Project AirLS 70

[Hendo67]

I've been watching the forum for a while now, but this is my first post. I hope to document my build of a 70 Chevy C10 short bed step side.

I think I should start with a little history on the truck and try to elaborate on the ever changing goal of this project.

One of my boys decided that he really wanted a truck like this to fix up when he was a 16 year old in high school. He did some searching and located this truck on E-bay and decided it was the one for him. I contacted the seller, and got some information on the truck and a few additional pictures. I asked about rust and the drive train and was told it had some rust in the usual places and the engine had recently had the heads redone and was otherwise a good runner with no knocks or smoke. The usual places for rust being the cab mounts and cab corners. From the pictures it looked like we were getting fairly accurate information.
We were successful (I use the term loosly) in winning the auction and the bells should have started going off when the seller wanted FULL payment before we picked up the truck. Like an idiot, I bought into his story of needing the money to snag up a good deal on some race car parts plus it was going to take me a week or two to arrange the trip from Minnesota to central Illinois to pick it up.
I made the trip down with a car trailer and was quite disappointed in the actual condition of the truck. You could see through the floor in several places and the area above the windshield was rusted through on the inside. The rockers were history as was the bottom of the kick panels on the inside. The rear ends of the frame rails were swiss cheese and the bed was held on with two bolts. To top it off the engine had 3 flat lobes on the cam (but no knock or smoke). This was my last vehicle purchase on eBay.
I got the truck home and the poor condition didn't do much to dampen my son's enthusiasm for this "project". We decided that the easy fix would be to find a new cab as the rest of the truck was actually not too bad. While we waited for the right cab to come along, we tore into the engine and did a full short block. It was good experience for him and a great refresher for me. With some sheet metal patches on the floor and some strategic duct taping, he was able to drive the truck through the winter. Unfortunately he realized that the truck was going to cost him too much in gas to keep driving and he wasn't going to get it done in time as he was planning to join the military when he was done with school. Long story short- I traded him a 2001 Chevy impala for the old truck. Not exactly what I had in mind for a project, but because it was his, I took it on.
I had originally intended to do a typical rebuild/ mild resto mod to the truck. Unfortunately for the check book, I let the project snowball.
My second plan of a stage 1 Porterbuilt suspension has morphed into a stage 2 front and rear with A- arms. The throw some aluminum heads on the small block has evolved into a gen IV 5.3 with a 4L60e. Naturally the rest of the truck will need to be pretty heavily modified to go along with the suspension and drive train, but that goes without saying-right?

I hope you all enjoy following along with this build, as I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy (gulp!) doing it.
Here is a rendering of the direction I want to go. Unfortunately the program (digital paint booth) doesn't have a step side in the database. I would like for the truck to have a NASCAR vibe to it and little to no flash. Very subdued and purpose built is the ultimate goal.
The color is a satin white (looks gray in the rendering).

[Hendo67]

I am still trying to locate all my pictures from the early days of the build. They are on one of 4 computers (I think) and a phone or two (I hope).
Here are a few of the tear down.

[Hendo67]

More tear down.

[Hendo67]

You can see some of the cancer on the rear frame section and the spring doubler above the rear end. The body mount areas of the cab were rebuildable, but I really didn't need to unbolt the cab from the frame. For the most part, the bolts pulled right through the cab mount pads. Its hard to tell in the pictures but the trailing arms were in pretty bad shape too. I probably could have gotten away with patching them up and adding a doubler over the seam, but didn't really want to once I started seeing the Porterbuilt products.

[Hendo67]

Getting it down to the bare frame- and then some. Say goodbye to the old cab- redneck style! My neighbors must love me.

[flashed]

Im in for another one .

[wreckedchevy]

that is definitely some serious rust, look forward to seeing your progress we could always use another stepper on the streets

[Mike C]

Going to look great! Looking forward to more updates. I've got a 69 short step I'm working on so this hits close to home.

[hdff]

sub'ed
did you give the guy good feedback ? lol it is dicks like that that screw sites like that. be HONEST people!!!!!!

[Hendo67]

I don't think he really cared much about the feedback, but he did get 80 characters of negativity from me! I should have learned after the 67 Camaro convertible I bought a few years prior.......but I didn't.

