Lowly the 70 shortbed convert v2.0

[hewittca]

I started building my first truck in 2016 after a life long affection for old Chevy trucks. It was a mostly original 1968 longbed C10 in 505 dark green for which I had big plans. After a few years and moderate progress towards my end goal I decided I needed to make a change and part ways with the truck. You can find my build thread on it here.



One of the themes of my truck was embracing the nostalgia I felt with these trucks after growing up around my dad's trucks. Little did I know, after selling my truck nostalgia would hit me hard when looking back at my own photos! Fast forward to 2021 and I couldn't take it anymore, I needed a new truck. I started looking for another '68 but ended up falling in love with a 1972 GMC instead. This one was also mostly original but already a shortbed. You can find my build thread on this one here.



With the GMC I knew I wanted to go further into the build process than I did with the '68. I wasn't going to be fooled into selling this time and that remains true to this day because I still have the truck and am still making progress on it. One thing I can't seem to shake, however, is the fact that I gave up on the green truck before it was done. The nostalgia with that one is strong! So, while continuing to build my GMC I would routinely peruse Marketplace to see if I could find another green truck. Occasionally I would find one and daydream about how I would build it, but I never had intentions to buy another truck... until I saw this particular dark green longbed. Instinct kicked in and I immediately messaged the seller and began the process of setting up a time to go inspect the truck. When I say process, it was indeed a chore to make the stars align to even see this truck. Long story short (that I will detail below), I ended up bringing home this barn find 1970 C10 in 512 dark green, of the metallic variety. In keeping with my naming scheme, I will name this one after a character from a book that my children loved when they were younger. I shall call this one Lowly.

[raggedjim]

Nice! glad to see a new build by you. Good luck, Rg

[hewittca]

It started with a picture. One picture from a Marketplace ad of an old C10 in a barn. Quite literally a barn find. I didn't find it, but a barn find nonetheless. To top it off, the truck was still in this barn, waiting to be rescued.



I immediately messaged the seller and waited patiently for a response. One, two, three days later and still nothing. I reached out again and I receive one of Facebook's canned responses "Yes, are you interested?". Well of course I am, I reached out didn't I?! After about one week I finally had a phone number from the guy and we chatted for a few minutes. He seemed nice enough. We set up a time to meet. I am in central NC and he is in Western SC. I tell him I am coming prepared to buy the truck if I like it since it's a 4 hour drive. Our meeting day was a week away, so again I waited patiently. Then hurricane Helene hits Western NC and SC, so we had to push out indefinitely. Two more weeks later and it's safe enough to travel to his area, so we set up another day to meet, which is yet another week out. He assures me he hasn't entertained any other offers and I am first in line. I believe him and wait patiently again until our scheduled meeting day. On the morning of I am prepared to go, using Bluey to transfer everything I think we need to my father in laws house. He is coming along with me like he did with my first green truck. The problem is, we still don't know where to go and what time to meet, so we just wait... Finally after a few hours I get a message with a time and address and we leave immediately.



The drive to SC was uneventful yet pleasant. It was a Sunday morning so traffic was light and we cruised down I-85 South with ease compared to a congested weekday. During the drive I recounted everything I knew about the truck and why I was drawn to it to my father in law. It was a second owner truck purchased in 1977 by a Mr. Lipscomb. For about 12 years it was his daily driver until his personal business picked up and money started rolling in. Mr. Lipscomb started buying property and vehicles with his newly acquired wealth so the C10 was ultimately parked in a barn in 1991 and never driven again. When Mr. Lipscomb passed in 2019 his son acquired his assets and slowly began selling off all the vehicles scattered about his various properties. Thirty three years after being parked, it was time for the C10 to move on to its next owner. This is where I come in, as well as my son who tagged along for the adventure. Upon entering the barn for the first time the truck looked exactly as it did in that first picture and my subdued demeanor morphed into complete excitement. As for my son he was excited too, I just caught him at the wrong time in this photo!

[hewittca]

Originality is what pulls me in when looking for a new project. Patina may be cliché but I don't mind, and this truck delivered in that category. Unlike my two previous trucks, however, this one also came with its fair share of rust. Given that my buy in price for my next project was low due to the fact that I still owned my current project, I expected some rust. Overall, it wasn't beyond saving and everything that needed fixing has a patch panel available.



I decided quickly that I wanted the truck, so we made a deal and got to work on the extraction. The truck was sitting on 33 year old bias ply tires that were completely destroyed. This necessitated pulling the truck out with my father in laws F-150. I know, we had to resort to using the F word but sometimes it's necessary. The angle of approach for pulling the truck out of the barn was not ideal, so it took a series of pulls shifting the truck back and then to the side, repeating several times. Each pull back resulted in the truck shifting left against the barn posts which required dragging it back to the right with some clever chain routing.





