January 16, 2018

        Bumpers? We don’t need no stinkin’ bumpers! The rear already had no bumper and I added a new roll pan so I am going to add a front one as well. I think it will make the truck look cleaner. Of course the pan came with no instructions. There is some modification needed to install a roll pan. I already knew I had to cut 2” on an angle off the frame where the stock bumper mounts. After I got the bumper off the first thing I noticed when attempting to position the pan was the bolts that hold the radiator deflector on are in the way. Then I had to decide if the pan should sit above or below the deflector, I went with above basically sandwiching the pan between the deflector and the grille frame. I still had to massage the ends of the pan a little. The pan is mounted as good as I can get it. I still need to add a couple supports from the pan ends to the fenders.

        January 23, 2018

        The radiator deflector was put on wrong by the PO. One of the mounting nuts is broken off inside the radiator support and I can’t fix that. The hood latch assembly hangs down below the deflector preventing it from sitting even with the frame where is should be. I ended up cutting a slot in the defector for the hood latch assembly and making a patch to cover over it. I added some brackets to the deflector to attach it to the radiator support. At this point I am ready to paint the roll pan as soon as the weather warms up.

        January 25, 2018

        Back to painting! I got the primer laid on today. At least this part is small, it took longer to clean the gun than it did to paint the roll pan! Tomorrow will sand the primer with 600 and apply the silver and clear.

        January 26, 2018

        This is the last day of decent weather for a while, rain and cold returns to Georgia tomorrow. So I need to get the painting on this roll pan done today. I fired but the heater and by noon it was a little over 65 degrees, perfect. I put on two coats of silver, waited a couple hours and put on three coats of clear. Time for assembly!

        January 31, 2018

        I finally got the roll pan painted and installed. Pretty happy with the results. No clue how this is supposed to be installed but I sandwiched it between the grill and the radiator deflector and used the tabs on the ends to bolt it to the fenders. I am thinking about getting new stainless grille surrounds and headlights bezels but they are crazy expensive. The PO painted all that body color and it was not done well.

        September 16, 2018

        The Stealth Tailgate Latches was even tougher to get the courage to do. First you have to drill a 5/8” hole in each end of the top rail and 3/16” holes in the front of the rail to secure the latch assembly. The hardest part was the 3/16” x 1” slots for the latch knobs to operate. The stainless knobs that attach to the latch assemblies through these slots allow the spring loaded assemblies to engage the bedsides. You close the tailgate, release the assemblies which leave marks in the bedsides for the 7/16” holes where the latches will engage. All in all this system is pretty cool. All that cutting and drilling made a bit of a mess on the tailgate. I cleaned up all the bare metal and shot it with POR-15.

        September 23, 2018

        Too much time on my hands, too much time on my hands!!!! I bought some halogen headlights with H4 Bulbs and built in LED turn signals. The plan is to eliminate the grille mounted turn signals and give the front a new look. After I got the grille out I realized the sheet metal insert on the bottom is different than the top. The bottom has a lowered areas where the turn signals mount. So I need to add some metal to those areas to make the opening smooth. If someone made these inserts I would just buy another top one but nobody does. The other thing I want to change is remove that huge Chevy emblem on the center bar, it is just too big and I think it looks like a brand after thought. Of course it will take some body work to smooth the mounting area since Chevy made it with some bumps, I assume to hold the emblem straight.

        September 25, 2018

        Rust, why is it always rust that slows down a project? Back in the day if an area didn’t show GM did not paint it, I suppose that is true of all manufacturers. It took a lot of time to sand the entire back of the grille body and the associated parts to get to clean surfaces and then paint it all with POR-15. But I am now ready for body work on the pitted areas of the grille body. It isn’t that bad except for a few pinholes that were rusted through.

        September 27, 2018

        After a couple days of sanding off three layers of paint, looks like the truck was originally red. I got the pinholes fixed and am ready to paint. So once again the garage needs a good cleaning. First I will shoot some etching primer and fix any low and high spots I find. My original plan was to paint all this the way it was, black for the grille inserts and silver for the grille body. But while talking to my gearhead neighbor he asked if it was all going to be silver. I had never ever thought about that, but after looking on-line and seeing many trucks painted one color I decided to go that way. Plus it will certainly be easier.

        September 30, 2018

        The headlight conversion as always with aftermarket products was not simply plug and play. The headlight buckets had to be modified for the LED harness and the H4 bulb leak proof shield. There was a little rust starting too, so out came the POR-15. The headlights work fine but I need to get a relay harness for better performance and reliability. I took me a while to remember how the original turn signals and parking lights were wired. Even though the vendor claims these lights have parking and turn signals there are only two wires for the LEDs, signal and ground. So I wired them up so the turn signals work, never run the truck with just the parking lights on anyway. The body work on the grille inserts is done so I will move on to the grille itself and hopefully get all its imperfections taken care of.

        October 2, 2018

        The main grille body had numerous defects due to the PO’s lack of skills or maybe he just didn’t care. There were a lot of pock marks I assume from rust that the PO at least had removed but didn’t finish the body work. I sanded a lot, filled them with Rage Gold, and then applied my new best friend glazing putty. After this dries overnight I will spray the body and the inserts with urethane primer and follow that with the silver and clear.

        October 4, 2018

        I hit the grille body and inserts with urethane primer. I will let that dry overnight before putting on the silver and clear.

        October 5, 2018

        This morning I once again laid on some silver paint, this time on all the grille components. I put on three coats of base, let that setup and then applied the tougher part, four coats of clear. All in all it came out pretty nice. There is one place however on one of the edges that looks pretty rough. I thought I had all those spots fixed, apparently not. I will allow this to totally cure before putting it back together and installing it back on the truck.

        October 6, 2018

        I riveted the grille inserts back on the grille. Then I installed the surrounds so the grille in now finished except for color sanding which I will wait a few weeks for the clear to harden fully.

        Now that I have the grille finished it is time to get back to the tailgate. As with most of this truck the paint and bodywork while fairly new was not done very well. After drilling and cutting on the tailgate to install the hinges and latches I decided I would fix some of the flaws in the bodywork and paint. I am keeping the inside part I painted black and getting new vinyl lettering on the back. I will repaint the entire frame work fixing some of the poor welds and paint runs the PO did. I had trimmed off the stock chain bosses when I installed the latches but now I want to completely remove all traces of those bosses. Not an easy job with my limited tools, these things are ¼” and are welded on both sides of the tailgate frame. But using a cut-off wheel, my air hammer and mini-grinder I finally got them off. To fill the holes left I made some patch plates and used 3M 08116 to bond them to the outside of the tailgate frame. I used my mini-grinder to knock down the obnoxious welds at the top of the inner frame, must have been a poorly done rust repair. The plan is to smooth out any other infections I find and contour some areas like where the top meets the inside frame and the spot welds. Then I will repaint the complete frame.

        October 9, 2018

        I received the relay harness for the H4 headlights today. There is only minor wiring need to install this. A +12v to the battery for the headlight power, hook one of the existing headlight connectors to the harness and plug in the new harness headlight connectors. The other existing headlight connector is not used. But of course there was a problem. This harness is not long enough to connect the driver side headlight mainly because of the way I have to run the harness. I was able to find a 20” extension harness to solved this.

        October 12, 2018

        Next project on the tailgate is bodywork. Lots of sanding ahead…YUK! In hindsight I probably would have been ahead if I had just bought a new tailgate. But I made a lot of modifications to this one with the hinges, latches and removing the chain bosses and don’t really want to tackle that again. There were a lot of dents and poorly ground welds I had to address. But this isn’t a show truck and I have done the best I can. It is finally ready for paint. I have to figure out how I am going to hang this beast in order to get paint on all six sides!

        October 16, 2018

        I used six feet of ½” threaded rod pushed through the new latch holes at each end of the tailgate with nuts to tighten it to the tailgate. I made a frame from a bunch of 2x4s and hung the excess of the treaded rod to the top of the frame. This gave me lots of room to get the paint gun to all six sides of the tailgate. The 1/2'” bars does bend a little under the weight but it worked great. I got two coats of primer sprayed. I will let that setup and clean up the garage again before I put on the silver and clear.

        October 18, 2018

        I painted three coats of silver and three coats of clear on the tailgate today so the hard part of refurbing it is finished. I still want to paint the inside recess black like the rest of the bed and add black letters to the Chevrolet embossed letters on the back but that will have to wait until the clear has fully cured. Of course this leads me to another issue. I removed the stock chain bosses from the tailgate so it is only logical that I also remove them from the bedside. But since the bedsides are already painted I need to be very careful and figure out how to repaint that area after I get them off.

        October 19, 2018

        I felt courageous this morning so I attacked the secondary chain bosses on the bedsides. I could not get my angle cutoff in there so I switched to the air hammer. That worked, noisy and not real pretty but they came off. I have some body work to do to get the areas smooth and then attempt to paint and somehow blend it into the already painted areas.

        October 21, 2018

        Bodywork is always a relative thing. At best it is simply filling some scratches or a little rust repair. Then there is bodywork needed because of modifications. This bodywork falls into the latter. The way the bedsides are made there are fairly large cutouts for those chain bosses to lineup. I could have just left them alone but now that the bosses have been removed even with the tailgate closed they are very noticeable. I made sheet metal plates to cover the cutouts and used 3M panel adhesive to bond them to the outside of bedsides. This still leaves a recess on the inside which I filled with dura-glass. I sure wish I had the physical ability to weld!

        October 24, 2018

        As far as painting all this I have decided I can paint the entire rear stake pockets stopping at the outside corners behind the rear fenders and the flares that support the tailgate. This way the transitions on the bedsides will be mostly hidden by the fenders and tail lights. I have finished the bodywork and shot some primer. I am totally out of silver paint and clear so I am off to PPG AGAIN!!

        October 26, 2018

        Damn weather, it got colder, temp was in the 50’s at 3:00. I had to heat the garage for a few hours to get it to 65 degrees this afternoon. But I got three coats of silver base and three of clear done. Now all I have to do is reassemble this truck again.

        October 27, 2018

        I got the rear of the truck assembly done….more or less. The tailgate still does not fit right, never did. There is some sort of alignment issue I can’t figure out. The Mar-K tailgate support on the passenger side will not drop down completely when I am closing the tailgate which prevents it from closing. Until I can figure this out I took that support off. I temporarily put the rear roll pan back on. It still needs painting but I will wait until the exhaust is done before I paint. I also got the grille and the front roll pan put back on. At last the truck is back together.

        December 1, 2018

        Now that the exhaust is done I can get the rear roll pan finished. These things really don’t fit our trucks very well. There is about a ¼” gap at the short straight area of the pan where it sits at the bed side. I made filler pieces with a curved ends to close the gap and make the pan look more professional. I used 3M panel adhesive to attach them.

        December 2, 2018

        I want to make some bezels around the exhaust cut-outs in the roll pan. I want to make them out of metal but I will first use fiberglass to get the correct curve. I put tape on the roll pan and then laid on several layers of fiberglass to get couture I need. Using the fiberglass part as a pattern I made two bezels out of 16 gauge metal. Bending 16 gauge was tough enough I see no way with the tools I have to bend anything thicker. I used 3M panel adhesive to attach them too.

        December 7, 2018

        I finished up with the body work on the roll pan so it is time to paint…again. I decided to paint the bezels I attached body color. Weather here has sucked so far this winter but I have a small window today before it gets really cold and possibly even snows. It was a long day of sanding, apply primer, sanding, apply base coat and apply clear but it is done.

        December 13, 2018

        The paint has setup for a week so today while it is still reasonably warm I reinstalled the rear roll pan.

        February 6, 2019

        One of the more annoying things about this truck was the top of the dash being painted body color with highly polished clear. During the daytime the reflections onto the windshield off the dash top is horrible.

        The plan all along was to fix this. That involves removing the dash pad and from what I have read that is not that easy. I already have the glove box out, the radio will be easy to remove and I am about to pull the gauge cluster so this seems like the time to attempt this. After I got all this stuff off I filled in the speaker slots since there is no speaker anyway. Now the decision of what to cover this with. Vinyl which would be the most difficult but would look the best, textured paint would look good but the interior is pretty much finished so spraying paint is risky or black bed liner that can be brushed on and will lay pretty flat but still might look a bit tacky.

