68 long bed Chevy “Harold”
 

Hey I hope you guys enjoy my build. I shared this already in new member introductions but I figured it would be best to start my build off with the background story so bare with me. My grandad (who along with my grandmother raised me) bought a long bed 68 C10 new. I always wanted that truck and when I was 15 I bought it from him for $750 (all of the money I saved from 2 years of mowing people's lawns, there was a lesson to be learned lol). I learned to drive in that truck and spent many good times with my grandad in or around it fishing hunting or just riding. My grandad and I were very close so we made it our project. He taught me how to be a decent mechanic and other "life lessons" during the time we spent working on it. We cleaned it up and painted it. Installed a new interior, lowered it a little and installed a mild 383 and TH350 and drove it for a few years until I graduated high school. Man I had some good times in that thing! When I went to college I figured I needed something newer to drive back and forth so like a big dummy I sold it. That was 15 years ago this month. Thought about it many times through the years. I even bought a 67 GMC about 10 years ago and joined the forum but didn't keep it very long since work kept me to busy back then. Fast forward to last week. I'm now grown and my grandparents have passed away. My wife and I were reminiscing about when we were kids and the subject of the truck came up and how stupid I was for selling it and how I wished I still had it. I decided I was gonna find another one and fix it up. A few days went by and as I was riding home from work I called my wife as I always do when I'm headed home, before we hung up she said she had a surprise for me when I get home. I was thinking heck yeah a 12 pack! Lol. Well it wasn't a 12 pack duh...it was the address of the guy who owned my old truck! She had called her friend who worked at the tag office and they tracked him down! Why didn't I think of that?! Anyway I sent a letter right then and he called me back on Thursday and said he would sell it to me to just come see him and we would figure out a price. So I went yesterday to see it. Man, sitting in that thing again brought back so many memories! I ended up giving $2000 for it not bad for something that really is priceless to me. Im probably gonna leave it as a long bed though after doing some thinking. I'm gonna add AC and power steering and make it my daily driver. I look forward to learning from everyone! Here is the picture of it now that it's home.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

I got Hellaflush3d to do me a rendering of what I plan on doing. I don't want it to be to low since it will be my daily and will see duty hauling dirt bikes and towing my motorcycle trailer and camper. I will be keeping it fairly level and adding air bags to the rear so I can stiffen up for the load. I love the pro touring look but it doesn't make sense for the way the truck will be used. I will be going with the factory 505 Green paint and argent silver 22" Steelies I also plan on adding a silver pinstripe to be different. Hope y'all like it!

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

cool back story for the truck. My truck was given to me by my dad. couldnt imagine not having it now. Awesome job by the wife to track it down, sounds like a keeper! look forward to your build

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

I have the engine and trans sold should be out by the weekend.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Cool story on getting your truck back! I did a double take when I saw your rendering, I thought it was a pic of my truck! I like your style :lol: I fully plan on keeping my truck functional too even though it will be pretty low (about a 6/8 static drop). I've had to do a few heavy mods to the bed to achieve this, but it is possible. Basically, I z'ed the rear frame to gain a built in 2.5" drop that didn't effect suspension travel at all. Anyway, just a thought if you still wanted to go for the low pro-touring look. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Yeah that's what I said once I saw yours lol. I was like wow it's very similar! Mine will remain a longbed and I'm definitely going to keep mine higher than yours because it will be towing and I need to keep it versatile as possible. I'm going to put a nice handling suspension just not super low. I enjoyed reading about yours I hope you enjoy mine!

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Cool truck and cool story

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Engines gone. Gonna have some rust to deal with on the passenger side and looks like my core support has some small rust issues too. I might try to save it though.....

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

I’ve decided to name my truck “Harold” in memory of my grandad. Most people called him John his first name but my grandmother was the only one who called him Harold, his second name. So I think it will be perfect.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

That is a very unique look, I really like it. In the rendering, how much is the rear of the frame/ bed shortened? Looks like 12 inches +/- off the back end?

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

I hadn’t even noticed that lol. It was just for me to get an idea of how it looks. I imagine that the angle of the truck with the big wheels kind of exaggerated the shortness behind the rear wheel.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Finally back at it! It’s been a busy year so not much time for the truck. Now though I have plenty of time and it’s about to get serious lol. I am getting the body off so I can blast the frame and paint it. Then on to suspension. I have decided to do a quality air ride system front and rear. I don’t plan on cutting the bed floor or anything like that so it won’t be too low.

On a different note I also managed to find some hubcaps just like the original chrome dog dish ones that came on it at the Moultrie GA swap meet for $125 for all 4. I figured that wasn’t bad since I couldn’t seem to find any. They were in rough shape though so I sent them off to be restored. I’ll post pics when I get them back. I’ll have about $400 dollars in them but they will be like new and the right ones.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Also I won’t be doing 22” wheels. I will be doing 20” smoothies from Coys

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Got some more work done today. Cab is ready to take off now just waiting on my friends to come help me. Looks like it’ll be the weekend before it happens.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Got the cab of this weekend! I’ll have the bed of tomorrow evening.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

im gonna follow along on this one.......

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Didn’t have much time to work this evening, but I got a little done. Since I am pretty much working alone, I’m disassembling the bed a piece at a time. I’ll be finished tomorrow evening and be ready to disassemble and blast the frame.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Keep on truckin man! Progress is looking great!

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Rest of the bed is off now to take the suspension and rear end apart an blast the frame!

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Got the frame ready to clean and blast. Making progress!

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Got the frame cleaned up! After removing 50 years of dirt it turned out nice. I think I’m gonna skip the sand blasting and just scuff it with a wire wheel and hit it with Eastwood Encapsulater and Extreme Chassis Satin Black. I’m thinking about doing some frame mods like a small c notch and maybe some pass through in the frame for exhaust before I paint it though.

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Dadgum man that frame cleaned up really well

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

You are making good progress. Cab looks really solid. The rendering looks good, but I don't mind the look the way you got it.

Awesome story, there is always "the one that got away". I should try locating some old cars, maybe just 1. I went the other way and tracked down the old owner/driver of my 69 acadian(nova).

Re: 68 long bed Chevy
 

Yeah it did!

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Cab was in good shape onlybrust was passenger side door sill and a dent in the pass cab corner. Yeah I still like it the way it was too. I was kinda going with the nascar look with the dark wheels and white letter tires. I wish I could find an old pic but I havnt been successful.
I have changed my direction a little from the rendering now though but we’ll just have to see how it turns out!