72afr's '72 Short Step

[72afr]

Hello all!

Long time member and C10 owner, but never posted a build thread. The younger and dumber version of me didn't think it was worthy of it's own thread and instead updated progress through sporadic pictures on the main forum. Dumb. Even dumber was a lack of pictures taken at the start of the build. Still kicking myself for that (although I have recently done the same thing on an '03 I refreshed, guess I'll never learn).

So, here we go on the much-delayed build thread as I try to recall and log what me and 68speedalert accomplished some 17ish years ago. I thought I could remember what we did (because teenagers know all), but alas, too much information has infiltrated this brain, so we're going on a rediscovery journey together. Welcome!

Without further ado, the truck is a 1972 C-10 Shortbed Stepside, that was purchased locally (and found via Ad Trader, which I think I still have around here somewhere). The owner at the time was buying and selling cars and this was one of a half dozen cars on his lot (so I don't actually consider him an owner, you're opinion may vary). He had just picked this truck up from sitting in a field for 10ish years (can't recall anymore, but it was a bit). The exterior had been painted a sort of construction yellow and the inside was an olive drab green. Power brakes, manual steering, 2wd, 350 4bl and the odometer reader about 51.5k miles. No radio, the bed had a metal sheet over the rotted boards, but it ran. Not well, but ran. All in all, it was pretty solid. Rusted corners, rockers, and lower front fenders, but not awful. At the time, my dad was driving his '68 fleetside and the condition was similar, so nothing really unexpected on first view. It appeared to be 100% factory aside from the paint and metal sheet in the bed, right down to the similarly painted hubcaps. Listed at 1500 and we took it home for 1250, for this 14 year old's first vehicle.

The plan was always to fix it up into a daily driver, and after letting it sit in the driveway for a bit, we got to tearing it apart. Cleaning the interior lead to a discovery of paperwork in the glovebox containing some intriguing information. Notably a pink order slip for the US ARMY and logs from it's time stationed in Ft. Leavenworth, then additional logs from it's time as a fire department truck in Northern MO. These logs (oil changes, services) took it almost right up to the mileage on the odometer. Pretty neat! Although the course of restoration was never intended to restore it to factory, I think back now about how sweet (and likely more expensive) it would've been to do that. I've kept the logs and use at car shows as well as the painted hubcaps and the ARMY required information that was installed on the glovebox and radio delete plate as well as the original SPID.

A local autobody shop was just starting and gave us a great deal on paint and bodywork that I never would've been able to afford elsewise at my young age, and all we had to do was strip it down for them to work on. After taking off the bed and stripping essentially everything that wasn't essential to drive it, we dropped it off at their shop. They sourced additional front fenders that were in better condition than mine and did an excellent job on the repairs and paint. So much so that after we got it back, we quickly determined it was a bit too much for a daily...

While the truck was at the body shop, we started sourcing new and used parts to get this looking great. Many a purchase from LMC, Manes and a swap meet or two and we were quickly stacking up parts for the undertaking. Once we got the cab and frame back (frame on the whole time), we started in on the replacing and fixing. I can't recall the exact order of things anymore, but we moved the tank to under the bed, painted the frame and firewall and header panel, undercoated the cab, new windshield, headlights, grille inner and outer, bumpers, mirrors, door handles, refurbed wheels found at a swap meet, power steering from a '67 (?), 14" sport steering wheel with a corvette cap, new carpet with matting, arm rests, deluxe markers, seat belts from an S10, glovebox, heater hoses and vents, etc. We took steel wool to bits we could salvage to make passable to save budget. Which should bring us to the first picture I have available... This was after about 2.5 years of ownership and on our way across town to fit the bed we had been working on separately.