On this episode of HOT ROD Garage presented by Lincoln Tech
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00:00 In this episode of Hot Rod Garage, we show you how to hack the C10 market.
00:07 Oh, geez.
00:09 Oh, [bleep]
00:11 [laughter]
00:13 [tires screeching]
00:15 [music]
00:35 Welcome to Hot Rod Garage, presented by Lincoln Tech.
00:37 Today, we're going to tell you how to get that sweet C10 short bed truck you want without
00:41 paying for a C10 short bed price.
00:43 Sawzall.
00:44 Yeah, and we're going to use Lucky's favorite tool, the sawzall.
00:48 We dug around on Craigslist and found what I think is a perfect starting truck.
00:52 Now this is a 1967 long bed C10, some kind of undetermined small block with a two barrel
00:57 on it that makes zero horsepower.
00:58 Mystery motor.
00:59 It's a six lug truck, but it has the sweet truck arm rear suspension.
01:03 Yep.
01:04 Body is straight.
01:05 There's no rust in it.
01:06 It's got a nice patina on it.
01:07 It's a clean truck, and we picked it up for about 4,000 bucks, or about half the price
01:11 you'd pay for a sweet short bed truck.
01:13 That is true.
01:14 We love these trucks because if you're going to have one hot rod, which a lot of guys have,
01:17 this is a great way to have something that can do anything you need it to do.
01:19 You can slam it, make it handle well, be a fun driver, but also still have that utility
01:24 of the big bed in the back for hauling around parts.
01:27 That is true also.
01:28 Now short bed C10s have started to take a real premium on the market.
01:31 They cost about 10 grand to get a decent one, and we're going to hack that market and show
01:35 you by ...
01:36 You mean bypass that market.
01:38 Yeah.
01:39 I feel uncomfortable with the word hack on this project.
01:40 Have you been labeled with that one before?
01:42 Is that what's up the problem?
01:44 David Freiburger.
01:45 We're going to shorten the frame and the bed, put on a killer QA1 suspension system that
01:49 drops this thing about six total inches, and by the time we're 10 grand deep into this
01:53 thing, it's going to be a rad truck.
01:55 And I'm going to drive it.
01:56 At some point.
01:57 Maybe.
01:58 All right.
01:59 Go on.
01:59 Basically, the engine and trans will stay with the frame.
02:10 The cab of the truck will come up with the interior still in it.
02:13 We just have to disconnect the radiator and all the wiring, brake lines, everything that's
02:18 from the frame to the engine.
02:21 Going up.
02:22 Third floor, women's wear, ladies lingerie.
02:25 Now, we're going to see some spiders.
02:46 I'm unbolting the radiator support from the frame.
02:49 Basically, the front of the radiator support also supports the fenders and the body and
02:55 the cab of the truck.
02:56 How do my guns look?
03:00 Unused.
03:01 Unused.
03:02 There it is.
03:06 So we've got four of the six mounts that hold the cab to the frame.
03:11 Now there's a bunch of little ones that hold the bed down, and because they're kind of
03:15 rusty and they're into old rotted wood, they're just spinning, so we're going to have to cut
03:18 them out.
03:19 Oh, yeah.
03:20 Something's going to bleed.
03:21 Nope.
03:25 It's a good-ass bolt.
03:31 To save time, I just grind the heads off.
03:33 I'm going to use the air chisel with a punch, and I'll just punch the bolts out the other
03:36 way.
03:39 Score.
03:42 All right.
03:48 I think we're good.
03:54 Cool.
03:55 We only weigh like 500 pounds.
03:58 We'll be all right.
04:00 Now we've got the bed out of the way.
04:02 We're going to roll the cab and frame back to the lift, lift the cab off, and then we
04:06 can start shortening this frame.
04:09 Oh, yeah.
04:11 Tony, are you sure we have to do this just to rotate the tires?
04:14 Yeah, man.
04:15 That's how we do everything now.
04:16 Whatever.
04:17 Man, let's tow it to the car wash.
04:23 Yeah, I love when we do that.
04:28 So we took our C10 frame out to the local car wash, hosed it all down, got as much gunk
04:33 off it as we could so that when we cut and weld stuff, it will be less messy.
04:39 Now Brothers Trucks makes a really cool frame shortening kit.
04:42 It's supposed to be really easy to understand.
04:44 Even Lucky can do it.
04:45 Yeah, I can figure this out.
04:46 You got it?
04:47 Yeah.
04:48 And I believe there's no actual math or measuring because everything is on a template.
04:51 You're going to cut through it and weld it together.
