New from Upstate SC, '66 C10 Resto-Mod/Mild Pro-Touring Project

[theastronaut]

Hey, my name is John and I'm in the early stages of building my 1966 Chevy C10 named "Goldilocks" into a daily driver with mild Pro-Touring upgrades. I restored a 65 C10 at work and fell in love with the original styling and details of 64-66 trucks so I'm wanting to retain as much of the original equiptment styling as possible. I've been wanting to join here and start lurking and learning, and I'm looking forward getting some input on the frame and suspension mods for my truck.

So far I've started bracing the frame for less torsional twisting, raised the rear trailing arm mounts to raise the instant center, added air bag mounts, and added an axle notch in the rear. I'm planning a high-revving aluminum block LSx build with either a 3.9 or 4.0" bore and a 4.8 crank which works out to either 312 or 329 CI. I will be building an individual runner intake that uses four Weber or Dellorto two barrel carbs. Ignition will be MSD's LS1/LS6 controller. Valvetrain will be converted to solid roller lifters and shaft mounted adjustable rockers. I have a T56 from a LS1 Camaro already, and will be using around a 4.56 R&P and ~29" tall tires. I haven't decided on wheels yet, but I'd like 18" stockers with original caps or 19 & 20" forged 3 peice wheels. I'm also looking into using No Limit Engineering's bolt in rack and pinion kit.

The truck itself was bought new locally and was well taken care of by the previous owners. It a short bed/fleetside with a big back window cab, and has both available Custom Group options so it has the polished aluminum side trim and grill, chrome bumpers, w/s trim, and Deluxe interior trim. It has one repaint from years ago that I'll be keeping and touching up; I want a nice driver and not a show truck that has to be constantly detailed. Any modifications will be worked to appear as original parts including the engine with hidden coils, fabricated vintage-appearing "Chevrolet" script valve covers, and painted block/heads/intake in the original 1966 colors. I'm having an original tach gauge cluster converted to a 140 mph speedo and 10k tach using the original fonts/styling/colors to keep with the OE+ theme. The original bench seat and cover material/pattern will be retained but I'll have the foam reworked to hold me in place better. I'll start a build thread to catch everyone up on the work so far and any new progress.

Heres a shot of the overall look I'm after, and a few progress pics of where I'm at now.




Reworked a stock wheel from 16 3/8" to 15".








Photoshopped a 5k tach to 10k by doubling the numbers.




Shortened the steering column 3" for a more comfortable steering wheel position.








Beginning the frame bracing. There will also be a lower X welded to the bottom flange of the frame's C channel that mirrors the top X, and the two will be tied together top-to-bottom with triangulated braces. There will be a matching set of X braces in front of the trailing arm crossmember that will surround the transmission and extend as far forward as possible.

[CruizinKev]

welcome aboard John! very nice project! fab work looks great!

[theastronaut]

welcome aboard John! very nice project! fab work looks great!

Thanks Kevin!

[Racie]

Nice looking C-10 man!!!!!

[theastronaut]

Nice looking C-10 man!!!!!

Thanks alot! That's not really mine, just how the general style I'm going for. I hope it turns out that well!

[musclecarmatt]

welcome from fellow SC member!....very nice C-10!!...i got a 66 C-10 also....been wanting to do some PT to it!