        I have decided to go for broke and try the vinyl. I made a cardboard template and transferred that to the vinyl. I painted the small section of windshield frame that will still be seen with some black paint.

        February 7, 2019

        While I await the courage to put the vinyl on the dash I rewired the harness for the new gauge cluster. The tachometer and the old oil pressure gauge crapped on me so I have no oil monitor, not good. At least that is the excuse I am using to upgrade to a newer style cluster. I found a vender in Florida that sells an aluminum bezel with Dolphin white face gauges with LED turn signals and high beam indicator. The bezel is polished which I do not like so I sanded it, applied etching primer followed by urethane primer and the same semi-gloss black I used on the inside of the hood. I waited a few days for the paint to fully cure before installing the gauges. The speedometer, tachometer, fuel, oil pressure, water temperature and voltage have polished rims and look really nice against the semi-gloss black. I have all the gauges wired and ready to adapt to the truck wiring which using two quick disconnect connectors. I am not looking forward to living under the dash again. One other thing I need to address is the speedometer cable. It is either gone bad or the old speedometer was flaky. It intermittently make a horrible racket. I got a the wiring switched over for the new cluster. It was only a couple wires I had to move. I started the truck and tested the cluster and everything is working. I will have to wait until I can get it installed in the dash and go for a ride to see if the speedometer is working.

        February 8, 2019

        Now for the scary part, putting the vinyl on the dash with contact cement. I have used this stuff before with good results. But this is a bit different. The vinyl is 71” long and 8”wide, it needs to be put in place without touching the top of the dash until it is in perfect position. Once the contact cement on the two parts touch you are committed! There is not a lot of wiggle room. The plan is to use the cardboard template I made as a buffer. I will place the cardboard on the dash, the contact cement will not stick to it. I will then lay the vinyl on top of the cardboard. Once it is in position I will move the cardboard out a tiny bit and stick the vinyl to the dash along the windshield. If that works I then slowly move the cardboard out while sticking the vinyl down a little at a time. Sounds easy, hope it works as planned. Well, it seems to have worked. I will have to wait a few hours, probably overnight to be sure it has adhered well. And then put the dash pieces-parts back together.

        February 9, 2019

        The vinyl seems to have bonded well. I was hoping to get this thing back together today but things did not go smoothly at all. The first thing to go back on was the defroster vents. Of course putting vinyl on the dash top caused a problem. The stock dash has indentations for theses vent to sit in. There is no way I was going to attempt to cut the vinyl that perfect so I thought I would just have the vents sit on top of those inedntations. But the little tabs that are supposed to hold the vent on do not have enough room to compensate for the thickness of the vinyl. So I reengineered them! I made two angle brackets, screwed them to the vent tubes and tapped the other side of the bracket and used a screw the push up on the dash top bottom to pull the vent down against the dash, sort of like a sink install, LOL. It worked great. The dash pad was next, it went smoothly other than fighting to get the nuts on the studs, working blind is not my favorite thing. Then things went to hell. I attempted to install the new gauge cluster. Typical aftermarket stuff. I wonder if they ever actually installed this in a 1967 C10, I doubt it. The way the gauges are positioned the two outside gauges hit the mounting bosses where the headlight and wiper holes are on the dash. The cluster panel has machined areas for the headlight and wiper switch mounts but they are not large enough for complete dash mounts. I need to do some surgery!

        I really don’t want to cut up this dash but I have little choice at this point. I have decided it might be best to just eliminate the protruding switch mounting places altogether and mount the headlight and wiper switches directly to the cluster instead of the dash. But before I get crazy I emailed the supplier to see what is up with this ill-fitting assembly.

        February 10, 2019

        Day two of dash reassembly. I am waiting to get a response from the cluster supplier but I have other things to put back on. I started with the center AC vent which I had painted black, very simple. Anytime I can say simple install on an early C10 is unusual! I am changing the wiper switch to a 1965 version because it is just nicer and the one in there now is sketchy at best. I tested the switch pinouts since the connectors are different and spliced the new switch in. The stereo went back on too so the only thing left is the gauge cluster.

        February 11, 2019

        Day three and hopefully the last day of dash reassembly. I received no response from the supplier of the cluster, granted I only gave them a day. But after looking at this whole thing I see no way it would fit without cutting. So out came the air saw and I cut up the dash!!! The cluster sits flat against the dash frame now. Instead of using screws to hold the cluster to the dash the way GM did this one uses studs and nuts from the back so nothing can be seen from the front. Nice idea, PITA to install. I barely got the nuts on but really could not get a tool in there to tighten them. I put the headlight and wiper switches on and it really does look pretty cool. After I get the steering column and that crazy 1967 e-brake lever back in place this project is done.

        February 13, 2019

        I did get the steering column back in place but that e-brake needed an upgrade. Like I said the PO painted everything is sight body color and that includes the e-brake. This thing is huge to begin with but being silver in a black interior makes it the most dominating thing in the interior. I pulled it out, sanded off all the silver and painted it semi-gloss black.

        Another thing I noticed when I put hooking up the gauges is an issue with the speedometer. It is on the opposite of the cluster than it was before, my choice, and the cable is not long enough to reach. I was planning on changing it anyway so I picked up a 100 inch one.

        February 15, 2019

        Somewhere along the line I have lost my obsession with chrome. On this truck I am slowly removing or changing anything that is chrome. Both bumpers are gone, the mirrors and wipers have been changed for black ones and the antenna and fender emblems are gone. There are only a few items left in chrome. The window vent frames are chrome and pitted, not sure how I will address that, new ones are crazy expensive. The outside door handles need to be black for sure. Billet ones are available but again crazy expensive. I don’t know if this stuff works and how durable it will be but Dupli-Color makes a paint type product they call Shadow Chrome Blackout. Basically you clean the chrome real good, spray the black coating on, the more coats the darker it gets. Then that is followed with their clear coat. It is not expensive so I’m going to give it a try.

        February 16, 2019

        Well let’s see if this stuff works as advertised. I took the buttons out of the handles so I could get better coverage. This will require modification to reinstall them. I made a fixture to hold everything and give me good access to all sides. I washed the handles with Dawn dishwashing soap followed by a good wipe down with wax and grease remover. Following directions I applied three coats of the black with twenty minutes between coats. I waited an hour and applied three coats of clear followed by two heaver coats again with twenty minutes between coats. This whole process took well over three hours but I am pleased with how they came out. The big test of course is how this coating holds up. I will give it a few days to fully cure before reassembling and installing them.

        February 21, 2019

        Since the outside door handles came out so well and I have stuff left over I thought I would do the inside handles and window cranks too. This time I only did two coats of the black to give them a bit more transparency.

        March 9, 2019

        I am a little beat up from the cut spring project so today I am taking lighter detour to some custom projects I want to finish. Mainly the black chrome outside door handles and locks. This was a simple bolt back on went smoothly. Of course this is only temporary since I still have some bodywork and paint to do on both doors.

        March 10, 2019

        My latest plan is to fix the useless outside mirrors. Right now the passenger side mirror is totally useless where it sits and the driver side sits too low. For functionality and aesthetics I picked up some ‘67-‘70 Chevy C10 black mirror head arms and five inch round heads. The problem is where they would have to mount is much different than where the mirrors mount now. Searching around the internet I found several ’67 C10’s with these mirrors and they are all mounted just forward of the wing window, so at least I have a clue now.

        I had to help a buddy with a project today so I really didn’t get any real work done on the truck. But before we started working on his car he helped me position the mirrors. I sat in the truck while he held them into a useful position and marked for the three mounting holes.

        March 11, 2019

        I have some option for mounting the mirrors. There is one significant problem with where these mirrors mount. There is no access from inside the door to attach a nut to the mounting bolts. The stock trucks use self-tapping screws, I hate self-tapping screws because they will eventually cause rust and can loosen over time. I reverted back to my old stand bye, nutserts, and bolted the mirrors on the doors. It is too cool to have mirrors you can actually use on this truck.

        August 4, 2019

        Now that I have gotten the fender alignment under control I should put the truck back together. But as usual I have gotten completely off track and instead of putting the truck back together I have taken more things off to address some issues. One of these is the new mirrors I have installed. I had the change the mounting for the new mirrors which left me with holes I need to fill and paint to fix.

        My theory on repainting is if you’re going to paint you might as well do a color change or what is the real point! I think a change from the solid silver paint job might be cool. The paint scheme I have decided on is painting the top center part of the hood Toyota 1G3 metallic gray, extending this onto the cowl, the door windows and windshield frames, along the concave part of the upper doors where the mirrors used to mount and adding a ¼” Toyota 3R3 Barcelona Red Metallic outline stripe between the gray and the silver. I will continue the stripe alone the body line across the back of the cab and paint the roof gray. And while I am at it I will address the ugly job the previous owner did on the drip rails.

        August 28, 2019

        I was able to mask off everything for painting except for the vent windows, they had to come out. Removing the vent windows is something I have never attempted. At first I thought I could tape around if but that proved to be nearly impossible. I searched the internet and found some really good instructions on how to pull the vents without removing the main window. It worked perfectly. The chrome is somewhat pitted but I want them black. I will see if I can get the chrome scuffed enough for paint without destroying the rubber. I got the hood, the door tops, window frames and cowl painted with the gray and the cowl and doors have the stripe added. I need the wait for the hood to be installed to assure the stripe lines up with the cowl stripe.

        September 19, 2019

        The next project before painting is the drip rails. Getting the old “sealer” out was a messy job and I found more surface rust and a lot of filler but not enough to panic. I was watching Iron Resurrection the other day and saw Joe Martin modify the drip rails on a C10. He basically smoothed the rails into the roof, looks pretty cool. So that is what I am doing. I left the front and side gutters alone other than trying the fix the horrible alignment on the corners and smoothing them into the roof. On the back I trimmed off the gutter part, contoured them into the top gutters and smoothed what was left into the roof. I have to sand off the roof paint and see what that looks like so I am sure there will be a lot of body work to do before I can paint.

        September 25, 2019

        Day two of the drip rail modification. I got all the seam sealer out and have finished blending the rails into the roof. Today I started sanding off the old paint to see what lies beneath it. So far I have found some body filler but no rust. While doing this I decided to fill in the seam where the top of the roof meets the rear window panel just to make the whole roof look smooth. Sill a lot of work to go before I start painting.

        September 28, 2019

        For the past few days I have continued sanding, I hate sanding but it is getting close. I thought I had it all straight and smooth and ready for primer. I shot some etching primer only to see I am not there yet. The front of the roof still has several high spots so more sanding is needed.

        October 3, 2019

        I took some more of the high spots off, filled in some more pin holes and shot the etching primer… AGAIN, this is getting old! Fourth time is the charm, mostly. I have gotten this as good as I can so I was thinking it was ready to paint. One set back was the discovery of some more paint bubble on the top of one of the rear fenders. All these have been on top of filler work the previous owner did. I think it is poor prep before putting the filler on and/or not allowing the filler to fully cure before paint. I will pull the fender and “fix” this before I paint the roof.

        October 8, 2019

        Since I have pulled the rear fender for some repair I have decided to change the fuel filler location. The previous owner put it on the back of the fender and it really takes away the cool look of a stepside in my opinion. I am debating to either go with the standard bed floor filler or try to modify the whole thing to come up with something different. I got the fender flaw fixed and patched the hole where the filler used to be. I am ready to shoot some silver paint.

        October 10, 2019

        I got the rear fender body work and painting finished. But I will wait to put in back on until the roof is done and I figure out how I am going to reinstall the fuel filler. I have to pull a couple bed boards out, maybe all of them, to do the fuel filler swap. Ideally I will be able to use this tank but I am also thinking of a radical change. Options are to bring the filler through the bed floor, not really liking that though. Second is to put the filler on the side of the rear fender but again not really liking that either. The best scenario for me is to put the filler on the forward part of the driver side bed side in front of the fender and run a pipe to the existing tank. I’m not sure I can pull that off. The radical change is to build sort of a tool box for the front of the bed and locate the tank in that. That would hide all the filler stuff, give me actual access to the tank for maintenance, plus give me some much needed storage room for tools and stuff. The jury is still out on all this.

