Chevy C-10 - Part 4: Making The Bed

[Mike] You're watching Powernation!

[Anthony] Today on Music City Trucks Project Creampuff is a lot shorter. So we assemble our new bed to make up for its smaller stature. [Mike] Plus we get inspiration from a sinister C-10 with a gravitational appeal. [Anthony] Then we get some help with picking out our floor for our new bed. [ Music ]

[Mike] Hey everybody, welcome to Music City Trucks. If you haven't seen our latest project it's a 1972 Chevrolet C-10. Now we've already done some work on the front of the chassis. Now in the back we're taking this long bed and making it a short bed. We've already tackled some of the stuff back here but now we're gonna focus on the bed itself. The factory long bed you can section it but that body line that runs from front to back makes it a little more difficult to do. [Anthony] Or you can take the easy way like we did here and get yourself a bed in a box. Now for that we hit up Brothers and they sent us over everything you see in front of me. That includes a tailgate, bedsides, wheel tubs, all the cross seals you need, and the front bed panel. It's EDP coated brand new steel and it saves you a lot of time. You want to get this thing bolted together? [Mike] Let's do it! There she goes. [Anthony] Coming in. [ Music ] [Mike] Hold on. [Anthony] A little self-tapper. [ ratchet clicking ] You all buttoned up? [Mike] Yep, got all those tight and got the front piece on. It turned out really well but you can spend a lot of time massaging these things and make it show quality there. [Anthony] If you're building a show truck you could put a lot of time into these beds. We're going with a cruiser. So we're just gonna leave that alone. [Mike] Let's get that back piece on there and then we can square it up. Let me get one started. [Anthony] My wife always ask me why I never look when I'm trying to do something. I explain to her that you have to sometimes when working on these cars. Never look at what you're doing. Look the other way. [Mike] I don't know what you're talking about? [Anthony] What do you mean? [Mike] Don't look! [Anthony] Just gotta do it by feel. [Mike] Imagine if you had both senses, feel and sight. [Anthony] I like taking the hard road. Got those jack stands? [Mike] Before we tighten all this down get these sides up off the ground. Get the tension off of it and check for squareness. [ Music ]

[Anthony] Now that we got it up off the floor we're gonna check for squareness. Whenever you're checking for squareness you want to go from a fixed point from one end to the other end. Something you know is gonna be somewhat close. This isn't gonna be perfect but we're just trying to get in the neighborhood. We're at 104 there Mike. 104 and a half. That leads me to believe it needs to go this way. [Mike] That was aggressive! [Anthony] Come back over here and kick it back the other way. [Mike] Happy tap! [Anthony] 104 and a quarter. Make sure you pull your tape tight or else you're gonna get an inaccurate number. [Mike] I hate a limp tape. [Anthony] Alright 104, little bit more. I'd say that's good enough. It's within a sixteenth. So I think we're good. [Mike] Get that good there. We'll tighten down all of them on the bottom and we'll get the tailgate on there. That'll really make a difference of the squareness of the back rectangle section there. [Anthony] Since we're running a step notch we're gonna lift the bed floor up a little bit. So we're gonna have to do some fabrication and maybe tie in the corners. Weld some braces in there that way it's locked in. [Mike] We've got the wheel tubs. Now these wheel tubs are not the stock width. These tubs are actually wider. You know what that means? [Anthony] Big ole tires! [Mike] Let's get it tightened up. When it comes to oil for your engine it does a lot more than take a bite out of your wallet come maintenance time. The main thing the oil does is lubricate all the components inside the engine. Well it also helps keep those cool by transferring heat to the block and the water passages there. It also helps seal the piston in the combustion chamber and keep those combustion forces on top of the piston. The detergents inside the oil helps clean everything inside the engine. The other thing it has is corrosion resistance. Here at Music City Trucks we like to use Schaeffer's and their Supreme 7000 Racing Oil because it has extra zinc for our older engines with a flat tappet cam shaft and it's also safe for your modern engines with those roller lifters. Now another thing about this oil here. This is APISM rated. The "S" there stands for Spark Ignition. So a gas engine. You also would see a "C" rating on some oils. That would tell you it's for a Compression Ignition or a diesel engine. The next time you need some oil reach out to Schaeffer and their family of motor oils. We take a look at a cosmic Chevy that is in a world of its own.

