Project "Dusty"

[AZNUKLHD]

Just purchased 1971 C10, LWB, 350 w/3 speed manual, 2wd factory A.C. Found it on C.L for $1500 bucks. It had been driven everyday until late 2007 when it was parked in the backyard and sat until this past weekend. My 7 y/old is all geek'd out about having a project, especially one without a back seat so he can ride up front with dad....

Been working on it for a few days. Only found a little rust on both rockers and some surface rust on the hood face.. Cab corners/floors/frame/bed all good. Mostly sun faded from setting uncovered all those years (and the windows cracked too).

You can see why my son named it "Dusty" at least for now. I will get some better pics than my cell phone.

I'm working through the agenda and plans currently as It will more than likely be my D.D while I work on customizing it. For now the plan is get it started, stopping safely, shortened and static dropped. Just need to address everything in between.

More to come in the near future....

[craig7070]

Great find

[AZNUKLHD]

Forgot to mention a special "THANKS" to sqrlnts for all his help. He has a 55 project he's been working on and he was a huge help in getting my truck 65 miles home. Had a trailer lined up but backed out at 10:30 pm the night before. So had to be creative in overcoming a handful of obstacles but with John's help we made it home in the garage w/in 7 hours. All while it was ~115 outside in the sun. Couldn't have got it done without him

Also some poor mouse is now out of a home. Unfortunately he has a full belly of plug wire shielding, and misc wires...

More dust.

[Shyguy]

The transmissin is most likely a SM-465 4 speed transmission with a granny low first gear.

[sqrlnts]

Welcome to the board Marcus! Can't wait to see/hear this thing running down the road. Did you ever find the dipstick that I placed (lost) in the truck bed?

[AZNUKLHD]

Ummm NO! You owe me $4.99 btw.....

I've never had to recover a motor that has sat for years. After doing some research on here I came up with a plan listed below.

1-Remove/Inspect plugs- Gray color looked pretty good and no sludge etc.
2-Poured a couple of teaspoons of Mystery oil in each cylinder and let set for a day.
3-Removed the dizzy cap and inspect. Besides chewed up plug wires all looked o.k.
4-Rotated crank w/plugs out while watching to see if the dizzy rotor spun. All looked good and got 2 full rotations with minimal effort.
5-Inspected all wiring and replaced/repaired.
6-installed new plugs and changed oil/filter. No visible sludge detected in base of the oil pan.
7-Gas in tank smells bad. Thankfully there was not much in the tank as I tried to syphon out with little luck. I tried to drain from the bottom of the tank which I thought was a drain which apparently is not. One of the fuel lines during removal desenegrated in my hand so had to replace. I think it had the original hose clamps on it as I have never seen this kind before.
8- Put in a new battery.
9- Turned motor over /out plug wires to circulate oil.
10- Since there was very little old fuel in the tank I thought I would just add new gas with the thought it would be enough to dilute the bad gas.
11- Poured new gas in carb bowls and truck fired right up for a few seconds.
12- Checked for any leaks and primed the carb again. This time the truck fired right up.. Ran for ~20 seconds or so.. Sounded good (hooker long tube headers and flowmasters). As I sat smiling in my garage at 11pm at night looking over my steering wheel i noticed a fountain of fuel spewing from my carb so i shut it down and grabbed the fire extinguisher. Thankfully no fire. Cleaned up the mess and called it a night. My garage was filled with smoke and the smell of turpentine.....

So now I was considering rebuilding the carb. Found a kit at the local a.p store. I am mechanically inclined (meaning if I can take it apart I can put it back together but I have little experience on motors besides bolt on parts). So dunno if a carb rebuild is within my abilities. So I will start researching that.

Good news is step 1 on the overall plans is almost complete.

[sqrlnts]

Originally Posted by AZNUKLHD

Good news is step 1 on the overall plans is almost complete.

LOL, the best lesson I have learned is that a jug fills drop by drop. I have lost track of how many 8x11 paper task lists I have gone through. I think they are good to keep up. If you get to feeling overwhelmed by some big tasks, knock out some small ones so you see progress on your list.

[kornfed]

When rebuilding the carb, also buy yourself a new float. They don't come with the kit. Crazy I know.....