So, about a year and a half ago my wife’s Grandfather passed away and left behind a few vehicles. One of which was his “work truck,” a ’77 C10 Silverado Square Body. When his estate was being dispersed, I expressed interest in restoring the truck, but my BIL ended up with it. He is in his 3rd year of residency at Penn U Hospital, and hasn’t been able to do anything to it and thus it has just sat deteriorating. Long story short, the truck needed to be moved from where it was being kept and I got a nice Christmas present from the family!
The truck needs a lot of work and will probably be a long project, but I am really looking forward to it. I come from a family of Hot Rodders but just never had the time or money or a place to work on a project ( actually I still don’t, but it didn’t cost me anything and I’ve made time when I would usually be engaged in one of my “other” hobbies). Dad was a Hot Rodder in the prime of the Muscle Car period but had to give it up when he had to start feedin’ a youngen’ (yours truly). My biggest pleasure of this project is to be able to work on it with him.
It’s obviously not the best platform for a Hot Rod. It’s a long bend, mustard yellar' with a EPA’ed ’77 350 small block, and needs a lot of body work….and interior work… like I said it will be a long project but I have some cool ideas. Ultimate goals would be a Gene Fulton big block under the hood, ridding on air bags, classic Torq Thrust wheels with big rubber on the back and a decent paint job. Not too picky about the interior, just something clean.
We haven’t had a lot of time to work on it, mainly one day a week for 4 or 5 hours.. I really want to get it on the road and be able to have a reliable driver so thus far we have only done a few basic repairs. There was an oil leak coming from the right side valve cover, dripping down on the exhaust manifold making it drive a little smoky so that was one of the first things we worked on. We changed the valve cover gasket, spark plugs, and new air cleaner, a few hoses, tidied up some wiring and a wipe down with some degreaser.
Oddly enough the truck had and aftermarket cruise control system on it as well as a secondary gas tank. We yanked the cruise control stuff out early on and dropped the spare gas tank last weekend.
I’ll try to update the thread as we make progress. I still have a lot to learn about restoration, but am excited for the transformation.
Here it is as it sat for over a year in the vines.
After a bath
Before and after of the motor
The spare fuel tank
The truck needs a lot of work and will probably be a long project, but I am really looking forward to it. I come from a family of Hot Rodders but just never had the time or money or a place to work on a project ( actually I still don’t, but it didn’t cost me anything and I’ve made time when I would usually be engaged in one of my “other” hobbies). Dad was a Hot Rodder in the prime of the Muscle Car period but had to give it up when he had to start feedin’ a youngen’ (yours truly). My biggest pleasure of this project is to be able to work on it with him.
It’s obviously not the best platform for a Hot Rod. It’s a long bend, mustard yellar' with a EPA’ed ’77 350 small block, and needs a lot of body work….and interior work… like I said it will be a long project but I have some cool ideas. Ultimate goals would be a Gene Fulton big block under the hood, ridding on air bags, classic Torq Thrust wheels with big rubber on the back and a decent paint job. Not too picky about the interior, just something clean.
We haven’t had a lot of time to work on it, mainly one day a week for 4 or 5 hours.. I really want to get it on the road and be able to have a reliable driver so thus far we have only done a few basic repairs. There was an oil leak coming from the right side valve cover, dripping down on the exhaust manifold making it drive a little smoky so that was one of the first things we worked on. We changed the valve cover gasket, spark plugs, and new air cleaner, a few hoses, tidied up some wiring and a wipe down with some degreaser.
Oddly enough the truck had and aftermarket cruise control system on it as well as a secondary gas tank. We yanked the cruise control stuff out early on and dropped the spare gas tank last weekend.
I’ll try to update the thread as we make progress. I still have a lot to learn about restoration, but am excited for the transformation.
Here it is as it sat for over a year in the vines.
After a bath
Before and after of the motor
The spare fuel tank