"BUILD: 1970 C10 LWB--->SWB “Jumping Cholla”

[loudchevy]

I have always wanted a 67-72 C10 since I was in high school and saw the movie Dazed and Confused, loved that black C10. I had been looking for a truck on/off over the years and have been watching the prices climb and the quality of truck go down and amount of work needed to get the C10 driving on the road go way up.

My 15 year old son recently got heavily interested in cars (specifically import super cars) and had been asking about finding a project car to work on. He would send me overpriced crap that I would nix right away. He finally sent me an offer up link with something I didn’t hate. It was an hour away, so we dragged a trailer out and took a closer look. It wasn’t drivable, covered in AZ dust, mostly complete, and the price was right so we pulled the trigger and dragged it home!

All my previous builds and modification were done to square bodies so I wanted to document the rebuild with a build thread for this 1970 C10 LWB. I have used this site plenty of times since I created an account over a decade ago and I figured its about time to contribute something to the forum in return.

Plans for this C10 is to clean off the 53 years of dust and crud stuck to everything and slap some fresh paint on, upgrade to disc brakes all around, new steering components, new suspension bushings, 3” drop in the rear, 2" drop spindles in the front, vintage air A/C under the dash, relocate gas tank to the rear, and replace the motor and TH350 with a 454 and Monster built 700R4.

Thanks for looking and following along.

[loudchevy]

With it finally home, we got to work with some clean up. Had to get the toolbox off the bed and ditch the work truck side mirrors.

Next up was to clean the interior out and where the build thread got it’s title from. The previous tenant was a lovely Rat that decided to bring some security into the cab in the form of some Jumping Cholla cactus to protect it’s nest he built under the bench seat. Once we were done vacuuming the turds and Cholla (didn’t get any pics) out from under the bench everything was gutted minus the gas tank, which was removed later.

[LockDoc]

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Looks like a good start. If you are not going to use the tool box door don't trash it if it is in decent shape, they are worth some good cash.... Heck even bad ones sell for good money.

LockDoc

[loudchevy]

Thanks LockDoc. I could've used your skills to unlock the tool box. I had to drill out the lock cylinders!

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Thanks LockDoc. I could've used your skills to unlock the tool box. I had to drill out the lock cylinders!

That's too bad. The lock cylinders are pretty much one of a kind and are worth $50-$70. It's actually pretty easy to get them open without damaging the lock cylinder. I have posted the instructions on here a few times.

LockDoc

[loudchevy]

Once the cab was rid of all the junk we moved focus to the rear of the truck. We pulled the bed and removed all the rear suspension and 12b rear end. After a proper clean up, we added some 3” drop springs, new trailing arm bushings, some new disc brakes, and some fresh black paint.

I’ve always had bad luck removing the center pin bolt from rear diffs. Luckily the break on this one was near the end of the threads and I was able to use a pick and turn the broken bolt out! I threw some welds along the seams of the trailing arms while we had them out and cleaned them up. We removed the auxiliary leaf spring from the rear and cleaned up the frame with a power washer for the big debris and a wire wheeled it. The rear of the frame with get a fresh coat of black paint once the cab gets pulled. We got everything installed and got her back on 4 tires.

[loudchevy]

Once the rear suspension and bed were back on the C10, we had to get a picture of the family Chevy truck lineup! 85 K5, 70 C10, 14 2500HD, 03 Tahoe. I meant to do this when we first got the C10 home but needed to get a pic before the C10 was gonna get blown apart for the next few months.

[loudchevy]

Back to work on Jumping Cholla. Next was the engine bay. I wanted to get that cleaned up to make it easier to pull the front clip to get to the engine and front suspension easier. This truck hasn’t been registered in AZ since 1996 and the engine pretty much confirmed this. We cleaned up all the hacked up wiring and hoses that went nowhere, pulled the hood off and removed the front clip in one piece.

[nicklear36]

Looks like my truck when I started! Looking to see the 700r4 install. Good job

[Shifty One]

Dang, you work quick! I'm worn out looking at your pics, and need a beer.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Shifty One

Dang, you work quick! I'm worn out looking at your pics, and need a beer.

Thanks, Everything I have posted in the thread has already been done. I'm just playing catch up on the pics and posts. I'm one post away from being up to date on the build. My next update will be of cutting up my rockers. I've been trying to put in hours whenever I can to keep the project momentum going. It's not going to built itself

I should've added the dates to my original posts, but the timeline is below.

Bought and towed home 7/29/23
Rear suspension/brakes done 8/13/23
front clip pulled 8/29/23
Engine/Trans/suspension/steering pulled 9/3/23
Front suspension/steering/brakes installed 9/9/23
454 ran on test stand 9/14/23
Cab removed and put on cart 9/17/23
Passenger rocker started 9/21/23
Driver rocker started 9/26/23

[Shifty One]

Yeah....Speedy Gonzales quick....

