How to: Ruin a perfectly good C10

[SOON2BLAZE]

It's looking good man

[67cheby]

nice progress

[Slick67]

I love this truck. Simple, clean, awesome! Yesterday I decided to do my steel bed with a wood kit too........so.....if you don't mind.....what are you at in the $ area??? I guestimate under $300.

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by SOON2BLAZE

It's looking good man

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 67cheby

nice progress

Thanks- yours is lookin' good too. Nice to see someone making inner fenders for these trucks- last piece of the puzzle...

Originally Posted by Slick67

I love this truck. Simple, clean, awesome! Yesterday I decided to do my steel bed with a wood kit too........so.....if you don't mind.....what are you at in the $ area??? I guestimate under $300.

Thanks! So far on the wood floor:

Strips - $90
Wood - $80

Hardware shouldn't be much, I'll prolly just go to Tractor Supply, maybe Fastenal. If I were using wood floor cross-sills, that would bring the price up some, but I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna lay them on the metal floor. $300 will be close, but doable. Good luck!

[gringoloco]

Little more today... Started by deciding where to put the Lokar. I really wanted it centered, but it just wasn't happening with the clearances above the transmission, so i moved it over towards the driver a bit. Mocked it up with the bench installed and it should work out nicely Drilled some more holes (and a big slot) in my already swiss-cheesed floor to make the installation permanent.

I can't say enough about the quality of this shifter. All of the hardware and components are beefy and cad plated, there are numerous adjustments available, it is very sturdy and it just feels right in your hand. Top-notch piece, but then again, you pay for it. Lucky me, I found a smokin' deal on Amazon for this one

[gringoloco]

Once I had the shifter in, I decided to start on the Classic Auto Air install. It is a decent kit, but leaves some things to be desired. There were compromises in all of the kits, so I went for the one I got the best deal on

I decided to make one minor modification right off the bat. The CAA kit is designed to use the factory heater control panel, which I don't really care for the look of. There is an option to use the factory A/C controls, but it leaves one of the levers useless--that just seemed silly to me. So, using the little-known fact that the A/C controls for our trucks are the exact same as '65-'66 'big' cars (Impala, Bel-Air, etc), I went to eBay and scored a set of heater controls from a '65 Impy. This way, I can have the look of the A/C controls without the extraneous lever

It has taken some creativity to make them work, as one of the levers pulls when I need it to be pushing (and vice-versa), but I *think* I have it all figured out now. You can see where I mounted the CAA blower switch to the top of it. I am using a factory truck A/C control bracket (that I scored here on the board) to bolt it in place in the dash. I do need to figure out how to remove the knobs without destroying the arms so that I can replace them with the more square truck style knobs...

[gringoloco]

I decided that instead of following CAA's directions (just another man's opinion), I would NOT cut out a huge section of my firewall, but use the provided block-off plate as a template to drill holes for the pass-thru fittings. I realize looking at these shots (and the ones of the shifter install) that I tend to take pics when the paint is wet- good time to take a photo break

I got the main unit wired-up and installed, which required poking a few more holes for fasteners, this time in the firewall... I included a shot of the underhood and one of the techniques I used when I couldn't reach under the dash and hood simultaneously

Last two show how she sits as of now and the lack of free space under the dash as I continue to cram components in. The dash speakers leave just enough room to snake the center air vent's ducting in- they would not have worked with a factory air set-up- you'd think I planned it this way