1970 C10 SWB: Where do we start?

[BarryV]

Hello all,

This 1970 C10 SWB is a father-son project, and we are very excited to get started. Neither of us are experts at anything, but we are not afraid to turn some wrenches and fix cars when needed.

Truck details:
This truck has sat for about 10 years in a field in eastern (dry) Idaho, so it has some rust and dust.

Body:
Rust in rockers and some sheet metal. Surface rust on cab floor. Some rust on front of inner fenders. Body is extremely straight. Someone painted the truck white over yellow.

Drivetrain:
No engine or tranny. VIN says it had a 6cyl. Son wants a 350 with a 4 or 5 spd manual (not a truck 4spd). I would be fine with a temporary 350+TH400 just to get it moving, but because of the rust issues we might want to spend more time on body work right now.

Shop space:
None at the moment. We can get the truck into our garage, but there's not a huge amount of space to work in it.

My son and I need to come to an agreement on investment (time and money) and "how soon do you want to drive it" vs. "how nice do you want it to be". Maybe we can drive it while restoring?

This is an open question to anyone with 2 cents ... where do we start? Or better yet, what would you do?


Take a peek at what we got!


BarryV