doomed...

[The Rocknrod]

Pretty cool so far. I think your coming along nicely.

[aggie91]

Quick update - C10's in the Park is only 18 days away...

Had a good week last week, but nothing truck related until yesterday. My company was having a end of summer cleaning to get rid of surplus stuff. A couple of items caught my attention. Most items were done as luck of the draw for a given cheap price. I was luck enough to get 2 of the items I was interested in that way. One major items was done as a sealed bid auction. A Vertical Mill with a 9"x42" table, DRO, and powered cross feed. 230V single phase power! I placed a bid on the last day, along with 5 others. Turns out I overbid the next highest bidder by $400. Oh well, I got it at a very fair price! Learned the next day that another coworker had intended to bid but forgot the deadline and missed submitting his bid. Turns out that was a blessing for me as his bid was going to be $500 higher than mine!

Got it loaded up Friday and then fortunately caught a shop neighbor on Sunday that had a fork lift and he helped unload and set inside my shop. Also, helped stand up the cabinet I bought and moved it into the shop.

I watched my nephews for the weekend as my sister and her husband took a weekend trip to celebrate her birthday. So they came to the shop with me and Korbin met us out there. They had fun playing with my creeper and floor jack and was able to help get the mill and cabinet into the shop.

Korbin started cleaning the mill and we gave it a general inspection. Now we need some tooling and collets, but this is something I have always wanted in my shop.

[aggie91]

Nephews having fun...