Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

I found my 1970 C-10 LWB at the spring "Event" in Carlisle PA in 1996. It was the daily driver of a guy who was selling parts and it was parked behind his tables with a small for sale sign in the window. I'd been looking for a 70 pick up for about a year so I walked back to check it out. Long story short ( too late ) I ended up buying it and picked it up from him a few weeks later at his home town in Virginia. The previous owner told me it had always lived "in the area" as far as he knew and was used mostly on farms. I later did a title search and found out he was right - all of the address's that came back were ALL in the same town !!! That's when I first realized that my truck has had 25 "FARMER" owners. Below, are the first pictures I took of the truck when I brought it home - sorry about the "blurry" pictures but my 10 year old scanner isn't very compatible with my new laptop and I didn't have a digital camera in 1996. As you'll see, it had 26 years of use on muddy farm roads and needed to be cleaned up BADLY !!!

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

A few more of the interior, underside of the hood and YES - that's where the exhaust pipes STOPPED when I first brought it home !!! ( next to the trailing arm that you could stick a finger through ) I had a complete dual exhaust system put on at my local muffler shop. In 1996, they had to "make" several of the pipes since they didn't have any codes for bending a dual exhaust 1970 truck in there computer. ( that exhaust is STILL on there and in pretty good shape . . . fifteen years later - I've only put on about 800 miles on it all that time !!! )

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

At this point, I had no intention of restoring it - I was just going to clean it up and ride around in it, taking it to a few local shows and cruises where people wouldn't care too much how it looked. I thought I'd "might-as-well" clean up the interior and engine compartment. As you can see - it needed it. After getting the grease and mud off, I found out that it has the original engine with the code: TAX for a 350 4bbl built in the fall of 1969. The heater box was FULL of acorns and that large "mound" of greasy mud was scraped off of the area around ONE A-arm !!!

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

While doing all of this cleaning, I found a few interesting things. There are grease pencil markings on the driver's side firewall with the build sequence number "635" and the letter "B" which I found out later stood for the Baltimore Md plant on Broening Highway. I also found the letters "AIR" on the inside of the passenger fender, right next to another "635", which told everyone on the assembly line who needed to know, that this truck was going to have Air Conditioning. At this point I decided I "might-as-well" ( you're starting to understand the title of this thread more now, aren't you !!! ) take the radiator out and have it re-cored, since it seemed to be leaking a little and made into a 5 core "desert cooling" one ( just in case !!! )

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Pretty solid looking truck. Im gonna guess that u "might as well" restore it lol. So what's the plans for her
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Next I thought, since all of the parts on the engine LOOKED 26 years old, I "might-as-well" have the carburetor and alternator rebuilt. I bought new water and fuel pumps and put some orange paint back on the engine. I scraped the other A-arm and got ANOTHER mound of greasy mud. When I had all the new and rebuilt parts together, I put them on. I'll ad here, that so far, I've done all of this mostly by myself. ( except when I had to have it towed to a shop to have the water pump installed and carburetor set up ) Sometimes it would have helped a lot just to have someone to talk to while I was working on the truck. If you have a neighbor, friend, parent or child to be with - you are VERY LUCKY !!!

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

After taking out the rubber floor covering, I discovered the driver's side floor had a good-sized hole in it and the passenger side floor had been badly patched - so, I took the truck to a local body shop to have these areas repaired PROPERLY. While that was being done, I took out the gauge cluster and replaced all of the bulbs and was going to install the new bezel I bought and I thought I "MIGHT-AS-WELL" have it gone through by a local gauge restorer. I bought a new, reproduction steering wheel for it around this time too. The last picture here shows why.

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

I installed the gauge cluster when it came back and had a "close to original" cloth seat cover installed. I hadn't bought the dash pad yet, but it looked pretty good. So far, all this took about 10 years to complete. Most of that time it was sitting in my driveway, under the big oak trees in my yard and the white roof suffered !!! I occasionally used it to haul things like mulch and everywhere I took it, people would ask me things about it and told me it "looked nice for it's age" ( which I knew really meant: "When are you going to get the REST of it fixed ?" )

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

One day while looking at the front bed panel and rocker panel's rust, the "almost gone" toolbox area and wood bed and those GOD-awful mirrors, I began to think: " I might-as-well have it restored" !!!

