The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Completed Journals 1966 Chevy C-10 Short Stepside -- Step by Step

Thanks. Yes, it was very gratifying to have it all work properly. American Autowire kit is expensive but very well thought out.

Truck is really coming together quickly. Looks like a real sleeper. Great job!

Thanks, I appreciate that.

Still pecking away on the C10. Got carpet installed, still need to extend the pivots for the stock style gas petal. Also got around to greasing the front suspension. Cleaned & painted the ‘86 K10 15x6 wheels, had new 235/75R15 ww’s mounted & installed on truck along with my new to me mid 80’s dogdish hubcaps. Also installed new 3 point seat belts but don’t have pics

Have you filled up your tank at the gas station yet? That looks like a tight fit for a gasoline nozzle to squeeze under the bed rail.

AWESOME!

Hey Otto, No I don’t have it tagged yet , so no trips to a gas station yet. Pic posted should give a better idea of gas filler to bedside relation. I don’t believe access will be a problem

Thanks Double D, Glad you like it

Oh ya. It looked like it was way under there in the other picture.

When i look at your pics sometimes I wish I bought the spare rear fender.

According to my research , the short SS spare tire fender is not available new. I like the looks of with or without. Ours just happened to have it , so we stayed with that look. Especially now that the gas tank is located where the spare would’ve been

Been working on odds & ends recently. Had to adjust the stop light switch to get brake lights to go out after applying brakes.

Also, while I really liked the 17", 6 blade clutch fan I had fitted, after much time spent trying come up with a workable radiator shroud, I finally gave up & went with an electric fan. Found a really nice aluminum shroud on ebay, made in the USA, that fits my radiator perfectly. Fitted a Spal 16" fan operated by temp control sender threaded in to the cooling system. Also fitted,again via ebay, 2"x12" round rad. overflow catch can. All seems to be working out well. Yesterday was in the low to mid 90's here & temps never went over 190F.

I decided to mount the old rear step bumper that came with the truck. It's got the name & town of (what I assume) is the original selling dealer. Horton Chevy-Olds in Paragould Ark.
I googled Horton & found he was a WW2 vet , served Oknawa, Iwo Jima & other So. Pacific action. Seemed like as good a reason as any to keep the bumper. I did narrow it by 6" to make fit the stepside width better. I would have cut it down even more, but that would have cut off a portion of the dealers name.

Finally got around to getting the tags, title & insurance squared away too. After finishing up the rear bumper & electric fan I suddenly realized I was ready for my first on road test drive . Only went about 6 miles, mostly, if not all, in a 35 mph zone. Very happy with first drive, nothing broke, truck ran very smooth & we made it back under our own power. The ralatively tall 2.58 first gear coupled with the 3.08 rear diff was no problem at all. The 454 has so much torque right of idle all seems perfectly matched.

Next up is to replace the used 750 cfm Edelbrock performer carb with the new in the box 800 cfm Edelbrock AVS2 I got sitting on the workbench. I bought the 750 for cheap a couple yrs ago just to get the engine running. I'd been keeping an eye out for the AVS to come up on a sale, so when I had the chance I took advantage of the sale price

Sorry re the lack of photos. I did remember to take these shots before taking the first test drive.

Drove the truck home from my shop a few weeks ago. Next morning my wife helped me clean it up, it's amazing how much dirt, dust & grime can get on a vehicle that's stored indoors 100% of the time.

Test drive home was in temps in the mid 90's, speed about 50 mph max. The good news is the cooling system was doing it's job, staying at about 185/190 . The bad news is the oil pressure was just too low for comfort out on the road & at those temps. Back at the beginning of this thread I described how I got this engine. It seemed to run well & had adequate oil pressure, so I decided to run it like it was was. Wrong move on my part. What would've bee an easy job while the engine was out of the truck & up on the bench turned into a real PIA with it in the truck. Thankfully it was just a straight forward job of installing new std main & rod bearings along with a new oil pump. I could've pulled the engine from the truck in order to work on it but just couldn't bring myself to do that.

