72 Shortbed C10

[Fraud]

I bought this out of Tennessee in early December and for various reasons it has taken until this week to get it up here, but finally I can drive it

My first child is due any minute now (literally - today is technically the day), so a project (ie. anything that needed work immediately) was completely out of the question. There are a few little things I want to get started on, but my goal for the next 12 months is to drive it to work once a week on average - that alone will be a big achievement

Beyond that I really hope that next year I'm comfortable enough both with the truck, and with my family that I can disappear for a couple of weeks to do powertour or similar. That just looks like an amazing experience.

Way into the future, the plan is to take it home (Australia) as a souvenir of the time I've spent living in the US. Been here 2.5 years so far, probably 4-5 years to go, so no time soon. This puts some limits on what modifications I can do in the meantime, but I've got some ideas.

Its a 350/th350, factory shortbed, factory two tone Wheatland yellow/white, factory AC truck (SPID and buildsheet backs it up!). It has had a restoration at some point, but I don't know the full details. Engine has a mild cam, HEI, holley avenger 670, edelbrock intake, and a press bent dual exhaust from the factory headers back. Diff ratio was swapped for a 3.73 (speedo is way off despite the receipt I have for a new speedo drive gear being installed when the diff was done), and 2 inch lowering springs.

Near term modifications (6-18 months)

• The exhaust isn't overwhelmingly loud, but it drones/resonates just a little too much, and I'd like to resolve that.
• The diff gears are great, but it really wants an overdrive transmission for the highway
• I'd like to do something to help the front end body roll a little (I'm hoping an off the shelf front sway bar will help), and
• I want to get some 3 point seat belts installed

I've learned a lot from this forum and I look forward to hopefully meeting a bunch of you over time, and putting as many miles on this truck as practical!

Some pics in the link below - I still haven't cleaned it since it arrived, so I've cherry-picked the photos that don't make it look filthy (and a couple showing just how perfectly it fits in my garage). I'll get some better ones sometime after it gets a good clean.

https://goo.gl/photos/wynWo7jtWqfETEGw9

[fecklessgadfly]

You Yankees/Aussies need to stop stealing all of our good Tennessee trucks.

Seriously though, nice ride.

[Fraud]

Update, I've done absolutely no work on this thing whatsoever, but I've driven it a bunch, and love every minute.

Some new things on the to do list, roughly in order of importance;
1: The "slight front end roll" I described above I've upgraded to "actually quite bad all around floppyness", and I'm thinking the standard height monroe shocks which were apparently installed in ~2010 have probably suffered at the lowered ride height, and are probably just old... I've identified the springs as Belltech 2/4, so I'll order the Belltech shocks that match when I think i'll have time to do something with them. I'd still love to throw in a later model front sway bar, and probbaly get all the bushes etc. replaced too

2: Brakes:
The front brakes pull up well enough, but pretty sure they're warped.. Would like to replace the pads/rotors and probably get the calipers rebuilt (because I have no idea if thats ever happened)... Are there upgraded components I should aim for when doing this?

The rear brakes seem to lock up relatively easily, especilaly when the road is just a bit greasy from some light rain... and pretty much all we get here is light rain... I had the back end try to overtake me while exiting the interstate a few weeks back, and it took a lot of focus and swearing to pull it up while keeping it off the concrete wall. I'm aware this is common in an unladen truck, but this seems particularly bad. I'm sure the crapped out shocks aren't helping the situation, but if replacing them doesn't fix it I'll have to dig deeper.

3: Stuck in traffic in the rain last week I noticed a very light trickle of water coming in about 3-4 inches from the top of the A pillar on the drivers side. From searching around, potential causes are the windscreen seal, and water wicking in from the drip rails if the seam sealer is cracked/worn (which it is).. Anywhere else I should investigate?

4: Gauges:
Speedo is off (75 on the dial = 65 in real life) which is likely a speedo gear mismatch with the 3.7 diff gears
Oil pressure guage seems to have 4 positions - Engine Off (0%), Idling when engine is cool-warm (which is about 75%), Idling when engine is hot (about 50%), and cruise (100%)... Is this normal? if not, does it sound like an actual engine issue, or a sensor issue, or something else?
Temp Guage seems to have its full range of motion in the first 20% - I sat in really terrible traffic yesterday afternoon, and it was starting to smell like it was running hot, but the needle just sat solid at 20%, and dropped a bit when I got moving again... Again, normal? Not normal?

5: Throttle cable is too long (linkages moved when a previous owner fitted the new carb, but stock cable retained), so pedal to the floor still leaves about 15% movement remaining in the throttle linkage on the carb. So not only is that robbing me of some top end, but I'm also blaming that for the dead spot/hesitation when I floor it from a cruising speed because the accel pump isn't being hit, and I'm blaming it for the fact that I can't activate the choke using the pedal, I have to open the throttle by hand... I'm not really sure how to fix that right now - its too much slack to take up on the adjustment at the carb.. I've seen people use cable ties to take up the slack at the pedal end, but that feels a bit half arsed.

6: It has reproduction sport mirrors on it, and on the passenger side I can't move it in or down far enough for my liking because it hits the arm/mount... I've seen some others on here illude to the same problem, but I haven't seen a solution it.. anyone?

7: I'd love to get on powertour next year, but I need to get confident working on it before I commit to a 5000+ mile round trip... And I'd really like to have an overdrive transmission fitted.. I'll probably have the funds for that in a few months, anyone recommend a shop within an hour or so of Seattle for a 200 4r swap?

