What I can afford, when I can afford it... 70 Chevy LWB

[KSWes]

Decided to start a build thread. I have been reading all the build threads and tech help for about the last year and decided I would try my hand at this. I bought my memebership to the board because it's been so helpful to me and I think it's money well spent for such a great resource. In addition to that I wanted to put up my truck as a get started with my build. I know pictures are a huge part of this because that's what I always love seeing myself. So for now here's two, the truck I'm starting with a LWB 70 Chevy Custom 10 350/350.





I have been in the process of building a detached garage so me and the Wife won't have to scrape windows here in KS, and we're having the sidewalk put in this week so I can put the carperntry tools down and pick up the wrenches and get some stuff done to the truck. I feel like I've been in a never ending battle to get it done just so I can get the truck back in the garage. So enough talk, the work will begin this weekend, in the new garage,



This weekend I begin a complete front to back suspension overhaul including swapping out the front drums for disc's. More pics when I can get my hands dirty...

[KSWes]

I had fully intended to get the bed off the truck this weekend, but after running around Saturday and talking to some friends, and friends of friends about my rusty cab and how much work and potentially money I was in for if I had someone do the body work. Since I've never tackled anything that big before and I want it to turn out right and wouldn't be happy if I hacked up my truck and didn't get it back together right. I'm a little leary about doing it myself not saying I can't, but I worked in a body shop as a shop hand in highschool, and I know enough to know that the kind of body work my cab needs is extensive, and time consuming which is why I am potentially on the look out for someone more skilled to do what needs doing. My buddy knew of a cab that had been through a tornado, and had some pretty bad dents but it wasn't rusty, so after a trip down the road and around the corner we talked to another friend and I took a look at the cab and heard the price and said I'll take it. I hope to get out this week to pick it up, if it's not too muddy to get where it's at. One of the things said by a wise body man while we were talking to yesterday, dents are usually much preferred to fix than replacing rusty metal. Plus having an extra cab will allow me to continue to drive my truck while I'm getting everything all set for the cab swap and should allow me to have pretty minimal down time on the truck, since I use it for hauling, and towing, etc. I really don't want to be without it for long. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the truck into the garage at all to work on it, but with another cab on the way I count the weekend as progress and I was also able to take some scrap wood leftover from the garage and $30 worth of casters from the hardware store to build a dolly for the cab I'm getting so it will be convenient to put where I need it. Once I get the cab home I'll get around to pulling the bed off and getting started cleaning the frame and get the suspension back in business like it was new...

[KSWes]

Got my cab that had been through a tornado last night. Thanks to good friends Alex and Kevin for this find There is some body work in the cab's near future, after that it's going on the truck and hopefully by the time the cab is ready to swap, I'll have the suspension 100% and the frame tidied up. Not going to do any mods to the suspension just replace old and worn parts. Here is the cab.

[67cheby]

nice start

[KSWes]

Thanks! I am looking forward to lots of truck therapy in the near future!

[Tinkermc]

truck therapy is good for the heart mind and sole. it also creates sore muscles and that leadto a real gooooood nites sleep

[C@rnut001]

It looks like you have a nice truck to start with (especially with the extra cab). I like your new garage too. Keep up the work and update and post lots of pictures.

[KSWes]

Got me some truck therapy tonight... Got the truck into the garage and got all the carriage bolts out of the bed. All came lose fine on the passenger side... But had a little more difficulty on the drivers side.


That's the best tool ever made.

Got the big one at the front to twist off...



Lifting the bed off on Saturday morning hopefully with a little help from father in-laws fork lift...

[KSWes]

And thanks for checking out my page! hoping to get busy and get a lot done over the next couple of months before me and the Wife have to begin our final house renovation project.

[KSWes]

Got the bed off yesterday, unfortunately had to stop and go do some work stuff on my weekend, but the good news I have two days off this week to get the chance to tinker without much interruption. Here's some pics minus the truck bed.

You can see in that last picture there is still a shred or two of factory frame paint on her... I was pretty excited to see that...

