63 C10 Revitalization

[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

[Chad-1stGen]

Very cool. Nice to see that generation getting some love!

My first "car" was a 64 C10. Was a fun truck though I constantly got tickets in it lol...

[silver63c10]

Holy thread resurrection!

Our Camaro has gotten most of the attention lately, so of course the truck decided to speak up and ask for some back in the spring.

To backtrack a little, in 2013, our bracket racing interest kind of flamed out thanks to our favorite track changing hands and some other factors. With no racing going on, the 8-10 mpg the QuickFuel 850 was returning got old pretty quick, so we picked up a Holley 750 for it.

The setup on it was alright out of the box, I attempted a little tuning on my own but never really got it right. Cruised it around a decent amount, the Holley picked up the mileage a tad, things were alright.

Shortly after this bit of parking lot fun on worn out Z tires, it started acting up. The 406 was never the easiest thing to get along with, mostly due to the fairly radical Comp Cams Extreme Energy cam we used, but this was out of the norm. Significantly down on power, didn't want to idle, just all around unhappy.

Fought with it off and on for a month or so, thinking it was a carburetor issue, and eventually pulled the valve covers to adjust the valves in hopes of finding a backed off stud or broken spring. After working through the firing order, I found the source of our woes on the last cylinder.

The number 2 exhaust lifter decided to become a non-roller, and in the course of chasing "carburetor problems", turned most of that lobe into a fine powder.

After finding (well, confirming) the problem, and cutting open the oil filter to look for any evidence of bearing wear, we decided to go forward without pulling it. 3 cans of brake clean and a few quarts of store brand 10-30 were poured through it to flush out the remaining cam sludge, and it was time to reassemble.

We decided on a complete Lunati Voodoo assembly, which is the same setup as the Camaro, but in a slightly more tame profile. This also meant changing springs, which was a full afternoon on its own. With all that installed, it was time to go back together. At this point, we're 2 months into this, working between autocrosses and other 'life'.

With all the 'functional' stuff back on and the oil system primed, we finally got to fire it back up last weekend.

Aside from a worrying amount of smoke, which turned out to be transmission fluid on the exhaust caused by sitting nose-high on stands for a few weeks, everything appears to be happy.

The last two things on the list were recharging the AC and getting the the grill back on, which isn't bad except for the one missing welded nut that requires a bit of, um, finesse?

Yeah, I could have pulled the bucket out, but this was quicker - it pays to be the skinny guy with small hands sometimes.

Really digging the new cam what little I got to drive it. Power seems much smoother and more linear than before, but that may be because I'm used to driving the Camaro right now? Either way, I'm hopeful that it will be much happier than it was with the previous setup. We had already been talking about doing a swap before all this got started, but I could have stood to get there a little differently.

Still have the urge to see what it will do in the quarter, so we may have to make a trip to the Motorplex before the end of the year with it.

Now, to get back to actually enjoying it..