What have I done?!

[1967wannabe]

Drove up to Dallas last Sunday while my wife was knocked out in the hospital recuperating from gall bladder surgery and picked up a fairly rust free '70 Chevy C-10 Fleet Side SWB. Originally a six w/3 on the tree, currently has no motor or trans.
PO ruined the bed floor by hacking it up and beginning to tub it (HACK JOB), also ruined (IMO) the hood with a home made 6 or 7 inch cowl induction set-up but.... the paint is all original, both sides are very straight and there are no rot holes in it (that I have found yet anyway) so it'll do.


The Plan (today) is as follows:

Strip to frame, send out for sand blast/powdercoat.
All new steering/suspension, powdercoated & new bushings.
CPP "Big Brake Grand Slam Kit" 4.5/6 drop with 13" rotors.
20x8.5 front/22x10 rears, old school five spoke (Coy's or Boss so far).
Low mile 5.3/4L60E install using all the donor components (mech fan, OE a/c compressor & p/s pump, etc.)
Move tank to rear, add late model fuel door to bed side (ala gringoloco).
Replace front clip with '67 sheetmetal & core support.
Replace the bed floor (steel) and rear inners.
Smooth (no bolts) front & rear chrome bumpers.
Hidden hitch w/late model round elect connector.
One piece door glass (Brothers kit came with truck).
Restore interior to "close to stock".
Paint it black to match the bike.
500 other things I'll remember as I go.

Will be aksing lotsa questions and looking for advice along the way so "thanks in advance!"...already have absorbed a ton of info from this website.

Comments are welcome.

FWIW I am a service manager at a large volume independent auto repair shop that also has a (bigger than the mech shop I run) collision repair shop, so my resources are fairly plentyful.

Picture of it right after loading it up in Dallas [IMG]http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/TexasSG
/Photo0570.jpg[/IMG]

Parked at work......that hood is OUTTA HERE!!!


Cab floor, inner rocker & cab mount, niiiiiice


Cab corners


And the bike I'm looking to match.

[1967wannabe]

First pic in previous post didn't take:

Picture of it right after loading it up in Dallas

[67chevy1series]

in my opinion the hood gots to go! lol but the rest of the truck looks beautiful!!

[luis979motoring]

dude nice van!

looks like a keeper. just not the hood lol. what part of houston? I'm about 45 mins away!

[low&slow]

Man, if only I lived in Texas. I would take that hood off your hands if you ever thought about getting rid of it.

Anyways, looks to be a good start.

[1967wannabe]

Well, after spending last Sunday afternoon schlepping around in some old mans "back-yard junk yard" (looked like one of the houses/yards you see on the TV show Hoarders) for what seemed like hours with two of my youngest sons in tow looking at nothing but rust bucket after rust bucket after....... And then sneaking out of work yesterday to go and buy what I was told was a "solid" (no holes) front clip only to find a cancerous, bondo filled pile of chit (see deceiving pic from CL), I am going aftermarket on the whole front clip.
Plenty here have done it, we use A/M panels in our body shop here every day (as per your insurance policy) and 90% of the time they fit as good as OE (which also can require a little massaging from time to time).
Anyway, hope to have the front sheet metal test fitted in the next few weeks so I can blow it all apart and get the frame off to powdercoat.

[m6z]

cool. that the same truck on c/l that had the tunnel ram? Looks like a good start.

[partsman3]

1967wannabe, If you want aftermarket fenders, I'll sell you the ones I bought. I wasn't happy with the fit myself, but you may have better luck with them. I have a factory hood that will need a little work and a grill panel that needs work too. Many other parts too.

[1967wannabe]

Originally Posted by luis979motoring

dude nice van!

looks like a keeper. just not the hood lol. what part of houston? I'm about 45 mins away!

Thanks, after #7 was born 3 years ago I had to get something that was 9+ passengers (kids always have at least one friend coming along) and I swore I would not drive a "church-van". I found the black GMC at a dealer in KC with only 8K on the odometer so I flew up there and drove it home to Houston. Found a matching fourth row bench-seat/seat belts/floor brackets & trim from a van in MN, had em ship all that down and installed it here at the shop to turn it from an 8 passenger (1/2 ton) into a 12 passenger. Then added 20" wheels, billet grille, 15" drop down tv/dvd, flowmaster, tinted the front windows and de-badged it. My wife can't believe how many compliments she gets on it!

We live in Kingwood.

[1967wannabe]

Originally Posted by m6z

cool. that the same truck on c/l that had the tunnel ram? Looks like a good start.

Yep, it had a big block in it, he had it listed with out without motor.

