My first C-10 Build 67 SWB Stepside

[Mcmour67]

Hi, my name is Matt and I finally bought my first C-10 which will also be my first frame off. I'm going to try to take as many pictures as I can during the process, which I will tell you right now, will be a slow one. The truck I aquired has a very cool story. About 17 years ago my dad came home with a 1967 SWB stepside C-10. My brother and I loved it. I already had a car and my brother was just turning 16, so about a year after my dad bought it, he sold it to my brother. My brother blew the 305 that was in it and put in a rebuild 283 with about 30K on it. A year after my brother bought it, he sold it to by a '70 LWB with a 350. I was crushed. I had no money to buy it at the time and watched it drive away. Below are some pictures of it before my brother sold it. I am new to the whole forum thing so I hope the pictures are big.
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The saga continues. Fifteen years later, on a hot august afternoon, my brother calls me and says "You'll never believe what I am staring at on (insert internet classified site here)" It was his old truck!! Are you kidding me? I have had dreams about this truck! Agonizing regrets!! Now he was crushed. He just had a kid. We all know what that means. Me, on the other hand, still broke, managed to scrounge up some cash, and she has returned home to her family. Happy ending, right? Below are some sad pictures, some of you may cry, but it looks worse than it is.




In its 15 year sentence to death it managed to get sanded down a little, the trany hump got lost, windshield got smashed, seat covers got ripped, and it became the dwelling of many wasps. Oh, and that rebuilt 283? Well i guess someone thought it would be a good idea to leave it sit outside with no hood on and no cover over the carb. Enough with the bad. The good things are that the body is still in the same shape it was in when my brother sold it, other than some sanding and some surface rust. It also came with new bumpers! Joy. It has the original 67 rear fenders without the side markers. Those puppies are hard to find. The front fenders are from a 68 judging by the side markers. They have been trimmed on the bottom to line up with the bottom of the grille. Those will be replaced. It has a 4.11 rear end with the factory drum, 6 bolt. I have a 350 for it and it still has the 3spd manual in it, which I may replace eventually with a 6spd. The front part of the chassis is where I need some advice on. The frame has been grafted with the sub-frame off of a 76 Nova. Its kind of iffy if you ask me. It also causes some issues with the steering shaft. I'll try to get some better pics but I think Im going to scrap it and start from new even though it sets its stance right where I want it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Either get a factory frame and do some drop members??? or complete chassis??? Coil overs or bags???? My goal is to have it set to do some light autocross and be a somewhat comfortable driver. I don't want to slam it on the ground, I would like it to look like it did in the first pic with the same stance.
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Well, that's all for tonight. I'll post some more tomorrow of the little work I've done so far to it. Thanks, and hope you enjoy the truck!

[swamp rat]

Great story, Ya gotta try and make the pic's a bit bigger to show some detail.

[Mcmour67]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Great story, Ya gotta try and make the pic's a bit bigger to show some detail.

I know, i can not figure it out for the life of me. If you click on them they do get bigger, but I would like them to appear in the post good. I am new to this so if anyone else has any suggestions I would be forever grateful.

[Mcmour67]

Lets try those pics again.

[Mcmour67]

Now that I have the pics figured out, the first order of business was the motor. I had a bad feeling about it and I was right. I drained the oil and, well, there was no oil in it. Just water. So I yanked it and ripped it apart.



Without knowing how long this truck was sitting outside with water in the block, I chalked up the motor as a loss. I know, it was just a 283, but it ran great when my bro sold it and it was just sad and disappointing. I saved the C3BX intake and the carb and gave the rest away. Now I needed a new motor. Word got around that I was looking for a 350 and the guy in the shop next door said he had a 327 that's been sitting in his shop for 10 years. He said I could have it for $300 and I don't have to pay him if it doesn't run. What a deal!!!! I snatched it up and looked up the casting#. The motor was not a 327. It was a 1979 010 4 bolt main 350!!!! I ripped the heads off and the oil pan. Its also bored .040 over!! I looked it over, cleaned it up a little and it appears to be good. So I buttoned her back up.



I know what you're all going to say, "the motors out, rebuild it, paint it!!" I know, i know, but I'm still undecided on this motor or going LSx. It looked like a fairly recent rebuild and the guy i got it from turned and oiled it frequently. For now, I have the itch and I just want get a motor in this thing and drive it while I build a chassis. So next is a water pump, radiator, carb rebuild, and all the other little things to get this motor back in. Hopefully within the next couple of months I will have it in and running.

