The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre 1968 Chevy C10 Longbed - (CA)

Hey All,

This'll be my first attempt to rebuild something. I had my eye on this truck for 2x years and recently jumped at it when the owner was finally home. To say how bad I wanted it is an understatement and thus didn't even sit in it....well, I should say that I've gained a few pounds since retiring from the army a while ago....you guessed it! With that big [censored] steering wheel and my gut - something is going to have to change!!!! Lose the weight, get a 13" diameter steering wheel or get one of those new fangled tilt steering column that not only tilts up, it'll push in and away from the belly too....I think I'll actually do the last 2, cause that'll be easier than losing that gut! LOL.

There's 2 issues right off the bat with it, yes it runs...but it's missing the transmission cross member....lol, the thing about the cross member missing is yes an issue, but the safety inspection sticker was still good, "What?" you ask...apparently the previous owner was driving it without that cross member. Oh, I did mention that the truck was a long bed right? That means it has a two piece drive shaft!!! Yes, that carrier bearing is all tore up! Thank God I had it flat bed towed from New Iberia to Lake Charles where I live. The other issue isn't really bad at all, but I'd like to know what the engine is.....well, it's got the casting numbers, but it's missing the prefix numbers to the engine stamp codes. darn, you say.... I've had some help in trying to solve this mystery, but apparently the only way to solve it is to measure the stroke of a piston to answer the question of is it a 327 or a 350?

The engine runs, just has bad gas in it, so that is the first thing to work out. Then put the 3-spd on the floor, I never really liked that tree 🌴 option....even when I had a Chevy II Nova back in high school. But trying to find a 3-spd floor shifter "kit" has kicked my [censored]!!! But after finding the classic parts.com's 67-72 C10 parts catalog, I found a universal one, just have to get someone's expertise to let me know if it'll work in my truck before I buy it. The classic parts.com organization couldn't answer my question, so that's a major why I am here...lol.

I think I'm in for an adventure when rebuilding this C10, especially after reading some of the forum topics....ie - Drive line math? Drive shaft angle? Throw out bearing distance? Why remove steering stop? I saw one pic where someone had their master cylinder mounted to the frame..."What the hell?" I said.

Wish me luck,
iBain

Blaine,

Speaking of pictures ... do you have any to share? If you've been reading much in our Forums, you know how we really like pictures. Never enough.

For the rest of it :: you have a lot of questions here. How about sorting them out into the various areas in The Shops. That way you can get helpful answers or advice that are specific. Who knows, maybe even some *specific* advice for the ... ah ... lack of space relating to ... ahh ... the ... steering wheel.

Welcome to the Crazy.

There is a lot to unpack in this post. I second Peggy's suggestion that you spend some time figuring out some of your specific questions and posting them in the applicable forums.

Re: you comment about the frame mounted master cylinders. That is where they were located on almost all vehicles up through the late 50s/early 60s. When looking at info, be careful not to be confused by things that are not applicable to your year.

Welcome to the 'bolt. yes, please post pix... Cadillacs had a tilt / extendable steering column

IBain, welcome to the Bolt. Consider yourself home.

Welcome to the forum 😎🇺🇸😃