I had the stripped frame, some components and the rear end media blasted. I was surprised at how clean it all came out, but the heavily rusted areas were pretty much gone. I was able to repair the frame damage with some 11 gauge rectangle tube that I cut into a channel and sectioned. The radius and thickness matches the old frame almost perfectly.
I also fabricated some new upper spring mount/ shock crossmember gussets. I was going for the "Porterbuilt look" as I had my stage 1 front/ stage 2 rear on order. No offense to Nate and the gang- imitation is the best form of flattery!

[Boog]

I'm not an ebay user but I thought you had the right of refusal if the item was obviously misrepresented. Is that not the case?
It looks like your fab skills are up to the task of this rebuild.I like the Nascar theme.

[Hendo67]

You really don't have a lot of recourse when you've paid in full. The guy went as far as to have his nephew meet me to give me the title and stuff. Most likely so he wouldn't have to face up to the BS he told me. Its all water under the bridge now, so I don't let it bother me.

[slowcpe]

Sucks about the purchase. Your story and build is similar to mine. I'm starting to have a knack of finding rusty trucks. My first one was rusted by the drivers spring in the same place as your truck. Sold it for that reason and bought my current truck. While tear down I keep finding more rust. More than likely I will he swapping cabs.

Your frame work looks great.

Tagging along for the ride.

[darkhorse970]

I'm following along. I like the plan.

[70LonghornCST]

Keep up the good work. It looks like you are making lemonaid out of lemons. Nice attention to detail!

[mammothhunter]

Man awesome work so far! I'm hooked and will keep watching. Glad you are saving it from completely rusting away!

[Hendo67]

Thanks for the comments guys.
I got some rubber on the wheels- definitely not the tires I will be using eventually, but I had them and they hold air. I think I will be running a little more sidewall when the time comes.
There is air in them there bags. The suspension is actually holding the frame up. First time in a long time and a real motivator. I went with a mild DM and a regular c-notch so not "laying frame", but it will "lay oil pan"- guess I need a new one of those now.

[Hendo67]

I got started on the exhaust. These are a set of e-Bay headers that I thought I would give a try. I like the look and I was pretty sure they were going to clear. The listing had them for a camaro (no year), but it also said "not chassis specific". The seller had no idea if they would fit or not either. Obviously I like a challenge, so I ordered them up and viola' here we are.
The V-bands were kicked out a little right at the tail end so I had to perform a little surgery and grafting. I like the way they ended up flowing into the rest of the exhaust system (more pix in next post)

[Hendo67]

Exhaust continued.....
Naturally the trans cross member was in the way, so I had to make a little modification. I should have known it was a waste of time (more on that later, but your hint is 6L80e).

[Hendo67]

I finally got the 6L80e back from the guy that changed it over to 2wd. When I did my measurements against the 4L60, the mounting pad was only 1 3/8" further back. No big deal, drilled my holes for the PB crossmember in the 4 spd and 6spd positions and went about using the 4l60 as a placeholder. When it came time to install the 6 spd I realized that the crossmember would need to be flipped with the pad towards the front vs towards the rear as with the 4L60. That little move put the crossmember into my mufflers, so it wouldn't work without further modification if at all.
I carved up a piece of 2X4 11 gauge tube and made my own crossmember to support the 6spd and clear the pan and exhaust. Good times!

[swamp rat]

Cant make out in the pic's what the mufflers are?

[Hendo67]

Those are Jones Turbines. The diesel guys swear by them- supposedly outflow a straight pipe. They have some interesting construction. I'd post a link, but I don't think I'm supposed to unless they are an advertiser. They come up at the top of Google anyway.

[Dustmaker65]

Great job on the rusty frame!

But now for the million dollar question.... You going to strip everything back off the frame to paint/powder coat it???

[Hendo67]

Originally Posted by Dustmaker65

Great job on the rusty frame!

But now for the million dollar question.... You going to strip everything back off the frame to paint/powder coat it???

Yup- I'm just mocking up right now. I already made a few goofs that would have required refinishing some spots. It's extra work, but I think worth it in the long run.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

I have one of the AERO turbines on my Tundra and love it!