Restoring my (Dad's) 1970 CST

[Jessdigs]

I have my dad's 70 CST he gave to me when I was 16. It's a factory shortbed stepside truck, factory 402 and TH400, 12 bolt posi leaf spring with 4.11:1. I drove it in high school in the late 90's and unfortunately I blew up the 400 BB racing around 2002. I put a 350 in it and drove it a few years always wanting to put a new big block back in it. When I started commuting for work I bought a cheaper commuter and parked it. When my parents bought property near grizzly flat in Elk Dorado I parked it under an oak tree and it sat there from 2006 until August of 2021 when the caldor fire hit.
I was watching the fire get closer and closer, so I went up to clear all the brush from my parents property to try and save their house from the fire. I'm a heavy equipment operator by trade and it took me a few days to take all the brush and grass down to bare dirt on 25 acres and on the last day I brought a trailer up hoping to get the truck out. They had grizzly flat road blocked off and weren't letting anyone up with vehicles, but as I was leaving the last night late, about 11pm I talked the CHP into letting me go up and grab the truck. Thankfully my parents house did not burn and the truck has been at my house in the bay area since. I lost my father to mesothelioma a year later, so although the truck is in rough shape, it has sentimental value and I want to save it. It's my fault it's in the shape it's in but when I parked it I didn't have the money to fix it up and if I had to pay to store it all those years I might have lost it. I'm older now and have a good job and I've been able to save up some money to fund the restoration but I'm going to do what work I can to save $ and have more for the big ticket items.
I've had a lot of time to decide what I want to do and I want to slightly restomod it. I want it to look like a 70 era truck but run and drive like a new one.
The big block, 3 speed, and low gears were fun when I was a teenager but they were terrible on the highway.
I ended up buying an LT4/10L90E from a wrecked 2018 ZL1 Camaro and I bought a standalone harness from speartech to make it work. I'm going to order a standard ride height chassis from roaster shop to put it on which will take care of lowering it slightly, motor mounts/trans mount, disc brakes, and a 9" with 3.00 gears for the 10 speed trans to do it's thing. The truck sat in a field for 15 years but it only has a little rust. The trees around it did a good job of keeping the rain and snow off. It needs both rockers and a driver's side cab corner, and a small patch on the passenger side floor. I purchased all the patch panels I need and will be doing them myself. I also want to switch it to a short Fleetside bed but I'll probably keep the stepside bed too. You never know.
I was looking for a factory short bed to put on it but they cost a fortune , so I found two long beds locally for cheap that I'm using to practice cutting and welding as I've never tried any body work before. I've finished one already but the first one came out great and I don't think I'll need the second one so I may cut it down and sell it as a converted short bed. I'm getting ready to pull the cab start cutting into that. I think cutting down the bedsides gave me the confidence I needed to start.
I'll post pictures as I go.