        October 12, 2019

        So finally I started painting this roof today. I shot a couple coats of primer when I did the fender so today I shot on three coats of the metallic gray base and four coats of clear. Now I need to spend several days color sanding this thing. Getting to the center of the roof is going to be a bitch. But I will let the clear cure for a while and start putting things back on, starting with the door parts.

        October 14, 2019

        It is time to put this truck back together somewhat. The first thing I want to tackle is the doors. I started with the driver side door. I glued the window channel in the vent wing and slide the wing into the door. I installed the top/rear weather stripping into the top of the door. Following the step by step instructions on YouTube I rolled the window up and installed the rear window channel and pushed the new weather stripping into place and rolled the window down to make sure it was all in correctly. Sounds simple but it was not without several failures but I finally got it done. I repeated this on the passenger door. With that done I installed the outside door handles and locks followed by the mirrors. That all went smoothly so I installed the door panels. But I totally failed trying to get the inside window felt and outside bottom seals on. I guess I need to do some research on this.

        October 15, 2019

        Now that I have eliminated the hole in the rear fender where the fuel filler was I need to add a new one.

        October 16, 2019

        The next thing is to get reassembled was the front end. I did a final alignment on the fenders, put the wheel wells back in and reattached the hood hinges. The final task today was attaching all the stuff that was bolted to the passenger side wheel well.

        October 17, 2019

        This was a short day. When I took the grille off the truck this time I left the roll pan attached to it. This made is a little cumbersome to reinstall alone but I was able to get it on by myself. I did have to loosen the fenders a little to get the grille in place but fortunately that did not affect the fender alignment.

        October 18, 2019

        Another short day today. I managed to install the headlights and the top radiator block-offs. I filled the radiator and fired up the truck. It took a while to finally lite off, too long between starts for sure. I also riveted the cowl leaf guard to the cowl and installed the washer nozzles.

        October 20, 2019

        I installed the cowl with the new nozzles and hoses. I then found a spot in the engine bay on the left front corner for the reservoir/pump and got it wired up.

        October 25, 2019

        I spent some major time under the truck today trying to decide if I want to use the tank where it is now. To assess for the possibility of using the existing tank I pulled the wood floor out of the bed. I had forgotten what a PITA this wood floor is to play with. Without major modification to this tank or the main cross member trying to run a filler pipe is just not going to happen. The other option of putting the new aluminum tank in the front is going to tough too due to the height of the tank filler in relation to the bedside filler door.

        After many sleepless nights I have decided to put the tank in the front and keep the tank very basic and leave it fully exposed in the bed. Sort of a pre-runner look. The filler on the tank is easy to get to because the tank sits well above the bed floor.

        November 15, 2019

        Things are not moving along as fast as I had hoped. It seems like everything I try to do is hindered by clearance issues. The tank barely fits between the frame rails and I had to highly modify the cross bed members. I ended up making new cross members to support and locate the bed sides. Since this tank is sitting directly over the mufflers I need to wrap the mufflers and make a heat shield which will attached to the cross members. The engineering on this is driving me crazy!

        December 8, 2019

        My neighbors came over and helped me put the hood back on and get it aligned. So today I took break from fuel tank hell and masked off the hood for its red stripe. I swear the biggest expense in painting is tape! After I got the stripe taped I sanded off the clear and shot some primer followed by three coats of the Toyota 3R3 Barcelona Red Metallic.

        December 10, 2019

        I am back on the tank install today, well actually making the heat shield. Again there are some tight clearance issues. I am making this from 16 ga steel and adding some heat wrap to the bottom of it. I had to make a frame that will bolt to the truck cross members and the shield will bolt to that. To make installation easier to assemble I am using nutserts to bolt the sheet steel to the frame. I painted everything with POR-15 before assembly.

        December 14, 2019

        Before I can install the heat shield I wrapped the mufflers with some DEI heat wrap. I also needed to “adjust” the muffler hangers because the heat shield is too low to clear the hanger brackets I have now.

        December 17, 2019

        During the design of this heat shield I neglected to install one of the bed cross members. I installed that only to find out it would not allow the heat shield to sit correctly, back to design! I had added a 1/8” thick length of steel inside the two outside sections of the cross member to tie them together thinking it would clear with no problem…wrong! So I eliminated that and made some small brackets to weld all four cross member sections to the bed mounts. I also made brackets for the front bed cross member, it all fits now.

        But my day of disasters was not over! I am going to remove the bed sides and front panel in order to paint the rear of the cab. I had removed the bolts but left a few of them in place without the nuts on thinking the bedsides stay in place. That worked for several days but a bit too much leaning against one bedside made it all come crashing down. Fortunately there is no damage. I guess I really didn’t think this one through! The positive side of this is working on this tank is much easier now

        December 18, 2019

        I will go ahead and paint the cab before finishing the tank install. I want to paint the inside of the bedsides to match the two tone cab and fix some damage on the front panel as well so I guess now would be the time to do that.

        December 19. 2019

        I started body work on the front panel today. I filled some holes and smoothed out the spot welds at the top roll section. The part I had previously painted black will get a coat of the Toyota 1G3 metallic gray to match the cab roof. The bedside will get a similar revamp with the addition of a ¼” Toyota 3R3 Barcelona Red Metallic stripe near the top.

        Decembar 24, 2019

        After spreading a couple coats of Rage Ultra to the “fixes” on the front panel and more sanding it is ready for paint. After getting the body work done I decided to get the bedsides ready for paint so I can paint the metallic gray on this panel and bedsides at the same time. The silver on the bedsides is perfect so I added the red stripe and prepared the rest for the metallic gray.

        December 27, 2019

        I got the front panel and the bedsides masked and put down a couple coats of primer. I will let this cure overnight.

        December 28, 2019

        After the primer cured it is time to paint. I masked the front panel for the silver and got it applied. Then I re-masked the front panel for the metallic gray and applied that along with the bedsides. Then applied the clear to everything. This was a very long day.

        Now that these parts are complete I will address the rear of the cab. There is a lot of area here with a lot of nooks and crannies to deal with, this will take some time. In addition to the cab rear the door sill on the driver side also needed some body work so that will have to get painted as well. The red stripe between the roof and the cab rear was already on the cab, that will make masking easier.

        December 30, 2019

        I have one more thing to paint before I start sanding on the cab rear….the fuel tank. Right now it is powder coated an ugly red which I do not like. I painted it the same Toyota 1G3 metallic gray as the hood and roof. The tank frame and hold down plates will be Toyota 3R3 Barcelona Red Metallic like the stripes on the truck body. I scuffed the powder coating and shot some etching primer and the gray paint followed by a few coats of clear, looks pretty cool.

        January 6, 2020

        Now it is back to sanding. Hopefully this will be the end of this tedious task. I fixed some damage and after what seemed like too many hours of sanding, I did more sanding. But the rear of the cab is finally ready for repainting. I shot some primer, the silver and followed that with clear. I ended up with one huge run in the clear so I guess I am not done sanding!

        January 8, 2020

        I got that huge clear run sanded out, not as tough as I thought it would be. But the whole rear of the cab need color sanded and buffed before I put the bed back on.

        January 9, 2020

        Today I made the tank hold down plates and painted them and their mounting extensions on the tank frame with the Toyota 3R3 Barcelona Red Metallic.

        January 15, 2020

        I cleaned up the garage removing all the painting protection on the walls and floor, took me all day. I put the wheels back on the truck and dropped it to the ground. I still have a bunch of fabrication to finish before I can put the truck back together. I want to weld the shortened cross members to the frame bed mounts for better stability. I need to run a new fuel line, I’m using AN fittings and braided hoses. I also need to wire the electrical connections for the new tank. Of course there is still the filler neck to fabricate but I can’t do that until the bedsides are installed.

        January 17, 2020

        I have a mountain of color sanding to do on this truck. Color sanding is not my better skills by any measure. Sometimes it works out great but other times I end up with a lot of scratches. But today I started. I need to get the back of the cab done before I put the bed back on so I started there. 600 grit, 1000 grit, 1500 grit and cutting compound on the orbital did a decent job. Just that little bit took several hours. I still need to do the entire roof, both rear fenders and the inside of the bed sides, I should be done by this time next year, LOL.

        January 18, 2020

        After I got the garage heated a bit I started color sanding the roof this afternoon. But after 3 hours I only got about two thirds of it done and I am beat. Maybe if I was a better painter it would be easier, but I just have to deal with this major orange peel I have to sand out. Hopefully I will finish with the cab tomorrow and move off to other more fun projects.

        January 19, 2020

        Winter has reared its ugly head again in Georgia. Even though I have “heat” in the garage I waited until after lunch to heat it up. I managed to finish color sanding the roof so for now I am calling victory on the paint. It is not show car by any stretch and not perfect but for now I am satisfied.

        January 20, 2020

        I cut two of the bed floor boards that will sit outboard of the sides of the new tank frame but still bolt to the main truck frame. This was scary for sure but after a few attempts I got the two main boards cut to fit. Next I cut the center boards and the stainless strips to length.

        January 30, 2020

        Work on the truck has taken a a back seat for a while. One thing I needed to address is the fuel level sending unit. Since the tank is exposed to the weather I need to have some protection for the sending unit. I made a cap for it using a short piece of aluminum square tube and a plate for a removable top. This fixture is attached to the tank with 3M double sided tape. I drilled a hole in the front of the cap for a piece of 3/16” brake line that will house the sending unit wires and seal them from the elements. I painted all this satin black to match the filler neck assembly and the fuel lines.

        February 16, 2020

        A small amount of work has happened but I am still a long way from finishing this project. I finally got the short cross members welded together by my welding wizard and am ready to get them welded to the frame. I also got the exhaust pipes back in place. Today Drake came over to weld exhaust to the mufflers and the cross members to the frame.

        With this step finally done I can start putting this truck back together. The first project is getting the bed sides back on and figure out how I am going to plumb the fuel tank filler neck.

        February 17, 2020

        I got all those newly welded bed frame parts painted today.

        February 19, 2020

        I installed the under tank heat shield, the step hangers and the steps supporting them in preparation of the bedside install.

        February 21, 2020

        Before I install the bed I did some color sanding on the inside of the bedsides. I then bolted on the wood floor sections that are attached to the bedsides and attached the front panel. So now it is ready to put back on the truck.

        February 23, 2020

        With the help of a few friends I was able to get the bed back on the truck. But as usual my engineering has let me down. That extra support cross member I put on to help support the front panel is not allowing the bedsides to sit down properly so that needs modification or maybe just elimination. I’m thinking if I don’t fix that the steps are not going to fit right either. Fortunately that extra cross member is just bolted in place and not welded so it should come out easily. I had to unbolt everything on the bed and push it back about 4 inches in order to unbolt that support cross member and cut off the bracket I welded on to get rid of them both. The front panel sits down where it should and now it all fits. The steps will take some adjusting but that is now a huge deal.

        February 24, 2020

        Today I played around getting the steps to align properly. This is something I didn’t do the last time I had this all apart. This time I loosened the bolts holding the step supports and the ones holding the step to the supports. Then I bolted the steps to the bedsides making sure they aligned correctly. Then I tightened all the support bolts.

        February 25, 2020

        After moving the truck back to a more workable place in the garage I jacked it up and removed the tires to make working under it easier. I got the tank hold down bolts secured. I want to get the fenders back on, the fuel lines run and the bed floor installed. But before I do all that I need to color sand the fenders and recondition the bed floor wood.

        February 26, 2020

        First project is the fenders. Have a commitment this afternoon so I could only spend a short time color sanding. I managed to get one fender done and the second one sanded with 800 before I had to quit. I am exhausted after only three hours of this. Getting old sucks!

        February 27, 2020

        After another three hours this morning I got the second fender done. Now to get a helping hand to install these monsters.

        March 1, 2020

        My neighbor came over to help me get the fenders back on, for the amount of help he has given me on this truck I owe him big. We did have something really weird happen. One of the fender braces has totally disappeared! I know I put two on each side right by the rear axle but one of them is nowhere to be found. I have another one but it is too long so I guess I will have to modify it somehow.

        In the mean time I started to install the bed boards to make sure they all fit before I refurb them. But right away I have a problem. When I had this all apart before during assembly I added those ¼” cushions to the bed frames. This time I decided not to use those and now the bed boards are hitting the rivets on the frame, weird. I don’t have those cushions any more so I will have to add some spacers or get new cushions.

