so i thought i was gonna get some things done to my cars this summer..

..then i went and got myself a girlfriend, and she asked me if i could get her old truck on the road for her:

a 64 Chevy C10 stepside that she got in Georgia about a decade ago.. engine decodes as a 295hp 350 out of a 68 Camaro and it has a TH350 trans..

so i got it running and fixed the brakes- ahh, the joys of remembering how to put together drum brakes when you are starting with something that someone that didn't know what they were doing cobbled together. luckily NAPA carries every part for these things.

this is how they converted from a 3 on the tree manual to a 3 speed auto trans.. this seems kinda backwoods to me, and only allows the shifter to get to D:

it had some craptastical 15X10 lowrider spokes on it that she hated, so i got these rally wheels off a Blazer that a friend owns for $100:

i made the engine look better by spending a little time straightening out the plug wires and what not:

now, it's time to figure out why the lights don't work right, and so far i've figured out that the last guy tried fixing it with a roll of yellow wire and electrical tape..

so, yeah, that's what distracted me from getting my junk on the road.. i'll get her all sorted out and have it on the road within a couple of weeks.. the best part is that she likes it all rough and crappy looking, so i don't need to worry about making anything pretty..

A worthy distraction indeed, both in the young lady and her great choice of truck.

A girl who likes things rough and crappy looking should work out well for you.
Cool old truck, worthy of distraction.

The ride height in the first picture is perfect. Get it that low not on flat tires and sank in the mud.

Also, you should plan on a full wiring harness in the near future.

So are you going to leave the patina as is, and then get a horse blanket for the seat cover? That will look cool.

Ha! You got yerself a "car-gal".

Say good bye to ever working on your own cars again.

Awesome! Your girl has great taste in trucks!

Dood, that's berkin' sweet!

Dusterbd13 wrote: The ride height in the first picture is perfect. Get it that low not on flat tires and sank in the mud.

alfadriver wrote: So are you going to leave the patina as is, and then get a horse blanket for the seat cover? That will look cool.

These bear repeating.

Love the truck! cant wait to see what happens to it.... build thread???

RealMiniDriver wrote:

Dusterbd13 wrote: The ride height in the first picture is perfect. Get it that low not on flat tires and sank in the mud.

alfadriver wrote: So are you going to leave the patina as is, and then get a horse blanket for the seat cover? That will look cool.

These bear repeating.

she doesn't like lowered trucks: stock ride height and beefier tires are the plan. and she wants more comfortable later model seats in it- more like the seats in her kid's '02 GMC. she hates the stock one.

In reply to novaderrik:

Aw, but at least keep the patina?

I think both the truck and the girl are keepers. I would do whatever I could to keep her happy and earn some brownie points. You never know when you might need them.

Oh and start a build thread, please. Thank you, kindly!!

novaderrik wrote: so, yeah, that's what distracted me from getting my junk on the road..

There are so many places I could go with this.. . .. Nope not going to go there.

I had a 64 C-10. Check the rear trailing arms immediately. I had one break free on me once and I had instant four wheel steering. It almost put me into an oak tree with no seat belt, a solid steering column and a metal dash.

That was 30 years ago. Some lessons you never forget.

Yep, check the trailing arms, hers look OK.

Then go for the double dip master cylinder (hers may be fine, but look closely into it)

Nice truck.

She have a sister?

i checked the trailing arms over immediately... they are both in perfect shape. i helped my grandpa replace the arms in his 70 when the truck was only 20 years old, and they were both just about gone so every time i see one of these trucks i look at the arms to see how bad they are... then i think about how NASCAR still runs these arms under their top race cars... then i think i should put them in a car some day...

I want a '60-'66 in a bad way. That looks like a good one.