I've seen some people using the CPP replacement crossmember and mounting the factory control arms, I know it slightly changes the pivot point mainly to get the pinion angle right if a truck is going to be lowered. Just wondering if anyone knows if there is any benefit to using it if you're planning on keeping it at stock height. I like the exhaust holes so I could get the exhaust into the frame.

Soaked all bolts with PB blaster before I stopped for the day so hopefully things will come loose when I start taking it apart either today or later this week...

[KSWes]

So I decided against the CPP crossmemeber after reading a little more on here about the reason for getting it, it's recommended if you're planning on doing a 5+ inch drop and that's not in my trucks future.

[KSWes]

Took a couple of days off this week been burning the candle at both ends lately and decided to get away for a little bit with the primary goal of getting some work done to the truck. rear end disassembly is complete. Going to try and rig up a blast booth like I've seen some guys using one of those easy up tents and some clear plastic for the sides. I have a siphon feed bucket sand blaster from eastwood I've been wanting to try out and we'll see if it's up for the challenge tomorrow if I'm lucky pretty proud to get it this far apart and really surprised at how good of shape most of the hardware is in. Only twisted off 2 bolts today. The upper spring mount bolts. Everything else came loose just fine, I'm thinking it was the PB Blaster I hit it with over the weekend.

Now You See Them...

Not thinking I can reuse these. And see inside them, the worlds oldest air bags... I think the truck was used with one of those slide in campers back in the day...

Should sleep good tonight. Maybe I can get most of that rust gone tomorrow...

[RexDodge]

Nice start on your truck. That cab was a nice find! I'm guessing you are really enjoying the new shop too. Here's to truck therapy!

[KSWes]

Thanks Rex! Very happy about the cab! It gave me a light at the end of the tunnel pretty much overnight. Loving the garage it had been years since I had anywhere to work on a vehicle out of the weather. Thanks for checking out the progress, really enjoying my therapy so far getting ready to get back out there.

[KSWes]

A little more progress, got the heavy rust scale knocked off. I'm not sure what build I was looking at where they did the makeshift blast booth with a easy up and plastic sheeting but it went up fast and works like a charm. All with stuff I had sitting around the house. The Eastwood bucket blaster works great, although it's humid here today and it likes to clog a little but tapping the tip on the metal with the trigger pulled would usually get it cleared up. The little blaster isn't made for the kind of work I'm doing but I would rather blast than run a wire brush all day. Going to get some rust converter from the parts store maybe tonight and get it sprayed down. then I'll move my blast booth over to the other side of the garage and get the trailing arms and rear axle. Maybe I'll be ready to reassemble this weekend althought I'll probably have to wait until payday for the bushing parts...

[KSWes]

a little more progress. Going to blast the rear axle and trailing arms today. No rain today so I'm going to do it outside. So less clean up

I bought some chassis paint at advance auto parts and two cans didn't go far so I opted to just go to walmart and get rustoleum and it covered and looked much better than what I got from advance not to mention 3 cans of the rustoleum was cheaper than two cans of the other. Time to get back to work...

[KSWes]

Done with blasting and cleaning and painting on the frame for a bit, now I just need to put it back together and address the braking issues. Adding up my parts list tonight and with bushings springs etc. its going to have to wait until payday...

[KSWes]

A pretty busy weekend for the most part... Rear half of the truck is about 90 percent done now. I decided after looking at some other stock pictures there wasn't anything wrong with my springs other than some rust and some nasty old airbags in them.

Cut the bags out with a sawsall and then did my best with the blaster to get them cleaned up springs are a real pain in the ass, but after some time and some rust converter and some rattle can rustoleum almost as good as new, and a lot cheaper than new.

