69 C10 - Old Navy truck

[Baker819]

Well after 11 years I am finally taking my truck down to it's frame and at the very least taking care of the rust in the frame and suspension and making sure all vital components will function as they should... brakes (including all new lines), mounts, wiring etc. A under bed tank, paint and other stuff will hopefully come with in a couple years.

My brakes and steering box were the main reason I began the tear down. They were in barely working order and new I would total the truck soon if I didn't do some thing. Well brakes and steering box turned into all new front suspension... everything besides a-arms, crossmember, springs and a couple parts of the steering were replaced. I researched and almost everything I bought was made right here in the good ol United States of America. Even the rotors (ECE). Suspension/steering stuff came mostly from Moog or Early Classic.

I begun tearing down the front end last week end with the plans of dropping the front crossmember out and having it blasted and put back in after fully painted. Plans changed when I noticed that the frame was starting to develope a lot of rust. I moved from eastern Washington to western Washington over 6 years ago and my truck has been pissed ever since. haha. So the frame is getting stripped bare and blasted and than painted. I bought this stuff called Rust Bullet a while ago with plans of trying it on the suspension and steering parts. Now it will be tested on the frame as well. The worst rust was where the water drops off from the back of the hood and rides the little channel down and rusts everything on the way. Other than that the bed got it pretty good too. I have always been up in the air about the step sides anyways and I found a LWB fleet side with a metal bed for a decent price so as long as I can finish the deal that will be shortened and installed on the truck. It will actually be cheaper than replacing the parts I need to for the step side bed so I was sold on it. The step side panels will be hung on the wall tell I die probably haha. I dont want to get rid of them but I dont really like step side beds after the 50's.

Anyways that's were I am at. I have a decent amount of time in the near future to complete what I want to. Hopefully I don't get carried away and end up doing a full rebuild on every thing. Hopefully 2 months and the truck will be on the road again... 4 months max.

I have some questions though -

I want rear disc brakes eventually. Should I rebuild my rear drums for now or just invest the money in the discs now.

Has any welded up the split on the trailing arms? I haven't searched yet but was curious if you guys ran into any problem. I'd imagine if you kept the heat down (like welding body panels) every thing would be cool.

Any one have 6 lug 15x8 (width +/- a inch) Aluminum slots for sale in Washington? I missed a sweet set for sale on craigslist 2 months ago for a really good price and they were only 20 minutes from me and have been kicking my self ever since.

The other thing I haven't searched for yet but am kinda curious about is my the straightness of my frame. It's never been wrecked, only had a 8' camper in the back for a month or two. And hauled an engine, trans, t-case and both diffs from a scrapped out truck all at once before... Poor little C10... but she never missed a beat and had plenty of power left.

Thanks