No 56k: 1965 Chevrolet C10 daily driver

Sruikyl

Active Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2007
Messages
168
Location
Austin, Texas
Car(s)
1965 Chevy C10 Custom
This is more of a build thread but oh well. Picked this truck up in sore condition, no radiator, been parked since '09. Got it for a good price and made for a very promising project since I threw a rod bearing in my mazda. I Paid 700 for it and I've been eyeing this truck for years, so it seemed like a great deal since I had nothing to drive and I love old cars/trucks. The day after I bought it I found a 1964 327 that came out of another 65 C10 I picked up for $300, came with the engine stand, gotta love craigslist. New radiator was the first aswell as cleaning the fuel tank and running new fuel lines. New fuel lines came after then, then onto the brake overhaul. Old drums, cylinders, pads and brake lines were replaced along with master cylinder. Carburetor was rebuilt, and manifold leaks fixed. The engine is the original 230 C.I.D. straight 6 which leads to a up 2.5 foot glasspack. Its puts power down through a TH350 with a shift kit and behind that is a 12 bolt posi rear end with 3.73 gears (even the 6 can bark 2nd gear.) More pictures and updates to come.
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love it!

I've always wanted an early sixties C10 with a i6 and a 4spd.
 
EXCELLENT!! I love it. You going to keep the color? If not what color you going to paint it?
 
Very nice.
 
Thanks y'all! I'm in the process of sanding and priming, gonna go with flat black for now (until I can afford a better paintjob). On the agenda: Finish rewiring harness and installing new lock/key set.Hopefully the LMC truck white oak bed kit will be getting installed tommorow along with neck and hatch for rear gas tank. Side projects: 327 needs intake, headers, exhaust and HEI, just picked up a holley 4-barrel. I also just completed my little bass-box which is going where the gas tank USED to be (in the cab) which will be paired with a set of 6x9 in the doors.
 
I think you should have kept the beat up old paint. It's what I would have done at least, but to each their own.
 
I think you should have kept the beat up old paint. It's what I would have done at least, but to each their own.

I was debating on that but the maroon paintjob was done by one of the previous owners and by the looks of it, poorly, the original color was a kindof baby blue color, you can get a glimpse of it on the firewall, if they would have left it that color I think I would have gone the rat rod route and left it on there and tried to preserve it. To make this thing last I'm trying to rust proof everything because this thing has alot, fortunately most is surface rust and some holes in panels like the doors and fenders. I figure if I can get a good primer and flat coat over everything I'll be able to sand away the rust and stop it from coming back.

Forgot to add: For the final paintjob (whenever I can afford it) I was going to paint the body baby blue and the top white, something like this.

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Fair enough, stopping the rust is probably a good idea. I'm sure the flat black will look good
 
Nice truck, sounds like you're making good progress with it.
It'd look good in that baby blue color, always liked it on that style truck. (although, personally, I prefer the next generation of C/K's, '67-72)
I probably would have kept the 6 though. It's almost unusual now, since pretty much everyone does exactly what you are doing, and swap in V8's.
less power with the 6, but probably better fuel economy, which, sadly, is rather important now if you want to actually, you know... go anywhere lol
 
Nice truck, sounds like you're making good progress with it.
It'd look good in that baby blue color, always liked it on that style truck. (although, personally, I prefer the next generation of C/K's, '67-72)
I probably would have kept the 6 though. It's almost unusual now, since pretty much everyone does exactly what you are doing, and swap in V8's.
less power with the 6, but probably better fuel economy, which, sadly, is rather important now if you want to actually, you know... go anywhere lol
Thanks!

I do enjoy the uniqueness of the I6 and shes a stout motor, good torque, the power is just harsh, it comes on early, but it doesn't rev that high. Another thing on my mind is since this truck is my daily I don't know how much longer I can get out of an already 47 year old engine. She gets good compression and spark, and it sounds good with that muffler but I have no idea how many miles it has on it or whether or not it has been rebuilt. Since it's a '65 I can't use modern fuel without a lead additive, which ends up costing me a lot at the pumps on top of already heinous gas prices. :( I lucked out with the 327, it had been rebuilt with more modern heads that doesn't need lead additive and only 80,000 miles on it, came from a 1965 C10 that rolled off the factory floor with that engine. As for carburetor on the V8 I'm using a 450 cfm economaster carb since my compression ratio isn't that high, hoping to gain some gas mileage there. I was planning on putting the I6 on the engine stand and giving it a proper rebuild after I get the v8 in. I've always wanted to do a proper engine rebuild and there are a few performance parts out there for the 6, you can get headers and a 3 single-barrel carburetor manifolds or a manifold that adapts it to a 4-barrel.
 
Well, I can see where you're coming from with swapping out the 6, although, being a Chevy inline 6, it'd probably run till the day after the apocalypse.
the requirement for leaded gas does suck though. I rather lucked out with my engine, since it had a rebuild done on it in the 80's that put in hardened valve-train components required to run unleaded.