        March 2, 2020

        After all the frustration yesterday I was reluctant the go out to the garage this morning. But I did order some ¼ x 2 steel bar to shim the bed up and made some shims for the rear cross member out of stock I had. While I was under the truck I saw the missing brace sitting in the rear corner of the fender. No clue how it got there. But at least that issue is solved!

        Because of how I mounted the tank the front mounting holes for the second boards on each side will need to be moved. After I get the stock for the shims I will drill new holes in the boards and the short cross members I welded to the stock bed mounts.

        March 3, 2020

        I picked up the shim stock and made the shims today. This has solved the problem of the bed boards hitting the frame rivets.

        March 4, 2020

        I spent most of the day installing, uninstalling, adjusting mounting holes and reinstalling these shims and the bed floor boards. But I think I finally got them all to fit properly. I need to refurbish my floor boards again since I pretty much messed them up the first time. This is going to take some time.

        March 6, 2020

        I have decided to refinish the wood bed floor…..again. But first I needed to get the old finish off. I attacked the boards with my orbital sander to get the old stain off and smooth the boards from my previous screw up. It took a long time and made a total mess of my garage.

        March 10, 2020

        I have already bought braided fuel line for this new tank and am getting ready to install it. I ran a short hose from tank outlet to a 90 degree 6-AN bulkhead fitting I mounted to a plate I added to the bed front panel. Then I attached a hose to that which will run into the passenger side frame rail and a fuel filter and then forward to the fuel pump.

        March 11, 2020

        Sometimes you do something because it looks cool. I was planning running the tank vent hose using a regular hose. But since I have a black braided fuel hose I decided to use another braided hose, -8AN this time, for the vent, expensive but it looks cool.

        March 16, 2020

        One more thing and hopefully the last thing with this never ending tank install is to trim around the bottom where the bed floor boards meet the tank. I am used some more angle painted red for this which now frames the entire tank.

        April 2, 2020

        Now that I finally have this fuel tank done the last thing is to refinish the bed floors. I totally messed up this the last time I did it so this time I am determined to do better. The boards on the outside do not need any modification but I had to trim a little off the next two boards to fit around the tank. I also cut the four center boards to fit behind the tank. I stripped all the old top coat and stain off so I am ready to get this project started.

        April 8, 2020

        I have experimented with several different methods of staining these boards. But eventually I decided to use dye instead of stain. The theory is to mix Keda coal black dye with acetone, alcohol, lacquer thinner or even water. You use very little of the dye depending on the depth of color you are looking for. I used ½ tsp of dye with 8 ounces of lacquer thinner. The first coat looked promising but the coverage was not quite what I wanted so after wiping it down I applied a second coat. This looked much better. After this dried overnight I made sure the surface was smooth before applying the top coat. For the top coat I used Helmsman Outdoor Clear Gloss Polyurethane. I found a video on YouTube showing that you can buff polyurethane the same way you buff out a car paint job. One tip is to be sure to use a lot of coats of poly so you don’t buff through to the wood. I applied 6 coats sanding lightly with 220 between coats like the can states. It got shinier and smother with every coat. All told this took several days to stain and coat mainly because of the drying time for the poly. After allowing the last coat cure for a few days I will sand it with 2000 grit and then use my buffer hit it with some polish.

        April 13, 2020

        Of course my experience with wood is very limited. It seems even after all the sanding I did after the dying and poly the grain is causing the wood to not be perfectly smooth. I used 1500 grit on the poly to get rid of any dust and then buffed it to achieve a pretty high gloss finish, I’m happy with it.

        April 15, 2020

        While I wait for the bed boards to cure really well before installing them I will finish up some tasks I have put off. Like starting the engine, it has been months. My one fear is the engine mechanical fuel pump would not be able to pull fuel out of the tank and through the new filter. But after putting some fuel in the front float bowl and dropping some down the carb it fired right up. It did shake a bit until fuel got pulled from the tank.

        April 18, 2020

        Today I started attacking the 67 carriage bolts that hold the bed and the wood floor to the frame, what a pain. Compounding the problem is having to do this without a second pair of hands. But ingenuity prevailed and I got most of them in today. Because I changed so much of the inside of this bed I had to drill a lot of new holes plus get some longer carriage bolts.

        April 22, 2020

        Next I started finishing the color sanding. First on the list is doors. They are certainly not up to the finish of the front fenders or the bed sides. I also did some more work on the hood, but it still has some scratches.

        April 25, 2020

        I have finally finished with the bed floor. Some of those carriage bolts were a PTA to install, seems like there is always something in the way. But all the bolts are in and the floor is secure. With that done I installed the steps and the tailgate.

        April 26, 2020

        There are still a few projects to finish up. The door seals and sill plates need to be installed and the whole truck needs a really good cleaning. The tough one is finishing the color sanding on the roof. There are still a lot of sanding scratches I need to get out.

        But the weather is nice here and the truck needs to be exercised. I fired it up and took it out for a short ride.

        April 27, 2020

        When I tore this truck down it had glue on door seals. I hate weather stripping adhesive!!! So I ponied up and bought Precision snap-on door seals. I spent a tiring and messy time getting the old adhesive off the door flanges to test fit the snap on seals. All was going great until I got to the bottom of the driver’s door. There is not enough room between the rocker and the floor to get the seal in. I looked at the passenger door opening and found there is much more room on that side. It looks like the PO screwed me again when he put new rockers in. I am not a happy trucker! After thinking about this I realized the sill plate actually holds the bottom seal in place, no adhesive required. Rather than trying to create some way for the snap on seal to work I will simply use a good section of the old seal.

        April 28, 2020

        After getting both doors prepared and test fitting the seals yesterday I painted the flanges with POR-15 this morning. In hindsight I probably should have done this before painting the whole truck! I will let this cure overnight and install the seals tomorrow.

        April 29, 2020

        I got the door seals on both doors installed and cleaned up the mountain of dust in the interior left from sanding all the adhesive off. But I still have the same issue of having the driver’s door not closing flush. After many attempts to get it right I finally hit the sweet spot on the door striker and I got it close much better but it is still not perfect. I do know that the driver’s door is NOT a ’67 door and maybe that is the problem.

        August 5, 2020

        With this last reassembly I can finally declare victory on this very long upgrade. Yeah right! Anyone that knows hot rodding knows they are never done. My two tone paint job is the look I intended but the tailgate does not look right. Right now the inside is completely silver and should also be two tone. So after several hours of sanding and taping I laid on four coats of the satin black paint.

        August 6. 2020

        I put the tailgate back on the truck, it looks more complete now.

        April 15, 2022

        Cars are never really finished, neither are trucks. When I got this truck, I decided I wanted to upgrade to new aluminum grille surrounds and headlight bezels. I was pleased with the change at the time. But as I worked on the truck changing the color to a two tone, blacking out the vent window frames and door handles, removing all the Chevy badges, and swapping the front bumper for a roll pan that scheme just did not look right. I dug out the original steel grille surrounds and original steel headlight bezels, stripped off the old paint and painted them glossy black. All this looks great with the black projector LED headlights. While I had the grille removed, I decided to swap out the antiquated spring headlight alignment system for newer technology. To do this I picked up a set of headlight adapter mounting brackets for a Jeep JK. These consist of a plate with three spring loaded adjusters that you bolt to the radiator support and a black headlight holding ring. Seemed like a simple modification…but no-o-o. There are simply too many variables and the C10 radiator support is not a level surface. First the headlights need to sit with the correct orientation and proper height to be centered in the bezels. The adjustor on the bracket sticks out from the back of the mount so three relief cuts had to be made in the radiator support. After countless failed attempts I finally produced a plan the worked. To make the radiator support a level surface I used some ½” fiberglass sheet which I cut to fit around the radiator support headlight hole and used nut certs to bolt it down. I then had to had some more ½” fiberglass to get the headlights sitting as far forward as I wanted. To accomplish all that required making several templates before cutting anything and even then, there was a lot of cutting and filing to get it all to fit. Nobody ever said, “it is easy to put something on your car it was not designed to have”. All said and done this was much more hassle than I had planned just to eliminate those old school headlight adjusters but is does look good.

        May 21, 2022

        Damn Chip Foose!!! I stumbled on a YouTube video series of Chip modifying a ’67 C10. One of the things he did was use 1967 Camaro bumpers and it looked really cool. The biggest problem for me was the bumpers need to be lengthened and of course with my inability to weld that is a major issue. Plus, these things are crazy expensive. I so I searched for a fiberglass version which believe it or not are even more expensive and have a 1-to-4-month lead time. I did order the rear one, we will see how long it takes to show up. Although I am making a front bumper the Camaro front bumper does not have turns on the ends to wrap around the truck corners. Using a rear bumper on the front I just have to make a 14–15-inch center extension to make it fit the truck.

        May 28, 2022

        Well so much for that lead time warning, someone needs to update their website, the bumper arrived today!

        May 30, 2022

        I got into design today. My plan is to cut the bumper in half and then join them back together with the addition of 15 inches. Measure 10 times cut once……or twice or three times! To get the shape I wanted I screwed on some strips of 1/8” fiberglass to the inside at the top and bottom to hold the two sections in place. In the middle I use a small diameter this wall pipe that fit nicely. After I was happy, I used 3M panel adhesive 08115 to hold them permanently and screwed them in place.

        May 31, 2022

        After the 3M stuff set up, I removed the screws and filled the holes. Now that I have a foundation, I laid on fiberglass to start completion of the new section. I used several layers of fiberglass woven cloth since it is easier to lay flat. I laid fiberglass on the inside first to give me a base for the outside material.

        June 1, 2022

        I followed the inside fiberglass work with a few more layers on the outside on the outside. I need only about 1/8” max of this. Then I added reinforced body filler to get all the contours to match the existing bumper. There is not a flat area on this bumper! One more area I had to fill was the indentation on the bottom for a front license plate which I don’t need.

        June 3, 2022

        Trying to get this new section to look right was not easy. I did make a template I can used to help perfect the contours. Filling, sanding. More filling and more sanding. I followed this with some Rage Ultra to fill in any low spots, scratches and pin holes.

        June 4, 2022

        Another major part for the bumper was to make two ½ thick fiberglass plates for the mounting brackets and secured them to the bumper. I once again used the 3M stuff and screws to attach these to the inside of the bumper. On these I will not remove the screws just of extra strength.

        June 5, 2022

        After all this setup I cut two holes in the roll pan for the bumper mounting brackets. I gotta say this was very scary!!! The mounting brackets which are aluminum u-channel bolt to right angles that attach to the frame. Of course, I say right angles attached to the frame, but it took some engineering and three pieces of right angle to actually achieve this. Remember this is a fiberglass bumper it is for aesthetics only not protection!

        June 7, 2022

        I thought I was finished with the fabrication part of this project but after mounting the bumper I am not satisfied. My attempt to join the two sections did not go all that well. It looked like they were aligned up, but they were not, gr-r-r-r-r-r-r. So, I cut it apart, mounted it, adjusted it to be sure of the alignment this time. I used small strips of fiberglass screwed across the seam to hold it until I take it off the apply fiberglass to the inside. Then I thought now would be a good time to address the ends that do not sit correctly on the truck sides. Again, I cut them off and reattached them using the same method. Getting the correct cut so the top of the end tilts in while at the same time get it parallel to the truck side was quite a chore. I applied reinforced fiberglass filler to the seams to hold everything in place.

        June 8, 2022

        I pulled the bumper off to finish my modifications. I applied several layers of fiberglass across the seams. After that setup up I pilled the screws on the temporary strips and glassed over those sections and filled the holes. I have more body work to do the get this thing straight and the contours correct. Another area I do not think looks right is the corner where the bumper turns for the ends. Right at the apex of the corner it sticks out too far. I made a template but haven’t decided if I want to fix that. It seems like this project will never end, LOL.

        June 9, 2022

        Of course, I decided to fix the bumper corners. So I cut off both corners, made pie cuts to pull the corners in closer to the truck sides and added fiberglass at the apex to blend better with the truck corners. I laid on fiberglass on the inside of each corner, making sure I had enough area to adjust. After the fiberglass setup I sanded a little to make sure the bumper would bolt back on with no interference. I then marked each side so I knew how much of this new fiberglass to remove and pulled the bumper back off. Lots of sanding but now the corners look so much better. The sanding did make that new area a bit thin so I added some more to the inside.

