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

Looks like great continued progress and glad to hear about the road shake down trips being a success! Curious about the road noise above 60mph??? Is it more wind noise, or just overall general operating noises?

BTW - Drop some pics in the Who uses their truck... thread in the GTT forum from some of your shake down drives or even the trip. We would all love to see it out on the road.

The increased noise at 70 or so seems to be a combination of road, engine & wind. I noticed the wife holding her hand up to the window & door jams as if she her checking for sources of some noise while we were on the interstate Also, even though I have a 3:08 rear & 28.8”tall tires, truck still has a 4th direct transmission. That puts engine speed up around 25/2600 rpm’s at 70ish. Overall, though, the overall comfort zone for the truck seems to be in sub-70 mph speeds. The 454 has massive torque, it could easily use a 5th OD transmission. But , so far, I’m happy with my $600 m20 4spd with Hurst shifter. As for posting in the using the truck as a truck, the only thing we’ve hauled so far are ourselves . I have posted a little bit in the Southern Bolters thread. Thanks for checking in and the suggestion

Road trip in your truck actually counts when it comes to using your truck as a truck! At least IMHO and I will encourage everyone to do just that and enjoy as folks want to share with everyone!

Hope your day is great!

Thanks Dan. I’ll try to remember next time we’re out to take a few photos to go with a contribution to that thread

Follow up on the 150 mile round trip road trip we took last Sunday. I noticed a little fluid under the truck a couple days after our drive. Got under the truck w/ a flashlight & followed to drip to its source. Antifreeze dripping right out of the shaft/ seal area. I knew better than to use a water pump that had been sitting for 10 yrs even if it was full of antifreeze. But, all is well now. AC continues to do well too, so there must not be any leaks there. Sorry, no photos

Did you replace the water pump? It may have fixed itself after more driving and limbering up.

Yes, new water pump from AutoZone. The leak showed up after about a 1,000 miles of local driving so I’m sure it was going to get worse, not better.

Yes. That truck of yours needs a OD. My 66 with the 383 and 5 speed is decent quiet at 70, but I got sound deadener everywhere in the cab too, so maybe that helps? I can run it down to 1200 to 1500 rpms and it has all the tq it needs to pull out of the hole.

I have to admit I've been reading up on the Gear Vendors OD unit for the Muncie M20 trans. We'll see how we feel after our upcoming trip to Tn. If I'm going to stay local( ish), then the 4spd is fine. If we decide we like doing long distance trips, that might change. At any rate, I like my M20 with Hurst shifter, not to mention how my existing motor mounts, clutch linkage ,exhaust manifolds ,etc all fit & work together. The GV OD unit would let me keep all that. Plus the GV has a high torque rating which would work well with the 454,I believe. Thanks for the input regards your OD experience.

Recently decided to try to improve the ride by removing the new stock replacement rear springs with 2” drop springs. When I was able to measure the new 2” drop springs vs the oem springs, I found the drop springs were only 1/2” shorter than the oem’s. However, the oem springs are progressively wound, where the 2” drop springs are straight wound. I had read that the straight wound springs would give a better ride. After installing the new springs I measured the drop and found it had lowered the rear of the truck about one inch, which was fine with me.. Installation was easy since everything was clean, rust free & coated with never seize. A few photos below.

Well, did it improve the ride?

It did, especially on the rough pavement or on big dips or depressions in the pavement.

As some may know, I’ve had a thread in the projects & builds forum. Here lately, The project has progressed from a shop project to a tagged & driveable project with the goal/plan to drive it to Townsend Tn for the AD show & Stovebolt get together. I’ve posted a few Saturday shakedown runs we’ve done as I’ve made improvements & or repairs as needed. Recently someone suggested I post here instead of my build thread or the Southern thread, so here I am. I recently switched from stock height rear coil springs on our 66 c10 to 2” drop with the goal of leveling the truck out a little & mainly to improve the ride. Especially with our 2000 or so mile trip coming up. The Dixie Cruisers, an old car/truck club here in Brevard Co host a cruise in once a month at the Dog R Us Restaurant on US one in Titusville Fl that attended this past Saturday. It was a perfect day for an outing with an old truck , 50 mi drive one way, no interstate. We got there early, had a nice lunch and were able get a premium parking spot in the grass under some palm trees. The wife is becoming an old hand at this and has equipped our truck with two folding lawn chairs in soft carrier bags so not to scratch the pickup bed floor. Just for the record to 2” drop springs, which turned out to be 1” drop work very nicely for our purposes . If we were carrying a load sometimes, I’d have left it as is. The Vintage Air I installed just prior to the springs, continues to work very well too. Anyhow, a great day out with the truck, lots of interest & nice comments from fellow gearheads at the Dogs R Us/ Dixie Cruisers cruise in. I apologize for the few photos. If I’d know I was going to do a long winded post, I’d have taken more photos

Very nice looking truck. I hope to be on the road enjoying some day trips in the future.