[Mike] These C-10s have been customized a lot of different ways over the years but Jason and his guys at New Creations really knocked one out of the park. Check out this C-10 and man that cam sounds awesome. [ Music ]

[ engine rumbling ] [ Music ] [ engine revving ] ♪ Everybody needs some and no ♪ ♪ one wants to pay. ♪ ♪ Just get your prime squeeze and look ♪ ♪ the other way. ♪ ♪ Hey yeah, life's not really free. ♪ ♪ Hey yeah, the laws look ♪ ♪ down on me. ♪ ♪ Hey yeah, about time. ♪ [ Music ]

♪ Cash doesn't bring them back. ♪ ♪ You've got to pay the price. ♪ ♪ Won't climb the ladder. ♪ [ Music ] [Narrator] Powernation Under the Hood is brought to you by Summit Racing Equipment. [Mike] This C-10 proves not all things that matter are light. It's a force that pulls you in. One clean C-10. How's it going man? [Jason] Good, how you doing Mike? [Mike] In a world full of C-10s this one has caught my eye. Y'all've done a heck of a job on this. What are some of the things you can point out make this one special for you? [Jason] This one here has a No Limit Engineering chassis under it. Built 6-0 in it. Shaved the drip rails on it. Shaved and smoothed. [Mike] I notice on this window here you've got a lot of work. That's not a factory glass and this cowl usually comes all the way up to the glass. [Jason] That's a Fessler built windshield and back glass and they actually make'em to fit the factory hole. So there is a bit of work where all the panels are triple walled right there that you have to weld and fix if you want it smooth but it actually fits the original hole and gets glued in. [Mike] The bed I noticed this gap. Did you bring that closer? [Jason] We tried to fit it as tight as we could without modifying it a lot. [Mike] You want to clean that gap up but then you've got to work about the tire, center of the wheel well, and stuff like that. That wheel, look how deep that thing is. Did y'all narrow the rear end? [Jason] We did. The rear end's been narrowed and the offset on the wheels. Those Billet Specialties really look good. [Mike] Did y'all paint the red stripe in? [Jason] That is actually striped, not paint. That's actually a vinyl stripe because the original molding was black. A lot of people have done the red. We did an orange one on one but we thought with the red interior and the red bed wood that the red stripe just fit. [Mike] It really does with the emblem as well. That black, you could get lost in it how deep that black is on this thing. [Jason] A lot of hours in sanding and buffing. [Mike] There's so much work with just the body. These bumpers. When you initially look at it looks stock but you start to look at it up close it looks tighter, a bit closer to the body. [Jason] We thinned it a little bit. They actually make those like that now but we did thin it a little bit and sucked it in. Tried to fill in the gap rather than using the gravel shields that were originally on top of the bumper brackets. On this particular truck we also added one of my taillight fuel fillers that we produce. [Mike] These trucks factory had the fuel tank behind the seat. That worked back in the day but popping out through the taillight that's a cool way to do it there. [Jason] Whenever you do that you have to take that light in so it'll fold proper and we actually recessed all the lights just so it'll match and doesn't look odd. [Mike] I've seen them bring the fuel neck up through here or pop out the side marker. It's a unique way to put a signature on a vehicle for your build. Coming down the side the quarter windows. Some people love them. They're nostalgia of the quarter window there. Some people want to get rid of them and smooth it out. This one is just really clean. [Jason] We thought it went with the look of the shaved drip rails and the flush mounted windows. [Mike] It definitely fit between all the glass and the drip rail being removed. This thing going by you think it's another C-10. Wait a minute. It's got a lot of subtle modifications that really sets it apart. The interior, black exterior, red interior, that's the ultimate pop right here. I can already smell the leather from here. [Jason] That's Apex leather that we used in there. We do everything in house. That's our interior, our paint, and everything. [Mike] That says a lot for your shop to be able to do everything from start to finish there with the interior work, the body work, the modifications, the metal work. I'm a big engine guy. I love horsepower. We've got to know what's under the hood. [Jason] It's got a built 6-0 under the hood. Cleaned up a little but nothing over the top. [Mike] Where are the coils at? [Jason] The coils are mounted down on the frame. We have remote coils. We like to hide them and keep the wires down low on this one. [Mike] Those LS engines, being able to move them like that really cleans it up. These engines with that intake on it really sits low. Visually it looks low. [Jason] And it may be a little bit lower than your average engine but I like them sitting low. So we just left that intake on there and painted it up and striped it. [Mike] You can definitely drive it. Not worried about getting this thing out on the road. [Jason] I think the appearance of it's just half the story. [Mike] It's got to function too, and that gives it an extra level of respect. How much time did it take you guys from start to finish? [Jason] This one probably took a little over a year with the condition we got it in. I tell everyone roughly about a year and a half on a full build. [Mike] That's actually pretty good for a lot of shops. It could be multiple years. I see stories of this guy had it for three years and only got so far. [Jason] Horror stories. [Mike] Your business is really moving quick. [Jason] I've got a good team and they really knock it out of the park. They come in and love what they do, and that makes a difference too. They don't hate their job. [Mike] If you can get a group of guys that work well together and they know their motions and who they can count on for what there. It makes it efficient and work well. [Anthony] Coming up, we convert our old drum brakes to a modern disc setup.

