1 Ton Revival

[urmyboyblue]

I am starting a build thread on a long term project (ideally 1-2 years but we will see). I bought a 1966 Chevy one ton from a young man out of northern TN that bought it as a project and decided it needed too much work. I am not that smart so I bought it and am looking forward to getting started on it. The truck is missing the bed but otherwise is complete. There is a driveline in it consisting of what looks like a later model SBC, a 4 speed (probably an SM420) and an Eaton HO 72 rear. The engine won't start, the shifter is VERY loose, and the rear brakes are locked up.

The body has rust in all the normal places. My intent is to keep the cab, doors, grille, front bumper and hood but replace the rest of the sheet metal. That which I will keep will require a good bit of replacement metal and work, but that should be fine. I have already started looking for replacement parts and pulled two inner fenders off of a truck at the Birmingham Pull a Part yesterday. I will probably buy two new fenders but try to find everything else used. I may also build a radiator support if I cannot find one.

The intent with this truck is to build a driver- not a show truck. I plan on building a flat bed for it and using it to replace my Dodge one ton as my pull truck for my 1965 C10 when I go racing. I am currently thinking that I will keep most of the drive line, provided the rear gears are in good shape and the engine does not smoke. I want to go to 4 wheel disk brakes as well but otherwise do a basic resto.

Right now I am trying to get EFI set up and running on my 1965. I will start the one ton work when I have the 65 running again- hopefully in a month or two. In the mean time, I am going to look for parts and get ready to start on it.

[TJ's Chevy]

Welcome aboard! We need to see pictures of the 1 ton and your 65.

[urmyboyblue]

Here is my 1965 C10, if this is the correct way to insert pictures.

[IMG][/IMG]

This was at Holly Springs last summer. I have replaced the front wheels with some that match the rear wheels since then.

[TJ's Chevy]

That's a good looking 65.

[rusty76]

I'm interested.

[Jeff La]

Yea I'll come along for the ride.

[64chevtruck]

Welcome, Please post pics of your 1 ton,

Have a good week

[89muscletruck]

Sounds cool, looking forward to seeing pics.

[Clyde65]

Oh man! I love a good truck story!!!!

[urmyboyblue]

This is what the 1 ton looked like when I bought it. Due to the cold weather, I have not done anything on either of the trucks. I am a fair weather mechanic.

[urmyboyblue]

This is what the 1 ton looked like when I bought it. Due to the cold weather, I have not done anything on either of the trucks. I am a fair weather mechanic.

[urmyboyblue]

Sorry for the double post previously. Here is my favorite shot of my 65. It is from Drag Week 2013 at Indy.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by urmyboyblue

I am a fair weather mechanic.

Uh, the weather looks pretty fair in these pics. lol

You're 65 looks great... I'd love to hear some details. Yep, that 1 ton will make a cool hauler. I'm looking forward to seeing how things go.

[urmyboyblue]

The one ton pictures are the ones the seller posted to sell the one ton- not taken in the past month.

My 65 is a long term project that I have had since 1985. I traded a 1970 Pontiac Bonneville for it. The only thing remaining of the original truck is half the frame and most of a front fender. The rest I have replaced since I got the truck. I started off with a basic resto-mod that I completed in 1988. The truck was then a fleetside with a 350 SBC/ 4 speed combo with a prostreet look. I wish I had pictures of that but I lost the few that I had.

I got the bracket racing bug and installed a 427 truck engine in it and bracket raced it for a year. I got the wild idea of racing NHRA Super Gas and installed a cage and cut the interior up in it. I only got so far and then I met my wife and the truck sat for several years. When I started back playing with it, I wanted to go back to street driving it. I had sold the 427 in the mean time so for some reason I built an Olds 455. I drove the truck some for a few years like that until 2010 when I killed the Olds engine. I then decided I wanted to do some racing again with the truck and I built it like it is now.

The current engine is a 489 BBC with a hydraulic roller cam, 10:1 compression, Patriot heads, custom headers and is currently being switched over to EFI. The trans is a TH 400 with a full manual valve body and PTC converter. The rear is a 3:55 geared 12 bolt with a spool. The engine was built to run heavy nitrous but due to problems here and there, it has not been sprayed yet. The best time it has run with no bottle is 11.78.

