1970 c10 4x4 conversion

[northof49]

Hi all,
a bit of background on my self and this project, i'm a jeep man right to my core, ive owned several xj's and loved building them and pushing them to their limits off road. I did a 4x4 conversion on my last xj (yes it came as a 2wd) and had alot of fun with that jeep.

Long story short in fall 2012 i bought a 70 c10 custom lwb, factory 350/th350. She was an old farm girl and had truly seen better days. I drove her how i got her for 2 years on sundays and when i needed a pickup, as i had a jeep as my DD. Early last year i regrettably sold my xj and bought a 2010 sierra. lets just say about a week after buying it i found that it wasnt even close to as capable as my jeep when it came to 4x4ing.

so began my journey to converting the c10 into a k10. I wanted jeep like capability/preformance, ie. Hard approach and departure angles, solid axles, rugged suspension. i looked endlessly for a 67-72 k10 in my area and came up with nothing in my price range. So i did alot of searches on how others had converted theirs and again didnt come up with much in the way of a step by step or even a parts list. So i decided the best way to go about it was find a good chassis to buy, i found a 78 k10 chassis for cheap and picked it up, i got an 84 th350/np208 for cheap as well. This was enough to motivated me to tear the 70 down and the ball rolling. i had the 70 stripped to nothing in a couples days time and things seemed to match up half okay. At this point it was winter so things stagnant for 5 months.

[northof49]

Spring came early to winnipeg this year so i got a early start on re assembly, i got the engine and trans mounted, cut the 70's 2 piece drive shaft down for the rear, things were going swimmingly. I got an 86 front drive shaft which ended up being about 2.5" short unfortunately. A week ago i mounted the cab. I knew already the front body mount would need to be fabricated, it needs about 5ish inches of lift to make the cab level On the later style chassis. What i didnt know it the rad support would come up about 6" short of the later style frames rad support mounts. Okay seems like an easy fix, just move the cab ahead to keep the wheel centered in the wheel well, that plan fell through pretty quick as coming ahead with the whole cab would put the distributor in the firewall.

[northof49]

So my solution is to cut the front corner off of the fender, jeep style, too allow room for the tires to articulate. I got the fenders and hood bolted up, i currently have the front of the cab sitting on wood blocks for the time being until i can get some proper mounts fabbed up. The rear of the cab is mounted on the original 70 rear cab mounts bolted to the outside of the 78 frame inline with where the rear of the 78 cab bolts up. I bent up all new brake lines and a fuel line ( i kept the in cab tank). My 70 was drum/drum so i needed to get a master to work with the new brake setup, I got a 72 disc/ drum master cylinder so i could use my original brake booster. Im still looking for a 73-87 ps pump as the 70 pump is braced to the engine mount and will not work with the later style engine mounts. As of now im still going to use my original rams horn manifolds and down pipes as they seem to fit okay enough to work. I still have to get a proper exhaust system set up.

Pictures of the progress so far to come stay tuned!!

[yuccales]

Originally Posted by northof49

Pictures of the progress so far to come stay tuned!!

Looking forward to the pics.

[Luvinit]

I,m just starting into my own similar project and came across the same measurement problems, my 84 4x4 wheelbase is 6 in. longer than a 70 wheelbase, I just found a longhorn frame and will be seeing if I can adapt the 84 drivetrain into the longer frame ( the 84 has a nv4500 5 spd and nice heavy axles ). I,ll be starting my own build thread as I go,.

[northof49]

sorry for the delay with the pics...in the 2nd pic you can see just how far out the rad cradle ended up, 3rd pic is where i relocated the original rear cab mounts too, and the last pic shows just how far out the axle ended up in the front wheelwell hence why im going to cut the front corner the fender so i dont spear my own tire on the body haha... just for perspective on how much lifting had to be done to make the cab level, the tires are 31x10.5's

[57taskforce]

If it were me Id be taking the leaf spring hangers and front cross member off the k/10 and adapting them to the c/10 frame. If your truck was a coil rear suspension you've also got all you need to convert it to leaves. Sorry it's probably kinda late for all that haha. We LOVE pics around here!

[truckster]

Sounds like a lot of work not to have any pictures...