04:53 Now these are 400 bucks.
04:55 You could do this on your own, but it would be way more tedious and much harder to get
04:59 it exactly right.
05:00 You know, you don't have to take the cab off either to do it.
05:03 Yeah.
05:04 In their instructions, they do it with the cab on.
05:05 Now we've got everything off, so it's a little bit easier to see.
05:07 So how do I start?
05:08 You set it on there and you stick bolts through the two holes labeled number one.
05:12 All right.
05:13 And then you know where you go after that?
05:15 Number two.
05:17 All right.
05:21 Let's cut this car in half.
05:34 I prefer you didn't film any of this.
05:36 I have a conscience.
05:51 You know, I've been giving this a lot of thought and I don't think we should short this.
05:53 That's just plain weird.
05:54 Quick, weld it, tack it.
06:11 So now we're going to remove the forward most bed mount and the rear most cab mount.
06:17 Atta boy.
06:24 Ready?
06:32 Watch your digits.
06:47 Boom.
06:48 Now it all goes together.
06:49 I feel good about that.
06:58 So once everything is bolted together, you can either weld it together yourself or take
07:01 it to a local qualified welder.
07:03 But brother says this is strong enough to confidently drive on the street or wherever
07:06 you need to go to get it welded.
07:07 Oh, it's getting crazy up in here now.
07:08 That machine eats, dude.
07:26 This thing is badass.
07:39 It's a lot of bumper right there.
07:40 It sure is.
07:43 So it's lined up with the old bumper bolt holes.
07:45 Then we scribe it up.
07:46 You ready?
07:47 Yeah.
07:48 Let's cut some stuff up.
07:56 All right, that's it.
08:10 We've totally shortened the frame using that brother's truck's kit.
08:13 What's next?
08:14 I'm exhausted.
08:15 All right.
08:16 That's lunch.
08:18 Time to break.
08:23 So we finished shortening up the frame of our C10 and now we've got a long bed that's
08:27 too long to fit.
08:28 So it's time to shorten that thing up and there's a couple of different ways to do it.
08:31 So traditionally, if you wanted to shorten your bed, it's a really tedious process and
08:35 you can still do it this way.
08:36 It involves marking out two sections of the bed, cutting them out, putting them together
08:41 and welding everything back together.
08:42 One in front of the wheel well and one behind it.
08:44 So if you were to cut this, and I'm not cutting it, you would probably go inside the box,
08:49 because there's a stake box pocket right there, go down to where this body roll is and then
08:54 move it over so that you don't distort this.
08:58 And then go straight down from there and then that's where one side would be and then you
09:03 would measure the exact same thing over here.
09:07 Do the 14 or 16 inches and then that is the section that you would remove.
09:16 Yeah and then you have to get it exactly straight, stitch weld it all back together, try to get
09:20 it flat, probably wind up using a bunch of body filler.
09:22 Tons of time involved, yeah, tons of bondo.
09:25 But Brothers has a better way.
09:26 They've got a kit using all original sheet metal.
09:29 They give you two shortened sides of your bed and a shortened floor and you kind of
09:32 just put it all together.
09:34 So we don't really have to cut this?
09:35 We don't have to cut it.
09:36 Are you excited?
09:37 And in fact, since we have an army of C10s here at Hot Rod, we realized that this is
09:41 a really nice long bed and our buddy John McGann from Car Craft has his truck, Truck
09:45 Norris.
09:46 Truck Norris.
09:47 A real beastly 700 horsepower big block street truck that he drives all the time and this
09:53 bed's going to go on there.
09:54 We had him give us his header panel and we're going to build our short bed with that.
09:59 So you know why this truck is going to haul butt?
10:01 Why?
10:02 It has a piece of Truck Norris on it.
10:04 This is a really simple procedure, especially because Brothers sends you a proper short
10:09 bed truck floor and bed sides.
10:12 So we're going to use John McGann's old header panel and just bolt everything together.
10:16 So Brothers sent us over a set of their widened wheel wells.
10:40 We decided to run to Lucky's shop, swap them out for his standard size because we don't
10:44 think we're going to have a huge tire on this truck.
10:48 You did it buddy.
11:01 I feel good about that.
11:16 As we said before, a short bed C10 costs you about $10,000.
11:20 We got this thing for $4,000 and where we're going to spend our extra money is in upgrades.
11:23 So now that we've got our frame shortened up, it's time to drop it properly.
11:28 To do that, we're going to use a full QA1 system that just came out for the C10 trucks.
11:32 It's a complete kit with everything you need to drop your truck up to six inches and really
11:37 make it handle.
