"Project ShortHaul" The Build Journey

[ShortHaul]

This is it, the official build thread for my first C10 ever. "Otis" as she's been nicknamed by my daughter, came to us by way of sunny San Diego. She's a 1970 original short bed V8 fleetside built in the Janesville plant. Powered by a 350 bored .30 over, Comp Thumpr cam, World Products heads. TH350 Trans. Daily driven, pick-em up truck.

CURRENT PICTURE as of 07/25/18
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr


The day we bought her...
1705241D-B7AA-4AAF-8443-DA60F260332D by awesome_adawson, on Flickr


Thanks for following along, Full story and build to come!

Full List of improvements made by me!
Motor etc.
-Carb tuned, removed and reinstalled, new gaskets. Bent throttle linkage and kickdown cable replaced.
-Summit Ceramic coated full length headers installed. Stainless exhaust, Flowmaster 40's routed through cut outs in bedside.
-Stock fan replaced with Derale 7 blade.
-Fan shroud installed.
-Tstat installed
-B&M Torq-master 2400 Stall Converter installed.

Appearance
-Paint stripped off grill, polished.
-New hood installed.
-Purple window tint removed.
-Tailgate stripped of 4 separate coats of paint and 15lbs of body filler. Cleaned, sanded and cleared.
-Glove compartment door rubber stoppers installed.

Brakes
-All new rear drum brake setup from backing plate to drum. 5 Lug off 1972 C10.

Rolling stock
-Wheel Vintiques series 62 Steelies
-15x10 rear (4.5" bs)
-15x8 (4"bs)
-R Goodyear Eagle GTII 295/50/15
-F Cooper Cobra 255/60/15

Next up: New water pump.
Find out what "clunking" is in right front corner.
Add window felt/weather stripping.

[ShortHaul]

So the story goes: My wife and I had been looking for a good shortbox c10 for a few months, and ended up finding this one down in San Diego area. We're up in Sonoma County, northern CA, about 500 miles north of the truck. After talking to the owner on the phone and seeing a video of it running, we decide we're good to go.

Maybe its too many episodes of Roadkill, or the fact that I had just listened to the C10 Talk Episode 3 dudes 1 truck where Ronnie and his buds fly all the way up to Montana and road trip back to AZ in a C10... But the idea of flying down to SD and making the maiden voyage home in the truck sounded pretty awesome

So we headed out on Monday morning, 6 days ago, and flew down to San Diego, caught a bus to the PO's house and met Shorty for the first time in person.

Initial impressions were good, about what we expected. Fairly straight and not much rust. The drip rails look great, rockers and cowl are in perfect shape. Cab corners are decent, one has been replaced, other has some minor bubbles but no through holes.

37D52A56-C1C7-4D04-837E-9A2E713C02EB by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

2726670B-3FB3-481B-9496-2E13FA8F599B by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

87925C3B-3657-4D13-BBF7-4A14B7A463CD by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

She is 5 shades of primer black right now, over a few different paint jobs, but lurking below is a lovely coat of #529 Med Blue-Green Poly. Really love to rescue the original paint, or more likely redo the truck in its original color.

A recently built 350 lies under the hood, bored .30 over and cammed, roller rockers, Holley 600 carb, mated to a TH350 trans. More to follow on the motor...

C0F7EB2C-B05D-4C22-9564-15B09E454F13 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

It has been converted to 5 lug w/ discs up front, drums in rear. CPP drop spindles and springs, leaf spring rear.

The gas tank has been moved to the bed, with the fuel door nicely replaced in the bedside. Still needs to have the bed floor patched up. In fact the bed floor is pretty hammered.

The interior is very nice, mostly all redone. Digital gauges with bright blue readout that I'm not a fan of, but they all work, so thats nice.

65B3224A-8322-46C7-9374-68785A37867D by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

All in all shes a pretty decent little ride. Would have loved to pick up something a little less "customized" (the side markers and all the trim holes are shaved and filled) and i really despise all the black rattle can covering the beautiful original paint, but she'll do!

Plans are to basically get her running strong and smooth, and she'll see daily driver use for my wife and I both, as well as run-around pickup duties. No show queen here. Just a little hot rod pickup with as much old school original cool as i can get back into her!

Interior is good. Still getting used to the digital gauges and dash. It’s nice that they all work, but I’m feeling a little bit like KITT in Night Rider. We’ll see if they stick around...