Then I got the trailing arms back/rear axle back on the truck, after some coaxing and a bloody finger, the good news I'm pretty sure I'm not going to lose my finger nail. I went with prothane bushings for several reasons, I didn't want to have to press out the old sleeves and two because I didn't want to have to worry about changing them again. I used every last drop of the super grease they give you with it, so here's hoping they don't squeak.

next was to get the drive shaft back is place, but as I was doing that I figured I would grease the u joints and I ended up busting off the zerk in the grease gun so off to the part store for a new u joint. Long story short I messed up the first one and had to buy another. decided to take the whole drive shaft out the second time around, and it gave me an opportunity to check the carrier bearing which would have probably been ok, but it was starting to have a little bit of a rattle you could hear if you listened close. So I bit the bullet on that and replaced it while I was doing the u joint again. Second time around I didn't screw the u joint up and got it back together, all the other u joints greased up fine and look and sound good. I started getting the new rear brake lines put on which in the process I found the the drivers side rear cylinder was bone dry, I'm pretty sure the pipe was rusted closed somewhere in there, good news stainless plumbing is going on, from front to rear. I did some cheap shocks for now. and that's about it for this weekend. I'll finish up the rear brakes in the evenings this week and I'll get it out of the garage and get the bed back on it. So I can get the garage cleaned up. Hope you all had productive weekends also!

[KSWes]

Back on all four wheel and it's own power. Although it was being stingy about starting when I first tried to fire it back up. Maybe it was because the odometer read 60666.4 when it was in the garage this whole time. Could also be a reason why everything didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked... I rolled it over the 60667.4 while test driving it so I should be good now...

Once I got the brake cylinders, and lines changed, I was having a terrible time getting the rear brakes bled and finally I decided I would replace the master cylinder also since I'll need a new one for when I put on the front disks. Once I bench bled the master cylinder and found a loose fitting in my line. I got all the air out and the pedal is super hard and it's the best the brakes have been since I bought the truck and probably as good as they've ever been.

The only thing left to do behind the cab is to change the diff fluid and gasket. Then I'm putting the bed back on and I'll finally get the bumper on I had powder coated months ago...

Got a new roof skin for my spare cab and it's going under the knife hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

[KSWes]

Rear of the truck is finished other than the body work on the bed, but that's a ways down the road. Speaking of the road, I'm driving on it again. My better cab is going into the Body Shop this week. going to get a new roof skin, dents pulled, and patches that were in place, welded up and ready for some paint eventually. Looking forward to getting the cab done... That will probably be the end of some updates for me for a while. We're getting ready to start on the Master Bedroom and Bath in the house. Planning on getting that started in May and I'll need the truck to haul all kinds of stuff. But I'm hoping we can get that done in a month or less, so I can get back to the truck... I might sneak in a truck work day here and there, to get a break from the house projects especially once I get the cab back. Because I won't have to take the truck out of service to get some things done. Here is the truck now... Back in business.

[JRANGER]

good job so far...damm I want a garage lol

[KSWes]

Thanks JRANGER! A man's home is his castle, and a man's garage is his santuary. Read that somewhere, it's my first garage. The only thing I can say is when you get to build yours. When you think about how big it needs to be. add about 50% to it.

[JRANGER]

haha yeah i was in a build plan phase until i fiinally realized all i can have is a workshop....I bought my first house in Nov 2007 just before the market dropped out and only have .07 acres...Not a big deal but the issue is my driveway is on the lot line...Then in the back my 12 foot by 27 foot back slab is actually 9x27.....SO my thoughts of expanding to 12 foot was ruined by the idea that I prob wouldnt have enough turning radius...So...im just going to close in about 15x9 and use it as a workshop.... but in the mean time....I just work in the driveway and on the back porch

[KSWes]

I've put in a lot of Driveway time in my day and as long as the weather is good, I love that. When I was living in apartments for some 15 years, I was doing stuff in parking lots which sucksssssss.... Good luck on the workshop, it's just nice having a space to keep all your tools organized... We got lucky in our backyard it was next to an alley and there was already a drive in access back there so it wasn't too bad when it came to the city inspectors... Now to get our master bedroom and bath done so the wife can have her sanctuary also...

[JRANGER]

HAHA!!! Yeah I hear ya..... That is always nice...Looks good either way.... I use to do that apartment work too...Always had to be careful as most APT have a "NO WORKING ON CAR" policy....which is weird...but either way good luck and keep it up....Im basically doing the same budget build....As money comes in and time comes around