11:38 You're actually able to adjust your pinion angle and it's got all of the benefits of
11:42 the really long truck arms, which are reduced pinion rolls, what they call it, as it goes
11:46 up and down its stroke.
11:48 And they introduce a longer panhard bar that goes onto one of their brackets, which will
11:52 get rid of any kind of crazy left or right movement.
11:56 We'll replace the upper and lower control arms with their tubular pieces.
11:59 We're actually going to rivet off this upper mount and that's going to allow a coilover
12:03 to come all the way through and attach to the upper control arm.
12:05 That's pretty neat.
12:06 You got two of these, right?
12:07 You ordered two?
12:08 I'm sorry.
12:09 You don't have a C10 too, right?
12:11 I know.
12:12 You ready to get started?
12:15 Yeah.
12:16 So we've got the whole front suspension torn down on the C10.
12:23 The only frame modification we're going to have to do is remove this upper brace to make
12:28 way to bolt in the new QA1 brace that also has an integrated coilover mount on it.
12:39 So now we have the suspension all stripped down.
12:40 We're going to have to make a hole big enough in the old upper spring perch to let the coilover
12:45 sit through there.
12:48 That's going to be a lot of work.
13:13 That's a lot of work.
13:41 We got our upper and lower control arms on.
13:47 Put the coilovers in.
13:49 We got our CPP rotors on.
13:51 I think we're done in the front, right?
13:53 That's it.
13:54 Then we'll move on to the rear, which is just everything.
13:55 Yeah, just about a million more parts.
13:57 Okay, I'm going to take a nap.
13:58 Let me know how this works out.
14:05 So we're tearing apart the rear suspension.
14:08 I'm taking off the front mounts for the control arms.
14:10 It's like he's going to take the shocks and springs off and the paintart bar in the back.
14:15 Disconnect the brake lines and the whole thing should fall right out.
14:17 All right, rear suspension's out.
14:22 So we're back on the frame of the C10 and what we're going to do first is make all the
14:26 modifications necessary to it to accept that new QA1 suspension system.
14:31 You're going to knock off these front control arm pickups off the center of the frame cross
14:35 member, take off the bump stop mounts, and then knock off a couple of other rivets and
14:40 bolt on these rear axle brackets.
14:43 Join us, won't you?
14:44 What I'm doing here is I'm getting ready to chisel these rivet heads off and then use
14:49 the air chisel with a different tip to punch them through.
14:52 Enjoy the show.
15:02 Was I lying?
15:03 Was I lying?
15:07 So we punched off the old bump stops.
15:09 There's two holes here that line up with the bump stops.
15:11 Since we're using a plasma cutter, it's not really rocket science.
15:13 We're going to get it kind of close.
15:15 So we're really just making room for their bracket.
15:23 So I came through after Lucky Plasma Cut the C-notches out with a flap wheel on an angle
15:43 grinder and just cleaned everything up to make sure it fit just right.
15:47 Now I'm going to start bolting in these rear brackets.
15:50 They are shock mounts, they brace the frame, and they also hold the Panhard bar.
15:56 So we're going to go to a one-piece driveshaft on this truck.
15:59 So I'm going to remove this center bearing support, and at the same time, I'm going to
16:02 start removing these control arm brackets.
16:06 Atta boy.
16:16 We have mounted up the trailing arms, and now we're determining the arm length.
16:21 But other than that, we are moving forward with the rear suspension.
16:26 This is the cool part.
16:27 This is what allows you to adjust pinion angle without having to take anything off your truck,
16:33 which is pretty cool.
16:34 You just loosen up these two jam nuts, and you can adjust that pinion angle wherever
16:40 you want it.
17:09 So pretty.
17:10 It's very sway bar-y.
17:12 You did it, Tony.
17:15 I sure did.
17:17 So we've got the entire CREATE.ONE suspension system now installed.
17:20 All the adjustment nuts and stuff are loose because we're going to put the cab back on,
17:24 put the bed back on, set it at ride height, get it aligned, and then we can adjust everything
17:28 to where it needs to be.
17:29 But for now, it's assembled and it's done.
17:31 I noticed that bag was empty too, so that's a good sign.
17:34 Yeah, we're out of bolts.
17:35 We're out of bolts.
17:36 We got to be done.
17:37 So we've got a couple things left.
17:44 We figured let's go to this tired old small block, freshen it up a little bit, and then
17:48 try to add some horsepower.
17:49 I went on rockauto.com.
17:50 There we go.