Looks pretty good slightly lowered. In fact I think you're lucky it only dropped an inch instead of 2 inches. It looks good with just a little raised rear end.

Definitely a good decision. I like it.

Thanks for kind words. Looking forward to meeting fellow SB’s in Townsend. U York, stick with it, you’ll be going on a test drive before you know it.

Lookin better with the back dropped .

Thanks C, more importantly, it rides better too.

Just finished installing correct fuel gauge sending unit that matches the '70-72 Blazer 21 gal fuel tank with my new Dolphin gauge set. The Dolphin gauges came with the correct 90 ohm sending unit but it was for the original in cab fuel tank. The Blazer tank came with a 30 ohm sending unit to work with the original 66 C10 gas gauge. Took a couple phone calls & a bunch of online surfing but I finally found the correct sending unit . I had actually gotten used to the fuel gauge reading with the 30 ohm sending unit. When full it read about 1/3 full, then when reading empty, it took about 10 or 12 gal. Leaving me with a cushion of about 10 gal. Mom was not happy with my willngness to leave things as is (or was) in light of our upcoming trip to Tn for the Southern Stovebolt get together. Then, as luck would have it, the brass float on the original Blazer sending unit started taking on fuel, which left me with no gauge at all.

The more I looked at the way the Blazer tank was shoehorned in place, including the filler neck & two vent lines, plus the tank had 20 gal of fuel in it, I decided to raise the bed about a foot and install new 90 ohm sending unit without pulling the tank. Sounds like a lot more work, but with everything being fresh, clean & rust free it actually went quite well considering. To top it all off, fuel gauge now works correctly.

Also ordered two marine grade charcoal cannisters to eliminate gas fumes when parked in a closed or confined space. While road testing after work was completed, truck had an occasional stumble (This was over an 80 mi or so drive in 91 F ,sunny weather with AC on) I decided that the two newly installed canisters will not let tank suck in air fast enough as fuel is being drawn down (or used up) To correct this, I located a fuel tank vent valve from a 70-72 full size Chevy car that's vacuum operated.. I'll plumb it so that tank can draw air when engine is running but will vent thru charcoal canisters when engine is off. All vent lines will have in line filters to prevent dirt (or charcoal) from being drawn into the tank.

While under the truck, I also noticed the the new (two years on the shelf.one year on the truck & about 1500 miles) Monroe gas shocks were leaking. A little online research & I found a pair of KYB gas shocks for a reasonable price. They were installed while truck was on jack stands.

Our 80 mile test drive was to the front end shop that lined the front end originally back in Sept,'24. I thought it had a little too much toe in, after putting truck on the rack, the tech agreed with me. He made a little adjustment & truck steers the best yet. Plus I discovered I was running a little bit too much PSI in front tires. I had 35 psi, thinking of the extra weight of the BBC engine, but since dropping psi to 32, steering improved. Live & learn as they say.
Edit: Added matching key door locks in preparation for upcoming trip.
A few photos below.

Very nice! I agree with the others on the drop, looks just right.

Well, we cut short our trip to Tn due to a leaky power steering pump that I was afraid would get worse quickly. We made it home OK . Trip for us totaled 1010 miles door to door. Other than the leaky PS & a disintegrating alternator belt (that I replaced in front of parts store), the truck ran great. Pretty much an average of 4 250 mile days. 454 has used less than a pint of oil in around 2000 miles. Got between 11.1 & 12.4 mpg, Almost no interstate but mostly major 4 lane highways with some 2 lane, In spite of missing the Stovebolt get-together, it was still a great trip. Very pleased with overall performance of truck after 3 years of work. In order to keep luggage, tools & misc out of the weather, se installed section of inexpensive in door/outdoor carpet, trimmed to fit bed. Placed it with soft side down to protect varnished wood & metal strips. I had a large mostly water proof trunk that Placed in bed up against the cab . Held in place by tie down straps. A couple photos below. I’m thinking my project build thread is coming to an end . I’m going give it some thought & then make a final post. Not sure how the mods will handle it from there.

EDIT: Don’t know how link appeared above & not in photos, sorry. Edit: I took care of it. ~ Peggy M

Thanks Peggy.

Thanks MickeyP, appreciate it.

Thank you for your dedication and commitment to completing your journal. Your journey is truly commendable, and you are among the elite few who have achieved this milestone. Once you make that final post, I will move your journal to the Completed Journals forum and create a wrap-up post featuring your inspiring journey.

Thanks P-1. not much to say, really. Like most builders, or rebuilders, I can find fault with almost everything I’ve done on this project. But it’s the total sum of the parts that counts. In that light, the truck is a great success, imo. Besides the fact that both I & the mizzuz really enjoy the truck just as it is. And, it’s a real people pleaser & conversation starter. Which, I admit, adds to the fun & satisfaction factor. The truck is a turn key driver as well. One doesn’t need to be a mechanic to drive it. I’m sure there will be some mods or upgrades coming down the pike, but that’ll be for another thread. Thanks to all that followed along and those that offered encouragement along the way.