66 Long Stepside

[jdl71]

This isn't going to be a barn burner of a thread since my time and $ is very limited, but I plan on doing a little at a time to make this a decent, safe driver. Will never be show winner while I own it but I plan on enjoying it. So, here's what I've got if you missed my welcome thread:

66 Chevy c10, 8' stepside, 283 p-glide. Purchase price $650. Owner claims it's all original and I'm inclined to believe him. Truck had been sitting for a year or two by a barn and had some left front damage when I got it about a month ago:



For another $300 he sold me another 66 short stepside, wrecked, no title, pretty much junk, but in the bed was 4 doors, 4 fenders, 3 inner fenders and rad supports, 4 grill surrounds, 3 grilles and a ton of little stuff. That dented up fender really was bugging me, so into the parts pile I dug, and happened to find a decent fender, and even in the same color:



However, the grill surround, rad support and inner fender were more tweaked than I thought and couldn't get the front bolt holes to line up:



I really wasn't wanting to tear the whole front clip off yet, so a little redneck ingenuity to the rescue:



And viola!





Cleaned out the interior:





New fuel pump, fresh gas, blew out the fuel lines, and a little help from the wife:

No YouTube account, but click on the pic and the video should play in Windows Media




She lives! Next thing is address the exhaust leak, and go through the brakes. Stay tuned...

[DoubleL]

That's a nice truck to start with. I too started with getting mine road worthy. It is a lot of fun....and some frustration. It seems to make it worth it getting the thumbs up from other guys driving old rigs who are just as nuts as us.

[McMurphy]

Nice score on the parts truck!
I hope you have a lot of fun with this build, is always nice to see another one of these put back on the road !!

Good Luck and to the board with your build !!!

[jdl71]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Nice score on the parts truck!
I hope you have a lot of fun with this build, is always nice to see another one of these put back on the road !!

Good Luck and to the board with your build !!!

Thank you. And thank you for your service.

[jdl71]

Here's what I've gotten done lately. Took it to my local tire and muffler shop for brakes and exhaust. Basically everything on all 4 wheels, new hoses, almost all new lines master cylinder was good though. Also new pipe from the manifolds down, dual no name turbo mufflers with turn downs just behind the cab. A bit loud at times in the cab, but boy the 283 sounds good now. All that was quite a shot to the wallet, but well worth it and sorely needed. I also got rid of those hideous white wagon wheels. No offense to anyone that has a set, but I absolutely hate them, and I had no center caps and mismatched lug nuts. Mounted my CL find steels and hubcaps with all new lug nuts from Napa:



Now here's where things might get strange for some. I pulled off the Custom Cab trim and sold it. When I bought this truck I was looking for a longbed fleetside, 3 speed, 6cyl, plain jane truck. Just like grandpa had. Or like the blue one I used to have that's my avatar pic. However these trucks are getting pretty hard to find anymore in decent shape so I bought what I could find and afford and will make what I want. The donor:



The swap:











I'm now one step closer to my goal. I just love these trucks and the GM interchangeability. I'm never ceased to be amazed how easy it can be to swap stuff around from year to year, model to model, etc. One quick trip to the farm supply store for some 4" bolts, fender washers, lock washers and nuts and the bed was bolted down in 15 minutes. Every single hole was in the right place, every frame mount was exactly the right height and in the right spot. I figured it would be way more work than that.

Next on my list is to get my wheels blasted and painted the Saddle (or whatever that gold color is) to match the body, blast the hubcaps and paint them white, and figure out what to do with the bed. I'm kind of digging the old guy's name and address scripting and may just leave it for now.

[jp31b]

hi whats your idea for the stepside box you took off. if you want to get rid of it let me know i might be interested.would need to know where you are. john plumb jplumb31b@aol.com or text 585-370-6186

[jdl71]

Originally Posted by jp31b

hi whats your idea for the stepside box you took off. if you want to get rid of it let me know i might be interested.would need to know where you are. john plumb jplumb31b@aol.com or text 585-370-6186

Sorry I missed this, but I put it on CL, and it was gone within a week. Thanks for asking though.

[jdl71]

Here's what I've been up to lately.

Spray bomb primed the bed.
Painted the stock hubcaps and threw 'em on:





I can never seem to leave well enough alone, so I found a set of rally wheels and tires on CL for cheap, so I threw them on instead:





I'm thinkin' I like that better. Next on my list is to try to score some center caps or figure out how to make some chrome hubcaps fit on those wheels. I'd really like to use something like this, but have no idea how to make them mount:

[jdl71]

Small update. Had some fantastic weather today (as of right now, 4:30pm it's 61) for Missouri so I decided to mount up one of the fenders I got off the forum.

Before:





and after:





This went surprisingly well. Only had to fight one bolt and that was mostly due to the undercoating that gunked up the head so bad it was hard to keep a socket from slipping. While I had it off I had a good look and the condition of the passenger side of the cab and floor, and I must admit I'm pretty happy. Looks like the cab supports are salvageable, just a small patch needed in the kick panel/floor area and a couple pin holes in the cowl vent(or whatever that thing is called). Rockers aren't horrible, but there is some rust on the inner so they will both be changed eventually.





Just a couple of things need attention with the fender. One, I can't figure out why the trim doesn't line up with the door. The fender is not out of adjustment, the trim is crooked on the fender for some reason. I reused the holes that were already there, the fender had trim on it before I took it off to primer and it looked straight. Is there some way to adjust this up and down? I'm going to try to loosen a couple of the nuts closest to the door and see if it will drop down into alignment. Secondly, the bottom fender bolt by the door isn't grabbing very well. I'm guessing the weld nut in the bottom of the fender brace is on it's last legs. I tried running a tap through it before I mounted it on the truck, but it really didn't seem to be grabbing much. Is there an easy fix for this or does the brace need to be cut open or separated from the fender to replace the weld nut?

[Ta2Don]

Welcome Aboard, I agree with Murph, Nice score all the way around. Keep up the great work!

[LostMy65]

Followed your signature link here too.
These trucks are fun.

[jdl71]

Yes they are. I've had about 3 others, pre-internet and digital photos. One day I will sit down at the scanner and try to get the whole collection together.