E402C102-BBDE-419E-A008-41392DAE8BF6 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr


The initial drive was a little disappointing. The PO states it has a newly built 350, bored 30 over, cam and rollers. TBH it feels pretty gutless... at low RPM it’s a dog, but picks up around 2800-3k, but then it just shifts up (th350). It works all right, but not the torquey 1st-2nd pull I’m used to. We’ll see if we can iron that out.

Idle is lopey as all get out, idles at around 500 rpm and feels like it’s gonna stall all the time. But it doesn’t. Yet... (foreshadowing??)

Anyways, we scooped it up, hit the road West to the beach and enjoyed a beer at the Pizza Port Brewing in Solana Beach, then sushi at our all time fave spot Station sushi.

Next it was a ride up the 5 to Dana Point where we turned in for the night.

[ShortHaul]

Time for another update from the road...

We made it up to Dana Point the first night and promptly experienced our first “Roadkill” moment. My wife had tracked down a hotel for the night on Hotwire, for a great rate since it was last minute, turns out it’s at the Hilton in Dana Point, pretty swanky joint by my standards. We pull up and are greeted by the Valet Guy, who is looking at the truck like it’s from another planet! And remember, this truck has a huge lope at idle, the whole damn thing is shaking and wants to lurch forward... He says “ummm can I help you?” I just pull past him and park it right in front, next to his Valet stand. He is too dumbfounded to really say anything lol! I don’t think he’s ever seen a rig like this. Parked next to us was a new Mercedes sedan and a Maserati. Meanwhile there is a big crowd of folks at an outside patio bar area enjoying cocktails and a fire pit, and they are ALL staring at us, and the truck. My wife was turning red at this point.

So we get checked in and unload our bags then I go back to park the truck. I wasn’t going to let the Valet kid touch it. As I go to fire it up, it won’t start. So there I am, cranking it over and trying to start it, it’s catching but dying again and again, at this point the whole group of people outside is literally staring right at me. I’m sure they are all wondering where the F this hillbilly came from!

So there I am with the hood up, and the air cleaner off, looking through the car and motor. And mind you, I’ve only owned the truck for about 2 hours now. I’ve started it a total of 3 times and each time it’s fired right up... now it won’t start. Plus I’m exhausted from a looooong day... I go sit in the cab and Think it over... I come to the fairly obvious conclusion that it’s flooded, so I let it sit, hood up for a while and then open the carb up fully and fire it. It fires up, finally! Then I give a big smile and wave to the group of people who were undoubtedly entertained by my presence, and lope my way into the parking garage...
22C2D20A-89A1-4697-9B75-DD5BC04E4483 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
05AE8661-53D8-4CE3-BA8B-CEB1D335084E by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
E05F885D-D93F-4155-A871-0623C595E39D by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Pics are me in front of the lobby, and then downstairs in the parking lot

[ShortHaul]

Sorry for the epic sideways pic situation... not sure how to rectify...

EDIT:

Flickr to the rescue

[ShortHaul]

So the next morning we hit the road north, taking Hwy 1 through the heart of Orange County, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, and up into Huntington Beach. All the while we are drawing stares and looks of utter disgust from the Telsa and Porsche driving locals...

We arrive in HB and head to the Classic Industries HQ. We head in and Im immediately surprised by how many people are there, and all seem to just be waiting around. Pro Tip: get a number right away. They are not fast. Even though there was about 6-8 employees helping at the counter, it still took about 45 minuted for them to reach my number, and then another 30 or so for them to return with all my parts. Not complaining per se, I understand its a massive warehouse... but my wife and I were joking that we could probably have ordered it online and it'd be there faster...

While we waited a nice C10 rolled up next to ours, providing some inspiration for the future, but also prompting my wife to want to order damn near the entire CI catalog!

289C28BD-B898-4DC0-B9B9-005A5A11EA92 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

3BB68422-923D-4D8E-AD30-C8415BF58BE4 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Anyway, picked up some odds and ends, tail light lenses, headlight and wiper knobs, a brake pedal cover not made out of diamond plate... Pretty cool shop, they have a big bank of computers you can look up your parts at, and a really *****in Yenko 427 Camaro in the center.

B2714440-1C3B-4496-8346-B54C2BA11CF0 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

From there we hit the 405 north, determined to make up some time. Made a quick stop at Harbor Freight for a cheapy toolbox and we were off...

It was another beautiful SoCal day and we headed north.

Ended up stopping for a break and some Ice cream at McConnel's in Santa Barbara, a must if you're in the area... Some gas, and we were back on the road.

Shorty is still plugging away fine at this point. Still idles poorly, stumbles and bogs in the low RPM. She does fine above 3K, but I don't really want to be doing 85 on the freeway lol. Around town i had been dropping into 2 or 1 just to keep the rpms up and that helps, but something is feeling not quite right...

