Thread: 1971 c-10

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Originally Posted by glennsexton

Joanie and I have been so blessed to have Katie as a part of our family - she's smart, quick of wit, fun to be around and most importantly she and Ryan complete each other. They've been married just six and a half years now - no kids, two cats - and they live fairly close to us so we see them usually once a week (Friday is hamburger night at our place). They both work hard at great jobs, love each, still golf together and are just fun to be around.

Thanks for letting a proud father ramble a bit...

Regards all,
Glenn

Some people get lucky with whom they marry.

I know I did

So many of my friends didn't.

And by the way; that's one gorgeous truck.

Wow, the truck turned out gorgeous! This whole story is awesome. That's really great your friend was able to get the truck done that fast. I hope they keep the truck forever!

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Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Wow, the truck turned out gorgeous! This whole story is awesome. That's really great your friend was able to get the truck done that fast. I hope they keep the truck forever!

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Thanks, for the kind words, Ryan. My son (also Ryan) is really attached to this truck and I have a feeling if we still have gas powered cars when they have kids, they'll be driving this one.

Originally Posted by glennsexton

Thanks, for the kind words, Ryan. My son (also Ryan) is really attached to this truck and I have a feeling if we still have gas powered cars when they have kids, they'll be driving this one.

I'm betting we will. The whole electric drive will be halted by the lack of network. Just wait until fleets actually try to make the change and people don't have power in their houses.

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Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

I'm betting we will. The whole electric drive will be halted by the lack of network. Just wait until fleets actually try to make the change and people don't have power in their houses.

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Can you immage the impack on power grids when we start charging a fleet of buses or semis? Get ready for some big increases in the cost of electricity. Portland has opted to "go electric" over diesel for their buses. Cost is astronomical and there is no model that shows them more cost effective but it sure makes the people of Portland feel good about saving the planet....

Glenn, I guess I missed this when you put it up. Great looking truck and an even better story.

Really liked the pickup story, loved the story of your son and daughter in law. My screen got blurry too.

I knew there was a little oil leak in the truck - just a slight piddle that was more of a nuisance than a major problem. When I found this in the drip pan, I knew it was time to address the leaks.

I bought a new gasket for the transmission and a service kit (filter and new fluid) and took a morning to lift the truck up on my handy-dandy QuickJack portable lift (gives me 24" of lift). Scooted under the truck and drained the transmission - thanks to the previous owner's installation of a chrome transmission pan with a drain plug - and proceeded to clean things up and change the transmission pan gasket. All good? Wrong, the next morning the leak appeared to be worse so I acquiesced and said to myself, "I'm getting too old to pull an automatic transmission and fix this leak. Did I mention that I'm not an automatic transmission guy? Never built or rebuilt one and probably not a great time in life to invest in the tools to get the job done correctly.

So off to the local AAMCO shop at the bottom of my hill. These guys have a ton of five star reviews so I thought I'd give them a try. They put the truck on a proper lift and it was quickly determined that there were other issues - bad pan gasket, bad rear main seal, and front pump seal in the transmission. I authorized them to fix it all.

Upon pulling the pan, they found a loose bolt (yikes) and so I had them install a new pan as well. Out the door $1,400 for all of the above as well as new valve cover gaskets. Could I have done some of this? Yes, but sometimes it's okay to support the local economy.

Less than a week later, the drip pan is showing pink oil.... Another trip to AAMCO at which time we determined that the nice new seal in the front of the transmission allowed the pressure to test other seals which decided to show their age and begin leaking. Long story short, let's redo the transmission. Upon removal, I was glad that such a decision was made as most of the innards of the 50 year old TH350 were shot. Not a criticism rather a testimony to the rugged nature of the transmission that had served for half a century in a truck.

Got her back and shifts smooth as silk. 62 miles later a funny noise and clouds of white smoke billow out the exhaust like there's no tomorrow. I quickly checked the cooling system and it held 15PSI overnight so I suspected a bad modulator allowing transmission fluid to be introduced to the intake manifold and thus the white smoke. AAMCO sent a wrecker to my house (which they paid for) and sure enough, bad modulator. Unfortunately, the modulator that comes with their master rebuild kit is a Chinese part and it went kaput right away. AAMCO replaced with a good ol' "Genuine GM Part" and we're now once again, good as new. Throughout all of this the folks at AAMCO have been consummate professionals and very apologetic - no cost for the fix.

So we're back on the road again and hoping for lots of trouble free miles and smiles!

In the process, I have redone the wheel as well - I like the steel rims with the Eastwood silver and stainless steel beauty rings - nice and somewhat understated and I stayed with 15" wheels. I personally can't stand the 20" wheels on a 1971 vehicle.

Regards All,
Glenn

The previous owner of the truck had installed kick panel speakers. The one on the drivers side was destroyed as the emergency brake hit it every time it was applied. So I bought new speakers and fabricated a guard for the speaker and modified the brake pedal by cutting off the left side and making a new pad out of 1/4" aluminum. I drilled three holes and used some 5/16" stainless steel button bolts to secure to the new pad. Polished the entire project and here's what we get. Clears the speaker (guard protects against my big ol' boots) and everything sounds good.

that looks like a corner oil pan bolt

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

that looks like a corner oil pan bolt

I know - my thought exactly but it was inside the pan and obviously the crank had (at one time) found it and made a mess. Certainly not a high torque bolt as there's a star washer. It will remain a mystery forever.

Not really. The last wrench dropped it in, and instead of looking for it, just grabbed another.

Very cool; brings back a lot of good memories. My eldest's sons first car was a 69 C-10 that we rebuilt together.