Newbie Build :help: - Ole Big Blue ('71 C10 LWB)

[olebigblue]

Well here goes nothin'!! This first post will be long so I can try to give a good story of this truck's past and where I want to take it. My updates will be much shorter I'll start with a short history of the truck then go into what I plan to do then give some current pics, so skip ahead if you want. I appreciate any and all feedback/help as I haven't done more than a couple oil changes with my other cars. This is my first older car and everything is a learning process. I'm excited to get started, but I'm thinking I'll need everyone's help to keep my motivated and more importantly educated on what in the world I'm doing (or failing to do).

History:
This 1971 Chevy C10 has been in my wife's family since her gpa bought it new. He passed on and it went to my father-in-law who used it mostly as a work truck for his landscaping business. My wife actually drove it throughout high school. I redeployed from my 2nd trip to Iraq about 3 weeks ago and my wife suprised me with a little surpise in our garage. Big Blue is now mine. That said, I've decided it's time for "Big Blue" to get some serious TLC. I had about a $10K budget to find a car to compliment my motorcycle, but now most of that can be spend on what I'll call Big Blue's "rolling rebuild". It runs/drives strong on a rebuilt 350 (about 6,000 miles ago). The exhaust has been replaced, and it's still on the original transmission. Original paint was brown/tan was repainted (no clear coat) and had the interior redone. I'm still trying to pull more info out of my pop-in-law, but he's been out of the country on business as a pilot.

My Plan(s):
I've already done some minor things like oil & filter change, new air cleaner, changed a gasket to fix an exhaust leak, and got some knobs for the window cranks. I also put some new tires (no pics yet). Small things but it's only been a couple weeks, so I'm trying to start small while I plan out some of the bigger projects.

It runs/drives but there's some functional things I'd like to get done before digging into the big jobs of body/paint, interior, and engine. These include:

New door handles (passegner button is stuck in the handle)
Door Locks (can't really lock it right now)
New spark plugs/wires
New fuel filter
Get the fuel gauge to work (and any other instruments that aren't working)
Get the heat/AC/defroster working
Steam clean the engine and underneath.

Next, I'll dive into the body/paint. I'll be doing the body work/paint myself. I still have nailed down a color. I'm thinking of going with a royal blue (to keep the nick name it's had for more than a decade). I'm also throwing around a metallic charcoal or I've also seen some nice light greens. Love to see some pics of cool colors if you guys have ideas. FYI, I'll be doing wood panels in the bed.

After the paint I'll be redoing the interior. I'll be keeping it a bench and possible relocating the fuel tank. Much of the interior will be color matched to the exterior. I haven't looked into how much of the interior I want to do myself. I'm not sure if I tackle things like the redoing the seats, and I still have to do more research on the dash, gauges, etc.

The engine is way down the line, I think I'd like to step up to a big block (454). I don't know if it's just the sound of saying "I have a 454 under the hood" . I'll also have to look into a new transmission since I'm running a near 40 y/o tranny that's seems to be holding on pretty well. Along the way someone Mickey Mouse'd the part that goes into the tranmission which has caused some interesting wear.

So that's what I'm looking at. I'll try to give a good breakdown of each mini-project as I go. Here's some quick pictures. Sorry for the novel, I just wanted to give a good description of where it's been and try to describe where I want to go. I look forward to your comments. Here we go...

-Scott