We put some good miles in, and made it all the way up to Avila beach, just past Pismo, where we enjoyed a nice sunset, dinner and a overnight stay.
4D2DAD36-8032-487B-A271-1F4E132697CF by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

The next morning was chilly, but Shorty fired right up. I do have to keep my foot in it after the start until she comes up to temp, the electric choke on the holley is not connected to anything...

We head off after breakfast and make good time up to Gilroy, where we stop off at Pacific Fabrication/Tilden Motorsports, (vendors on here) for a pit stop. These guys are LS swap specialists in addition to building some pretty badass rigs, from hot rods to 4x4's and especially the Ultra4 Rock buggies. They are currently building a 6.0L LS for me to drop in my 62 Impala.

Met Walter in person finally, after speaking to him on the phone numerous times when he helped me spec out my motor. He was gracious enough to give us a full shop tour, through the motor building room, the dyno, and into the fab shop. Cant say enough good things about these guys and their customer service. My motor is still in the build phase so ill wait to give feedback on that, but the service is second to none in my book.

A really sweet Longroof parked outside Pacific fab.
6B59AE0B-B5F8-4146-B7D6-0E6F73D64C15 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
The badass sheet metal fabricated intake manifolds they can put on your LS. I ordered mine in black
951918AC-E611-4993-9BCF-D868A1890A55 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

So onward we drove, past silicon valley and up into the great city of San Francisco. Up until this point in the trip we really hadn't hit any traffic to speak of. That changed when we hit 19th Ave in the city. They had a lane blocked at 19th/Sloat, so that backed things up considerably. We were a few minutes into the slow-and-go when i looked down at the temp gauge and for the first time of the trip i noticed it was at 200...

I was surprised, up until now the truck had been running really cool, 140-150 on the freeway, and 170's around town. It has a huge new Champion aluminum radiator in it, and a stock appearing fan.

I was watching the temp rise, and sort of not believing it, second guessing the gauge, when sure enough it hits 230 and blows its top.

21EA28A8-11FE-484B-ABE4-57CB516B8AC4 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
I hop out and push the truck to the curb. Luckily traffic is going all of 1 MPH at this time, so its not too dangerous. My wife is trying to play it cool, but i know shes not stoked. We sit for a while and let her cool off, then i pop the cap off. Its bone dry in the rad, i assume its all over the ground a few feet back.

Luckily we had a bunch of water bottles in the truck from our trip, and the house we stalled in front of had a hose in the front yard. So we filled back up, I let it cool to about 140 and she fired right back up...

The rest of the drive home in traffic was pretty hairy, i had to pull off multiple times to let her cool. As soon as we hit about 30 mph the temps drop, but any slower and it climbs FAST. And mind you this is a fairly cool day, maybe 65 outside and breezy.

Im assuming the lack of a fan shroud is causing the rapid temp spike while in traffic. The radiator is more than effective with some air running through it, but with no shroud the fan is just blowing hot air around in the engine bay. Will be looking to add a shroud or just do electric fans.

[ShortHaul]

After the overheat incident and a couple pull offs to cool, we finally made it home. 558 Miles in 2.5 days, and only one real breakdown, that could've been avoided had I been more trusting of the temp gauge.

Home safe and sound. you can see the Impala peeking out of the garage in the second pic. And yes Primer is my favorite color!

BA392DBA-7940-48F7-A589-F7472B0722DB by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
1D66E4DA-0E4C-4252-BD1F-8D2A21F5EA7D by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

So I drove her into work the next day, and she really started running rough. Eventually when I left to come home this morning, she would barely idle below 1k rpm. I had to get her towed home

I pulled the plugs today and they look like a coal miner coming out of the hole... Im pretty sure I'll need to do some serious carb tuning and perhaps some work on timing. Also replaced a header gasket hoping to cure the awesome exhaust leak it had.
F96C23ED-8B2B-4CB5-96EC-8C31D79EC82F by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
But luckily I have my expert in all things automotive to help me out

3E0D5BF6-960B-479F-B0F7-9B24EC572344 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Gonna hopefully tackle some tuning this weekend. Im pretty useless at tuning carbs, so I'm going to enlist some buddies, but id certainly welcome any advice, tips, resources from you experts out there!

[Orange67]

Very cool story man. My wife and I would like to do a road trip like that. Not sure why, but I can't see any pics, it might be that I am viewing from my phone though. Good luck with your build!

[Getter-Done]

I am in for the Build journey.
I seen the pictures in your other post but I can not see them in this one.
Good luck with your build.