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Now comes the GOOD part. The pictures below are the last ones taken before it was restored. They show how it looked in July of 2008 - at the Pennsylvania Dutch Market cruise where every fourth Friday of the month during the summer, 800 to 1000 cars and trucks arrive. One of my bus driver friends told me she knew a guy named Jason, who owned a few old Chevy trucks and worked in a BODY SHOP. She said he'd be at the cruise today and that I should talk to him about "fixing" some of the problems my truck had. To make a VERY long story short ( too late, AGAIN ) I talked to Jason and he looked the truck over. For more then a hour, I showed him ALL of it's problems. We decided he'd fix the rusted areas and paint the truck. I brought it up to his garage in October 2008 and he started to take it apart.

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Talk about a "CAN OF WORMS" - ( I was going to use THAT for this project's title, but I'm sure it's already been taken ) When it was all apart, Jason found a "soft spot" in the frame ( another place you could put a finger through ) which would have to be patched and one end of the main cross member, between the two springs, came apart in his hand as he tried to take it off !!! ( that's what's left of IT on the floor in the last picture )

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Jason also discovered after taking the bed off, that the ROOF had been "replaced" at some point - you can see in the pictures where a poor bondo job had been done about half way up the back of the cab. Now we know why the doors didn't fit very well !!!

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

I love those steering wheels ...can I ask where you got the reproduction?
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Yep Steve...I know all about the "might-as-well's":D You'll be glad you did....look forward to seeing the finished product!!!:D

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Welcome from Iowa. Very cool! Nice truck man! Reminds me of mine. I've got some of those grease pencil markings too! Very interesting you learned where they came from - up til now, I thought they were parts from a junk yard. lol I'm considering putting steel wheels, white walls and those original wheel covers on too.

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

awesome! The fabric in that picture looks decent. I found one place via another thread on this site that sells the parchment fabric. I think mine will clean up nicely, we'll see. Of all the pictures I've seen, never once have I seen a seat exactly like mine, though blue :metal: or is it? maybe your pattern is different? I think it's my eyes... being blue makes it look more busy, to me.

...
What was that thing on your cluster where the tach would be? Looked like something was mounted on the face of it, then it's gone when you reinstalled it all.

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Gee, you might as well come out here and sit in my garage on an upturned paint bucket and talk while I work on my beast.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=351356

Mark

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Can you Pm me on the couple places that sale the parchment cloth seats. I think they will go great with my build.

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

PM's sent.

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

SMS Upolstery in Canby Oregon sells it

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

now THAT'S a loaded SPID Steve! very cool. I seen around the web where you can get SPIDs made. Looks good!

We need more pics! :metal:

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

Noticed you deleted your post about your bench seat.
There's a cab being parted out with the seat you you were talking about here

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

The bed is being "put together" next week and HOPEFULLY I'll have the truck back home in, M A Y B E three weeks ????? I'll post the AFTER pictures on here as soon as I get it home. Jason wants it out of his shop probably more then I do because HIS truck will be going in next. It's really going to look like a completely different truck - not just because of the color change, but because almost everything is new. Here's the only other picture I have - the SUNDAY the front half spent in the paint booth: - 10 - 10 - 10 - I hope that will be lucky !!!

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

looks great!

Re: Project: "Might-as-well" - 70 C-10 LWB
 

It's S T I L L not completely finished yet, but I HAD to show everyone who's been following my build, the AWESOME job Jason has done on my toolbox area and door. Here is the before picture ( when it was still blue ) and the after pictures I just got in an email five minutes ago. It turned out even better then I was hoping it would with his many hours of work.

The front end is scheduled for an alignment next week and the rear ratio will be changed the next weekend - and THEN, it SHOULD be finished.
We're getting real close now, anyway !!!

. . . . . . . . .