[Mcmour67]

Well it's a little early for me to be worried about my headlights, but, since I'm broke and this didn't cost me anything, I thought I would just do it. I had some JW Speaker headlights from my jeep and since I love the PCHRODS C10R, there was no other option but to put them in the C10. I had to do some modifications to the headlight bucket but it was very easy. All I had to do was trim the buckets with some tin snips. I do not know if I have to trim the core support yet but I will keep you posted. They fit in beautifully. Just take your time and trim little by little to get them to set in all the way. I'm going to use a dremel to clean the edges up a little and paint them. You can see in the pics how much I had to trim off.

[Odaroloc]

Awesome man! Love it! Keep it up!

[Mcmour67]

Originally Posted by Odaroloc

Awesome man! Love it! Keep it up!

Thanks! I checked out your project and saw that we have one common denominator that may be why are builds are thwarted. You mentioned you have a Jeep Cherokee. Well, thats my other project. Its my DD so I have to keep her going. I have sunk about $2500 into this thing in the past couple months that would have been much better spent on the C10. I think we both need to get rid of the Heep's!!!! Keep on trucking though, I wish I would have got started at your age. Im 35 and this is my first classic/project. You have no idea how hard it is to watch AND HELP all your friends build their rides while your stuck in the DD world. Love the Grande!

[Mcmour67]

Just found some interior pics. First pic is 15 yrs ago when my brother owned it. Second pic is as she sits now. Makes you want to punch the PO in the face.

[Mcmour67]

Finally found some spare time. Busy....blah blah. I have been doing some engine work and finally got it in.





I had some issues with this engine so I'll share some of my woe's with you in hopes of someone learning from my mistakes/misfortunes. 1st problem was the intake. When my brother sold it, it had a cast intake on it and a later model GM HEI distributor. At some point the PO put the Edelbrock C3BX intake on it and tried to fit the distributor in it but the rear P/S riser would not allow it to drop down. I'm assuming this is the point the PO gave up because when I received it the distributor was just resting in there and I never questioned why. Now I know.


Luckily my buddy had a Mallory Unilite distributor and coil that fit. Its a mechanical advance and is not ideal for what I'm looking for so a new intake is coming so I can use the distributor with the vacuum advance. I don't have a pic of it, but I will post it later. Another problem I had was with pulleys and brackets. Keep in mind this is the first time I've worked with SBC's. The 283 that was in the truck was a short water pump. The 350 I got was a 1979 block so I got a long water pump for that. Cue the conundrum. I had to relocate the alternator to the P/S with the proper brackets. I also had to get the correct water pump pulley for a LWP. Since the 350 came with an 8" harmonic balancer, I replaced it with an 8". The 283 had a 6" so the power steering bracket would not work. Three different sets of brackets latter, I found one that would work. I had the flywheel resurfaced and put a new clutch in. The trans is also in it with a new mount. New mounts for engine as well. I decided not to rebuild the Edelbrock carb and put on a Holley 4160 750 my friend let me borrow. More carb than I need, but free. I syphoned the old gas from the tank, ran my fuel line, filled her up and it's alive!!!!!! That's all I have time for today but I have plenty more pics and progress (or problems ) to come. You'll have to wait and see!!!!

[Orange67]

A PO of my truck yanked the tore up 327 and dropped a 305 in it. Not sure of the accessory bracket situation at that point, but when my dad picked this truck up he dropped a late 70's 350 in but he used the late 70's brackets. He had to modify the harness a little, but he was already doing that for the HEI. You might try to source some era correct brackets for yours, sure makes it easier when I go for fan belts. Nice work so far, keep on truckin'!

And crap. I just re-read your post, and you already figured it out. Sorry man.

[Mcmour67]

No prob Orange67. Yeah, an option was to just find a later model SBC and pull everything off of it. That would include the power steering pump and most likely the alternator. I already had both for a 69ish? so figured it would be cheaper to hunt down the right brackets. It took a lot longer and probably cost just as much. Sometimes a shortcut takes longer, and sometimes cheaper costs more!

[Mcmour67]

So with the engine in and running I started to investigate the brakes. They never worked right when my brother owned it and he never figured out why. After many painstaking days of research, I figured it out. It wasn't the ideal outcome. It has front disc and rear drum. The PO put a booster off of a C/K20 to my understanding. Please correct me if I am wrong. This booster would probably worked with my set up but the seals were dry rotted and it was full of rust inside. JUNK! I took apart the master to inspect the seals and found the master to be a disc/disc master from a 71 and up. That is one reason they never worked properly. It too was dry rotted and full of rust. JUNK!! If you look at the picture you can see this setup was a pre combination valve setup. It has a separate metering valve, distribution block and should have a proportioning valve inline to the rear brakes. It does not have a proportioning valve. There's the second reason the brakes never worked. Talk about dangerous. I cant believe my dad and my brother and the PO drove this truck around like this. So now I am in need of a new booster/master/valve combo and new lines all around.