Other modifications include fiberglass hood and rear fenders. The bed is home made with only stock steps on it. The bed floor is raised and is diamond tread aluminum painted black. The truck has ladder bars and the front suspension is out of a 2003 Lincoln Town car (Ford Panther). The Ford front end is almost entirely aluminum, has bigger brakes and a rack. Best of all it lost about 100# off the truck. I have had the 1973-87 Chevy front end changes but the Panther front end is MUCH better. Better brakes, steering, and turn radius. Also, needless to say, the truck sits much lower than stock.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Very cool... an 11 second truck (without spray) is no joke. Interesting that you went with the Ford suspension. I've seen them swapped into F100's, but I thought the width of the frame rails made it difficult to use on a C10.

Nice truck!

[urmyboyblue]

Went back to the pull a part today to get some front spindles and steering stuff to convert to disk brakes up front. Unfortunately I could not break the ball joints loose so all I got was the steering linkages, gear box, and power steering pump. Guess I will try again when I find another truck or just go to a real junk yard.

[urmyboyblue]

I am finally ready to start on the truck. I have finally gotten the EFI installed on the 65 and it is drivable (but not tuned), so off to work on the one ton. I have purchased front spindles for the truck as well as a pair of new front fenders. I hope to get started in the next couple of weeks on the brakes, of all things. The idea is to get it moving under its own power first (and stopping on its own too). Then I can move it around as I work on it.

[urmyboyblue]

Got the truck off the trailer finally yesterday and is now in my drive way (the wife is out of town this weekend- won't she be happy when she gets home!) Before I got it off the trailer, I did two things- check the rear to see what condition the ring and pinion are in and freed up the brakes. The ring gear has significant rust pitting. The chunk has writing on it like it came out of a junk yard, so my guess is that it was installed this way. Guess I am looking for a 14 bolt rear now.

I found that the passenger side brakes were stuck. Since I don't plan on using that rear, the easiest thing I could figure out to do to free the drums was to take a sledge hammer and brake the drum up. Worked nicely and the brakes are now free.

I did not have time to do anything more after I unloaded it. BUT it is now on dolleys in our drive way in front of my shop. A lot closer than across the yard like it was and should be easier to start working on. I think that over July 4th weekend, I am going to try to get the existing front end off and paint the firewall and frame. I still need to find a radiator support and grille support to finish the sheet metal on the front end.

[donthekawguy]

I love the one tons. I'm hoping to pick one up next year and use it for a mobile sandblasting business. they seem cheap enough and should be able to carry a big air compressor and the blasting unit. It should be good advertisement for the biz.

[Captainfab]

Yeah, I wouldn't spend much time or money on the Eaton HO52/72. Parts are hard to come by and $$$ when you do. There are no aftermarket replacement gears available for those either. A 10.5 14 bolt or a Dana 70 is a much better differential and there is much aftermarket parts support for those.

[urmyboyblue]

More part locating done this week- found a rear end. It is a SRW 14 bolt with 4.11 gears- ought to be good for pulling. I will go get it tomorrow and possibly swap it out this weekend. I have no objection to changing this over to a single rear wheel as I only pull a car hauler flat bed trailer. Should have enough capacity for that.

I have also started pulling the front end sheet metal off the truck.

[urmyboyblue]

Since I am going to rework the brakes so that I can make it move safely, I decided that while I am replacing the rear and brakes, I would repaint the frame and rear and not have to redo that later. So here is what I managed to get done.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/...pstflddnvp.jpg
http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/...psvk91n6mi.jpg

[urmyboyblue]

One thing you may note from the pictures- I also had broken tie bolt on one side so I pulled most of the leaves off to fix that. I left the leaves that are connected to the frame in place and will refinish them in place. The passenger side was completely rust welded together. I had to hammer, drill, and grind the tie bolt out each leaf.

[urmyboyblue]

Wrong picture, try this one.

[urmyboyblue]

I cannot get this thing in the shop right now, so I am working in my drive way under a 10 x 10 canopy that I have converted to be a paint booth (got to keep the neighbors happy).