I was having two other engine related problems that needed investigating & correcting while I had it up on jack stands & disassembled. One was a very slight leak from the front timing cover seal. I had installed a new one & cleaned everything up well when I installed it, so I was curious & perplexed about why the leak. Earlier in the thread I recounted installing a cheap ebay no name Chinese intake manifold that had mis-alignned water jackets (or ports) that did not properly align with the ports in the heads. I ended up with engine coolant in the oil. I thought letting the oil drain for a few days before putting in fresh oil & filter took care of all that, along with installing a new , name brand intake manifold, of course. Turns out, there is a drain cutaway in the timing cover that allows oil to rapidly drain away from the crank seal , so oil won't puddle up against the inside of the seal. That cutaway was filled with what looked like baby poop, a thick, tan mixture of oil & water that was too thick to drain or pass through the cutaway , causing oil to puddle against the oil seal.

The other problem I needed to solve is eratic ign timing. Timing started out OK, then became more & more erratic. The timing light was showing timing jumping around as much 10 degree ATDC to 20 degrees BTBC. The mechanical problems that could cause that is too much end play in the roller cam, letting the cam move back & forth changing the relationship between the distributor drive gears. The other could be too much end play in the distributor shaft, letting the shaft move up & down & changing ign timing as it movd up or down. Since I had the timing cover off, I checked the end play of the cam. I used all Gen Vi GM parts when I installed the cam & the Gen V engine is factory machined to accept the Gen VI cam, cam retainer & single row timing chain. I didn't expect the end play to be a problem but I had to recheck it. It was perfect. The distributor OTOH, had .039 endplay, should have been about 1/2 that much (with an aluminum housing). I got a shim kit from Morroso & shimed it to .015.

Spun the engine with the plugs out to prime the oil pump. Just a couple rpms is all it needed for oil pressure to register. Finished installing plugs, engine fired right up, oil pressure looks good, no leaks, But the timing light was still showing some ign scatter. Not as bad as before, but still there. As I was turning out the shop lights preparing to pack it up for the days, the dim light under the hood allowed me to see spark arcing between both the - & the + posts on the coil to the tower of the coil (where the coil wire connects) I think my coil or plug wires might have too much resistance & causing the short.

At that point I was done for the day. Going out of town for a week. I was happy to finally find a reason for the scattered timing. I'll dig into it when we get back.

Installed new coil, AC/Delco oem type carbon core plug wires, Jegs distributor cap & rotor. Just like that, scattered timing is is gone. ( I believe that I had aftermarket plug wires that were not compatible with the Jegs R2R distributor , which in turn caused the other ign parts to fail) Set timing at 12 degrees initial with vacuum advance disconnected, total advance is 36 degrees total. Reconnected vacuum advance to ported outlet per Jegs distributor instructions. Installed my new Edelbrock AVS 2 800 cfm carb. Engine is running very nice now.

Went to my first Cruise n this morning. I haven't strayed too far from home yet as I haven't had the front end aligned yet. But truck runs very well on my short jaunts so far. The Edelbrock AVS 2 works down low ,just off idle, very well. Even with the roller HO cam & 3:08 differential, found myself cruising down the road ,in traffic, at 1000-1200 rpm in 4 gear with no bucking or hesitation when accelerating. Very happy with the cam, distributor, carb & intake choice. I'm not happy with the mufflers though. Truck sounds good at idle & lower rpm's, but sounds like an old Buick with a clogged up catalytic converter when it's being revved up. Not sure about replacements.

One other problem is the electric Spal 3000 cfm fan I've installed. Fan works very well at keeping engine cool, but sounds like one of those old WW2 German dive bombers . It is LOUD. I have a lower cfm Chinese fan that runs nice & quiet. I'm going to try it & see if it'll keep things cool.

Sorry no new photos of latest work. I even forgot to take photos of my truck at the cruise in this morning. I do have photos of other Stovebolt trucks I took at the cruise in that I'll post in the Southern Bolters section.