[Mike] Welcome back. Hope y'all enjoyed that '68 C-10. So we've been back in the shop on our '72 C-10. We got the rear axle and trailing arms all mocked up in place. For the rear axle we went with Quick Performance on this Ford nine inch. This is something they make specific for these trucks. We gave them the width measurement that we wanted and the pinion centerline on our axle. For the third member it's a 4.11 gear set. It's gonna give us a little bit more mechanical advantage. On the differential it's a Detroit TruTrac differential. For the axle shafts we went with 35 splines. Give us plenty of strength for that motor. Now our truck was originally equipped with drum brakes in the rear and we're gonna change that out and go with a disc brake setup as we continue the theme with EBC in the back here. For the pads we're going with their Bluestuff NDX. This is a step above their Yellowstuff. What this is gonna do is give you the capabilities to drive on the street but if you want to take it to a track day on the weekend it'll survive as you throw it in the turns and get hard on the brakes. So we're gonna go ahead and get these mounted up into the four piston calipers and get this one. Make sure all of that's gonna drive. [ Music ]

Alright, well that looks spot on right there. Between the 13 inch rotors in the back, the four piston calipers there we're really gonna improve the braking system on this truck. [Anthony] I've got a pretty cool product to show you today from FiTech. This is their Go Fuel tight fit retro kit and it's an in-tank fuel pump assembly. It's gonna get that noisy pump off your frame rail and in the tank. It's gonna keep it nice and cool and get rid of all that noise for you. Now this features a 440 liter per hour pump that's rated up to about 1,000 horsepower. Now they also make a 255 and a 340 if you're making less power than that. This also features a billet top hat with parallel ports. It's gonna keep your hoses symmetrical and it's gonna look real good on top of that tank. These directly fit onto Tanks Inc's tanks or you can retro-fit them into any tank as long as it's six inches deep and not more than 15 inches. Now we also picked up one of their stainless hose kits that features 40 feet of stainless hose along with all the fittings, the inline filter, and the check valve you're gonna need to get your efi system up and running. [Mike] From air bags to air conditioning we're upgrading a lot of areas on our C-10 and it's not gonna stop there. We're gonna ditch the manual window setup inside the truck and convert it to a power window setup with this kit from Nu-Relics. Now the best part about this kit is it bolts directly into our stock door here. They provide everything you need from the wiring harness to the switches to complete your installation. With over 500 applications in their inventory odds are they're gonna have a kit for your make and model. The best part is it's made in the USA and comes with a lifetime warranty. Check out Nu-Relics. Up next we check out a few species of wood to cover our short bed floor.

