1986 C10 "Sandy Rose"

[Craig@Bowler]

I thought it was due time to get this posted up. We picked up this 86 C10 about a year ago, sat on it a while, trying to determine which path to take with it, and finally decided to do a fun little shop truck project with it. It was crowned the name "Sandy Rose" due to the fading brown paint, and the name has since stuck even with the new colors. The truck came to us from down south and in near perfect body condition. Being from the midwest you never get to see this kind of rust free body on these trucks. We don't know any of the history, but it appeared that at some point the hood was replaced, other than that it was all original sheet metal.

151965

This was when we first brought her home. We had no idea how long it had been since it was running so we spent some time putting in a new gas tank, fuel lines, brakes, carb, etc..... The tired old 305 fired up and sorta ran..... it didn't take long after that for us to decide that the LS3 was going to be a much better choice.

Out with the old!
151968

The new LS3
151969

Before we got around to the engine swap we went ahead and installed the new Ridetech Street Grip suspension to correct the previously unfinished lowering kit that was going on.
151966


151967

We did a terrible job of documenting the install so I don't have any pictures to share of theses parts going in, but the Ridetech kit is top notch. Everything fit perfectly and it was a simple install. Since this truck is going to mainly be a driver we didn't go all out with new tubular arms and a 4 link.

[Craig@Bowler]

Originally we didn't plan to do a whole lot with this truck, but as many of you know, these projects have a way of getting way deeper than you want them to. When we were doing the engine swap we started off with the typical "clean up the engine bay and paint it black" plan, that morphed into "lets repaint the entire truck" plan.
151970

And like I said earlier we didn't do a very good job of documenting the journey since we weren't planning this much, but here's where she is now with the new colors.
151971

151972

[Craig@Bowler]

As many of you already know, anytime something sits out in a field for a long time the parts start going down hill pretty quick. Such was the case with the original AC system. It had the main evaporator lines disconnected from the compressor so by the time we cleaned all the original stuff up we figured that it would be less money to just replace it all with the Vintage Air kit they make for these C10's. We knew we were going to use the front runner kit anyway so we went ahead and added on the rest of the climate control parts to finish it out. I'll have to get more pics of the inside part of the install once the truck is back off the lift. If you've never installed one of these Vintage Air kits they are one of the most well thought out systems I've worked with. Everything went together exactly as planned. We couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

151973

151974

151975

For the engine conversion kit we went with the Holley LS swap package. So far all of those components have fit just as well as we were expecting them to.

[2ndroundko]

LOVE IT!!! sometimes its hard to take pics when your gettin stuff done.

[andrewb70]

Cool truck!

Andrew

[Craig@Bowler]

Thanks guys!

The plan and purpose of this truck is to use it as a test bed for various transmissions (automatic and Manual) We want to have a vehicle that is easy to work on and doesn't require extensive modification to the structure to accomodate different sizes and types of transmissions. As good as our dyno is, there's nothing that can really replace "real world" use and feel. That being said. If anyone knows where we can get a clutch/brake pedal assembly for an 85-87 that had factory hydraulics let me know!

[Craig@Bowler]

We're making some more progress and hoping to have the engine fired up maybe yet this week! While we've been waiting on some odd and end parts to show up we've been doing some other detail work. We finished plumbing the power steering system in. As you can see there wasn't much room to spare, but no frame mods to get it to work.
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We also got a surprise from the brown truck today. Our new Classic Instruments gauge set showed up. This is going to be a huge improvement over the stock set up.
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[Kenova]

152154

Holy Flashback!!
I remember putting those damn things together on the assembly line.
The factory clusters, not yours.

Ken

[Craig@Bowler]

Holy Flashback!!
I remember putting those damn things together on the assembly line.
The factory clusters, not yours.

Ken

Oh I bet! I wish I could remember how many of those factory clusters I've taken apart and reworked over the years to put together ones for the trucks I've had. Replacing yellowed lenses, adding different gauges, etc. It's so nice to have this option now. As much fun as it can be to scour the junkyards, sometimes I'd rather just pick up the phone and make it happen.