As for the carb on the 327, you might actually want to look into an appropriate 2 barrel carb. my Ford 289 is running with the (factory) Autolite 2100. Power is... adequate, but the fuel economy is staggeringly good for a 1967 V8.
While i doubt you would ever be seeing 20mpg+ in your truck with a bigger engine, more weight, and even less aerodynamics, a 2 barrel will probably give you better fuel economy then any 4 barrel, or 2 primary/2 secondary carb.

If you insist on going with a 4 barrel, or 2 primary/2 secondary carb, then I would prob lean towards a Quadrajet. they get a bad rap for being difficult to run, but I've got one on my Blazer with the 305, and while, yes, it was hard to get running right in the first place, once I did so, I've not had to touch it since.
the Q-jet gives perhaps some of the best fuel economy you can get out of a 4 barrel carb, and I've even beat out TBI trucks on rare occasion with the fuel economy in my blazer (comparing apples to apples, same type of truck, tire-size, elevation, conditions, etc)
Power is good too. (for a 305) feels like a 2 barrel at cruising speed (and gets similar mileage), then when you put your foot into it, the secondary's open up, and it takes off like a bat out of hell. (albeit an under-powered, over-weight bat)

but like I said, the Q-jet was a bit of a pain to tune right.

Whatever you do, I'm sure it'll be a sweet truck once you get it running and on the road. :)
 
Another vote for the Q-Jet. I'm not a fan of Holly's and I haven't much experience with other aftermarket carbs, but I've run quite a few q-jets and they are good once you get them sorted. (I know a guy who swapped a Q-Jet onto his 440 Challenger because the 2/2 design allowed for better economy while still having enough fuel delivery for the big end)
 
Another vote for the Q-Jet. I'm not a fan of Holly's and I haven't much experience with other aftermarket carbs, but I've run quite a few q-jets and they are good once you get them sorted. (I know a guy who swapped a Q-Jet onto his 440 Challenger because the 2/2 design allowed for better economy while still having enough fuel delivery for the big end)

I'll definitely look into the Q-jets, I've heard of them and seen them around but I'm coming from a background of strictly fuel injected cars, so everything is a learning process. I was able to tune the single barrel rather successfully, it idles at about 450 rpm in gear and the manual choke doesn't require much attention. My power goals aren't insane, hoping for anywhere from 220-250 horsepower with reasonable (for a carbureted vehicle) fuel economy.

Small update, I got a new set of pioneer 6x9's installed in each door, and my miniature bass cannon (a pair of Altec Lansing 6.5 inch woofers behind a 250W amp). More pics and video to come tomorrow, might be installing a new distributor, getting random hesitation when accelerating and whenever it occurs my tach cuts out, leading me to believe its something to do with ignition. I will take a probably lengthy video tommorow afternoon, showing it driving and what its like inside, along with what it sounds like, for those interested in that kind of thing.
 
I'm going to assume for the moment that it still has the original style ignition system, which involves a Points style distributor.
Please, get rid of the points lol.
choose your method, but make it go away. points work fairly well, but they require quite a bit more maintenance then a newer electric style dizzy.
you can either replace the entire dizzy, OR convert the upper section of the dizzy over to an electronic system using a "Points Eliminator Kit"

This was one of the very first things I ever did to my Fairlane once I got it running, and the Accel 2020 Points Eliminator Kit that was on sale at the time was probably the best $40 I ever spent on it. 4 or 5 screws and an hour later and my hesitation, stumbling, and difficult starting issues were gone forevermore.

The 2020 is not appropriate for your engine (it's made for Ford v8's) but I am sure Accel (or Mallory, or whatever your preferred performance ignition manufacturer is) has a similar kit for Chevy engines.

The other option is a full aftermarket performance dizzy, which may or may not be cost effective for you.
Or, I suppose you can teach yourself how to adjust points and dwell, and just keep running the old stuff, assuming you don't already know how to do such things.

If by some chance this has already been done, then I don't know, but your guess that it is ignition related seems accurate to me, since the tach is cutting out too...
 
Another small update:
I ended up just replacing the old distributor with a new one (points style unfortunately) but it only cost me $40 and there was shaft play in the old one, timed at -4 at 500 rpm and she's running extremely well. Whenever I can find another camera Ill post more pics and video, my cellphone got a Dr Pepper bath recently -_-. With the 327 I'm definitely going with a performance HEI unit but points will work until then.
 
Another vote for the Q-Jet. I'm not a fan of Holly's and I haven't much experience with other aftermarket carbs, but I've run quite a few q-jets and they are good once you get them sorted. (I know a guy who swapped a Q-Jet onto his 440 Challenger because the 2/2 design allowed for better economy while still having enough fuel delivery for the big end)

I third the motion for a Quadrajet. I never had problems with Rochester carburetors. However, my dad's motorhome with the Chrysler 413 engine and the Holley carb - we never got that thing working right. And my dad was a skilled mechanic, too.

I love those old Chevys and GMCs. Personal preference is for the Fleetside, but Stepsides are cool too.
 
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