71 c-10

[trackrat79]

This is what I have to start with


This is the dream.


I have had the truck 4 years and have done little things hear and there, but being unable to work provides little funds for this kind of transformation. I do all the work myself or with the help of friends. Right now as it sits it has a 406sbc turbo350 tranny. Suspension other then slightly lowered is stock.

I am currently dusting off the mechinal drafting skills and trying to emulate or copy (however you want to put it) a nascar style backhalf. Since the truck already has rear trailing arm style suspension it should not be to hard to add all the pieces necesary to make the chassi tunable. The front is a bit different. As I am not a trained engineer nor have the funds to do trial and error I am leaving the front suspension for as long as I can. I know it needs improvemnet for what I want the truck to be able to do but I am not sure how to go about it.

Anyway. I keap seeing all these great projects on here and thaught it was about time I put mine out there for thaughts and opinions.

[JoshStratton]

I think that is going to be a hell of a project! Is that a full-glass body? I cant see the red truck too well, but it looks pretty solid to me. Are you going to just sell off the old body then?

[novanutcase]

Tell ya what! Sell me the C-10 and with the money buy a tube frame chassis and fiberglass body like in the picture. The tube frame will have whatever suspension you want.

[RobM]

Nice ride man. Lots of room under that hood for something serious. That truck isn’t too far off believe it or not… has very similar rear suspension. With some geometry adjustment on the front suspension the classic could handle superb. Id also put some weight jacking screws and a track bar on the rear.

[trackrat79]

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement.

Actually the black truck is not a glass body. It is a full Craftsman truck. The nose piece and the tail piece are composit but the rest is steel per nascar rules.

[trackrat79]

And a bad one at that! but I am still learning photoshop


I need to get a better angle shot but I don't have my own digital camera, will have to barrow one when I get the chance.

[camaro608]

sweet i love those trucks cant wait to see you get started

[trackrat79]

I encountered a little setback the other day. My left rear tire felt I was going to slow for its liking and decided to pass me up while going down the road. Boy what a ride. Nothing quite like starting almost straight down at assfault when strapped into your car. I hate to say it but I think an outside force mite have been invoved. I had done a quick check that morning while putting air in all four tires as I do about every two weeks and all the lugs were tight or so I thaught. Then on my way home from my physical rehab center that is about 5 miles from my home and I would say about half way home already I start to hear a repetative thump, it would come and go and was not getting any louder so I figured I would make it home but I need gas soon anyway so I stopped. I checked what I thaught it could be and found nothing, took a quick look at my wheels everything was there, but for some reason I did not actually test the lug nuts by hand(big mistake). I think I got distracted by this punk kid in his rattle trap of a mustang running staight though exaust. Any way I continued on my way home and nothing for about half a mile then it started again but the length of how long it would thump was random. So I got into my housing development and was rounding my last right hand turn and yeeha. All of sudden I am staring at what felt like straight down at the raod and then a loud boom like hitting the side of a big grain silo when its empty. The backside of the wheel well rold up over the tire and the back of the truck came crashing down on the other side. All five lug nuts were gone and the threads on the studs where in perfect order. MY neighbor was out in his driveway and witnessed the hole thing and helped me steel a lug from the other three wheels and get it the last 100 yards home. O did I mention I had to use his jack handle as a breaker bar to get the lugs of the other three wheels.

[formula98]

Sorry to hear about the loose wheel adventure. Sounds like a great start to a project.

[trackrat79]

So I guess I will start by saying that I started working at a speed and custom shop a few weeks ago. So now I have just about any tool I could possibly need at my disposal and have no more excuses. Well there will always be excuses wont there. But anyway.

I figured now would be a good time to start making some realy progress on my dream. So I spent this past weekend designing and building C notches for the rear so i can drop my truck down in the back. Keep in mind that this is just interum design. I plan on doing a complete frame, but its my daily driver right now so this is just to get in down so I can get a better idea of what I want, what will work what wont kinda thing. They are kinda beefy for just being temporary but I wanted to practice my fabricating since that what is what I was hired to do at the shop.

[trackrat79]

Now to set them in place to see how I did. As you can see I will have to relocate and possibly redo my fuel line and break lines to clear the humps. What u cant see is that on the outside of the frame I had to move my electric fuel pump back about 6 inches to clear the path for the back down tube of the humps.




Figured I would put in a pic of my friend doing the tig welding. I am just learning how and figured I would leave this to him for now.

and these are just some other pics of changes since I first posted.



and before anyone says that I should have gone with black rims. I am planning on going black with the truck and did not want to have to buy a second set of rims or to have these re powder coated.

But thats it for now. Hope to have the humps inplace and the supports done next weekend. The pluming the weekend after that.

[GMracer]

I'm interested in seeing this one progress

[trackrat79]

Have not had a chance to install the axle humps, been busy the last two weeks turning an all orginal 67 bug into a street/strip killer. So personal projects got kinda put on hold for the most part. But I was able to get some other things done that I have been meaning to do namely install a remote started solinoid and relocate my battery into the void between my drive shaft and the trailing arms. I hate doing electrical ****. I spent a good 6 hours on the solinoid and battery relocation and learnd a very important lesson. Dont get cocky and asume you did everything correct before u put the tools away. I had cleaned up and put everything away and when I went to fire it up to go home around 9 at night nothin, and I mean absolutly nothing no power anywere. After spaneding another hour chassing my conections it turn out that one of the piggyback connectors I used did not pierce through the insulation enough to make contact with the wire inside. After a little digging I found a proper connector for the aplication and it fired right up.





Here's a pic of us thrashing on the bug friday night before the race. We ended up senting it on the ground and doing the initial shake down at 3 am friday night. On the first launch atempt drove right through the clutch on 12 pounds of boost. Had a friend who was flying up for the event bring us a new one and put it in at the track the next day. first pass sunday morning 11.83 babying it out of the hole and granny shifting it. got knocked out first round. o well

Im hoping that now that the bug project is done for now I can get back to working on my truck. I have the springs for the front and the blocks for the back now. So its just a matter of setting the humps in place and making them permanent.

thats it for now

[WS6]

this is going to be cool. I had never seen this thread before so it's new to me. good luck getting it completed.

[trackrat79]

Had a break in the action at the shop so i put in a hour or so and re did my glove box opening cover. The first rendition that I did got messed up with my first used of the electric beed roller. So that piece never actually made it onto the truck. So this time I went with ust a flat panel and changed the layout of the zues tabs from one on each corner to three across the top and two evenly spaced on the bottom.

and this is how it came out


I may still make another atempt at rolling a few beeds in it, have not decided yet. I keep getting sidetracked from the task I really want to get done soon. wich is the install of my axle humps. but at least I am getting some of the little things done.

[Fesler built]

Hey you need to go back to your pictures and do a return after each one so everything is left justified so we can see everything, makes it to hard to scroll over and see all your wording.

Will make it a lot easier for everyone to see pics and respond to this post. thanks

[SaturnVUEguy]

Cool idea for the truck, but please do as Fesler asked and edit your posts so we don't have to scroll over to read it all

[trackrat79]

I did what he said and on my screen it all shows up without having to scroll, but on my one at the shop it jumbles everything up. dont know how to fix it

[lt1chevelle]

you work at scot's shop that use to be in livermore?

[trackrat79]

yeah, just kinda helpin out where i can. in turn i have a place to do the work on my truck.