Levi

[SchreinerM]

Hi everyone, my name is Matt and I’m a long time lurker, first time project poster.

There's no great story to share here, just that my first truck was a 1972 C-10. I used it as a work truck while restoring a house, with the eventual hopes to restore it. Eventually I realized it was too rusty to save, so I found a 1968 C-10 without a driveline. Thanks to too many projects and too many hours at work, it's been a slow, slow process where years went by without a bit of progress. But recently I've been moving forward and thought posting here would be a motivator to get this thing progressing.

It’s my first frame off restoration, so in general it’s a pretty straight forward build. 1968 front clip, 1972 disc brakes, 2001 Silverado 5.3L, and air bags all around. Nothing to revolutionary. The name Levi comes from the intended color (blue jean like) and that it’s the third vehicle I’ve modified (Leviticus is the third book of the Bible, although that’s not super relevant to the build).

It won’t be this low, but the photo below (which I blatantly stole from another board member) is the goal.

[SchreinerM]

Seeing as how this was my very first restoration and I had a solid 15 minutes of prior welding experience, I figured why not jump in head first and shorten this thing up. Armed with a trusty Miller welder (thanks Craigslist) and LFD's instructions, it became a short box.

[SchreinerM]

While I was working in the back of the truck, I decided to tub the rear fenders. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't (remember I started this years ago when I young and dumb) because I'd actually like to drive this thing some day and big fat tires are awful on a truck in anything other than sunshine.

[SchreinerM]

After building some confidence out back, I headed toward the front of the truck to tackle the rot and filling unnecessary holes. The wiring tunnel on the firewall was rotted horribly, so it needed to be fully rebuilt. The nubs on the core support always bugged me, so I fixed those too. Looking back, I knew nothing at this point. With some more knowledge, I would have ordered a lot patch panels rather than making everything.

[68bowtie]

from what i can tell the shortening turned out pretty nice. are you putting the trim back on? looks like you started with a real solid truck.

[SchreinerM]

In all my youthful exuberance, I decided that now was a great time to sell my house. At this point I just (literally just) finished restoring a 1905 home, so it seemed logical to up and move. Levi made a trip out to a friend's house and sat in the corner of a barn for a year or so.

[SchreinerM]

After a year or so (and moving again), Levi came home. Since I had a new house to work on, the jigsaw puzzle was set-up to maximize garage space. Which obviously minimized truck progress for a bit longer.

[SchreinerM]

More cab repairs. All stuff you guys have seen before.

[SchreinerM]

After wiring, plumbing air, insulating, and drywalling the garage I was closer. Pretty cool to think the serial number markings on firewall made it this long in the truck's life.

All you patina guys will hate the picture of this hood. If the truck weren't so rusty or dented up, I would have kept the patina for sure.

[SchreinerM]

Time to make the frame match the sheetmetal. Plus a filthy garage.

[SchreinerM]

Time for a powerplant, which quickly served a good purpose.

[raggedjim]

Fun stuff, great job on the bed. My passengers rocker went right on, the driver's side was worse than doing calculus.

Keep the pics coming. Rg

[SchreinerM]

Originally Posted by 68bowtie

from what i can tell the shortening turned out pretty nice. are you putting the trim back on? looks like you started with a real solid truck.

The plan is to keep the lower trim. I like the look.

[SchreinerM]

I cleaned up the engine, swapped in a NV4500 (the third tranny after a 4L60E and NV3500), and made some engine mounts using the gen 3 stock mounts (I stole the mount image from another board member).

[SchreinerM]

Painted the engine and trans and dropped in a fuel cell from the Tanks Inc.

[swamp rat]

Subscribed!

[SchreinerM]

Pushed the roller outside and after a pressure wash, I tore it all down for blasting. A few days after I dropped it off, the blaster called me and said "it was a little more work than I expected so the bill might be a bit more". It was $100 for the frame, all four control arms, both trailing arms, crossmembers, and the core support.

[SchreinerM]

Dropped the engine and trans back in the frame.

[Xeen]

Only $100 for all that blasting, that's a great deal.

[SchreinerM]

Looks like I have these all out of order now. After all the cutting and patching, I sent the sheet metal off for blasting.



Then I made some brackets and mounted the compressors under the bed. You can see that I mounted the fuel tank high (note the bed cross member is shortened) and I welded a fuel door from a Blazer into the bed floor.

[SchreinerM]

This photo reminds me of Grandpa who always used to say "it's only flat on the bottom".



Welded up trailing arms (top and bottom).


And I figured I was making way too much progress (it's only been five years), so I made some wall art after I scrapped out my '72.


Here's the '72 back in it's prime, hauling 2500lbs of 3/4 clear.