[ShortHaul]

Ahhh dang. I wrote this up on the computer and they all showed up. Now on the phone there’s nothing. Ugh. I’ll work on it. Check back!

[ShortHaul]

Switched all the photos to Flickr acct. Hope that fixes it! Spent the day fiddling with the carb and got her running again. I cleaned out the needle valve and adjusted the float, then leaned out the mixture a bit. I also wired up the electric choke. Not running perfect, but far better than the other day.

[Getter-Done]

I can see the pics now.

Awesome.

[ShortHaul]

Officially performed her first duty as my pickup truck today, hauled some 3" drain pipe to the dump! ok its not really that exciting... but I'm happy

Time to troubleshoot the cooling situation. It runs cool, very cool while driving, but heats up way to fast at a stop. Around town and on the freeway it'll run between 140-170* and as soon as you stop for traffic, or in today's case waiting in line at the dump scales, it shoots right up. today it jumped from 146 to 202 in about 4 minutes of idling...

It has a new Champion aluminum radiator and a stock clutchless fan. No shroud. Im wondering if

A: Is the Tstat is operating properly? why is it running so cool around town?
B: Is the fan not sufficient? (kinda obvious if it jumps that high in such a short period of time)

Fix for the fan could be a shroud or electric fan setup. Stock shroud will not work on the big aftermarket radiator tho...

That, along with trying to remove some of the nasty black spray paint from the grill, and still troubleshooting the carb, are my projects for the day.

[Getter-Done]

I would start with the shroud.
Just a suggestion, do one thing at a time so you know what fixed it

[ShortHaul]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

I would start with the shroud.
Just a suggestion, do one thing at a time so you know what fixed it

Good call. Have any good recommendations for an aftermarket shroud that’ll fit a big radiator?

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

Pulled the grill off yesterday to try and fix some of the ugly...

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Hit it with some Klean Strip and a plastic scraper. ugh. shoulda taken it somewhere to blast it. Lots of little contours on the grill that make it tough to scrape the paint off. Gonna go at it with some steel wool and try to knock the rest of that awful black off.

Progress...
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

Also check this out:

It's not the latest exhibit at the modern art museum... Its just the tailgate and the 5 different colors I found after scraping away some of the black rattle can primer! Looks kinda weird. Wayyyyyy down there at the bottom I see some old blue...

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

So I had been wondering about the condition of the thermostat, and if it was working or not...


Guess this answers that question...
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr


I know it's not 100% necessary to run one, but its nice to have, and it'll help it warm up in the mornings. So i popped a 180* Tstat from NAPA in there.

Also put in some more elbow grease on the grill project. Got 99% of the nasty black paint off there. There's a bunch of little pits and chips in it, but for now I think it looks a million times better.

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

Got it on and mounted. Also ditched the fake plastic egg crate insert. I'll be looking for an original '70 insert to replace it. But for now I'm kinda on a mission to get rid of as much of the ugly on this truck as possible and get her closer to her old beautiful self...

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Next to go is that awful hood. I scored a really nice condition used one a few weeks ago... Only problem with it is that its BRIGHT red! Oh well, it'll add some color to this thing!

[ShortHaul]

Also, finally found out the cam specs from the previous owner.

She's running a Comp Cams Thumpr
Lift .479"/.465"
Duration 279/297
RPM Range 2000 to 5800

I called up Comp, they recommend a 2200-2400 Stall converter for this cam, its currently got the stock converter. That helps explain why she tries to die every time I go from park to drive or reverse. Going to order up a new one... had my eye on this

https://www.jegs.com/i/B-M/130/20404/10002/-1
B&M Tork Master 2400

Anyone have any input on that?

[ShortHaul]

Pulled the old hood off, and installed this beauty!

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Wow. pretty bright... Still it's a way better hood than the old one. So she's staying!

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by ShortHaul

Also, finally found out the cam specs from the previous owner.

She's running a Comp Cams Thumpr
Lift .479"/.465"
Duration 279/297
RPM Range 2000 to 5800

I called up Comp, they recommend a 2200-2400 Stall converter for this cam, its currently got the stock converter. That helps explain why she tries to die every time I go from park to drive or reverse. Going to order up a new one... had my eye on this

https://www.jegs.com/i/B-M/130/20404/10002/-1
B&M Tork Master 2400

Anyone have any input on that?

If it is not a daily driver that would be Okay.

[ShortHaul]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

If it is not a daily driver that would be Okay.

Why do you say that? (Honest question, don’t have a lot of experience with hopped up trans/stall conv, all my fast cars have been sticks!)