Project-Atlas
 

Here's the build to my 1969 c10. It's the first truck I ever bought and got me into a life style I had never imagined. I picked it up at 16 for 300 bucks and spent every dollar I made over the next couple years to make it a nice driver with new interior. Along the way I met a man named Craig Johnson who turned my views upside down. He was into custom cars and opened up a new realm for me which greatly shaped this truck. Although I'm pretty deep into the build I'll try to show the progress over the years and then get everyone up to speed!

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Here's where I started fooling with the truck. I'd never worked on anything before but I dove right in and after replacing some bolt on bits I took a swing at the rust repair with the help of my uncle Russ

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Every evening for a couple weeks I came out to his house and he would guide me along the process but always made me do the work. Thankfully the rusty mess didn't fold up being cut apart like this!

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Now that I couldn't put my feet through the floor anymore I figured the truck needed attention elsewhere so I kept plugging away. I decided to try pinstriping for a while thankfully I didn't do it to the body!

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After adding 2" drop coils to the rear of the truck I knew I had started something I couldn't stop. But unfortunately I didn't have the money to go nuts so I settled for working on the interior while I saved

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Then with some added encouragement from Craig I decided the truck needed to have air ride to do everything I needed. First up was the rear suspension.

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Now that the truck was a serious tail dragger I'd saved up enough money for ridetech lowers and portebuilt stage 1 drop plates. I had serious ball joint issues with stock spindles and uppers but it lived like this for a while. Along the way the 292 got some dress up parts as well

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After saving all winter I was finally able to buy the uppers, drop spindles and a set of wilwood brakes and some new wheels and tires Installation was a breeze!

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At this point I was happy with the truck and attended every show my plucky little 292 would get me to. But sadly the motor was short lived. On the way back from a show I hit a massive pool of water during a flood and drown the poor truck. It still ran but damage was evident. There was enough blow by it would coat the entire hood so I built a seal for the valve cover only to find out that much pressure will push oil out of the dipstick so it was time for something new.

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The engine of choice was a 2001 5.3 ls that I got from a salvage yard. After inspection I decided a full rebuild was in order so I spent my savings on adding a cam, arp hardware, hooker manifolds, low profile oil pan, tremec tko, New performance clutch and a carburetor conversion (which was simply terrible)

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During the rebuild I did a lot of race inspired modifications I debured the entire engine, decked all surfaces, smoothed the valley pan and opened up the return ports, ported and polished the heads ect although not necessary it did give me some piece of mind for my first engine build.

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With the engine in I found myself with a rather difficult task of making the transmission come out in the stock hole and also having enough clearance in front of the engine as well. I had to ditch the mechanical fan for a set of pushers to do so but it worked. I also relocated the coils into the glove box and fit some sbc valve covers over the existing ls covers.

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Although I'm lacking pictures I built a raised wood floor for the back and built this filler piece and had it pained to match along with the firewall fillers

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After all of that I spent the next couple years trying to take it to shows only to have problem after problem. I loved the truck but it was absolutely unreliable at one point I was even trying to sell it I was so frustrated. But I realized I couldn't part with it so I had to start over and fix all of the problems I had created. So here's where the build really starts to take shape. I ditched the carburated setup for a drive by wire fuel injection of and 06 ls engine and built my own intake for it as no one offered a dual plane multi port setup. And sourced the throttle body adapters through delmospeed along with valve cover adapters to fix my botched together design.

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Although I had done all the work to the factory harness I wasn't confident it would give me trouble free driving so I opted to buy an aftermarket harness after some research. The lead time was 3 months so I tried out my new intake with the carburetor to see if it solved any of my problems which it didn't even after correcting the angle from the backwards intake the carburetor simply was untunable so the truck still sat. But during that time we found a shop and got moved in!

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So after moving into the shop and still not having any of my efi stuff I decided the truck was just to damn long so this happened. I opted not to have a seam on the front edge as I wanted to save the paint so I tipped the front edge but still cut the rear but far enough back to avoid the falling line but still kept the side markers

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Bed shortening continues along with cutting the frame. Although I don't have pictures I cut behind the cab and moved the crosmember ahead without ever taking the cab off but it was a nightmare I wouldn't suggest it. My only justification was not having to cut airlines and wiring going into the cab.

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Now it was all going back together but I felt the need to upgrade the compressors to air zenith along with box in my c notches which I'd never done for some reason. Everything was going well until I tried to reuse my old exhaust only to realize there was not a chance of stuffing it in there without having heat issues on the accuair sensors along with the batteries so plan b was in order. The exhaust would have to exit the side of the frame before the crossmember but only on the drivers side due to all the wiring and plumbing on the passenger side

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Now that I had exhaust through the frame I decided to take a page out of tootsies book and had these exhaust bezels made with a v band flange on the backside to keep everything nice and secure

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Now that the exhaust was finished I needed to shorten the existing wood floor which hadn't held up Well at all so it was refinished with dark walnut stain and satin spar varnish

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I had also decided the accuair remote wouldn't be on the seat anymore after a near incident while driving so I made a little form to fit in in.there was a little trial and error but the piece turned out great and modifying the ashtray was pretty straightforward

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Next on the list was a heater which I had ditched in favor of a clean look but found out I needed for this climate. I went with a vintage air gen 2 heater and built a tray and new shallow glove box to keep it out of sight. I also used a heater bypass with the stock cable so the heater is controlled entirely with the factory sliders

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Now back to that motor. I had wired the entire engine and located the ecm and tac module under the seat along with all the accuair components for a factory look. Everything went smoothly and the truck even fired right up first try! But I had issues with the factory abuse mode kicking in which took me a while to figure out. Now that I was finally running I decided to tear the front of the engine off to address the terrible alternator mount and failing paint on the accessory drive

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After deciding a new accessory drive was out of my budget I set out to build my own! I didn't like the big billet pieces everyone was using so I built my own low mount alternator setup and even saved my old belt. All I had to do was buy one idler pulley and a few bolts. This is what I came up with. I also modified the water pump neck for a more favorable look as well as smoothed the entire body

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That pretty well brings the truck to its current state I'll continue to add pictures as I move forward

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You do great work my friend!Keep the pictures coming!

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Thank you! Here's some pictures from today here's the painted accessory drive and the wire loom tucked behind it feeding the fans and alternator

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Fabbed up a new upper radiator hose out of 2" stainless necked down to 1.5" and added a port for the steam ports. Also got the 2 step in there with clutch and first gear micro switches

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Nice work and build!

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Thanks buddy it's got a handful of your parts in there!

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:D....:metal:!

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Well here's an update I wanted to do a nut and bolt check along with a fluid change on the tremec tko. While jacking the truck up the Jack slipped. It ruined the bumper, smashed the core support and seems to have ruined the jack too. Unfortunate accident but luckily it didn't get me too. Since my nice bumper is folded up I decided I might run some white bumpers for a while I kind of like them.

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Nice build looking great. Sucks about the jack.

I like how you put cribbing under the tires with jack stands. I've seen two people die under a car when a jack gave away.

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Nice build all around. Well documented. I especially like how you handled the ignition wires and valve covers. I know it's an LS, but I love the old school Chevy script on the covers.

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Very cool build :metal::chevy:

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Started building some filler panels today I'll snap some pictures of the rest of them tomorrow evening

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Here's some pictures almost debating on going with a brushed aluminum look rather than paint but who knows?

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Got some more done today still lots of fitting and welding to do

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Still chipping away

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Been busy sanding and making more things that need sanding. Hopefully one day I'll actually drive the damn thing. Ordered some killer wheels too they should be coming any day