New C10 Owner - Washington State - 1970 long bed build - Follow along!

[MotoPhotog]

Hi all!

33 year old Darren here from Enumclaw, Washington. I've been lurking the forum since looking for a C10 months ago, and I appreciate all the knowledge here without all the typical forum trolls. Lots of good info here, and I look forward to learning more. I'm a 2 wheel guy (Bultaco, Peugeot, 70's 2 stroke Yamaha/Suzuki) type, guy... but I've always loved late 60's early 70's 4 wheel also, so here I am. I have the tools and space, just don't have a lot of knowledge and time. After making a purchase, I figured I'd share a few photos of my "rolling, driving" project C10. Its a 70 Long bed, and its in what I'd consider above average condition.

Dream/idea of the truck: DRIVER. I've had a 69 Chevelle show car that my dad and I took FIFTEEN YEARS to build. It sat and sat and ate my pocket away, never drove it. Finally finished it enough to drive, never wanted/felt comfortable taking it anywhere so I parted ways with it to a guy in Oklahoma. I want to drive this. I want my wife to enjoy it (she already took it to work! ) Its going to sit outside. It rains 7 months a year here. its going to have a motorcycle or 2 in it, at some point. Looking for a usable, drivable, long, and low comfortable cruiser. No notching, cutting, fabbing. Think paint/chrome, engine, 20's, and that's it.

Keys going for it:

Already lowered 6"
No rust
Clean title, paperwork handled, title en route.
Gold c/10 "custom" Interior appears stock, and is in pretty great shape.
New headers, exhaust, distributor, alternator, battery.
350 is "ok", sounds healthy, starts right up.
Bed is all steel, no rust, tailgate works great.
Dash, lights, taillights, signals, radio, power brakes, power steering, all work.


Things to address immediately:

Headlights point at the damn ground.
Warn Bushings, new shocks.
Fuel smell inside the cab
Tires have some slight cracking/rot
Re-torque heads, manifold, headers, exhaust.
Horn doesn't work
Door locks


Things I'll be doing in the next 6~12 months:

Not only for looks, but also for safety. Used wheels/tires are on the agenda asap.
Every panel needs some sort of love. We'll be pulling dents. Which should be fun.
truckbed to receive the line-x treatment
Slowely and surely purchasing a few upgrade/replacement pieces of exterior trim
Sand/prep/prime for paint.


I brought it home and the first night it sounded like an old bed. The rubber bushings on the left side are shot. I shot everything I could with WD-40, but realize I need to grease all the points on the A arms and swaybar, and it MIGHT come back to life. New bushings are probably in the future. The headlights point about 4 feet in front of the truck. Apparently this was never driven after dusk! We noticed I filled the tank over fill, (no idea how many gallons are behind the seat there) but we had just under 1/4 tank and I think I fit 14.4 gallons? The smell dissipated over the length of the drive home (45 miles) from Bremerton, Washington. Maybe over filled? I read that the breather hose that leads out the bottom dryrot/cracks, and should be replaced?


We've owned the truck for less than a week, 2 nights ago I jacked the truck up (the floor jack cleared by 1/4 inch) and removed the drivers side front tire, and could actually jiggle the shock. That's no good. So I pulled them out for some Monroe specials. (cheap) But they work wonders. Couldn't believe how much they stiffened things up.

For now that's where I'm at. I'll be loading a few photos next.