Back with a square Body this time.
 

So I was on here years ago as I was putting together a 68 C10, LY6 6.0, 6L80E, Coys, CPP big brakes & tubular arms, etc, etc. Spent 2+ years collecting NOS trim, radio, handles, etc, probably had 80% of the trim & whatnot in GM boxes. Anyway, lost all that to a crazy woman (along with 20 years of home equity building) 4 years ago so I had to start over from scratch, put my head down and pushed forward. Now I have 5 acres with a pond paid off (to build on in the future) and a newish house about 1/2 way paid for so I figured it was time to dive into another truck project since I rebuilt my equity.
Found a 78 square in Oregon, 49,000 miles and all original, zero rust, one family owned (grandpa-grandson).
One of my little brother's was down here from Wisconsin in Houston visiting family and he suggested a road trip instead of paying a transport. So I bought 2 one way tickets to Portland, asked the seller to drop the truck off at our hotel and we made a 3 day road trip out of it through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and TX. Awesome scenery (snow capped mountains, painted desert, Columbia river, Moab, etc) and the truck never missed a beat, 85 mph the whole way produced an awesome 9mpg which resulted in the consumption of about 257.3 gallons of fuel :lol:
Plans are to blow it apart to the frame then LS swap, 6.0 shooting for 500+ hp at the crank, T56 trans, ride-tech or QA1 four link/coil over setup, redo the interior with some plaid cloth inserts in the seat & door panels, take all the sheet metal to bare, get all the gaps good, blah blah blah. Strongly considering 2 tone but I can't decide on wheels yet, I'm leaning towards faux forged Ridler 607's (can't justify the expense of real forged) but I also would love some 20" white steelies with hub caps or some 20" Coys because then my truck would match my bike.
Back on here to absorb all the info and advice I can in an effort to minimize mistakes/regrets. Anyone have experience with the four link/coil-over set up? Comments? Suggestions?
Pics from our trip:

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Great lookin truck!!!. I get what you are wanting to do with it. For me, I really like that original look. It is only original once.

Good luck with your journey.

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Nice truck! Yeah, heck, I like it as it is!

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Grabbing a square body to work on helps put a lot of that life s#!t in the rearview mirror. Good work. I think your plans sound really cool and if I'm honest I would love to see them implemented on a truck that has already been beat up. That thing looks so good just as it sits. The only thing I'd change the floor mats, haha. Your truck, your plans, all good. Just saying that there are lots of trucks out there that need paint and that one looks beautiful already!

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

I had a feeling what the comments in here were going to be... and I have to say I agree... it’s a beautiful truck! Drive it, and buy a clunker to do the frame-off resto/full swap!

On the subject of wheels, my personal take on the steelies is that the big ones, from Detroit or Coys, with the caps, look a little goofy. Like the cap is lost in acres of huge steel wheel... consider a more original size like 15, but wider, 10’s-12’s for that badass deep dish steelie look. Similar to what Joe Yezzi has going on his trucks OJ and the blue one he built. That also allows you to run a tire with a decent sidewall. You pour a ton of cash into coilovers and 4 links, but run tiny sidewall 20’s and it’ll ride rough on the street.

Just a few thoughts... I’m sure whatever you do with it it’ll be badass! And props on the road trip, I’m a huge fan of that exact scenario, done it with both my last trucks and have another one in the works!

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Lol, I knew I was gonna hear it from the purists :lol:

Couple comments: The paint is not original, it's a dealership lacquer tape & shoot that was done in 1980 when the factory paint went to ****. I will say it is nice for a dealership paint job from that era but it's super thin on the hood and there's tape edges everywhere (to be expected). Plus grandpa had a camper shell on it so there're 6 holes drilled into the top of the bedsides, easy fix but obviously will require paint work, on the plus side the camper shell usually means no heavy loads, gravel, etc so the bed floor is purrrrrrrfect!

If the paint was original, I'd be restoring all trim and replacing all the rubber.

And yeah, those floormats are freakin hideous!!

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Nice canvas.....build it the way you want, it's your truck...

I just put the Ride Tech 4 link on my 84. Easy as pie. I did box the frame forward as I didn't like how flexible it was....no fault of the 4-link. Only have about 20 miles on it but on the surface it appears to be worth it....

T,

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

I'm no purist. Or maybe we have different definitions of that word. But I do recognize the value of how "together" that truck appears. I think many of us can picture driving that truck as it sits. And being able to spend a lot less on one to blow apart and put back together. One that has already gone the distance and "needs" all the things you plan on doing.

However, that point of view is based on making a number of assumptions about the actual condition of the truck. There's no way to know all that just by looking at pictures of the outside and the interior. All we can get from that is that it sure does look good.

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Truck looks decent as is for sure (which makes it a good choice as a solid foundation to build what YOU want).
Are you wanting a typical drop amount of say 4(F)/6(R) or is your plan for a more aggressive drop?

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Wow. it looks awesome! but im sure when your done it will be kooler!
Good to see they are still out there. im watching this one. NICE!

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

great looking truck..!!!

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Looks nice as it is except an OD transmission would help with the mileage.

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Nice truck!

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

Maybe you can add some tattoos and a beard to it.

Re: Back with a square Body this time.
 

4/6 or 5/7