My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project

[Paul Y]

Good to see that you have ample power source for uninterrupted 'research' on the viewing device of your choice....

Think the Camaro (?) caps will look rather good in conjunction with the slots.

P.

[lower50's]

Good luck with the remodel!! Just make sure the toilet is not used by accident

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by Paul Y

Good to see that you have ample power source for uninterrupted 'research' on the viewing device of your choice....

Think the Camaro (?) caps will look rather good in conjunction with the slots.

P.

I assume that like many others, it's my preferred seat for perusing catalogs, magazines and of course online auction sites.

I agree about the caps, but I don't think they'll fit. We'll see.

Originally Posted by lower50's

Good luck with the remodel!! Just make sure the toilet is not used by accident

That wouldn't be good!

[canadian_diesel1964]

Your truck is fantastic Johnny...I'm 50 mins up the road south and east of London..love your 63..

[1963c-10]

Great looking 63!!!

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by canadian_diesel1964

Your truck is fantastic Johnny...I'm 50 mins up the road south and east of London..love your 63..

Thanks neighbour! We should meet up some time.

Originally Posted by 1963c-10

Great looking 63!!!

Thank you, but it looks better in pics than up close. One day I'll take it apart for a resto. I'm sure you'll agree that 63 is the coolest model year.

[canadian_diesel1964]

I do love them...even my old soon to be swap meet auction beast and pickin machine is a 63...not to take away from your build thread but wanted to show you what's up the road...lol and I'm by Cambridge all the time...would be cool to meet ya.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by canadian_diesel1964

I do love them...even my old soon to be swap meet auction beast and pickin machine is a 63...not to take away from your build thread but wanted to show you what's up the road...lol and I'm by Cambridge all the time...would be cool to meet ya.

Tough looking old girl in primer and baby moons! I like it.

Sure, let me know when you're around. Maybe we could have a meet-up at the Unfinished Nationals in Paris, if you're planning to be there. Lower50s will have his GMC on display there. Or a swap meet...

[canadian_diesel1964]

I wish i could go to the nationals man..im working that day...ill get in touch sometime for sure Ill bring my 51 F1 thats not as tough looking

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by canadian_diesel1964

I wish i could go to the nationals man..im working that day...ill get in touch sometime for sure Ill bring my 51 F1 thats not as tough looking

Sounds good.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

A little update... I'm still busy with home reno's, but I finally got around to making a pair of DIY hubcentric spacers for the rear wheels.

They were a real pain to install, due to the axle hub being all banged up. After a bunch of hand-filing, then grinding a 45 degree bevel on the hub they slipped on nicely. I decided on a 1-3/4" thickness, which worked out pretty well.

I'm not really a fan of using wheel spacers... I'll have to pull the wheels in a few days to make sure everything is staying tight.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

And... check out my bargain hubcaps!

These are the caps I've been planning on using. They're from a Chevy Chevette, which were made from '76 to '87. I like the simple styling, but they're actually a little bigger than I thought they'd be, about 9-1/2". The pic shows the cap on a stock 22" transit wheel. I still need to figure out a simple mounting method. I'd like to avoid drilling the wheels for clips.

I get a nostalgic feeling using these caps. Soon after getting hitched in 1986, we bought a brand new 2-door 1986 Chevette for Wifey to drive. The later models were pretty good little cars with a 5sp trans, but they carried the bad reputation from the early years.

First the Vega, then the Chevette... I've owned both!

[lower50's]

Nice job buddy. A few friends of mine use them on there Jeeps they off road and have never had a problem. How long did they take you to make?

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by lower50's

Nice job buddy. A few friends of mine use them on there Jeeps they off road and have never had a problem. How long did they take you to make?

Thanks Bob. This was one of those jobs that I regretted starting. In hindsight, I could've bought a pair of Hubcentric 1-1/2" or 2" spacers on ebay for $53US, and free shipping in the US. Then I'd have to drive to Niagara Falls NY to pick them up. With those, I'd have to bore the backside to suit the 3.532" OD of the axle hub... and they'd come with metric wheel studs.

By making my own, my only expense was $30 for 7/16" wheel studs. In hours... I probably have 12 hours in them, between designing, programming and machining. Way too much effort.

[aerotruk63]

You obviously have skills,, why not cut out the center out of the wheel ring and set it to the offset required to the truck to eliminate the wheel spacers?