The cab, doors & besides are super clean, front clip's going '67 and I need to do something with the bed floor, PO hacked it all up!

[1967wannabe]

Originally Posted by partsman3

1967wannabe, If you want aftermarket fenders, I'll sell you the ones I bought. I wasn't happy with the fit myself, but you may have better luck with them. I have a factory hood that will need a little work and a grill panel that needs work too. Many other parts too.

What brand are they? Can you email pics of the other parts? mikeshannon@kennethscarcare.com

[Zoomin]

I'm following your recipe pretty close on my project - beefed up suspension and LSx. I'll be following along to see how you're doing. With the assets at your disposal, I'll be way behind in short order.

Nice looking bike too. Are those HD rims? What have you done to the engine?

[gearys 5600]

Nice find.

[1967wannabe]

Originally Posted by Zoomin

I'm following your recipe pretty close on my project - beefed up suspension and LSx. I'll be following along to see how you're doing. With the assets at your disposal, I'll be way behind in short order.

Nice looking bike too. Are those HD rims? What have you done to the engine?

I hope so, we've got some top shelf talent at the shop. 5 techs in the mechanical shop, three of which are Master/L1 cert and a body shop equipped with some of that "south of the border" talent....those guys were raised without replacement parts, they can do some amazing work with garbage.... and fast!

Thanks! No sir, they're Colorado Customs (HD don't make anything that purdy). Mod list on the bike is long but the motor is stock (so far), planning on a Fuel Moto 107" build w/cams soon.

[1967wannabe]

Well, I haven't gotten anything done other than parts acquisitions but now that I've got some personal issues resolved we're gonna get back on it! Also spent a little time putting together El Cheapo, a '96 Ranger budget build for one of my 16 year old daughters. (I've got less in the Ranger than I paid for my C/10 roller).

So far, for the C/10, I've got Cpp front & rear tubular control arms along with their dropped rear suspension x-member, 5/7 lowering kit, Cpp 13" big (front) brake kit, master cyl/prop valve/booster assy, 5 lug rear axle kit, all new steering linkage & ball joints, tubular LS mounts, SS brake line kit, tubular trans x-member, 99 Camaro gas tank, 20x8.5 & 20x10 chrome Coy's, 265/50 & 295/45 BFG TA KDW'S , new (aftermarket) '67 fenders, hood & core support and a nice used 68 grille & steering wheel from forum members.

I was waiting until I got my motor to start tearing into it so that I could roll through drive train/frame mock-up and then tear it all back apart for powder-coat. Well, I scored a low mile '08 L76/6L80E combo today so it's game on!

All I can think of that I may need for mock-up is some of those DT headers, prolly order those later this week.

Threw in some before and after pics of the Ranger (I know, I know it's not a GM!) so y'all can see one thing that delayed the C/10 but the third pic is the GM diamond in the rough!

[1967wannabe]

Haven't updated this thread in awhile as I haven't had much time to work on the truck. Got the '70 front clip off & sold, found a solid '68 clip in Dallas. I must say I was relieved when I pulled the clip off and found all solid steel on the front of the cab under the fenders. Also scored a decent bed floor, a perfect tail gate and a bunch of NOS parts.
Finally got a Saturday to work on it. Got my LS stands installed then tried to stab the motor/trans but the compressor & alternator hit the frame.....barely. Pulled it back up and removed both, tried to restab, no luck...oil pan hit cross-member, pulled the pan and in it went. Not much fun when you're working alone.....well, I did have my youngest helping.
No idea why the CPP stands have the motor so far forward, if it's moved back I'll have more room for the compressor and the oil pan should clear.
Can anyone give me a reason to not move the motor back about 4 inches?

[1967wannabe]

and the tailgate

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by 1967wannabe

First pic in previous post didn't take:

Picture of it right after loading it up in Dallas

The first thing is to get rid of that hood.it is a eye sore. it makes the truck look bad.

[1967wannabe]

Originally Posted by gdavis

The first thing is to get rid of that hood.it is a eye sore. it makes the truck look bad.

The hood is long gone, got a 68 clip for it

[chevy88]

Very nice straight rust free truck.

[ChefCy]

I live in Houston as well (stafford near Republic HD) I have 06 RK and a 63 c10.

Need to meet up so i can see this build in person...

[1967wannabe]

High hump installed, motor moved back 3.5" and headers test fit:

[1967wannabe]

.........and another project were getting near the end of; 63 convertible with a new ZZ4, almost everything powdercoated or new:

[ChefCy]

thats the air cleaner i want for my RK.