[Mcmour67]

I also had some time to work on my steering issues. Another very dangerous thing the PO hacked. Below is the shaft he rigged up.





I removed it and found that I could not save the steering column. The PO ground the splines off the shaft and notched it. If anyone has any use for this old column, let me know. I have no idea if it is a stock column, it may be a later model non-tilt.



I removed the old column and ordered a new tilt from Flaming River. It is a 32" paintable part# FR20006. It cost $392.89. I believe the stock columns are around 35" so I got a shorter one due to my steering shaft angle. I figured it would reduce the angle the closer to the firewall I went. I could have got a 30" but this will work. Here are some pics of it dry fit.


The steering column has a 1" DD shaft so I need a 1"DD to 3/4"DD Ujoint. A shaft will go from there to a 3/4"DD to 3/4"DD Ujoint. From there I will have another shaft with a heim joint going to a vibration dampening 3/4"DD to 3/4" 36 spline Ujoint to the steering box. That is about another $500 for all of that. So now its the save some money waiting game until the steering and brakes are complete.

[Devil Pup]

Nice project so far. Looks like you are making progress. Maybe im confused on what you're doing with your steering box but $500 for the DD joints and a Shaft? you could use the two joints below and just a standard DD shaft and accomplish what you're going for i think and be money ahead

https://www.brotherstrucks.com/47-91...info/CSC72UJ1/
https://www.brotherstrucks.com/47-91...tinfo/CSC72UJ/
Might wanna give em a call on this one, i cant remember if its a DD shaft on both ends, pretty sure but ya. .
https://www.brotherstrucks.com/47-91...tinfo/CSC72SH/

[Mcmour67]

Those are a little cheaper than the flaming river ones. I'd like the 36spline to 3/4 to be a vibration resistor Ujoint at the box. The one I'm looking at is $217. Plus two regular u joints at @$60, were at $337. Shaft is $50 for stainless and stainless heim joint is $95. After shipping were up to around $500. I'll have to check out brothers to see if they have a vibration resistor for less. Thanks for the tip!

[Devil Pup]

Adds up quick ha. Brothers can order pretty much any joint you need. just gotta ask the salesman to take the extra step on getting pricing on it because they get it through a third party of coarse. The shaft they sell is not stainless i dont think but im sure they can get you a stainless one the same way.

[Mcmour67]

Yeah it sure does add up quick! I'd love to get it to steer right for under $500 so I'll take all the help I can get. I'm sure I could shave some cost off by not going stainless but this is something that's going to stay with this truck.

[Mcmour67]

Next up, the carnage. I plan on having the body and metal work done by a pro, as I am not. I may dabble with a couple of small things, but for now the only thing I'm going to do is sand the surface rust and prime the bare metal. Paint/metal/body work will be the last thing I do. Here is the worst of the worst. It's not too bad.

[Mcmour67]

I removed the heater core box and whole heater assembly. It was full of mouse crap. I cleaned up the firewall and sanded the rust, gave it a quick coat of paint and made some temporary patches out of some sheet aluminum. I used some body seam sealer to hold them on so I didn't have to drill any holes. Hope it holds for a couple years lol. I would have more pics of this process but my computer crashed and I lost a bunch of pics.

[Mcmour67]

While I was working on the motor I managed to get the fenders, grille and cowl sanded, primed and cleared with a rattle can. I did not do any body work, just trying to cover the bare metal because I may have to store it outside for a little. The P/S fender is a 67 and the PO cut a hole in it for the side marker. Bottom front is chopped off also. The D/S fender is a 68 and is in really bad shape. Lots of bondo. I will eventually replace it. Grille and cowl should be salvageable. These are all the pics that survived the crash. I'm off to the shop today to throw it all on and work on the headlights so next pics will be the first time its been all together!

[Mcmour67]

I was able to get up to the shop yesterday and get the front end put on. Here are some quick pics. I'm going to try to get up there today and mess around will the headlights.

[Mcmour67]

Got the headlights mocked up. I don't have any bezels and some of my hardware is missing/broken so I'm not sure about the core but pretty sure I don't have to cut it up. As far as the wiring, just wire them right up. Below is a pic of which wires go where. The lights I have are the 8700 Evo II without daytime running lights. I'll take some more pics when I get all the hardware and bezels.