Aside from all that, it brings me a tonne of joy.. Just looking at it in the garage, or getting the occasional wave from someone else in an old car in traffic. Still looking forward to meeting some of you.. I'd hoped to be at the Monroe swap meet, but the entire week prior I'd been interstate for work leaving my wife at home with our (then) 3 month old so I couldn't really sneak out.

[Fraud]

No idea if anyone is actually reading this haha, but I'm attacking one thing at a time...

Originally Posted by Fraud

1: The "slight front end roll" I described above I've upgraded to "actually quite bad all around floppyness"... I'll order the Belltech shocks that match when I think i'll have time to do something with them.

Shocks arrived yesterday, going around to a buddys place Sunday to put them in using his tools and making a mess of his driveway. There isn't too much disassembly required to do the shocks, so not a lot of other "while I'm here I might as well..." maintenance items that I can think of, but if there is something I should definitely check while I'm there let me know. I will grab his grease gun and check the joints etc. though

2: Brakes:
The front brakes pull up well enough, but pretty sure they're warped.. Would like to replace the pads/rotors

Agonised over whether I should bother doing the brakes this weekend as well and decided against it, but will inspect while I'm there and work out how urgently they need attention. I want to inspect the rear brakes too, but drum brakes are black magic to me, so not really sure what I'm looking for!

I'm still open to suggestions for Pads/Rotors to install though.

Pads: EBC Yellows seem to be fairly popular with the standard calipers, so happy to go with that.

Rotors: Read a lot of stuff suggesting that the more modern replacement rotors warp/wear out quickly and to just have the stock ones refinished unless they're all the way down to the groove depth... I have personally never liked the idea of refinishing rotors, and would much rather go with a good quality replacement rotor, so if anyone has a brand/part number to aim for please let me know!

5: Throttle cable is too long

Going to see how much of this slack I can take up on the stock adjustment this sunday too, but I don't think it'll be enough.. otherwise I'll look into some of the jerry rig techniques I've seen on youtube etc.

[Fraud]

Originally Posted by Fraud

Shocks arrived yesterday, going around to a buddys place Sunday to put them in using his tools and making a mess of his driveway.

So this happened - new shocks are much better! I wouldn't say its a sports car, but I wasn't expecting that anyway. I can now hold the throttle open through corners, and if I hit an expansion joint on the interstate it doesn't bounce all the way to the next one. Its a much more confidence inspiring vehicle!

The only major issue we ran into with the install was that we couldn't remove the passenger side upper shock mount to replace it with the Belltech supplied one - there were just too many things in the way (exhaust, transmission cooler lines etc.), so we reused the stock one, which is probably fine, but would like to have got it done. I've held on to the Belltech one and if the engine/box/exhaust/other are ever being removed/worked on I'll swap it out (or have it swapped out) then.

will inspect (the brakes) while I'm there

Yeah, fronts need attention - at least 2 visible grooves in them - one of them is probably the factory one... I think I'll pick up a full front brake kit from Classic Heartbeat, but maybe swap out the pads for EBC yellows and book in another weekend.

Going to see how much of this slack I can take up on the stock (throttle) adjustment this sunday too

So after driving it as is for 5+ months, this took about 3 minutes to actually resolve. It has an aftermarket throttle adjustment (probably supplied by holley with the carb? don't know) that has the cable mount on a sliding bracket, which had a tonne of adjustment left in it. Pulled that back so that WOT happend when the pedal hit the floor, and HUGE difference...

1: I can now activate the choke using the pedal, which is awesome
2: It now actually revs out nicely (used to choke after about 3500rpm)
3: It shifts at more appropriate speeds with a more appropriate amount of force
4: I think I've gained 15% more torque/hp. I swear the primaries were only opening to ~75% and the vac secondaries were only able to open under certain circumstances. I still wouldn't describe it as fast, but its a huge difference

So everyone go check your throttle adjustment NOW, especially if you have a previous owner fitted non-standard carb.

Between the extra acceleration and the better handling, I think I've now found the limits of the factory seatbelt and bench seat for holding me in place.

Unfortunately, while we were at it, we identified a semi serious power steering leak (appears to be the high pressure line), a notable engine leak (leak out of bellhousing area, but I think/hope it is actually a valve cover and all the oil runs to the lowest point before dripping), a possible transmission leak, a fuel leak on the carb (if I'm honest, I knew about that one but had been ignoring it), and a leak out of the rear diff... I don't have enough spare weekends to go chasing leaks so I think I'll just take it in and have it all worked out.

Also spotted some rust right at the base of the inner guard/fender on the passenger side, right below the battery basically so no surprises... I'll probably get onto that to stop it spreading but a proper patch/fix isn't high on the to do list.

also, the entire truck is just ****ing filthy right now. I've got too much junk in my car hole so its been parked on the street for at least a few weeks, under trees for most of it, and birds just love me... this is on top of all the road grime that never got cleaned off after delivery, and the soil left in the bed from when I laid new sod a month or two ago... so it needs a thorough clean... in my spare time... whatever that is

[Beau2a]

Hey Fraud. When you're ready to have a tranny installed there is a fantastic shop down in Renton. Mathewsons Automotive. 425-226-2965. They are on Rainier Ave directly across from Renton municipal airport. I've been a customer for 30+ years. You can't go wrong using them. Always a lot of street rods down there.

[Fraud]

Thanks for the tip!