1971 Chevy C10 SWB

[Chris98]

Me and my dad picked this up July 2012 as a frame off restoration project. Bought it some guy who was parting the truck out who bought it from someone else. The truck was originally from Texas and somehow ended up here in Colorado. One of the previous owners had built it for the 1/4 mile, use to have a 454 big block, roll cage and a thousand holes drilled all over the cab. The motor and pretty much most of the truck was gone when we got a hold of it.

Here's pics of the truck when we first went to look at it. Sorry for the small pics.




The guy had already sold the bed and front clip before we got a chance to buy the truck, so he threw in a 70s front clip and a step side bed. We pretty much sold the bed and front clip within a couple months of having the truck.

















Ac Condenser and HVAC Box was missing.



Firewall had been painted in the past with some ****ty paint that is now faded grey and flaking.






Old worn out suspension



Truck use to be raced


Last time it was registered was in 03'.


Passenger cab corner was rusted it,


The interior had defiantly seen better days. Glove box, sun visors, ac vents, cigar lighter, radio, gas tank, HVAC and drivers door panel was missing. The wiring was cut up and was just a mess, we ended up just ripping all the wiring from the truck and throwing it away. The base mounts for the roll cage was still welded to the floor, a million holes were drilled in the floor and firewall and some racing seats were installed.











Interior was stripped and all the holes in the firewall and floor were welded up. The body work was next on the list.


Cab was then pulled off the frame were we then stripped the frame and replaced all the bushings, tie rods, ball joints. Installed new lowering springs 2" drop in the front and a 4" drop in the rear. We replaced the center cross member with one that had the cut outs for the exhaust. We then painted the chassis is chassis saver.







The truck came with a dana 60 that was shortened 8 inches with 4.56 gears, spool and 40 spline axle shafts. We ended up selling the axle for almost as much as we paid for the truck and replaced it with a 12 bolt we pulled out of a truck we parted out.


It was now time to move onto the cab.




Gas filler hole was welded up.


The cab was then flipped onto its firewall so work on the cab floor could be done.


After the bottom of the cab was cleaned up it was painted with chassis saver and then we coated that with some undercoating.


The inside cab floor was also coated in chassis saver.


The cab corner was cut out and a new one was welded in place and body work was then being done to blend it in.


Work on cleaning up the firewall then started.







Doors, fenders and hood we got off a 72 long bed we parted out to get a lot of the parts that were needed to put this truck back together.






Getting ready for filler primer to fill in the imperfections and what not.


After the filler primer.




Starting to do more work after the filler primer.






We then finally found a fleet side bed for it but it turned out to need way to much work. Someone had welded up the tail light section and cut 4" holes in them and the body sides had 1/2" thick bondo in places and missing most of the cross members. So we sold that bed.




After Epoxy Primer




Painted the firewall and all the black accessories under the hood with Hot Rod Satin Black.




The 72' we parted out ended up having a 400 sbc with a 4 bolt rear main. We pulled it out and was going to rebuild but after tearing into it the motor defiantly had a hard life. Lots of sludge was built up in it and there was no hash marks left on the cylinder walls. We ended up finding a a rebuilt motor out of another truck we parted out. But used all the accessory brackets off the 400.





We parted out a 71 long bed that had a 350 in it with a rebuilt lower end, but they did nothing with the upper end and one of the heads had a valve that was stuck open. So we used the vodoo cam, vortec heads and all the other parts we had put away for the 400 on it.







Look at all that slack in the timing chain.


New parts on.











Full roller rockers.



In the meantime we picked up a 200r4 and gave it a refreshing up. Installed the new tv cable and spring from Bowtie Overdrives and gave it some paint.





Motor and transmission installed in truck.




Inner fenders, radiator support and radiator installed.




We did end up picking up another fleet side bed, this one being an original 67 with no marker lights. It was in much better shape than the last one but far from perfect, needed the driver side rear quarter replaced. And it use to be used to haul metal scrape so there was some body work needed.



While the body work on the bed was being done we got the HVAC box cleaned up. Painted it, got the dead rodents and their nests cleaned out and installed a new heater core with all new seals.





That's pretty much where the truck is sitting right now. We want to try and get the truck in paint by spring and driving by summer. We still need a gas tank, 2004r torque converter cover, 2004r dipstick and tube, 59 1/2" drive shaft, carpet, headliner, wiring harness for tach, wheels/tires and some misc stuff.