[clay68c10]

Nice progress, you’re on a roll. Keep it up!
What engine fan will you be using? There’s not a lot of room front to rear once you have a BBC in these trucks. My last one had a 454 and it was tight. I wanted to run that serpentine setup but I didn’t want to run out of room. I think it would have cleared a trimmed Mk8 fan but I never pulled the trigger on it.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by clay68c10

Nice progress, you’re on a roll. Keep it up!
What engine fan will you be using? There’s not a lot of room front to rear once you have a BBC in these trucks.

I had this dual electric fan setup (I think it's a Perma Cool) in front of the 454 when it was in my K5. I kept it on the K5 when I did my LS swap, but i think I'm going to steal it and put it on the C10. The K5 is in semi-retirement at this point, so it won't mind if I borrow some parts.

[loudchevy]

This post will bring the build up to date. The rocker replacement started a week and a half ago and I tackled the passenger side first. The rust wasn't terrible but and was really only isolated to rockers, toe kick, and the rear section of the front pillar. I ordered up some replacement panels from LMC and grabbed a fresh pack of cut off wheels and got to work. This is my first attempt at sheet metal/body work.

[loudchevy]

After getting the passenger inner rocker installed. I moved over to the drivers side and start cutting away to rot. The drivers side was the worst of the 2. I got more pics of the drivers side during the process. I was able to get the inner rocker,, pillar, and toe kick installed.

[loudchevy]

After I got the drivers side buttoned up, i moved back to the passenger to finish the toe kick and pillar.

This week I want to get the doors bolted back on to make sure I'm good on the inner rocker before doing anything with the outer. I ordered some Honda door deals based on some feedback from others recently on the forum. Once those come in, I'll trim and fit the outers and get them tacked and burned in place. I still have some pin holes that need to be filled and some grinding/sanding to do, but feel like I got 80% of the rockers done at this point.

[jumpsoffrock]

You did more rust repair in 4 months than I got done in 2 years. We have so far had exactly the same issues. I also thought I finished my rust repair and decided to remove the rear window to find the channels rusted. I did a very poor job but I didn't know where to get the metal in a rush.

I wish I had your skill, fantastic work.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by jumpsoffrock

You did more rust repair in 4 months than I got done in 2 years. We have so far had exactly the same issues. I also thought I finished my rust repair and decided to remove the rear window to find the channels rusted. I did a very poor job but I didn't know where to get the metal in a rush.

I wish I had your skill, fantastic work.

Thanks for the compliment!

[LT7A]

You had me at LWB. Don't get me wrong, I like a well built short bed, but not everybody can date the short, cute little sister, haha. For some of us, the long bed is much more easily sought and found. They have their own charm.

The build plan sounds cool. I certainly get the 454 plan. But discovering the 400 would have me thinking about big block cubes in a small block package and weight. Can't go wrong either way.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by LT7A

You had me at LWB. Don't get me wrong, I like a well built short bed, but not everybody can date the short, cute little sister, haha. For some of us, the long bed is much more easily sought and found. They have their own charm.

The build plan sounds cool. I certainly get the 454 plan. But discovering the 400 would have me thinking about big block cubes in a small block package and weight. Can't go wrong either way.

Not to disappoint you....but I've been leaning toward doing a SWB conversion The sheet metal skills I've learned from the rust repairs has given me the confidence to tackle shortening the bedsides. I always wanted a SWB from the beginning, they're just harder to find and way more money upfront, so I settled for the taller sister with hopes of ditching her for the shorter sister with the better butt

As for the 454, if I didn't already have the complete ready to run motor in my garage, I probably would've done something with the 400SBC. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a 400 when looking up the casting number. The boy and I will do something with it after this project is done (or close to it).

[loudchevy]

After watching the Dbacks beat up on the Phillies in Game 6, I went out to the garage to see about making some new window channel. Looking forward to Game 7 of NLCS tonight.

I had bought (2) extra Inner Rocker Panels LMC PN 38-9041 when I first started on the Rocker replacement and didn't end up using them on the rockers. I actually cut 1-1/4" strips off them to use on the firewall top wire channel cap. Anyways, I still had them laying around and they already had a much larger "Z" channel bent in them so I started with that and made some cuts and bends. After a couple of scrap test on some 20ga, I got a good idea of where to clamp the metal in the vice and beat it to the shape I needed. I cut up some the LMC panels since it already had a near perfect match to the radius on the rear window and bent a single 90* to make the smaller Z to match the window channel. On my second adjustment on the thicker 18ga LMC metal, I nail it down and repeated the 90* bends on some more pieces. I think it turned out pretty good and should work for the couple of places I need to remove rust on.

[clay68c10]

I'd say you got the contour right. Nice work using scraps.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by clay68c10

I'd say you got the contour right. Nice work using scraps.

Thanks, I'm reading your build thread now, pretty cool history to it's start.

[loudchevy]

I've been working on replacing sections of the window channel this past week and finally finished it yesterday. It wasn't too difficult and glad to have it checked off the rust list. Other parts of the channel have some minor surface rust that I will get cleaned off too. I got all the rust holes and missing metal (mostly on the vertical channel lip) removed and replaced on the bottom rail.