Episode 7 – The Project C10 crew is prepping our truck chassis, breaking down the rear end. Since we can’t go out and buy a new ‘65 Chevy C-10 rear cross member, we’re fabricating one from scratch to accommodate a different fuel tank. And we discover our C10 has a 4-10 axle gear – like a hot rod!
Episode 7 – Video Transcript
Rick Drewry: Here’s what’s next on Project C10.
Michael: We’re removing this makeshift bracket for the fuel tank.
Rick: All right, so we’re getting rid of the fuel cell and we got to eliminate the bracket to clean up the frame. And you’re having a good old time cutting and grinding and everything else, right?
Michael: Oh yes.
Derek: Right now, we are breaking down the rear-end. We already popped the diff cover off, so we can pull these axles out, and switch over from a six-lug to a five-lug axle.
Rick: Excellent. Any surprises so far?
Derek: No, just breaking down the old drum brakes, bolts are a little tight. Got some years of use on them.
Project C10 team member: You want an air ratchet?
Derek: Yeah.
Rick: Here’s the gears. Looks like we got- you think it’s a 4-10?
Derek: Pretty sure it’s a 4-10.
Rick: 4-10 gear. It’s a hot rod.
Justin: When we got the truck, it’s missing a rear cross member because of the after-market fuel cell that was installed in the vehicle. And since we’re putting in a different fuel tank, we need that cross member again. Since you can’t go out and buy a ‘65 C-10 rear cross member, we’re just going to go ahead and make it. Got the poster board here, make a template first because I don’t like wasting material. If I mess up on the poster board I can always redo that a lot easier than I can with the metal, so …
Rick: All right. Well, have at it. Let’s see what we come up with.
Derek: We are doing away with the backing plate assembly, so we can make the disc brake conversion on the back. Pulled the axles out which, again, had the six-lug axles. Going to the new five-lug axle.
Rick: Excellent. Let’s see what it looks like. Up close, typical drum brakes. Wheel cylinder. Actually, the brake shoes are in pretty good shape.
Derek: Not too bad.
Justin: All right. Here’s the cross member that we made up. We get the edges bent pretty much at a 90. They still got a little bit of love to go into them here to get them completely flat, straightened out. But we still got that nice roll there that kind of looks similar to the factory, along with our dimple dies that we talked about. Well, thankfully it actually fits in here. So, I mean that’s a positive. Once we get some notches and some holes drilled for this thing to get it to go, it should turn out pretty good.
Rick: We got a pretty steep gear, which you’re going to need it with the big tires, and we’re going to have an overdrive transmission, so that is all going to work in sync. Good job, Derek. At least we know you know how to tear it apart. We’re going to get a kit. It has all new bearings, seals and we’ll have the rear-end pretty much rebuilt for us.
Rick: We’ve had a lot that we’ve been working on the truck. The big focus now is the exhaust system. I’ve got Justin and Paul, they’ve been working on the cross member. We have a cross member that was actually literally right in the way for how we wanted to run the exhaust. The exhaust we want to run up nice and tight next to the frame rail and didn’t want to have to drop it below. We also didn’t want to have to modify an exhaust with a bunch of bends in it to work around it. So instead, they basically made a C-channel within the cross member. Now it’s still a good cross member, and the exhaust can flow right through. So, that was a big focus today. Next up is going to be mocking the exhaust itself. Then we also have a laundry list of things that we’re going to be working on over here before we disassemble it for paint:
- We’ve got some dash mods
- We still have the bed to do
- We’ve got tailgate latch because we’re putting a different type of latch system in it
- We’re going to have to drill holes for the trim
- Fit all the trim
- Mock up the steering shaft, the steering
- We got speaker mounts, battery mounts, interior, all of that
We’re basically going to pre-assemble the truck, make sure everything fits, then take it all back apart and the blow it apart and get it ready for painting. It’s a lot going on, but some really good stuff.
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