[Mike] Earlier we showed you putting together our bed on the outside but the inside we've got a hole left to fill. [Anthony] We need something to drop down in there. [Mike] There's a couple of options. From the factory these came with a steel floor or a wood floor, and for that wood floor we have Jeff Major here with Bed Wood and he's gonna talk to us about some different options for a bed wood setup. [Jeff] Thank you for having me down. This is a really cool truck. I can see y'all are raising the bed. So this is definitely not stock. Got rubber knee deep under it, which is gonna be amazing. That tells me you're raising it, wider tubs. Instead of being a stock application with this bed this is gonna be completely custom, which is not a big deal. What we'll look at is see what you do. Once you get it dialed where you want it we can get those specific dimensions and we're gonna make the wood floor to fit this bed exactly like it is. [Mike] For guys at home, whether they have a stock truck with stock tires they can call you up and say hey this is my application. You can send them a part number that will fit that or for a custom setup you can make that per spec to make it work. [Jeff] Exactly right. We make product going with our retro liner brands for a truck with a metal floor. Real wood bed liner goes right across the existing metal floor. Or the Bedwood brand, which is what started all this for me, is for any truck with a factory wood floor. So we're spanning from 2025 back to 1919. [Mike] So this is not just for old trucks. [Jeff] We can do this for any of them. We do so many customs. When we do the OE somebody says I want this bone stock. Sure we've got the part for it. We've got the dimension. We only use American made steel and stainless for our bed strips. We make all that in-house. All the wood is made in our shop, shipped finished and ready to install. We may want to put some flanges around the side to go around those tubs to hide the edge of that wood. After you get this floor raised you don't want to see any of that. You won't see any fasteners cause you're not gonna be able to use your stock attachment points like you see in this crossmember. [Mike] Now your truck has got a wood floor in it right? [Anthony] I have a wood floor. The way I did mine I used plywood and it took me a lot of hours to get right. I wish I would've called you guys up cause it would have been a lot easier. [Mike] There's a lot of different options for finishes as well. [Anthony] Lot of different species of wood, lot of different finishes. I think you brought us a couple of species right? [Jeff] We've got about 20 that we work with and eight different styles of bed strips. I picked a few things to bring down. Y'all told me the colors you were leaning toward. We brought a few things to look at and consider for it. [Mike] Let's go check them out. [Anthony] Jeff I see some pretty pieces of wood sitting on the table. [Jeff] After y'all told me about the build I thought I'd bring a few samples down. We've got 20 options to choose from. I picked four that I thought may go with this. The first one is a piece of red oak. It's got a satin finish on it. Now what I would recommend for this build but if somebody is wanting to freshen up the wood in their truck and get something on the entry level cost wise that's the wood to go with. [Anthony] You see a lot of red oak in trucks. [Jeff] It's a great American hard wood but there are better choices. This is a hickory. As you can see it would go good with the yellow and white paint scheme y'all are planning. You've got some calico, some cream. Very hard, durable wood. [Anthony] With the grain on hickory sometimes it'll get darker, sometimes streaking in there. [Jeff] Yeah a lot of character to it. Really a neat piece. This is our phantom series. A lot of people have been asking for a gray. While it may not go good with that truck it's such a pretty wood the way we do this. We use ash and build a finish on that. So you've got an extremely hard wood and durable wood as well. [Anthony] Baseball bat material. Louisville slugger! [Jeff] The one I think is gonna look the best with your paint scheme. This is called black limba. [Anthony] Never heard of it. [Jeff] It's an exotic wood, extremely hard, but it's got the colors. It's gonna pull all those colors together cause that bed is the largest flat surface on the truck. [Anthony] I see some green in there, some yellow. It ties in a little bit to both of them. [Jeff] It's gonna pull it together good. I was thinking about what y'all are doing with the wheels I thought instead of a stainless bed strip, which is what this is, and nothing wrong with that. Our new one's called smoked stainless. [Anthony] Kinda tones it down a little bit. Gives you that gray tone. That looks like it'll fit real well. [Mike] That ties in the wheels. [Jeff] And you can see the contrast how much better that looks. [Mike] Now those strips have the holes in it for the fasteners but you also have a style that hides the fasteners right? [Jeff] These are the hidden fastener strips so you don't see any bolts. For this build, with all the modifications that's been made to this bed absolutely a hidden fastener. That way the inside of that bed you'll see nothing. It'll be smooth as glass. [Mike] When I see everything's finished but for the guy at home I think about a wood floor. You think about sanding, and staining, and all the time it takes but he can call you up and say I need a wood floor that's finished right? [Jeff] Absolutely! Open the box and there's your bed strips. Your wood's all finished and ready to install. Your hardware all in one box. [Anthony] After all the work I put into my bed that is much appreciated. I wish I would have done it but hey. [Jeff] We're set up to do it. It's all American made. Even our raw product, our stainless, our hardware, everything's all American made. [Anthony] I'm super excited. That's gonna look awesome in that truck. Jeff we appreciate you coming out here today. [Jeff] Appreciate y'all having me down. [Mike] Thank you sir. We've got a lot of work to get done. Get you some measurements so you can get that floor cut out but that's all we've got time for today. That's for tuning in to Music City Trucks. Let's go grab some lunch. [Anthony] What do you like? [Jeff] Barbecue!