Lowrie's 69 Shop Truck

[M.Lowrie]

I'm sitting at home with our newborn son, born 12/20/2012, and thought I would start a build thread on my C10 since I'm not allowed to work in the shop for a few more days. A little background on the pickup, purchased in 2011 in Oklahoma at night. It was pretty solid, but had what seems to be an unusual amount of rust in the cowl area compared to the rest of the truck. We'll get into the sheet metal work later, but I wanted to build something cheap and cool that I could cruise around in while working on "bigger" builds. When I got it home.

[M.Lowrie]

It sat for 6 months or so and then I dragged it into the shop. This was around the fall of 2011. So, plan was the following: fix some rust, inside of cab would be nice (new paint and upholstery), air ride, power disc brakes, and leave the original paint on the exterior.

Engine/trans out, sheet metal coming off. Firewall just about fell off..

[M.Lowrie]

I'll try to get the build thread to where I'm currently at within just a few days, so it will look like the build is moving crazy fast.

When I bought the truck, the previous owner had riveted some sheet metal over the drivers side fresh air vent in the kick panel (he said it had a little rust and had removed the vents and didn't like the air blowing on him so he had riveted a panel over it. Once I started to tear it down, most of the kick panel was missing without a remnant of where the fresh air vent was at.

Didn't take any pics of the driver side, but here is the new metal going in on the passenger side.

[M.Lowrie]

Some of this may be a little out of order in which it was actually performed, but I kind of did the kick panels, floor pans, and the lower fender mount/A pillar all at the same time. I worked on the driver side first, then the passenger side.

Old floor pans out, lower fender mount repaired.

[M.Lowrie]

Driver side in and lower kick panel.


I left the front floor pans a little long where the flange would be that meets the firewall until I started to put the firewall back in.

Passenger side in.


Also, had to move the location of the front cab mount hole in both floor pans.

[M.Lowrie]

Passenger lower fender mount/ A pillar repaired.


Also, you may have noticed that when I built the new kick panel (with the small lower kick panel patch) on the passenger side, I made it with the same radius as the driver side where it meets the firewall. This is where the blower for the heater would be mounted in the stock location, but I decided to go with Vintage Air so I didn't need the externally mounted blower anymore.

[67c10rustbuket]

Nice job so far, you have done some serious rust repair! Where in Ok did this truck come from? Looked pretty solid in the first two pics.

[M.Lowrie]

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

Nice job so far, you have done some serious rust repair! Where in Ok did this truck come from? Looked pretty solid in the first two pics.

Thanks. Truck was real solid other than the front half of the cab, everything else was good even the original cab corners. The cowl must have filled up with leaves and left for some time. I got the truck from the Poteau area, just north of it if I remember right.

[M.Lowrie]

Up next was to repair the area that is below the inner cowl. I had to replace the entire flange where it meets the firewall and where the wiper motor bolts to (the wiper motor was "glued" in with RTV).



Also, had to rebuild the pieces that seem to collect all the leaves just outside of the fresh air vents, the entire lower half of these pieces were missing, these are clamped to the kick panel in the pic below.

[builtbyKane]

Wow that is a lot of rust repair. I love that stock color scheme.
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[M.Lowrie]

Yeah, there was more rust than I had originally thought especially since I looked over the truck in a dirt driveway at night. I really like the light green/white but it made it challenging picking a color for the interior. The original interior has kind of a hunter green and the green that they repop is a olive green, after buying a complete "olive" green interior I decided I didn't like it and went with saddle.

[M.Lowrie]

Then the inner cowl went on, I could have repaired the original but at this point I was tired of doing metal work on it. So, I bought a replacement panel and modified the passenger side so that it would have the same radius as the driver side (eliminating the area for the heater blower motor).


Welded on.

[Gus350]

Looks good i'll be watching this one i have one in just about the same condition.

[M.Lowrie]

I'm getting a little out of order here, but before I put the inner cowl in I mocked up the new firewall so that I could put the flange in the front of the floor pans.

[M.Lowrie]

Filled the ac/heater holes in the passenger side of the firewall and made up piece for the blower motor area.


Firewall welded in and started to put the dash back in.

[M.Lowrie]

Then the dash was put back in for good.


After this, the only sheet metal that I had not welded in was the rockers. I had mocked them up with the doors hung, but I didn't want to fully weld them until I got a little further with the body work. Sorry for the blurry pic, not sure what was going on..

[72BlckButy]

Awesome skills!

[M.Lowrie]

Originally Posted by 72BlckButy

Awesome skills!

Thanks!

[M.Lowrie]

I then pulled the cab off and set it aside so I could work on the chassis. There were only a few modifications to the frame, so I did these before it went out for blasting.

CPP notch in.


Notch roughed in for side fill/rear mount gas tank, also a CPP unit. I guess I didn't get a pic of it fully welded before paint.

[Rust_phoenix]

Nice work! it's amazing what some of these trucks can be hiding underneath their outer skins, your truck looked pretty solid before you took it down. looking forward to seeing more of your build.

[bigguy69]

Wow amazing work!
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[gearys 5600]

Nice work...What are you using for engine and trans?

[M.Lowrie]

Originally Posted by gearys 5600

Nice work...What are you using for engine and trans?

Just a carb'd 350/TH350. It had a freshly built 383 in it when I bought it, but the previous owner put metric starter bolts in and cracked outward mounting hole in the block. I had another engine in the shop that wasn't being used, so that's what is going in it.

[M.Lowrie]

Frame and suspension pieces back from blasting and being primed.


Black going on.


Chassis going together.

[M.Lowrie]

Building rear axle. New drum brake components and 5 lug axle shafts.


Rear axle and front disc brakes installed. Front brakes, drop spindles, and booster/master are McGaughy's.