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by aerotruk63

You obviously have skills,, why not cut out the center out of the wheel ring and set it to the offset required to the truck to eliminate the wheel spacers?

Unfortunately Aerotruck63, I may have "some" skills but they're not always "the" skills that are required. I really need to work on my welding to get consistently good results. I did consider cutting and repositioning the wheel centres myself, but fixturing a wheel this big would be a problem, and I don't know anyone with a big enough lathe to get them running true. There's a fellow in London Ontario ("themaintenancedepartment" on instagram) that's offset, widened and narrowed many of these wheels. I considered asking him to do my rears, but its expensive and I'm a little leery about how durable these wheels will be. I don't want to invest a bunch of cash then bend a wheel hitting a pothole.

Thanks for the compliment on my truck... but I keep telling everyone that its not that nice!

It really isn't. It looks good from across the street, but it needs to be stripped, restored and repainted.

You sir, I must commend for all the information you provide on the forum. I know I've benefitted at different times from all your reference material.

[aerotruk63]

My apologies, your truck looks amazing. You've really set the bar with your build.

[aerotruk63]

I'll let you know how mine turn out. Got them yesterday. I'll be mounting them on my 63 4WD Frankentruck. After seeing oem4me's 4WD with 19.5's, I was smitten.

I widened the 16" that are on my 2WD and have done a few others.

I got a 4WD hub assembly off a newer truck and machined the center to mount on my brake lathe. I cut everything with a grinder and cutoff wheel mounted to the cross slide of the brake lathe. The bigger the diameter the more room to work.

How to mount the stock hubcap is the question of the day. All my spares are 7 5/8" clip style. 4WD's never came with hubcaps but dress them up so much when their installed.



Plenty of room to move the center portion from the 6" stock backset on the 22" transports to a 4 1/2 backset like the 16" wheels I did in the past.



Recouping from a triple bypass for now, but there's plenty of future ahead and some strategy thinking to do. lol

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

The things you learn here! A brake lathe would be perfect for doing this kind of work. Hmm... wheels turning.

Just yesterday I came across this pic posted on IG by @psukraw. Its kind of what I was thinking as a hubcap mount, tubes over the lugnuts... but I was considering rare earth magnets as a means of the holding the cap and bracket to the face of the lugnuts. Maybe this pic will give you some ideas?

Recovering from bypass surgery... don't rush into anything strenuous. the 22's can wait. All the best in your recovery.

[aerotruk63]

Hopefully not hijacking your thread.... the centerbore of a stock wheel from the early sixties is 3.625".
The centerbore of the 22" Transits are 78.3mm or 3.082

Can I ask what 3.532" as you posted above pertains to? Does this reflect the stock axle outside diameter.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Aero, my axle hubs measure 3.532", or maybe slightly larger, like 3.535". I assumed that they were 3-17/32". The diameter that locates the brake drum is larger, but i don't recall the size. My axle is a 1965 12 bolt. I was running the 70's 15x7 Rally wheels. I read that they were only used on 4wd vans. Maybe you can advise if that's correct.

[aerotruk63]

4WD vans were quite rare, but 3/4 ton vans had 6 lug axles. You would see Camper Conversion vans with this setup.
Both my trucks are at a Buddy's farm since I needed the room to build the new Garage. I'll have to pass by and take some measurements.
Found a thread on this site stating that you can reverse the center portion on the ring but can't push it back as the ring tapers and you lose material.
More measuring on the wheel will be required to see if I could shim the center to the larger diameter required, as not to reverse the ring and change the look.
Thank you for the info.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I'll stop by the shop on my way home from work tonight to measure the ID of my old rally wheels. I really don't want to remove the rear 22" wheels off my truck again. Its a pain jacking up the truck, lowering the axle, then wrestling the tire out of the wheel well. And heavy!

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I took a look at rockauto.com and found that the brake drums for a 1965 C10 1/2 ton shows a pilot bore size of 3.564". That would lead me to believe that the axle hub diameters were 3-9/16" at the drum, stepped down to 3-17/32" at the wheel.

It's very difficult to find this info listed anywhere. Any wheel-specific information I could find only goes back to 1967, and I don't see anything with a 3.532" or 89.7mm centre bore.

[aerotruk63]

I scoured my GM literature to no vain. No dimensions mentioned anywhere.