63 C10 Revitalization

[ccracin]

Very nice! Keep the updates coming!

[66SuperSport]

Cool project.

[street3285]

Coming along nice and the rear tires look sweet tucked in there.

What coating or paint do you have on your headers? I used the some "High Heat" paint on my headers, that said up to 1200 degress, but it immediately flaked and now I have to re-do them. THinking about ceramic coated them, but it is kind of expensive, as paint is more in my budget.

[silver63c10]

Thanks guys.

Street - we did them with VHT's 'Flameproof' header paint. When it's cured properly it holds up reasonably well, we've got a few places starting to flake already, though, as we didn't get time to do the full curing process.

We did the ones on the old motor with the same paint and it lasted a few years before it started to look bad. Had a lower-end ceramic coated set after those and they ended up rusting as well - I've just resigned to the thought of redoing every few years as a necessary evil

Here's the VHT we used - http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/flameproof/

[RodZZilla]

Sweet Ride! Wish I had kept my 66 SWB.

[silver63c10]

Originally Posted by RodZZilla

Sweet Ride! Wish I had kept my 66 SWB.

Thanks! The 60's bodies are kind of like a disease, it seems, once you develop a taste for them it never leaves. I rarely go anywhere in it without someone stopping to check it out and share a story.


Been playing some more since I updated last. Been to the track a couple times, the swaybar and front end alignment made a world of difference on the track and the highway.

It also keeps getting faster, which is obviously really cool. Got a 7.68 slip the second trip, which we were really happy with, then back to back 7.54s at 91 and 90 this week which completely blew our minds.

Ready for the ride down..



Got half of the new Wheel Vintiques rallyes in, the fronts are still in Summit backorder purgatory.





Had a nice tense, foggy, frigid ride to the track Sunday



Our oddball pair - I call them Mutt and Jeff



And finally some ride-along fun from Sunday:

[silver63c10]

Update time on this one..

Air. Conditioning. Mmmmmmmm.

So, like everything we do, this spiraled wildly out of control and turned into a 2 month project. Unit is a Classic Auto Air "Perfect Fit" series. We were forced to adapt it to existing lines from the system we had in it previously. Instructions, like all aftermarket parts, pretty much suck. Our usual can of worms.

First item of business was the controls - ours was originally heat only. Classic's adapted controls for these are hideous and were not going in there, so I set about re-inventing the wheel.

Step 1 - duplicating the existing cable control for the 'Heat' tab, which switches between top vents and floor/defrost


Cable holder


Step 2 - provisions for two switches, one controls the fan, the other turns on the compressor for the defroster


Step 3 - after much heartache, frustration, blood, etc., it's all together


Toughest part was reverse engineering the mounts for the tabs. The only original one left had been broken off, so I had to reverse engineer from what little of the lever was left. After some trial and error, I cut small sections of scrap to the right shape and welded them to the switches, being careful not to put too much heat into them.

Finally. Hours, and hours, to make something like a factory piece. It's a special kind of crazy..


On to the next part - figuring out how this thing is supposed to be wired & plumbed. As I mentioned before, to call the directions lacking would be a bit of an understatement.


Got the condenser mounted, and new hoses hooked up to metal lines from the previous system.


Went with these vents on the outside corners. Another pair will find their way into the console in place of the rectangular ones down the road.


Not perfect, but they'll work


My concern the whole time has been keeping it cool with the AC on. It runs 170 normally (160 thermostat), but would creep up on the highway around cars. Got to test it Saturday - at 91 outside, around 50% humidity, it touched 190 while sitting at traffic lights, then immediately cooled off on the highway. Success!



To celebrate, it got a bath, and will be heading to its first car show in 8-ish years this weekend. Then we'll get back to regular thrashings at the drag strip