Congrats RLB! Truck's looking good.

Great to here that you're getting it dialed in and everything is working out.

Thanks 32v, I appreciate that.

No new photos for this post. Found an old school shop about 40 miles north of my shop that specializes in front end alignment for older vehicles. My appointment time meant I was mixing it up with morning work commuters The C10 held its own, did pretty good, actually. The shop owner was amazed at how close the alignment was, asked how I got it so close. I didn’t want to tell him it was dumb luck LOL. Any way, it’s lined up perfectly now, with steering wheel centered up & no pulling or wandering. Overall, very pleased. Still lots of odds & ends to address.

RLB,

I used the 2x4 and tape measure method on my 66. It goes straight with no pulling and a straight wheel. I am going to wait until I see some tire wear to see if any odd patterns show up.

Sounds like you have your castor & camber & toe in pretty close. Apparently I did too but I still feel better having it dialed in. It had to be done sooner or later.

Repaired a few shipping dings in my new tailgate, shot it with 3 coats of Acrylic enamel with hardner & installed decal letters on raised bosses. The decals worked out so well that I ordered a set for the grille as well.

I don't have photos, but I also broke the brazing on the inside panel of the drivers door that I had installed to fix the rusted out door bottom and took a little (as in tiny) bit of curve out of the door. Goal was to allow a little less binding on the bottom of inside of door & weather strip down by the sill strip. I only did as much as I could without damaging the outside of the door panel. Of course, I then had to redo the body work & repaint the affected area. Both the interior slate grey & the Viper red. Door closes much better, though still not perfect & the paint turned out well. I just didn't have enough ambition to completely strip the door & make it open & close perfectly.

If I ever do another rust resto job involving replacing floor panels, inner & outer rockers, A & B door posts, cab corners, etc, &/or door panels, I'll have the weather striping in place for the trial fit of the doors prior to final welding. I did the usual fitting of the doors as I was doing this cab, but not having the weather strip in place changes everything, in my experience.

Installed the black letter decals on the grille Turned out well, I think. This might be common knowledge, but it was new to me. To make installing the letters easy , spray the indentation where the new decal goes with some soapy water. Makes moving the letter around to get a more perfect fit easier.Then just leave them sit, when water drys they’re done. Installed letters yesterday as described and did a 100 mile rd trip this morning, half of it in the rain, and letters are doing fine

Finally got around to programing the electronic speedometer I installed way back when. Took a couple phone calls to the hot line at the folks who sold me my gauges, but all is well now. Speedo is accurate now. 40 mph on the gps equals 40 mph on the speedo. Also, the high beam (bright blue led) indicator light had been installed by the factory in place of the left turn indicator, so I had to remove instrument cluster to change that around. That worked out well too. Next up will be the gas gauge. Currently when tank is full, gauge reads a pinch over 1/4 full. When it indicates empty, it's about at the 1/2 way mark.

There's a little write up about the truck at a local cruise in on this Southern Bolters thread if anyone is interested.

Sorry, no photos this time.

Thanks for the link GD51👍

The c10 got sideboards & Christmas decorations for the town's Christmas parade at my grand daughters request. (Photos below) I was concerned about how well the 454 with a HO roller cam & M20 manual 4 speed would behave in the parade. Route was about 1 mile at walking speed with GD & three kids in the back tossing out candy canes & peppermints .
The 454 behaved perfectly. Just idled along at 700 rpm's with me feathering the clutch as needed. Temps stayed at 180. Couldn't be more pleased with the new Edelbrock 800 AVS 2 carb I installed when I finally got truck roadworthy.

This Gen V low compression, Peanut port 454 with The Gen VI HO crate motor roller cam, Wieand 8122N intake manifold, 800 AVS carb & Jegs small cap R2R distributor make an excellent street engine. Very well mannered at low speed & plenty of get up go when called upon. And still used 87 Oct gas .

Edit: Deleted photo of GD & kids .

