SkinnyG's 1977 Chevy Silverado

Exciting news, everybody!

I just put a deposit down on another truck! (but yeah, I'm still keeping the '77 for a while)

Oooo, congrats! When do we know what it is?

As far as the used bed vs build from new, I'd also like to point out the aftermarket stuff probably doesn't fit as nice a factory one. Not that the factory stuff lines up super great either from my experience....

It's now registered in my name.

1961 Chevy Apache 10.

The '77 will become the donor, which was my original plan with the '77 way back when I first got it, but since forgot that was the plan.

Looking for a name for the project, the previous owner loved it to bits, and called it "Smokey" as it was a Forest Service truck in Washington before she bought it. It had been sitting for maybe 17 years before I bought it. I plan to spend now until the fall planning it out, and then start into it at that time.

The pics from the ad:

Ooh smokey looks like a solid unit! Longbed stepside's always look unique. 

Taking the front crossmember/brakes/etcetera from the 77? I thought I heard somewhere that the frames themselves were very similar in dimension allowing the more modern front end stuff to attach relatively simply. Whatever you do, this will be good. 

The patina is excellent!!!!! ..............let the grousing begin   Are you gonna leave the wheelbase alone?

I will very likely cut it down to a shortbox.  Also air-ride, step-notch, Z the frame and pancake the crossmember.  But I have not committed yet.

The patina is cool, but it's not a cherry/faded truck, it's an old truck.  I don't want to "clear and preserve" old. I want the rust gone, and reduce its chances/speed of coming back.  It would be pretty hard to fix the rust in the floors and whatnot and still keep the patina.

With the wrap-around window and the "face only a mother could love" '61 hood, it really needs to be built with a retro 50's vibe - that means period colour, painted steelies, hubcaps, normal tires.  Except I think I have to air bag it too.  I'm going to spend the next couple of months formulating a plan, and cut into it in the fall.

I plan to swap crossmembers to get the better suspension and the disc brakes.  Power steering too, but I intend to go rack & pinion. I'll take the 11:1 snotty cam 350 and the "definitely-for-sure-nothing-wrong-with-it" transmission, and my 3.73/True-Trac axle and run those too.  Then ditch the '77 for whomever wants THAT as a project.

I've been dreaming about a 60-66 for the past 5 years.

Heck yeah man. Sounds like a solid plan. I happen to think the longbed stepside is pretty unique and worth leaving as is, but the aesthetics do leave something to be desired, so I understand wanting to shorten it.

Definitely excited to watch this one shape up next fall.

759NRNG said:

what exactly am i missing is your aversion to this PU besides the auto trans nonsense???? 

You're in luck.  Unless I can source an automatic-shift column for a '61, this thing will stay stick.

SkinnyG said:

759NRNG said:

what exactly am i missing is your aversion to this PU besides the auto trans nonsense???? 

You're in luck.  Unless I can source an automatic-shift column for a '61, this thing will stay stick.

Like the err.... NV3500(?) 5 spd in my '91 1/2ton perhaps.... I had a '71 longbed stepside 350 with the granny(schoolbus)box .....that lump nearly killed me doing a clutch.....

Truck got its annual green scrubbie car wash.

Summer tires are back on.

Once I hang some laundry, it'll snow.

Vibrations.

Still.

Out of experimental curiosity, I put a 2° pinion shim in to angle the pinion lower.  It -seems- better, but I ain't holding my breath.

Ok, so I put in a 2° shim as mentioned, but I also raised the trans tail 1" at the same time as well. I forgot to mention that.

Wow.

Vibes seem to be gone.

Like gone.

And the STUPID growling/vibration/transmission-death noise is gone too. 

What.  The heck.

SO...........

I primered the Square Trailer, and while this pic is with one coat of white, I now have three coats of white and the first coat of matching blue done. Two more blue, then the orange stripe. Sweet talking Home Depot into mixing the Tremclad again took a bit of persuasion, but I have another $17 Liter.

If you're wanting to duplicate the blue (I'm sure it would work with Rustoleum as well), tell Home Depot to add:

D - 80

E - 100

L - 100

I'm going to be the king at the landfill this weekend!

Suitable for framing......T-shirts?????

love the trailer combo 

If you ever decide you want 80's tube chrome grille, let me know. I'd kill for your stock one. 

My stock grill is held together in places on the back side with welding wire and JB weld.

Wait, i thought you sold this?

Im guessing it fell through. 

Live the trailer. Now i feel the need to copy you.

Not sold, no.

Dude is going to (allegedly) come up with money in the fall. I'm not holding my breath.  I'm not really in a place where I want to sell it yet, but a fist-full of cash is a pretty good persuader. So far it's mostly fist.

Swapped out the heater core yesterday because, in dealing with some hard-to-find coolant leaks and/or head gasket leaks way back, some stop leak may have found its way into the heater core.  I've put up with this for 2 years or so.  Now I have heat.

Also changed the heater hoses because they were sagging lower and lower and closer and closer to the headers, and I wasn't sure the plastic back-flush thingie lasts long like that. I ran much longer hoses to they can sit on the inner fender, and I did not re-install the braided hose covers.

Also changed the heater blower motor for a new one, but didn't notice the snout was longer and jammed the scroll fan tight into the housing until after it burned out the blower motor resistor on #2 and then popped the fuse on #3. Swapped that back.  Sweet deal on it though - Rock Auto was blowing out a bunch of squarebody parts a while back, none of which, it seems, fit my '77.

Chasing some rust bubbles to hide them with thick paint. Yeah, I know it will come back.  Don't care. Two cracks on the top of the bed - looks like Gobstopper Paint.

I've tried a couple different PCV valves, not always happy with the results, seemed to consume oil.

I tried stock.

I tried one from a 302 Z/28.

I think I tried one from a Corvette of some sort.

The last one I tried was for a 2.2L S10 as apparently it didn't flow as much air, but the truck really started reeking more and more of burned oil, yet I never saw any smoke. Ultimately it died some horrible death inside and didn't rattle no-mo.

Replaced it with a FV410 PCV valve, which has only a fixed orifice and no guts at all. So far, seems to be way WAY less stank.  Idles a bit more choppy (yay) and stumbles a lot less just off idle (yay). I know that would sound like it was rich, and it was - but if I leaned the mix out to correct it, it would diesel and run on. Yay carbs.

SkinnyG said:

I'm going to be the king at the landfill this weekend!

This deserves another look.  

Fuelled up out of town a couple weeks ago.  Thought I heard some detonation at medium-throttle cruise as well as full-throttle.

When I got home I checked base timing - was a lot higher than I recalled, but pulled 2° out just to see. I can't exactly remember what my base timing was, I've changed it a lot over the years.

No difference, still detonation.  Filled up the other tank at a "known" gas station, no difference.

So I plugged the vacuum advance and checked full advance at 3000rpm - 41°!  That'll do it!

Knocked it back down to 35° and golly - runs better, and smoother, and maybe even more powerful  Go figure.

No idea why it would have gone out.....

Chasing more vibration.

This can't be good:

Can't add weight, so I cut it off the heavy side:

That's better:

To be honest, this drum was the best of six I tried from my jobber. Some needed upwards of 8oz.