Suspension kit arrived

My disc brake and suspension kit arrived this evening. I kind of felt bad for the UPS guy. The kit came in seven boxes and some of them were heavy. Man I wish I could open them up but we are leaving on vacation to go up to Arkansas to see Cristy's family.

Started tearing down the suspension

Now that I have a plan for the suspension I started tearing it down. I had to go buy a ball joint separator. Sears had a nice one that can be used with a regular hammer or an air-hammer. The upper ball joints came apart easy but the lowers were a bitch. I ended up using the air-hammer to get the pickle fork wedged in place and then I had to hit it hard with a sledge hammer.

Ordering new brakes and suspension

After doing some research I have decided on Classic Performance Parts Grand Slam kit. It is a disc brake upgrade kit and a lowering kit. The kit comes with everything you need. I chose to drop the front of the truck 3.5" and 4" in the back. Merry Christmas to me!

Cleaning and more cleaning

So lesson learned. While the truck was still running (and puking oil) I should have taken it to the coin operated car wash with a gallon of degreaser. Instead I have spent weeks scraping, wire brushing and spraying Simple Green on the frame rails and suspension cross member. Here are the results so far:

Separating the motor and trans

Mason helped me separate the motor and trans. I also got the engine up on the stand (thanks again to Miguel for the engine stand).

Pulling the motor

Today is the day to pull the motor and trans. My buddy Miguel loaned me his engine hoist on a long term basis. He decided to take a job in Jacksonville, FL and he couldn't take it with him so I am 'storing' it for him in my garage. I spent an hour or so disconnecting wiring, fuel line and figuring out how to unbolt the engine mounts. This thing is so greasy and gunky from the horrible oil leaks it was hard to find the bolts. This is my first time attempting something like this but I have seen it done a hundred times on The Powerblock so I feel somewhat prepared. :-) I was working by myself (and taking pictures) so the whole process took four or five hours. I wasn't hard to figure out but it was a lot of work pulling, adjusting the leveler, pulling, adjusting..... over and over.

All the sheet metal is off

I have finished removing all the sheet metal from the front end. I also drained and pulled off the radiator and disconnected the exhaust manifolds. Just about ready to pull the motor and transmission.

Starting the tear down

Today I started the tear down. I plan on just working back to the firewall, cleaning everything up and then rebuild the suspension and put on disc brakes.

Pictures of the truck

Here are some pictures of the truck the day after I brought it home. All of the pictures can be seen here

Finally found a truck - August 2007

At this point I was getting frustrated. Cristy and I had been searching for five months. There were no decent trucks in the Austin area. We were down to doing Google searches for '1964 fleet-side'. Cristy found some obscure truck website that had classified ads. On that site there was a posting for the truck I was looking for but the ad was several months old. I called the guy and it was still for sale. The truck was located near Dallas in the city of Mesquite, TX. I arranged to go see the truck on Saturday August 18th, 2007. The whole family drove three hours up to Mesquite and the truck turned out to be pretty nice. It is a 1964 Chevy C-10 short bed fleet-side. The engine had be swapped with small block 350 and the 3 three on the tree trans with a 3 speed TH-350 automatic. I liked what I saw so I plunked down the cash.

The drive home was quite an adventure. After about an hour and half of driving the oil pressure gauge started dropping. We immediately pulled into a gas station to check it out. Turns out the engine is leaking oil like a crazy. I put four quarts of oil in it and we were back on the road. It was a hot humid day and with no air conditioning and windows that wouldn't roll down, I nearly passed out driving home. We had to stop two more times to put oil in the truck. I ended up having to put in a total of seven quarts of oil during the three hour drive.

Searching for a project truck - April 2007

So I have decided I want a 1960's Chevy C-10 truck. I looked at the different body styles and decided I didn't like the early 1962-1963 windshield. Here is an example of a 1962 Step side:



The 1967-1969 models were a bit to plain for my taste. Here is an example of a nice 1968:



So I have narrowed it down to a 1964-1966 Chevy C-10. I don't like the step-side style so fleet-side it is. So basically I am back to the truck I saw at the Lonestar Roundup.

Now that I had narrowed down my choice Cristy and I started searching craigslist for trucks. I was surprised how few fleet-side trucks were out there. We went a looked at a 1965 long bed that was in rough shape. After seeing the long bed in person I decided I wanted a short bed. I didn't know it at the time but short bed fleet-sides are the most difficult to find. Cristy and I searched for the next for the next five months to find one in decent shape.

Deciding on a project car - March 2007

I have been wanting to build a project car/truck for a long time. Now that the family and I have moved to Austin, I have a less demanding job and space to work on a project. Initially I wanted to build a '49 Merc or Ford kustom. Something like this:

but those cars are tough to find and I think a bit beyond my skill level right now. I went to the to the Lonestar Roundup car show in March 2007 and found an I found an idea for a project. I saw this truck while I was there

So now that I have decided on what I wanted to build it was time to try and find one.