Farm Fresh from ND

[mywifestruck]

My wife and I picked up this truck this spring off an auction in North Dakota. After inspection it appears to have spent A LOT of time on the farm, a few farm mods, like the fabricated hitch that seems it would be perfect for pulling a grain bin or hay wagon. The tread on the tires is impeccable; however, they the amount of dry rot on them, I would not trust them over 25MPH for a short distance. BUMMER! The wood bed is extremely dry rotted. The truck is a survivor of a deer hit, which crinkled the original hood pretty and the grill, I was able to pound the grill out pretty good, but haven't attempted anything with the hood yet. TIPS? The rocker panels are GONE, cab corners need replaced and the driver floor is should be replaced or patched. After a VIN search the truck came with a V8 (just not the one that's in it, 1978 305), which makes this truck an excellent candidate for an LS swap.

My daughter and I went to an estate auction this summer of a gentleman who was obviously a C10 enthusiast, I picked up the tailgate for $9 (it's rough), a couple boxes of interior parts for $6 a box ( NEW arm rests, NEW sun Visor, NEW door trim, NEW dome light, NEW door handle grommets, I also picked up a set of drop spindles for $50. Funny story, after I collected the items and set them in my pile, an older gentleman cam to me and asked what year my truck was and what I planned to do with it. The bad part about the time that it took to do all that bidding and talking I missed a hood on the other ring of the auction which I had to buy off the guy who bought it.

So things left purchase to get ready to start the build:
Painted front and rear bumper
front rotors and calipers
LS motor and 4L60E tranny (easy find off of CL)
new fuel tank to relocate
and some bucket seats ( actually found them at the local auto salvage yard)

Against my wife's wishes I am going with the Rat Rod/Patina look. I am still debating on air bags or lowering the suspension. Northern Minnesota roads can prove to be hard on air ride in the spring when the frost is coming out. Unless anyone on here says other wise. The first time I washed it I used a squirt of dawn dish soap and 0000 steel wool and man did that bring out the Patina.. Going to keep the 15" rims paint them red and get a set of Coker white walls hoping to go 285 in the back and 265 in the front without having to modify the wheel wells. I have 2 baby moons and 3 (?original?) dog dish hubcaps.

need to work on getting the photos up loaded, security token missing?!

[mywifestruck]

got photos to work

[mywifestruck]

a few more

[mywifestruck]

Seat I picked up today for...$100

[mywifestruck]

I also snagged an old tail gate with working guts. So now I have a fully functioning. Tail gate.

[mywifestruck]

picked up a painted front bumper from bluebullet today. 10 minutes to get the part and 2 hours spent talking about trucks and parts and 4 hours of windshield time. Good time thanks Nathan, good luck with your wife's truck.

[tommys72]

Good looking project there

[mywifestruck]

old tore up foam off of drivers seat and frame cleaned up. heading out to the upholstery shop, there won't be another buddy bucket seat like this one.

[5567Cruiser]

Originally Posted by mywifestruck

old tore up foam off of drivers seat and frame cleaned up. heading out to the upholstery shop, there won't be another buddy bucket seat like this one.

When I got my truck it had the buddy seats and I was going to put some later model buckets but my friends talked me out of it and I had mine reupholstered and that was the right decision so I am glad to see you are keeping them. If you price a good set they are bringing big bucks no matter what shape and they are getting rarer daily. Good luck on your project as mine took 6 years and I never thought I would get it done. I just got it on the road in August of 2016.

[swamp rat]

I wish i could find a C10 estate sale like that! I think my inner rockers are on one of my trucks are about like that as well.

[mywifestruck]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

I wish i could find a C10 estate sale like that! I think my inner rockers are on one of my trucks are about like that as well.

That sale was awesome! The years of stuff that guy had collected was unreal. I talked with the guys son at the sale, he said a lot of the stuff was scrapped before the sale, after all the kids came and grabbed what they wanted. It was a 2 day sale I went the first day which was just the stuff he had outside. The second day, they were going to be grabbing and pulling stuff out of the 2 "sheds" on the property, I wish I would have gone to that day also.

[BlueBullet]

Any updates? PM sent

[mywifestruck]

Originally Posted by BlueBullet

Any updates? PM sent

I got the seats recovered. I need to go pick them up I will post pictures when I have it put together. All I can say now is there isn't a buddy bucket like it. Motor is half done, I decided to do a SBC. Still looking for a rear bumper and a drivers side trailing arm. I have new wood for the bed I need to get it on the planner and router table. I am a little frustrated with how slow it's going...but.

You sell the blue truck yet? I see there's a pile of parts on CL in Princeton, thinking of going over and shopping.

[BlueBullet]

Yea I sold the blue short box in the beginning of December. Got the wife's short box done for the time being and drug home another project a couple weeks ago. I might have a drivers side trailing arm. Wondering if we could work out a deal on those front frame horns on the bumper I sold you. Give me a call when you have a chance.

Thanks Nathan

[mywifestruck]

Anyone use Mar K bolt kits? I would like to use my old bed strips with the round holes requiring the ribbed shoulder bolts. I have the new wood for the bed cut, planed and dado cut the edges. I used Harvest Gold Thompsons Water sealer on the wood, it turned out alright, I should have gone darker. Now I just need to get new hardware for remounting the bed.

[flipper58]

Originally Posted by mywifestruck

Anyone use Mar K bolt kits? I would like to use my old bed strips with the round holes requiring the ribbed shoulder bolts. I have the new wood for the bed cut, planed and dado cut the edges. I used Harvest Gold Thompsons Water sealer on the wood, it turned out alright, I should have gone darker. Now I just need to get new hardware for remounting the bed.

I have. Their stuff is top notch, far superior to some others I used on my bed strips.

[mywifestruck]

The seats turned out, I used all the old uniforms I had and some duffel bag material. Not sure how long they will hold up but they'll certainly be one of a kind.

[mywifestruck]

Bed boards are done being planed: white oak, red oak and maple.
New mounting hardware ordered.

[BlueBullet]

Seats look great definitely one of a kind!!

[rusty76]

Cool trucks. I'm following.

[mywifestruck]

Well it's been awhile since I have given an update. So I fab'd in a Blazer Tank.
I used a marine filler neck I bought off of Amazon and brought it to a guy at work to fix the angle a little bit. The Blazer tank filler neck is high, with it mounted as low as possible I still needed to create some room. I bought a gates 90 degree 1 1/2" hose to go from tank to filler neck. I used a holesaw and dremel for the filler neck recess.

[mywifestruck]

I wanted to keep the old used look so I cleaned up the bed strips that were still good in the truck and I went picking at a local scrap yard for some more. Good strips are hard to come by in the scrap yard. I found 4. I put all new ribbed bolts and bed mounting bolts. The bed wood is white oak, red oak and maple. I got these as rough sawn boards so they needed to be planed, and cut to length and ripped to the width. I used a dato blade for the bed strip grooves.

[mywifestruck]

I cut the old U bolts out and put in new CPP shock mounts and 2" lowering blocks. I flipped the trailing arm mounts in the front. After I did that these trailing arms showed up on CL. I talked with the seller and took a little road trip to WI to get them. They had been coated with tar at some point shortly after new and there's not a lick of rust on these things. So it all needs to come apart again. I don't have the springs and shocks yet so I will just do it when I get them. Once I am done with the rear end I will start on rebuilding the front end.

[mywifestruck]

found this seat when I was out picking parts. It's probably something I need.

[rusty76]

Thanks for the updates