17:51 Water pump, hose, belt, all the essentials you need to kind of get this thing back running
18:03 at its optimum 165 horsepower.
18:07 Then we're going to go in.
18:08 We'll do a four barrel upgrade, headers, stuff like that.
18:11 Holley sends a bunch of hot rod parts.
18:12 See if we can't squeeze this thing maybe to 200 horse.
18:24 Man.
18:28 Great job.
18:39 And scene.
18:40 So we've got a set of Flowtech headers here specifically for the C10.
18:43 I was concerned how low they might hang because we have a super low truck, but they look really
18:47 good.
18:53 That's a fancy carburetor you got there.
19:05 Pretty fancy.
19:06 Look at that.
19:07 I don't know about you, but this thing already looks fast as hell.
19:14 It's going to be the prettiest 260 horsepower around.
19:18 So we just buttoned up the engine upgrades on our C10 truck.
19:22 We've got headers, intake, four barrel carburetor, and a distributor.
19:28 Now we said it would probably cost you 10 grand to buy a decent short bed truck, and
19:31 we're definitely into this for a bit more than that, but we really have a pretty rad
19:35 truck.
19:36 Yeah, you couldn't buy this for 10 grand.
19:37 No.
19:38 And we did all the work ourselves, so we definitely saved quite a bit.
19:41 Let's get it together now so we can drive it.
19:43 Something.
19:44 Do something.
19:45 Keep going.
19:47 Keep going.
19:48 Now we put the lift on the frame and we lift it back up.
19:54 I want this thing like ignorantly low.
19:56 Yeah, I just kind of want it to work and be able to drive.
20:01 Want to put the body bolts in?
20:09 Yeah.
20:12 So we've got the cab bolted onto our C10 frame.
20:15 We're going to bolt our new short bed on here and see how this thing lays out.
20:18 Are you ready?
20:19 I'm ready.
20:20 All right, you got to lower the lift.
20:23 Action.
20:24 Going back.
20:25 And scene.
20:26 You clear?
20:27 Yeah.
20:28 Come on down.
20:29 Seems like the lift's going really slow.
20:43 In anticipation.
20:48 That's got to be pretty close right there.
20:51 The bed kind of fell right into place with a little bit of massaging.
20:54 Bolted right up.
20:56 The body lines line up great.
20:57 Everything looks good, but the back end is jacked way up.
21:00 There's a ton of adjustment in both the coilover itself and the shock brackets on this rear
21:05 end, so we're going to lower it down like two inches.
21:07 This is a fully adjustable rear shock mount.
21:09 This has a mount that has infinite adjustability because really all the way down is too low
21:14 and all the way up is too high, so that's a good thing.
21:17 What's nice about adjustable shock mounts is that you can change the height without changing
21:20 the preload on your spring.
21:21 Hey, good one, Tony.
21:23 Did you Google that?
21:26 So I just got done buttoning up the suspension on the back of our C10.
21:29 This is a two-link suspension with a Panhard bar.
21:32 Vehicles like the NASCAR, little race car, that's a three-link system.
21:35 My Chevelle, that's a four-link system.
21:37 Here's Tony with your Lincoln Tech Tip to tell you how they work.
21:46 Welcome back to another Lincoln Tech Tip.
21:48 Today we're going to talk about truck arm rear suspension, how it works, and why it's
21:52 pretty awesome.
21:53 Now, the purpose of any live axle rear suspension system is to control the movement of the axle
21:58 as the suspension goes through its stroke.
22:00 Now controlling axle movement means controlling both the location of the axle as well as pinion
22:05 roll or pinion angle change.
22:06 Now we've discussed how three-link and four-link rear suspension works in an older episode,
22:10 but this is all new territory.
22:12 The truck arm rear suspension doesn't connect to the rear axle at a pivot point like a three-
22:15 or four-link.
22:16 Instead, it bolts solidly to the axle with a U-bolt and a bracket similar to a leaf spring
22:21 setup.
22:22 Now the other end of the truck arm is connected to a cross member in the middle of the truck
22:25 with a conventional pivot.
22:27 This simple but super effective setup controls both axle location and pinion roll very well
22:31 for one main reason.
22:32 The truck arms are extremely long and don't experience much radius change over the range
22:37 of suspension movement.
22:38 That means both wheel base and pinion angle change minimally over the suspension stroke,
22:42 and that leads to great handling.
22:44 Other benefits of a truck arm rear suspension are reduced wheel hop and great articulation
22:48 without binding.
22:49 The reason that minimal pinion angle change as well as wheel base change is beneficial
22:53 is because the wheels stay true as the suspension moves up and down.