        June 10, 2022

        Well, this project is as good as I can make it and it is time for paint. I shot the whole thing with Evercoat Feather primer, this stuff is like spray on body filler and will allow you to get the surface very smooth if you are willing to sand like crazy. I allowed that to cure overnight.

        June 11, 2022

        The Evercoat Feather Fill revieled some pinholes, lots of pinholes. Out came the Rage Ultra again to fill those. Man, I thought I was ready for paint!

        June 12, 2022

        I sanded the pinhole areas so once more it is time for more Evercoat Feather Fill. I put on three coats so I would have lots of material to sand it smooth.

        June 15, 2022

        To get the Evercoat feather fill flat I guild coated it and sanded it smooth for what seemed like hours with a final sanding of 400 grit.

        June 17, 2022

        I applied all the self etching primer I had on hand which ended up being three coats and let that cure overnight.

        June 18, 2022

        It is finally time for color! Just like I did on the grille surrounds and headlight bezels I shot three coats of Direct Gloss Acrylic Urethane Black and followed that with as much clear as I mixed….five coats. I will give this a few days to cure well before color sanding and buffing.

        June 19, 2022

        Color sanding and buffing is something that I enjoy because it is instant gratification, and nothing shines like glossy black. The plan was to rest for a few days before doing this, but I could not wait. I only got the top done today before this old body gave up, lol. I stared wet sanding with 800, move on the 1000, 1200, and finally 1500. I then used three different pads starting with aggressive cutting 3M - Perfect It compound 06085, followed with 06064 machine polish and finally ultrafine machine polish 06068. I do have some pinholes that somehow escaped me during primer but overall, it looks awesome. I will attack the bottom tomorrow.

        June 20, 2022

        Day two of cutting and buffing, bottom of the bumper, went much faster than day one, no clue why, maybe because it was the first thing I did today. With that done all I needed to do was install the bumper for the final time. Things are tight for sure, but I got it on. Except for those pinholes I am satisfied with the whole project.

        June 21, 2022

        This project was unexpected, but I am glad I stumbled on the Chip Foose video. Thanks Chip, for the inspiration. Now am I going to do a rear bumper? I think it would be easier because I have a step side and I don’t think I would not have to cut and redesign the bumper to make it fit.

        June 22, 2022

        It did not take long to make the decision to put the Camaro bumper on the rear. I ordered it today, hopefully I will get it as quickly as I got the first on. Ut is going to be a tight fit between the bed floor extension and the custom exhaust I have coming through the roll pan. But I think it will be fine.

        June 27, 2022

        The rear bumper arrived today and as with the other one it needs some body work. This time however the bumper is actually about 1 inch too long. That seemed like an easy fix until I realized the turns will need to be shortened because they hit the fenders. I will need to adjust them anyway to get the tucked in look like I did to the front so trimming them should be easy. But I am in the middle of another project so this will have to wait a few days…. or weeks!

        July 17, 2022

        I am finally ready to start this rear bumper project. Today I used a step bench to position the bumper for cutting, scary! I am cutting right at the start of the forward bends so I can trim them for that tucked look. I will also have to shorten the bends because they would hit the fenders otherwise.

        After the complicated bumper bracket I had to make for the front I was hoping this time it would be easier….it was. I now moved to the support blocks inside the bumper for the mounts. Same theory, ½ inch blocks molded to inside the bumper with a captured ¼ inch screw for mounting. But first I added fiberglass to that long indentation on the top to make it disappear.

        July 18, 2022

        Today I moved to the support blocks for the mounts inside the bumper. Same theory, ½ inch fiberglass blocks molded to inside the bumper with a captured ¼ inch screw for mounting. The inside of the bumper is not flat by any stretch so I need to adjust the blocks so they will sit perpendicular to the brackets. I also added some layers of fiberglass to the bumper for extra strength. The glass on these bumpers is really thin! Before I use the panel adhesive to bond the blocks to the bumper I will get the bend parts fitting, that should be fun! When I am happy that all that I will adhere the blocks permanently.

        July 19, 2022

        With the support blocks temporarily bolted in place I cut the brackets to length to get the bumper positioned where I want it. I slotted the mounting holes on the brackets for adjustment. Now that the bumper is on the truck I can get the bent ends to fit. First I need to cut them to length so they will not touch the back of the step wheel wells. That part was easy. I taped the ends to the truck so they to sit parallel to the bedside to see how much I need to cut so they meet the main bumper, I ended up with an end about three inches long.

        Not only am I dealing with that length but the angle of the bends is not 90 degrees. That is going to take some geometry! But that is when it all got tough. Yeah, I aced geometry in high school but that was no help now, LOL. Somehow I totally blew the angle cut and had to make a filler to get the body line of the bumper to line up. I used some metal strips to hold it all together, pulled off the whole bumper and glassed it together on the inside, More body work got it looking good. Now hopefully I can do the other side.

        July 20, 2022

        Day two of bumper bends fabrication. You would think it would be easy since I already did one side. Same process so it wasn’t as frustrating this time but the angles still kicked my butt!

        July 22, 2022

        Now for the many hours of body work. I need to perfect the bends around the bedsides and smooth out all the seams from the fabrication. I got the rough part done using reinforced fiberglass filler and a lot of sanding. That took care of the major flaws. I followed that with the first application and sanding of Rage Ultra. All that sanding pretty much wore me out so I am done for today. I still want to add some fiberglass to the inside curves of the bends to contour them better to the bedsides. Plus there is the mounting brackets for the bends. I was sort of hoping to get this ready for paint on Sunday but that looks doubtful now.

        July 24, 2022

        I got the body work I planned on this morning but then ran into a new issue. Because I cut the ends of bends of the bends to make them fit the bottom is not large enough to support the mounting flange. So I had to add fiberglass to that which of course meant more body work. The supports for these will be the same as I made for the front bumper. I hope this is the last issue before I can paint!

        July 29, 2022

        I finally got back to this project today, house stuff took all my time for the past few days. I got the garage cleaned out and shot two coats of epoxy primer. Tomorrow I will apply the black base and as many coats of clear as I feel like. I put 5 coats on the front bumper so that is probably what I will do.

        July 30, 2022

        The primer is ready for the black base. I put on three coats. After that set up I shot five coats of clear to make sure I have ample clear to color sand. I will wait a day or so before color sanding.

        August 3, 2022

        At long last it is color sanding time. An arduous job for sure but rewarding when finished. It really did not take that long but my right arm is worn out! I sanded with 800-2500 before the three steps of 3M perfect it buffing. It came out really nice but there are some pinholes. I don’t understand the whole pinhole thing. But then my vision sucks so I probably just missed them during prep before painting…oh well, I never claimed to be a professional.

        July 5, 2023

        I have wanted to convert to rear disc brake ever since I bought this truck. The sight of those ugly drums behind those awesome open wheels makes me cringe. A while back during a drive home in the rain I had to make a panic stop. The rear brake immediately locked and sent me on a wild spin. No clue how I managed to stay in my lane and not hit anything, but I wrote the whole thing off as a truck without antilock brakes in the rain is dangerous. Then it happened again but this time on a dry road and not really a panic stop. But the rear locked up again with a lot of squealing tires. Okay that is enough of this, I got to fix this before something horrible happens.Since this truck was converted to front dice brakes by the previous owner, I do not know what parts he used to do the conversion. I doubt the master cylinder, or the proportioning valve are for a disc/disc setup. There is no way to tell. I want to convert to four-wheel discs like I did on my other two hotrods so now seems like the time to do it.

        July 6, 2023

        I bought a Corvette master cylinder and proportioning valve both set up for disc/disc configuration. I will wait to see if I need an adjustable proportioning valve.

        July 7, 2023

        It is tear down day! The first thing to do is remove all the grungy drum brake hardware. First thing I need to do is get all the drum brake removed, and right away I see problems. Whoever did the installation of these screwed up and put the shoes on the wrong sides of both wheels. Could this be causing the lock up, who knows? But at this point I do not care, other than just for curiosity. This stuff is filthy dirty but it is going directly in the trash so why waste cleaner and time cleaning it up? The backing plates will need to wait until after I pull the axles. It all went well, no froze bolts and even the brake line came off easily. But then it was time to remove the e-brake cables. Who decided this was a good idea? The driver side wasn’t too bad, just two prongs to hold back with no room to get at them, but the passenger side had a few more prongs and was even tougher to get out. They do make a tool for that, should have bought one. I did eventually get them out and it really didn’t take that much time. Then I attacked the diff cover. It has an aftermarket aluminum cover held on with torque bolts. I had the torque driver, so it came off with no issues. It actually has a drain plug but of course it is a giant torque drive plug and I do not have one to fit it so I just slowly pulled the bottom of the cover back to drain it. I was hoping I did not have to remove my aftermarket panhard bar so the cover would clear, and I did not. I will attack the first time ever job of taking the axles out tomorrow!

        July 8, 2023

        Before I dove into the “big scary job” I cleaned up the axle ends and the diff surface to get rid of any rust and gasket material. While doing the cleaning on the axle ends I notice the one of the wheel studs had what looks like a cut on it, I guess I need to get at least one new wheel stud. In the meantime, I decided to dive in headfirst on that “big scary job”. I turned the diff so I could access the bolt that holds the pin in place and hopefully have enough room to pull the pin and get at the c-clips. The bolt came out easily. I used a 8 pound pick-up magnet and it worked great, almost too great and the pin almost fell out. Before I pull the axles I want to address that messed up wheel stud. I have never replaced a wheel stud so I looked on YouTube about how to do it. Smack the old one with a BAH until it shoots out the back! That worked, noisy but it worked. I found a Dorman 610-138 stud at O’Reilly’s, got a ½-20 nut and a washer to install the new stud. The procedure is a washer and nut, spray the stud knurl with WD40 Penetrating Lubricant and start drawing the stud in. Then get out the big breaker bar and keep cranking on it until it fully seats. Next job is to pull the axles, not looking forward to that. That was not as scary as I thought it was going to be. I took out the pin and pushed the axles in as the instructions say. That did expose the c-clips sort of. This diff has a limited slip so access to that area is limited. The c-clips were sitting upside down so using the magnet was not working. On the driver side I used a screwdriver to finally get it right side up and was able to grab it with the magnet and my fingers. The axle slid right out. On the passenger side the c-clip just fell out…nice. With both axles out I removed the backing plates with the help of WD40 Penetrating Lubricant and a hammer, lots of rust. I sanded off the rust and hit the area with POR-15. I pushed the axles back in and got the c-clips in along with the pin and bolt. Oh yeah, I found another bad wheel stud. I ordered a set of ten Dorman 610-138 studs and will replace all the ones on the rear axles. I ordered a full front and rear set of lug nuts too. I went with traditional open lugs instead of those acorn ones that were on there. I managed to beat the other nine wheel studs out. The next thing I tackled was putting the rest of wheel studs in. Man am I glad I sprung for the $20 and picked up that stud installer, it worked like a charm taking only about 15 seconds a stud.

        July 9, 2023

        I removed the master cylinder and the proportioning valve. All but one of the lines came off with the help of WD40 Penetrating Lubricant, I love this stuff. The one that would not move no matter what I did really didn’t matter because the new proportioning valve uses a different size. The front lines from the master cylinder is the same but the back one is different on the proportioning valve end, no clue why, thanks GM. I searched for hours and finally found what I think will fit both lines. For the rear brakes I needed a 7/16-24 at proportioning valve end and a 9/16-18 at the master cylinder end and the front brakes uses 1/2-20 on both ends, somebody a GM is insane!!! Fortunately, the output lines for the proportioning valve are the same as I have so I don’t need to mess with them. This truck has a side mounted proportioning valve but there is no mount, it is just hanging on the brake lines. That does not seem safe, so I ordered one.