Had to repaint the metal stripes in pickup bed. The two lawn chairs my grand daughter & great granddaughter used for the Christmas parade did a number them. I should have done a better job of protecting the floor.

Just received a Christmas present via FedEx (OK, It’s a present to myself ). I’ll probably wait till after the holidays to start working on it.

How exciting! That is in the long term plans for me too.

Speedway had a great price & fast, free shipping

Those are the best kind. You always get what you want.

I'll be watching your installation closely. This is a must for Linda's 1960 C10.

I’ll try to remember to take lots of photos. I wanted to get the truck on the road, have a little fun with it & work out some bugs be fore retro fitting the ac/heat unit. I’ve accomplished that , so now it’s ac time. A truck in Florida without ac in the summer(which seems to last about 9 months) isn’t going to get much use

Installed another Christmas present from the oldest daughter & SIL. Might change location once A/C is installed. A few photos below Fyi, the wife likes the wood rack as is but I’m going to remove it & save it for next years Christmas parade, assuming the grand daughter & family want to do it again

Started on Vintage Air kit installation. Compressor, condenser & dryer so far. Going to a Cruise In this weekend, so I’ll start on the interior part next week

Your truck looks great. I'll bet it's a real sleeper too. ! Enjoy

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words. I’ve had a lot of positive comments.

Got back to work on the Vintage Air install. Haven't installed any others but this Gen 5 VA kit is very well thought out with good instructions. Kit comes with every screw & piece of hardware needed to complete installation. I think heater hose & a fan belt were the only additional purchases required. Of the 3 ac hoses supplied with kit, one came with both fittings installed. The other 2, which run from the unit inside the cab to the underhood area had one fitting that had to be installed locally. Reason being instructions said to measure hose length & cut to fit. But in fact, just like everything else in this kit the length was perfect on both hoses. A local shop charged 8 bucks to install the fittings. As of now, install is complete up to the making sure all blower functions work correctly & the heater function works & no leaks. (Instructions come with check list after completing install.) Later today the ac charge should be completed . At that point I'll install the kit supplied reduced size glove box & cover, install will then be complete.

A few more photos below.

A few more photos

I used the standard rotary controls that came with kit. I'll try to remember to get installed photo & post it. They seem like they'll be ok, the deluxe controls are several hundred dollars extra.

Photo of std rotary controls installation. Kit comes with a template for drilling the dash. Top knob is in the original heater control location. Vacuum & charging of system didn't happen yesterday as planed, so I did a tool loan from Auto Zone & plan on completing the job today.

Finished charging system. Temps were only 70F so need to wait for a nice 80F day to check how well it does on the road. Vintage air said the center duct should read between 36f & 42F, I'm at 40F. The shop temp was 75F at time of charging. I don't have a photo, but I installed 1000 cfm 8" pusher fan in front of the condenser, wired to come on when the compressor engages. Truck has a 3000 cfm 16"puller fan, The 8" was the largest I could fit without pulling the grille or grille shell assembly, so I took path of least resistance. A road test on a warm day will let me know how it all works out.

Wife & took a 150 mile (or so) test ride last weekend. Nice warm sunny day, so we were happy to have the AC up & running. Worked very well, thankfully. Controls worked well , under dash vents made blocking or changing air direction easy. Once initial cooling of the cab took place, then AC was run mostly at very low speed. Really does a nice job.


Had some of the peel & stick insulation I'd used on the firewall left over (Shown in earlier post), so I installed the rest on underside of the hood. Seems to help with engine noise in cab.

We're planning a approx 2000 mi trip with the c10 in late May/early June, so we're using these test drives to find anything that needs help. I thought the wife would want a quieter exhaust, for example. But she says she likes it as is. Most drives have been on non interstate roads , so speeds have been 60 mph or less. We did about 10 miles of interstate at 70 mph on this latest test drive. Cab noise seemed to greatly increase, but truck did fine otherwise. At 60 or less, normal conversation possible, at 70 mph it's not.

The plan for the upcoming trip is non interstate roads, but we can do the big road if need be.