22:57 That means the car isn't changing wheel base or sort of acting differently, and when pinion
23:00 angle changes, it changes the way that the car behaves on throttle.
23:04 So if you make that stuff stay true, the car's going to drive better.
23:07 That's it for this Lincoln Tech tip.
23:09 Let's get back to the shop.
23:11 Lincoln Tech can teach you how to have a career working with cars.
23:13 See LincolnTech.edu.
23:14 Okay, so our C10 is just about ready to start.
23:21 We want to hear it run.
23:23 We don't have exhaust on there yet, so it should be extra fun.
23:25 That's how we roll here.
23:26 All right, go for it.
23:27 It's going to fire right up.
23:29 Are we betting lunch on that?
23:30 Sure.
23:31 All right.
23:32 Okay, here we go.
23:33 Okay.
23:34 It's kind of loud.
23:37 Yeah.
23:38 That thing sounds pretty stout.
23:40 I'm kind of getting excited about driving this thing.
23:44 230 ground pound in horsepower.
23:47 It's going to be sick.
23:50 All right, our C10 fired right up.
23:59 That sounds awesome.
24:01 Somebody owes me lunch.
24:02 Guess I'll buy lunch.
24:03 We've got a couple things left to do.
24:05 Belts, alternator, exhaust, but after that, it's time to drive this thing.
24:10 But it's lunchtime.
24:11 It is.
24:28 Our C10 is totally back together and ready to drive.
24:31 We shortened the frame.
24:32 We installed the entire QA1 suspension system, put some Holley hop-up parts on here, made
24:37 it a four barrel, an MSD distributor.
24:39 When we told you there's a cheaper way to get a short bed truck, this is it.
24:43 You go out, you buy that Brothers frame shortening kit, and you can have that short bed for a
24:47 much cheaper price.
24:48 Anyway, it's time to finally see how this thing does out on the road, and that's my
24:51 favorite part.
24:52 Hop in.
24:53 You ready?
24:54 My favorite part.
24:55 Your least favorite part.
24:58 It's broken.
24:59 Come on, dude.
25:00 You got one job.
25:01 Just close the door.
25:02 Got it.
25:03 Ready?
25:04 No, but go.
25:05 You never are.
25:06 This truck was sitting for a couple years.
25:30 On a farm.
25:31 And on a farm, and we grabbed it, did the QA1 stuff, and a couple motor upgrades, and
25:35 I would drive this thing around.
25:37 It's turned into a very solid truck already.
25:39 Let's see how these bumps go.
25:41 Yeah.
25:42 Good job, QA1.
25:43 This is pretty dope.
25:44 Actually, that's nicer than my car, right?
25:46 Right?
25:47 Yeah, it's awesome.
25:48 This truck wants to make some turns.
25:51 We'll hit it sideways.
25:54 Yeah, there you go.
25:57 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
26:00 Oh, boy.
26:03 That whole thing's all new to you, huh?
26:09 The whole lowered car thing?
26:11 Let's go over here.
26:14 This is dirt.
26:17 We're going to go do some burnouts.
26:28 Yeah.
26:30 We'll get there.
26:36 There it is.
26:42 There we go.
26:47 All right, that's it for this episode and this season of Hot Rod Garage.
26:53 That's it for the whole season?
26:54 I mean, they're letting us come back for next year.
26:56 Really?
26:57 Yeah.
26:58 Nice, bro.
26:59 Can you believe it?
27:00 So really, for the price of an ordinary short bed C10, we took a long bed and turned it
27:04 into an awesome short bed.
27:06 That's pretty much the long and the short of it.
27:07 We nailed it.
27:08 See what I did there?
27:09 I see what you did there.
27:10 Next season is going to be awesome.
27:12 I cannot wait to get started.
27:14 In fact, we're starting tomorrow.
27:15 Nice.
27:16 I got the job.
27:17 Clear your schedule.
27:18 Don't forget to check us out on social media.
27:19 Between episodes, the show is Hot Rod Garage Show on Facebook and Instagram.
27:23 I'm Tangelo96.
27:25 I'm Mobile Tech Lucky.
27:26 See you next time.
27:27 See ya.
27:33 Replacement parts in this episode provided by rockauto.com.
27:36 Hey there.
27:37 What's your name?
27:38 Francis.
27:38 Hey there.
27:39 What's your name?
27:40 Francis.
27:41 Hey there.
27:42 What's your name?
27:43 Francis.
27:44 Hey there.
27:45 What's your name?
27:46 Francis.
27:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]