        July 11, 2023

        But there are still several issues I need to address. When I swapped out the wheel studs on the rear I also got new lug nuts. I got open ended ones instead of the closed end ones that were on the truck when I bought it. I noticed right away the wheel studs are too short with the aftermarket wheels I have, the center hub on these wheels is .91”. With the nut tight the studs are about 1/4” inside of the nuts. I know there should be at least 2 threads showing outside of the nuts for safety. With the closed end nuts I had no clue that was happening. So new studs AGAIN!!!! But trying to find a longer 1/2-20 stud with a .535 knurl proved to be impossible. The closest I could find was a Dorman 610-515.1 (Ford Freestar 2004-07 and Mercury Monterey 2004-07) which has a .553 knurl and the threads are 1.5”. Research tells me that I need to have a hole .008-.010” smaller than the knurl which means I need to drill the axle hole out close to .543 - .545ish. Finding a drill bit that size was not easy, but eventually I found a 13.8mm bit. I ordered it from Amazon and it fit in my in ½ drill. I did put the studs in the freezer to make it a bit smaller to aid in pressing it in. I should probably do the front too. Trying to drill level on the axels is not easy. And it got worse on the first attempt. I was thinking of starting the drill at a slow speed, that was a major mistake. The bit caught and jerked the drill causing my hand to endure some major pain. I then used a small stool to level the drill with the handle positioned so the drill could not spin. I pulled the studs one at a time from the freezer and using the stud installer easily got the driver side done. But my hand pretty much was done for the day. It is probably just a sprain on my third finger in the middle of my hand, but we’ll see in a couple days. Hopefully, it is not a torn ligament or broken bone.

        July 21, 2023

        It seems like it took forever for my hand to feal better, after 10 days I was able, with some minor pain, to continue with this project. The first thing was to put the driver’s side back together. I had managed to get the rotor back on but it just didn't look right, it was not seating against the axle.I messed with this for a long time before I realized it was not going to happen. I removed the rotorand that revealed the problem. Those new studs have a non-threaded section that is slightly bigger than the threaded section at axle flange that prevents the rotor from seating against the axle flange, that is not good. G-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!!!!! I have options of course. Try to grind down the studs without doing damage to the axle flange or pull the studs and try to grind them down on the bench and reinsert them or drill the holes in the rotors to clear the “bad” stud section, I’m debating. After trying to file down the “bad” section of a stud off the truck I decided that was not the way to go. I ended up drilling out the rotors. After all it is the concentric center hole that holds the rotor in place, not the studs. That worked out perfectly.

        July 22, 2023

        I decided to make a drill guild to make this job easier. I picked up a ¼” 5x5 steel wheel spacer and a ¾” od and ½”id steel pipe to make this. I took all this to a local machine shop to have them assemble it, since I can’t weld, and I am injured. I will have them weld the pipe to the spacer making sure it is centered and plumb. Then they will drill out the ½” ID of the pipe to 13.8 mm to fit the drill. Assuming this is workable I will remove one wheel stud and then mount this guide on the axle and use the reducer bushings and nuts on the other four lugs to position the guide pipe over the vacant hole for drilling. I will then remove the guide, insert the new stud, and rinse and repeat for the rest of the studs. All this would have been much easier if I had seen the issue with the short studs when I had the axles out. But I do not want to go through that axle removal again. In the meantime, I decided to take the front rotors off to change those studs too. Since the studs are in the rotor, I should be able to use my drill press to enlarge the holes. As always there is no consistency with this truck and the wheel studs on the front have a bigger knurl than the rear, even bigger than what I was going to use, figures. So it is back to the internet to search for a stud with a .620 knurl and an overall length of 2.25” that will work. After an hour of searching for the “ideal” stud I found a Dorman 610-162 that has the exact specs I need. Again, they are for a Mercury!!! These should fit without any unforeseen issues. After this extensive search I learned that even though my truck is a 1967 the rear axle must be a 1971 or newer and the front rotors are 1972 which I already knew since it had disc brakes. Everything before those years were 7/16” studs. No clue why the knurls are different sizes unless it is because the rears are pressed into the axle and the fronts are pressed into the rotor. If I had known this, I would have drilled the rear to use the same studs as the front.

        July 23, 2023 The new front studs arrived yesterday, but it was too late to install them. Besides, I wanted to put them in the freezer overnight to make pressing them in easier. This morning I came up with a plan for pressing the studs in. First, I drove all five old studs out. Then I applied assembly lube to each frozen stud and pounded them part way into each hole from the back. I flipped the rotor over and used a block of wood and a big “c” clamp on the braking surface to clamp the rotor to my bench to prevent it from moving during the stud draw. I used the stud installer to draw each stud completely in. Rinse and repeat for the other rotor. With that done I am exhausted, LOL. After looking closely at the wheel bearings, I have decided to get new ones. The two sides had different manufacturers, which probably doesn’t matter but I ordered some Timken M12649 for replacement. I cleaned up the caliper hardware so when the bearing get here I can reinstall everything. This went better than I thought. Paying the $21 for these studs is much better than drilling out ten new holes in the rotors for the other new studs even if they had fit. I did a test fit of rotors on the wheels just to be sure they fit correctly, and they fit perfectly. But pity the fool that gets this truck only to find out the rotors need the hub area tapered to fit the wheels and the studs are not what will come with any replacement rotors!

        July 24, 2023

        Good ol’ Amazon, the wheel bearings are here. But as usual too late to install them. I picked up my drill guide from the machine shop today. I hope this works out, it is going to be scary to drill out the other rear axle. But I have no choice.

        July 26, 2023

        Short day today, but I got the driver side wheel bearing packed, the rotor and caliper mounted and wheel back on. Note: Do not push the caliper piston back in and let it sit for several days, it will come right back out! You will end up doing it again to get the caliper on the rotor.

        July 26, 2023

        I got the other wheel bearing packed and everything put back together and the wheels back on and torqued. The front stud job went much easier than the rear. I still need to drill out the axles on the passenger side, not looking forward to that!

        July 28, 2023

        I got the drill guide back from the machine shop, they did a really nice job. Today I grabbed the big ass drill hoping it does not try to destroy my hand again! The passenger axle is the final step on the stud upgrade. I pulled off the brake caliper and the rotor and beat out the first stud. I attached the drill guide and with the ½” spacers bolted in place. I had bought some 35/64” drill bits because trying to find 13.8 mm ones was nearly impossible. That proved to be a mistake. Using the 35/64” bit soaked with Magic XP Extra cutting oil I drilled the first hole. OMG that cutting oil is magic!!!! I had the studs in the freezer, I took one out and put some assembly lube on the knurl to make it easier to pull through the axle. It went in very easily, maybe too easily. I pulled the guide off, beat out another stud and repeated the process. That is when it all went bad! After I installed the next stud, I could not get the guide off because two of the studs spun in the axle, G-R-R-R-R-R-R!!! I finally was able to get the lug nuts off and put the stud installer on all three of the studs I had already installed and put more torque to them hoping that would fix the spinning…..it did not. This is weird because I did not have this issue on the driver’s side. The only difference is I used a 13.8mm bit on the driver side instead of the 35/64” one. I did not have any of the 13.8mm bits anymore (do not throw anything away until the job is done). But I did have a 13.75mm bit. I used that on the last two studs and that seems to have worked better. Looking over my math I chose to ignore the fact that the 35/64 bit was about .02” larger than the recommended maximum hole size. I decided that was close enough. Apparently, I was wrong. So how do I fix that???? I found Dorman 610-523 studs that have a .560” knurl and the correct length that should be good for the 35/64 holes I drilled, we will see.

        July 31, 2023

        The new, bigger wheel studs are here so let’s see if this will finally be the end of the long struggle to simply change the wheel studs. I only have two studs that will not lock in on the axle, so I beat them out and installed the new .560 studs in their place. That seems to have fixed this……. hopefully forever!

        August 7, 2023

        It has taken a long time for this hand to heal enough to do any real work on the truck. I was thinking about making my own rear disc setup like I did on the AMX but remembering the hassle that was I decided to just buy a kit. I did more research on available rear discs kits for a C10. Other than paying nearly $1000 for Wilwoods the only ones I found that did noy use those crazy Cadillac calipers is Master Power Brake. They have several kits to fit C10s. I chose the base kit since this truck is only a street driven vehicle, and my racing days are long gone. The cost is significantly lower than the Wiwoods at around $750 including shipping. The instructions and the video look like it would be a simple bolt-on, well see.

        August 9, 2023

        I just got conformation from Master Power Brake that the kit will be shipped today in 2 boxes. I sure hope this goes smoothly. But my experience with aftermarket parts does not give me that good fuzzy feeling. MPB is in Noth Carolina so shipping should not take long.

        August 11, 2023

        The MPB kit came today, it all looks awesome. Tomorrow I will start the installation.

        August 12, 2023

        I was hoping to get at least one side of these brakes put on today, buy n-o-o-o-o! Following the directions, I installed the “primary caliper mounting bracket” and torqued the bolts to 40 lb.ft. Then I installed the “secondary caliper mounting bracket” and torqued the bolts to 40 lb/ft. It was all going great but then it went bad. The rotor would go on next and MPB provides “centric ring” to go over the axle to center the rotor. While these rings fit great in the rotor, they will not go over the axels. There is a small, raised part of the axle that these rings will not clear. That axel area in about 1mm too large. I followed the instructions making sure the axle was clean and even ran some sandpaper around it but it will not go on. Discouraged I went to the other side and repeated the installation on that axle but hit the same issue with the “centric ring”. So now I am stuck and confused. Are these axles weird and not actually Chevy axles? Unfortunately, it is Saturday so tech support at MPB is closed. The sanding did seem to help so I think I will get some 60 grit emery cloth and see if I can make it fit.

        August 13, 2023

        That was not fun. I got the emery cloth, but it was not as affective as I had hoped. I guess since the axles are harden steel it takes a bit more that 60 grit emery cloth run by an old man to move much metal quickly. This probably would be easier if I popped the studs out but given the fact that these have been swapped three times, I was not going to take the chance of something going wrong. I used the emery cloth and a couple files but still don’t have the job completed on one axle, it is close, but I ran out of energy.

        August 14, 2023

        I went to the dark side! I got out my mini grinder with the only decent straight bit I have (probably too aggressive) and went at this axle. Trying to hold that grinder steady while running it around the axle was not easy, I would do a small section, roll the axle around and do the next section. Test fitment and repeat until I got the damn ring to sit against the axle flange. All that took nearly an hour, and it is only one side. I cleaned the axle and the rotor with brake clean, inserted the ring and installed the rotor. It all fits at last. Now for the caliper. According to the instructions I remove the caliper anchor bracket from the caliper and install it over the rotor bolting it to the secondary caliper bracket. Then put in the abutment clips in and drop the pads in. Then place the caliper body onto the anchor bracket and bolt it in place, That was easy, but they did not mention anything about making sure the caliper was centered on the rotor and of course this one is NOT! Shoot even Wilwood supplies shims to do that! After a few attempts using washers, I was able to move the secondary caliper bracket inwards to get it lined up. It looks like I need about a .110ish washer added to the spacers. I probably make a full shim to go over the whole secondary caliper bracket but I will wait until I get the other side done before make that decision.

        August 15, 2023

        I installed the passenger side caliper with no shims and it all lines up perfectly. That is weird but given the other tolerance’s I have seen on this truck I am not surprised. This time I used the mini grinder to level out the axle for the ring. That was much faster, but my hand paid a price. I installed the rotor, the caliper, and the pads. No shims were needed on this side. I got the braided hoses hooked up to both rear brakes. The kit came with rubber hoses but since I had the braided ones already, I used those along with the supplied banjo bolts. I also torqued the passenger side caliper bolts to 81 lb/ft, the driver side will have to wait until I get the shim material. This kit did not come with e-brake cables, but I thought I could use some that I had from another project, but alas they will not work, bummer. I need to stop trying to make stuff and buy what will work for the task at hand. In that vein I ordered the e-brake kit from MPB. Granted it is a universal kit but I know the parts that hook to the caliper will work and the rest I already have.

        August 18, 2023

        I took a couple days away from this project just to rest my brain and body, that did not work! The 12 ga stainless steel arrived today to make the one piece shim for the driver side caliper. I took the secondary bracket off to make my pattern. I drilled one hole for one of the four bolts. Then bolted the stainless and the bracket together and marked the hole at the other end of the bracket, drilled that one, bolted it back together using those two holes and then drilled the final two holes. It came out perfect. With it all bolted together I traced the bracket to the stainless and cut out the shim. But naturally now that the shim is in the bolts are too short to engage the nylon locknuts. Off to the hardware store to get four 2 ½” grade 8 bolts. I bolted the bracket and the shim using the new bolts, it fits. It is getting late and I am tired and hungry, I am done for today.

