70 C10 Long and Low

[ajstager]

1970 Chevy C-10 Fleet Side Long Bed..

The Plan:
Frame Off
All New Suspension, Steering, Brakes, Rubber
Transplant Rebuilt 350 and Trans
Fresh paint, weather-stripping, wood bed

Mostly Stock look, a few extra customs???
mild drop
big wheels
Rear gas tank relocation (hidden filler)
Roll down rear window (hope I am not just dreaming here)
Fresh Interior (70's Era Styling)

Starting with something that looks like it was an ole farm truck from AZ complete with white house paint.. No motor, no trans, bumpers or grill, and a body lift kit

[ajstager]

Pictures of the truck being trailered and back at the shop.. No motor, trans, bumpers, grill
1-9-11

[ajstager]

Taking her apart to get down to the chassis: 1-30-11

[ajstager]

Taking apart all of the old suspension, brakes, steering to bring it down to a bare frame for sand blasting: 2-5-11

[Krooked Kustoms]

G'day mate, looks like a good start. Keep it up. Cheers
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[centsless]

Looks like a really solid truck and nice clean frame! Nice work!

[ajstager]

While we had the frame down to bare metal we thought it would be a good time to do a little frame stiffening.
Along the frame from the rear axle up to the front control arms we boxed in as much of the frame as we could without knowing exactly where the trans cross was going to go.

I thought I had more pictures of the metal fully welded in but here is just them tacked in... look at the painted frame to get a better look at the finished stuff especially up front with all of the frame twists.

the last photo was just us tacking the next plate in to get a good mark on the back for cutting to fit.

[ajstager]

Pictures of the frame after being painted.. Epoxy primer and Chaise black 2 coats... And the last picture is the aftermath of our paint booth, after several different methods the easiest by far is to use carb or brake cleaner and than sweep up with oil dry.

[ajstager]

Rear suspension was all replaced with 4" drop springs, shock relocation, and adjustable track bar. So far we stayed with the original bump stops just shined them up with a wire wheel and they look brand new, might need to get shaved down once its fully loaded down.

Front suspension has CPP 2-1/2" drop spindles, stock springs, stock control arms, new shocks, still need to add shock brackets, moog ball joints, moog cross shaft bushings.

[ajstager]

All new steering parts less the gear box, just stock replacement parts from moog. It will defiantly be needing an alignment before the wheels start rolling.

[Krooked Kustoms]

lookin good mate! im getting to the stage of bolting up my front end. With the tie rod ends what determines the inner and outer ones?

[lolife99]

Looks GREAT!
Before you get too far along,... you have your inner tie rods and center link install backwards.
The inner tie rods install from the back side.
You will have to turn your center link around to change the inner tie rods.
The tie rod nut should be on the front side of the centerlink.
This will cause issues later if you don't fix it.

[ajstager]

dohh:

Originally Posted by lolife99

Looks GREAT!
Before you get too far along,... you have your inner tie rods and center link install backwards.
The inner tie rods install from the back side.
You will have to turn your center link around to change the inner tie rods.
The tie rod nut should be on the front side of the centerlink.
This will cause issues later if you don't fix it.

Thanks lolife nice catch, well I was actually looking to go and prime/paint those steering links today so I guess I will have to fix that center link while I am it..

I think if you can catch that you would be damn good at finding waldo, that sneaky B

[67cheby]

looking good

[ajstager]

Got the Front suspension put back together the right way.. and put some paint down to keep it fresh..

[BENC-10]

Awesome build! Im in the process of cleaning up the frame on my 70 swb also

[ajstager]

It's only be a couple years since the last update. wow, that went by fast. well I have some updates on the build most of which are from a few years back but getting around to getting more of this beast done the updates should start flowing a little more regularly.

[ajstager]

Rear axle being converted to 5 lug, welding up the existing holes before sending to the machine shop. Re installing gears, axles, and drum brakes. Painted red, so it stops faster.

[ajstager]

Having a basic rolling frame assembled we moved on to a bit of sheet metal work. the plan here is to get the body work done, primer down and any under body paint completed. Fine body work and topcoat to be done at a later date. Here are the inner fenders and core support. The inner fenders were in pretty good shape, a couple dents to be smoothed out and the inside corner on both sides needed a little bit of fresh steel before these got primed and painted. The core support was in great shape, just a sand blast then to primer and chassis black.

[ajstager]

Here are the front fenders and cowl vent. I don't know why I never took a picture of the outside of the fenders but its just primer grey any hoo. I will tell you that sand blasting that cowl vent was tedious and not all that much fun in the middle of a cold Wisconsin winter, but I think it turned out well.