Since I first found this website I've been amazed at the out pouring of support, information and parts sharing by so many people on the various builds and projects. What a fantastic community this is and I'm glad to be a small part of it. This will be my first real project, a sort of figure it out as we go, kind of affair. Everything is going to take a lot of time and money, one of which I have in abundance.
I initially bought this 'medium olive' 1972 c10 from a young man (his family was about to get larger) who needed the cash. You could tell that he loved this rusty old truck. It was part of him and he hated to sell it, but being a solid young man, family comes first. Before I drove away he asked me to "please take care of her", I didn't have the heart to tell him that my soul purpose for this truck was to cut it up and use it as a matching trailer to tow behind my 'medium olive' 1972 k5. But as with everything, life had different plans for my immediate future and the c10 sat in the driveway for a few years. And you guessed it, plans changed. I decided I would never take the k5 off road again, it's too nice (I'm the second (family), technically third owner) and you just can't find these in this condition everyday. I'm gonna get into the Jimmy soon enough, but that's a different build.
So here I am stuck with a rather ugly, rusty, long bed c10. What to do? First things first... It needs to be shorter. It also needs a cab corner, both fenders where it meets the door, passenger door lower skin and some attention to the sheet metal floor which is
riveted in on the passenger side and most probably rockers. I'll install the crate motor from my k5 and my dad has a Muncie in his backyard that could do the trick for now. Interior, wiring, brakes, brake pads, rear end, suspension, exhaust and maybe a coat of matte clear... You get the idea.
So after a couple thorough readings of Mr. Lewis' (Rokcrln here on the board) post on LWB to SWB conversion, I grabbed some blue masking tape, and I'm off... Wish me luck!
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I started by laying out the section to be removed and reinforcing the bed. Then went after it with a 4" grinder and a cutting disc. I laid out the inside with a sharpie, carpenters square and a long level.
It just kinda fell off.
When it came to decapitating the frame end, the Sawzall was surprisingly more accurate than I thought.
The only place the truck was clean was from the radiator support forward (minus the grille) and at the very back of the bed. As you can tell, the passenger side doesn't line up very well. As I was hanging the tail, I got an emergency call to work so I left it on the hoist and braced it with a stout metal can... and it somehow fell off the can. 😡🙄 At least the drivers side was still good 👍🏼
All in all, not horrible for a first timer. Let's glue it together!
So it turns out that welding sheet metal has a fairly steep learning curve... Im still working on doing less harm than good. The blow outs are starting to come less frequent.
Tah-Dah! Just like it grew there!! 😆😳
Less pictures of the front... But you get the idea.
That's not going to work for me.
Luckily I had this clean support from one of the sections I removed. Time to swap em out
And of course a big shoutout to my partner in crime, Duke. Who found it to be quite cold in the garage at times.