        August 19, 2023

        The first thing I did today was put it all together to be sure the rotor is still centered with that new shim on the driver side brakes. Then I took it all off again and torqued everything. The e-brake cable kit is out for delivery, but I am sure it will not arrive soon enough to start the mock-up for that.

        August 20, 2023

        The e-brake cable kit is nice, not sure it is worth the money, but it is aftermarket stuff so what are ya gonna do! The brake kit instructions tell you to a rotate the park brake levers couple time before installing any e-brake cable. I tried to do that but either I am too weak to accomplish that, or something is wrong with both of these calipers, I am betting on being old and too weak. I will investigate further.The toughest part was deciding on where to cut these expensive cables to adapt them to the stock intermediate C10 cable. I took a wild semi-educated guess and cut them. And after about 2 hours of trying different configurations on routing the intermediate cable I think I got something that will work. The junction parts of this kit that join the two cables to the intermediate cable are kind of large and should be in free space to work properly, mine is not. But it does work and moves the caliper arm.

        August 21, 2023

        I have pretty much given up on getting the e-brakes to work for now. I did order a longer cable to get the whole cable nightmare sitting in a better position but I doubt that will fix anything. I bled the brakes, put the wheels back on and took the truck out for a test drive. It all seems to work okay. I will drive it for a while to seat in the new pads before attempting a panic stop. After all that was one of the reasons for doing this project. When I got home, I used my lazar temp gun to see what the disc temp was at all four corners. The fronts were around 155 degrees, but the rear rotors were about 200 degrees, I do not like that. Since the front brakes do most of the braking you'd think they would be hotter. This truck is filthy from sitting in the garage for months, time for a bath!

        August 26, 2023

        While I did get the- e-brake cables to work I used an existing intermediate cable I had and cut the caliper cables too short, typical of me these days. This make the junction of the intermediate cable and the caliper cables sit below and touching the chassis which I do not like. It also made me move one of the intermediate cable routing brackets to a different place which I also don’t like. This cable is 48” long and searching around I found one that is 61” long that should fix this issue….I hope. The next length I could find is 92”, way too long. But the only place I could find that 61” cable was Amazon and there seems to be a shipping issue. USPS has it in Atlanta but for some reason they can’t seem to get it to my post office, its been at the Georgia USPS Regional Facility since the 22nd, it is now the 26th and they say it is still in sorting…incompetent.

        August 28, 2023

        Miracles of miracles USPS has finally decided to deliver the e-brake intermediate cable. I guess seven days is not that long but the fact that it was in Georgia for six of those days is too long. The cable arrived but before I attempt to fix that I want to address the fiasco of the rotors and the supplied concentric ring that does not fit my axles. I called Master Power Brake to see if they have a ring that will fit. They do not, hmmmmm. The tech guy did answer a few questions and issues I am having but really did not give me a fix for the ring. He did tell me that the rotors they use are 1996 chevy Caprice that they modify by making the center hole much larger and drilling them for multiple lug patterns. Their supplied rotor will not work without a ring since the center hole is much too big. But it just so happens I have a new set of those same rotors….don’t ask why. I was able to grind out the center hole of those rotors to fit perfectly on my axles. I wish I had done this before attempting to use those stupid rings. But that is hot rodding, if you think a “bolt-on” part is truly bolt on you are delusional! I got both sides done so I am ready to attack the e-brake cable…..as soon as I rest a bit, LOL.

        September 19, 2023

        It has been almost a month and things are not good. I have a major heating issue with these new rear discs. I do not know what to do about it at this point. It is like the calipers are sticking and the driver side is getting the temp over 300 degrees. The passenger side isn’t much better at 225 degrees. MPB sent me an Email asking for my opinion. I told them about the issues I am having. I got an immediate reply from MPB. He said “I think what I would try first is to crack the line at the master cylinder and see if the rears will release/free up. If so than I would say the problem is in the master cylinder as far as having a residual valve in it. If it doesn’t release, I would crack the line loose further back possibly at the drop down hose and see if they release. I have seen a lot of times where this happens and causes the brakes to drag/not fully release”.

        September 21, 2023

        Of course I had to try other things before taking MPB’s advice. One of the things I did different on this install is use braided brake lines instead of the rubber hoses they provided since I already had the braided lines. I swapped those but did not hook them up to the calipers. I also took the calipers off and pushed the pistons back in. I then attempted MPB’s adjustment using the e-brake bracket and it worked easily and perfectly. I think the reason that didn’t work when I did the initial install is I had brake fluid in the system. I did notice on the driver side I could see the piston backing off a little until it contacted the pad. I had already removed that shim I added and took the complete e-brake cables out, problem is still there. I put the shim back in, hooked up the hoses, bled the brakes and started the truck. I put it in gear and no issues and the brakes work. Shut down the truck and the brakes are locked up. Now it is time to try MPB’s suggestion. I loosened the rear line fitting on the proportioning valve, it spit out a strong stream of fluid. I tighten that back up and checked the brakes they are free! I did that several time with the same result each time. Then I tried loosening the rear fitting on the MS that feeds the proportioning valve, that did not free up the brakes, So it looks like I have an issue with the proportioning valve! I sent MPB an Email and he agreed it sounds look something has gone bad in the proportioning valve. I ordered a new one, hopefully that will fix the problem.

        September 22, 2023

        While I wait for the bleeding tool to arrive, I decided I would make some bleeder lines to use with the MC hooked to the proportioning valve. That way I would be sure the fluid would reach the rear brakes this time. Well, that did not really work. The fluid did flow from the proportioning valve outputs to back to the MC. But when I hooked the brake line going back to the rear brakes I still could not get anything to the calipers. Maybe I just got impatient, but I than got out the power bleeder. Attached that to the MC, put a bunch of fluid in it and pumped it up. That worked!!!! But now I have a leak in the fitting on the rear of the proportioning valve. Seriously?? Come on, this one is also brand new. It is not leaking at any of the fitting or adapter I put on. I took both valves apart and swapped the fittings on the end where the adapter goes and guess what, no leak. Now back to bleeding.

        September 24, 2023

        I just can’t have any luck!!! All I wanted to do today was bleed the brakes, something I have done many times on this truck. That stupid GM designed proportioning valve sensed a pressure difference in the front and rear brakes and shut of the fluid flow to the rear….. for my safety, well DUH I am trying to bleed the brakes, thanks GM!!! Some on the internet say you can center it again with a small screwdriver, but I had no luck on the first valve I had. But I was able to center it on this one, YAHOO! I guess that first valve was bad. I also had bought a tool to replace the switch while you are bleeding to prevent this from happening, of course I can’t find that! I ordered another one from Amazon, should get it tomorrow. I heard that stupid thing pop while I was trying to bleed the brakes but didn’t know what had happened until I realized I had no fluid going to the rear at all.

        September 25, 2023

        While I wait for the bleeding tool to arrive, I decided I would make some bleeder lines to use with the MC hooked to the proportioning valve. That way I would be sure the fluid would reach the rear brakes this time. Well, that did not really work. The fluid did flow from the proportioning valve outputs to back to the MC. But when I hooked the brake line going back to the rear brakes I still could not get anything to the calipers. Maybe I just got impatient, but I than got out the power bleeder. Attached that to the MC, put a bunch of fluid in it and pumped it up. That worked!!!! Now back to bleeding.

        September 29, 2023

        It has been three days of brake bleeding hell. I have never had issues like this bleeding brakes, at this point I have no clue what is wrong. I have fluid at all the calipers and have bleed them until I see no more bubbles. But I do not have a “good” pedal, and it is worse with the engine running. At some point that safety thing popped again so I lost the fluid going to the rear again. I reset the proportioning valve and put that bleeder tool back in and started over. I bled the master cylinder again, I did get lots of bubbles, maybe that will fix things….NO it did not. But that safety switch got kicked AGAIN, I do not understand why that keeps happening and now I cannot move it, just like when the first died. I am at a lost!!! I locked the garage thinking this truck will never run again, I am depressed!

        December 15, 2023

        It has been quit some time but I was finally able to get back to the truck. Further research tells me that the MC needs to be level during bench bleeding, on or off the vehicle, mine was anything but level. In order to do this on the truck I had to jack the rear up really high and drop the front really low. That did seem to make a difference. I finally got the brakes to give me a hard pedal and with the engine running I can stop the rear brakes...and the calipers are not locked up. I need to put the wheels back on and test dive it to be sure the calipers do not get super hot again. But before I did that I installed a Wilwood adjustable rear proportioning valve hoping that will have some effect on the rear brakes not releasing. While I seem to have working brakes but after a short trip the rears have locked again, same old, same old!!!!!!!! I have only four more things to try. Change the rear brake line to 1/4", swap out the rear hose junction assembly, change the rear calipers or get yet another master cylinder. I am leaning toward the calipers since this all worked before I installed this new kit. 

        February 2, 2024

        It has been almost two months since I got back on the truck. First there is the frustration of not being able to find the issue with the rear disc brakes and I just needed a break. Then on Christmas day I had a wreck with the Ranger...totally my fault. But the damage was not enough to involve my insurance company. So I fixed it myself. Of course that resulted in yet another C10 issue. For some reason I decided to park in C10 in the backyard, I guess to get it out of view from the street. After about a week I went out to start the C10 just to give it some exercise and it would not turn over. The reason turned  out to be somewhat of a mystery! Thinking the battery ran down I put a charger on it overnight...still would not turn over. I checked the starter wiring and found a lot of oil in the solenoid and starter????? I cleaned all the off, pulled the solenoid wire and cleaned it and reattached it. Still would not turnover. I pulled my Ranger's battery and tried it on the C10, it did turnover but slowly. From that I concluded the C10 battery was toast even though the charger said it was charged. I lucked out and found the same battery on sale so I bought it, truck would still not turn over, g-r-r-r-r-r!!! I finished work on the Ranger so it was time to put the C10 back in the garage. I enlisted my buddy to help push this heavy ass truck out of the yard and up a slight  uphill driveway into the garage. That plan did not work at all. I have a tow chain so we hooked that up and using his brand new Chevy Colorado we were able to get it onto the driveway but trying to push it uphill into the garage was not going to work. I gave it one more twist of the key because insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result! Not turning over. I could hear what I thought was the solenoid clicking but when Don tried turning the key while I was under the hood the click turned out to be the heat/AC valve, no clue why that would do anything when the key was turned to start, some investigation  will be needed. I reached down to check the solenoid wire and it was disconnected, weird, might have happened when I used a hammer to beat on the starter. I reattached the wire and the truck started, WTF!!!!! We pulled it into the garage, turned it off and restarted it several  times. I waited a few hours and it still worked. Left it overnight to get down into the 30s and it still started, I have no clue what happened but I am declaring victory. With that weirdness out of the way it is time to address the rear disc brake nightmare again.

        February 3, 2024

        I have started once again to try and fix the rear disc brake lock up thing. I have another set of calipers and am going to swap them out and see if that has any effect, I have my doubts. Today I got the both calipers swapped out.

        February 4, 2024

        Now that I have the different, known working calipers installed I will proceed with bleeding them. I have not had the best of luck bleeding this truck, I have no clue why. I have nobody easily available to help with bleeding so I will use my power bleeder since I have had the best luck using it. I did the best I could with the power bleeder but unfortunately it has started to rain...again, so the test  drive will have to wait for a few days.

        February 5, 2024

        The rain let up this morning. I finished up the caliper install by torquing the caliper hardware and reinstalling the wheels. I now have the adjustable rear proportioning valve set at maximum rear pressure, I backed that off to about mid range. Time for a test drive. 

        February 6, 2024

        The weather has finally gotten a bit nicer so I took the truck out for another test drive hoping against hope that the rear brakes will not lock up. Granted this was a short test drive but the brakes DID NOT LOCK UP!!! I stuck four gallons of fuel in the truck and ventured out for a 40 mile city test drive. Everytime I let off the gas I was preparing for that locked brake feeling, but it never happened. After the test drive I checked the rotor temp. The driver side was still hotter than the passenger side, not sure where to go from here. The brakes are not locking up but I am not happy with the temp difference. But for now I am declaring a small victory.

