Project Lazy Susan

[dunc018]

First I would like to thank everyone who has posted information on this forum, I learn something new on here every day.

This is a project that my father and I have been working on. I have named it Lazy Susan because we certainly haven't been in any hurry to get it done and sometimes I feel like it has us spinning in circles.

Truck was pulled from a field, the tag on it expired in 2000. It is a 69 C10 Stepside I6 3OTT. We bought the truck for $750.

We are going to be dropping it a bit, adding a small block and TH 400, and doing a little bodywork on it. We will most likely be going with a fleetside bed. I was looking forward to making the stepside, but pretty much every part of the bed we have is bad.

Here it is Susan after we rescued her out of the field:






Once we got it into the garage, we tore it down to bare frame. Grinders, air chisel, and a torch made it much easier:





After tearing it down, the frame and other larger parts went for blasting:

[dunc018]

After blasting, we degreased and prepped the frame and applied POR 15:





We found a frame from a 79 C10 and a short bed. Its in the background in one of the pictures above. I think we paid 350 for all of it. From the frame we got the power steering box, front saddle, suspension, 5 lug 1.25 discs, sway bar, AT crossmember, etc., and the 5 lug rear end.

From there we tore down the 79 front suspension and blasted it. For the big parts, we had to hire someone to blast. For control arms and anything smaller, and for some other things we are working on, I built a poor-man's blasting cabinet from some things I had laying around. I think I have about $40 (including the media) in it and its fairly large. Its not the greatest, but it does the job. (I thought I took some pictures of what we blasted but I cant find them.)



After blasting and cleaning everything we had the upper and lower control arm bushings and the ball joints removed and replaced. I think the guy charged $100 for the labor. We used all Moog bushings, tie rods, etc. We coated the suspension parts in POR 15.

[dunc018]

I debated for a long time on how to proceed with lowering the truck. Finally went with CPP 2.5" drop spindles and a 1" drop spring up front and 5" drop spring in the rear. A CPP rear shock relocator. KYB shocks front and rear and a CPP deluxe trac bar. The cheapest way I found to do the lowering kit was to order the items from Summit. The cheapest I found for the moog suspension parts was Rock Auto. For the discs, they were practically new so we just had them turned, installed inner and outer bearings/races and seals. We were going to reuse the calipers but found some already coated black at Napa for cheap so we just used those. Most items arrived pretty quick, some of the CPP items took a while but I knew they would going in. I was really impressed with the packaging and care in shipping for the drop spindles:





I am convinced that since they were a little behind schedule they just flew over the house and dropped them from the plane. And to land them on the front porch was one heck of a shot! All kidding aside, the contents were fine.

Here is a picture of the front suspension going on:



The swap over to the 79 front end went pretty well. Pretty much as others have said, just a little drilling and its in. Decided to go with the 69 motor mount towers since we would have had to build up to make the 79 motor mounts work. The 69 towers are currently in the I6/rear position. That may change as we move forward.

This weekend, we pulled out the differential from the 79 frame, pulled the drums and shaved the shock and leaf mounts. Here is a picture of my father grinding away at it (don't worry, the gas can he is throwing sparks at does not contain gas).





We are kind of on hold now, have to order the brackets to make the differential work with the 69 coil suspension. We are also looking at converting the rear to disc brakes.

That's it for now.

[dunc018]

It has been a while since I updated. Life got in the way for a while but was able to get back on it recently. We were able to get most of the drivetrain and suspension done years ago.

[dunc018]

Finally had a rolling chassis.

[dunc018]

We were able to get on bodywork afterwards. Had the cab, bed, and some other parts blasted. There wasn't much left after blasting. If we had the money then, we should have bought another cab.

[dunc018]

Once the blasting was done, we were able to start working on different parts at a time. We ended up putting in supports cab corners, inner and outer rockers and about 70 other patches by the time the cab was done

[dunc018]

It was about that time that progress grinded to a halt. We started this project with the promise from the person that talked us into buying the truck that he would help us with the bodywork and it wouldnt take long at all to restore. We were able to get a great deal done while he was with us but as time went on, that became less and less. It got to the point where he would tell us to come to his garage to begin work at a certain time but then would make us wait literally hours for him to come down and help. We tried to do what we could but without his assistance, we had no idea what we were doing. So there it sat for years until finally I became sick of it sitting there. I had a rollback grab the truck and bring it to my garage back when the covid lockdown started. We started working on it more when we could, even though we still didnt know anything about bodywork. I just decided that if I wanted it done, we would just have to do the best we could with what we had to work with. So away we went. First patching up the rest of the cab and then coating it with epoxy primer. Then we covered the bottom with raptor liner. For color, I decided to go gloss black on the interior and engine compartment and then satin black on everything else. With us doing the bodywork, satin black seemed like the best option (again, never done this before). Thank goodness for this and other forums and youtube.

[dunc018]

Once the bottom was done, we went to work on the doors and fenders. We have limited room to pain so we can only paint a few things at a time. Eventually it started coming together. Used high build and sanded it down as good as we could and then spayed color.

Ended up refreshing a instrument cluster but the faces of the instruments were rusted and worn. Ended up taking a high resolution photo of them, fixing the missing pieces in photoshop, and then having them printed on vinyl. Used those to put over the faces. Added the trucks name on the speedometer. I looked everywhere to buy black stickers to fix this but only saw them in white. I tried to upload the picture here but I couldnt get it to work. Will take a picture later with the rest of the dash later.

[dunc018]

So here is where we are today. I was able to get some wheels off a friend of mine since he had some new ones put on his 71. Starting to look like a truck again... Will try to throw some more pictures up later but I wanted to finally get this more up to date.

[tutone]

I wouldnt fret it. I've had several 10 plus year projects in my lifetime. You are making progress and that's what matters. Truck looks great. Knowledge comes with experience. Experience comes with trying it yourself. Forums like this and online videos are so important. Keep on plugging along. Good work.

[dunc018]

A few more pictures. lots of adjustments left to do but getting closer

[68 C10 Driver]

Your cab turned out great, you had all the usual rust-out issues that I had on my cab. I think repairing the cab as opposed to just buying a re-pop cab will give more satisfaction when you drive it and if you ever show it.

Great work!