        February 9, 2024

        I Emailed MPB about using the calipers I already had and that they seem to fix the lock up issue. Their tech support has been great with advice on addressing my problem. They are sending me a new set of calipers, not sure I will install them right now because I have started something new....yeah I am a glutton for punishment! I lowered this truck a while back and I went too low. The ride is pretty bad and it bottoms out a lot and the front tires hit the fenders especially the left side. I had put 1" lowering blocks in addition to the 3" lowering springs. I have decided to take the blocks out. Sounds easy, it was not. I took off the u-bolt nuts which dropped the shock relocators. Then I had to drop the springs, the rear sway bar and the fancy panhard bar. I do not remember the u-bolts being that hard to install but they were a bitch to get out now. Of course now the rear axle is free to move around and I am having a tough time getting the u-bolts back in. Trying to hold the panhard bar bracket to align its holes with the trailing arm holes and pull the axle in place so the u-bolts will fit through all that is not easy. I finally got the passenger side u-bolts nuts started but the driver side is just as difficult, I am worn out, I will pick this back up tomorrow.

        February 10, 2024

         I probably should have gotten new u-bolts for this but these are pretty new and should be fine. The problem is they are sprung in a bit and are very difficult to fit through all the precision holes. But if nothing else I am persistent. So this morning I got out to the garage to get this project done. It went much easier this time and this time I got the u-bolts in easily. Next I reinstalled the shocks, the panhard bar and the rear sway bar. The last thing I needed put back on was the springs, this is where it got difficult. The passenger side seemed to go on effortlessly. But the driver side was not lining up right. Then  I suddenly remembered years ago I picked up some high end billet aluminum spring retainers. No clue why I never installed them but now is the time to do that. I had a tough time finding them, of course I finally found them in a cabinet I had looked in at least three times! But I am burned out and will install these tomorrow.  

        February 11, 2024

        Getting those billet spring retainers in was not the easy process I thought it would be. It is not really different from the stock retainers. The toughest part was holding the spring and upper retainer while feeding the bolt though the frame and getting the nut and washers on it is probably a two person job. But with some tape and a lot of jacking and unjacking I finally got them in.Then I noticed the disaster!!!! Apparently when I was disassembling everything off the axle I was stupid and did not keep the axle from falling completely out. This caused the driveshaft to pull out of the transmission and there is a ton of tranny fluid all over the garage floor. There is no way I am pulling all that stuff off again, I guess I will unhook the driveshaft from the diff and hope I don't lose the u-joint bearings!

        February 13, 2024

        Today I got off my lazy butt and torqued all the parts I had to reinstall to get the lowering blocks out. At 78 getting the u-bolt nuts torqued to 120 lb/ft while lying on my back was not fun. But I managed to get it done. All I have left on this project is to reinstall the driveshaft that fell out because of my stupidity!!!!

        February 14, 2024

        After cleaning up the gobs of transmission fluid that poured out of the tranny when the driveshaft fell out I finally got it back in. It was a bit of a struggle trying to hold it in position and get the splines to line up but suddenly it just fell in. I have no clue how much fluid I lost so it will be a trial and error pour until I get it full.  

        February 16, 2024

        Since the truck is now on four jack stands and sitting level this seemed like a good time to do the transmission fill. I had already put almost a quart in which was all I had on hand. I fired up the truck and let it get to operating temp and ran it through all the gears, several times. The transmission did work but the dipstick barely had any fluid on it, looks like I will need about two more quarts. I added those and it was full, maybe a little over. I really need to change this tranny for a 400R4 because this one won't go in gear cold unless you rev it a bit and it leaks. Plus it would be nice to have overdrive. Gotta pull the trigger on that swap!  

        February 24, 2024

        I have another issue on the truck to deal with. When I lowered the front a few years back against my better judgement I cut the front springs. It had the look I wanted but the ride went to hell and the front suspension was basically riding on the j ump stops. After a few years the right side started to have a tire clearance issue. Of course since that issue seems to be only on the right side it could be something else. I have a set of Belltech 4700 1" drop springs that I will install and see if that solves either of these issues. Ideally I would like to install QA1's coilover control arms but I don't think I want to take on that much work.

        February 25, 2024

        I got off my lazy old butt and went out to the garage to swap the front springs. I looked at the video one more time and as I remember the video was a great help and I really had no major issues the last time I did this, years ago. It was all going well until I tried to put the Belltech spring in. After about five times to get it to line up I went back one more time and looked at the video and sure enough I was trying to put the spring in upside down. My mistake was assuming the printed logo on the spring was supposed to be right side up....it was not. I got the driver's side done but it is lunch time and I am tired, I may put off the other side until tomorrow.

        February 26, 2024

        The passenger side spring swap went easier than the driver side since I now know which spring end side is up! I got everything back on and torqued. I will have to wait until I get the power steering back together before I can see if that swap made any difference in clearance and ride quality.

        March 16, 2024

        Ya know how you should not do two things before testing to see if the first one worked? I finally finished the steering box change and took the truck out for a test drive. It all seemed to be fine for a while but suddenly every time I did a right hand turn there was a distinct rubbing or rattle thing coming from the passenger side. This is the same side the rubbing sound was coming from before I started this whole spring swap. It is different but it is happening with less turning than before. I have no idea how to address this. It only happens when the truck is moving, leading me to believe it is a tire rub.

        March 18, 2024

        This morning I checked the power steering box fluid and it was a little low so I topped that off. I also played around with the steering box play adjustment. Then I started the truck and turned the wheels all the way to the right but could not see anything even close to the tire. I then turned  it all the way to the left and checked the back of the tire....WTF is that!!!!!! There is a very long 1/4 bolt coming out of the fender well backwards. I checked what was it supposed to be attached to and could see nothing but the nutsert it was coming out of. I took the bolt out and took the truck out for a ride. Everything was quiet, no rubbing, no rattling, I'm thinking victory. At last for about 15 minutes when the sound came back, obviously the bolt was not the problem. I'm glad I found it anyway, that could have destroyed a tire. So now I am thinking I have some wheel bearing issues. The outer  bearings were changed when I changed to the lowering spindles. And the hubs/rotors with inners installed were changed at the same time. I ordered a set of new inner and outer bearings. 

        March 19, 2024

        I got the new bearings today, well this should be fun. Getting a little tired of continually taking this truck apart!!! I pulled the caliper and got the rotor off and removed the bearings. I don't see anything wrong. The bearings spin smoothly and I don't hear or feel anything weird. But this symptom does not seem to appear until about 15 minutes of driving. I am assuming it might have something to do with heat. I did notice the grease on the seal and the inner bearing was black, the grease on the outer bearing was red, I have never used and black grease. Memory tells me that when I replaced the front rotors they came with the inner bearings and seal already installed. Also the outer bearing is a Timken and the inner one is a National. I will be replacing both bearing races along with Timken bearings.

        March 20, 2024

         I replaced the bearings and took the truck out for a test drive. It failed the test! The problem is still there. At this point I am totally confused and have no idea what this could be. 

        March 21, 2024

        I am at a total loss as to what could be causing this. I recorded the weird-noise and uploaded it to the C10 message board hoping someone there can point me in a new direction.

        March 28, 2024

        This strange noise remains mystery. I have exhausted all the suggestions I got off the message board, none of which worked. I changed the wheel bearings on the passenger side, no change. I burped the power steering pump and gear, no change. I swapped the front wheels side to side, no change. My next move is to swap the front rotors. I swapped the rotors and once again, no change. I am running out of ideas.

        April 6, 2024

        I finally got some time for a buddy to come over to attempt to identify the source of this mystery noise. We drove around for a while to get the noise to start. It finally did so we pulled into an industrial area with no traffic to try and figure out exactly where it was coming from. But of course the truck did not want to cooperate and getting the noise to reveal itself was tough. But both of us finally agreed that it seemed to be coming for the passenger rear tire and not from the front as I had thought originally. So maybe it is the rear axle bearing that is the issue, more investigation to follow.

        April 9, 2024

        Even though I have no convincing evidence what is causing this noise, it sure sounds like the passenger rear axle is the culprit. So as usual I will attempt to change stuff even though I am not totally sure what is wrong. Today I pulled the rear axles and ordered new bearings for both sides, new seals, a new diff cover gasket and Lucas Synthetic SAE 75W-90 Gear Oil and some ACDelco Limited Slip Axle Lubricant Additive. Mega dollars, I sure hope this fixes the growling sound. I was hoping that when I pulled the axle the bearing would make some horrible noise when I ran my finger around the inside. But nothing sounded weird. One thing I did notice was the lack of grease on the bearing on both sides. There was some oil on them but no grease. I have no idea if there should be grease on them or if they rely on diff oil for their lubricant. I did some research on the grease or not to grease issue. Of course it is the internet and you get both opinions. But the one I am going with is the Chevy factory manual. It says to pack both bearings in a floating hub with a high temp grease. For a 12 bolt truck axle, it says to fill the seal with wheel bearing grease, and the bearing as well.

        April 10,2024

        Typical of Amazon to say next day delivery and the next day they say next day. Oh well, I have more prep to do before attempting to swap in new bearings. This morning I decided to put the axle retention pin back in so the beating with the slide hammer would not cause the spider gears to move. I cleaned both the diff and the diff cover of the old gasket and put tranny in park so nothing inside the diff will move. I may be getting paranoid about this but if something could go wrong it will happen to me, LOL.

        April 11, 2024

        My order for the bearings and seals came today and of course I ordered the wrong bearings. After many hours of searching I finally found the Timken 6408 which several places say is the correct bearing and comparing the specs of other bearings it looks right. So I ordered them from Amazon. In the meantime I used my slide hammer and my bearing puller to rip the old ones out. The first one took around 25 smacks to get it out, the suspect bearing only took 5, hmmmmm. But after they were both out I do not see any evidence of damage to either bearing, the axle tube or the axle. I pulled the dip pan out from under the truck and measured how much fluid came out of the diff. It did not look like 2.5 quarts, it was not. It looks to be a around 5/8 of a quart short. I have no idea how much the axle tubes hold or if the posi unit holds any.

        April 12, 2024

        WTF!!! I spent hours searching for Timken bearings for the rear axles. I finally found the part number for these from Timken is 6408. I found them on Amazon with next day delivery. They arrived today in Timken boxes marked 6408 but when I opened the boxes they were both Koyo bearings, same as what I took out of the truck. Research says this happens a lot and a couple posts say Koyo bought out Timken. I went back to Amazon and found 5 different manufactures with that same part number. I guess I will use them, since trying to find an actual Timken 6408 seems impossible. I want to throw these in the freezer to make it a bit easier to install them so I will do the install tomorrow.

        April 15, 2024

        Tomorrow turned into 3 days but today I finally got back to this project. I got both bearings and seals pounded in. I don't know if putting the bearings in the freezer worked but they did go in without too much beating. I am very tired though, getting too old for this stuff I guess! After a couple attempts I got the axles to slip into the diff and installed the c-clips. Now if Amazon would get their crap together and deliver the diff gasket I can finish this and see if it fixes the growing thing. I have my doubts since I did not really see anything wrong with the bearings. 

        April 19, 2024

        I guess this is what old age means. I can't seem to get motivated to work on the truck. And when I finally shame myself into going out to the garage it seems like after a couple hours I just quit. I do not like this. But I managed to get the rotors and the rear calipers installed and the diff cover back on. I still need to fill the diff and put the wheels back on. Then the test drive which I have a feeling will result in the same problem.

        April 22, 2024

        It was a long busy weekend, mostly home chores. But this morning I got back to the truck. I got the diff filled, what a mess. I have one of those pumps for a quart bottle but that means swapping the pump two more times and that just makes a mess. I torqued the track bar at the frame mount to 85 lb/ft and put the wheels back on. I spent some time cleaning up the garage that was a mess and called it a day. Tomorrow I have one more thing to do and then take it out for that test drive. 

        April 23, 2024

        Depression rears its ugly head. After all this work and money changing all the front and rear wheel bearings the growling howling noise is still there. My next and probably useless plan is to undo the last thing I did before this started and that is remove the rear disc brakes, temporarily. That will involve disconnecting the rear brake line, probably at the proportioning valve. Then I will take off the calipers and see if the noise goes away, probably not!