Barn Extraction Pt 1

Luckily my friend Steve at Piedmont Traction let me borrow a set of 6 lug wheels that proved to be invaluable in this process. Once we made enough access room for ourselves, we bolted on the loaner wheels and started pulling again. We had to sacrifice the driver side mirror because there was no other way to shift the truck to the side. It was a small price to pay for getting this truck into the light of day for the first time in three decades!



Barn Extraction Pt 2



We took a few minutes to admire the truck now that we could step back and see it as a whole. It was amazing to think the last time this truck was outside that barn I was quite a bit younger than my son is now!







At this point we had been working on pulling the truck out for close to three hours, so we quit eying the truck and rolled it onto the trailer. A few straps later and we were on the road again.





On the return trip Google Maps brought us north through the Appalachian Mountains and onto I-40 just west of Asheville. Despite the hurricane that ravaged this area just weeks prior, everyone has made remarkable progress in working to return things back to normal. There is still quite some work to be done, but it is a testament to the human spirit. Twelve hours after we left home, we had safely returned. By this point we were all worn out so the truck was tucked away, trailer and all, in my father in laws barn. From one barn to the next! This time around, however, the barn rest would be short lived. After a few days it was time to unload the truck and really determine what we had to work with.

[MellowYellow70]

Brings back memories of pulling my 70 outta the barn after 20yrs to rebuild it. Cool project and keep the updates coming.

[clay68c10]

Great find, I'll be watching this one!

[hewittca]

After spending 33 years in one barn, it was time to move the truck into its third barn is as many days. Luckily I had a few vacation days left and decided to use one for this occasion midway through the week. I met my father in law at his house at 8:00 am and by 8:01 am we had arrived at my house! Did I mention he is our neighbor? We made quick work of unstrapping the truck and literally just letting it free roll off the trailer. Gravity provided the assist to make sure we didn't take the side of my garage down. This is also the first time I've had overlapping projects so it was fun to see the two trucks together.







After unloading the truck the puppies had to do a thorough investigation. Lots of new smells to sniff, especially considering how much debris was in the bed. A total of eight bags of garbage later I had revealed a less than stellar bed floor.







Next was the most satisfying step of rescuing a barn find, the first pressure wash! Although I paid extra for the barn find dust (joking!) it was time to see what was left of the original paint that I so desired. Thanks to its long hibernation, there was quite a bit of original paint left under all that dust and mildew and when wet it actually looks pretty slick.





Ultimately, I want to do the typical CLR and steel wool treatment to the whole truck. I had to get an idea of how this would look so I experimented on the front fender. In order this is pressure wash, CLR treatment, and dried. This color is actually quite dynamic. It is hard to capture in pictures how it looks to your eye. In some light it looks solid dark green like my old truck, while in others it looks more teal blue. Overall, I like how it looks with the resulting matte finish after steel wool. The last photo shows a side by side comparison before and after CLR on the hood. I am happy with this result, however, I will not continue this process until the whole truck is blown apart.









After the excitement of cleaning the truck, it was time to come back to reality and really scrutinize the condition of this truck. First, another photo of the two trucks together.

[CG]

Going to be great no matter what you do. Fun looking at your older builds, we are also get to see your kiddos and dogs grow up along with your trucks.

[68bowtie]

Cool project

[hewittca]

After the excitement of dragging this truck home, it was time to do a thorough survey and figure out what needs to be repaired. I plan to keep the original panels as intact as possible, but I do want to fix any rust. Overall, the truck is in acceptable condition and everything that is rusted through is repairable or replaceable. Despite sitting in a covered barn for the last three decades, this truck still needs all the typical panels repaired: rockers, cab corners, and fender cups.







Unfortunately, it was also a rodent sanctuary during this time so the bed floor and the lower corner of one bedside is rusted through. I have tossed around the idea of shortening this truck, and if I do these areas will be replaced in the process. I was also disappointed to figure out that the tailgate is completely trashed and unsalvageable. For now I will keep it on the truck since its original, but I will eventually replace it.







Moving to the interior, it also needs quite a bit of attention. One thing that is curious, however, is that the seat is in remarkably good condition. Under all that dirt is a nearly perfect original seat cover.





While rummaging around the interior I was pleasantly surprised to find the missing glovebox door under the seat! The previous owner decided to level up his baseline C/10 by adding green woodgrain to the glovebox, door panels, and inner roof. This is just comical enough that I will most likely leave it as a tribute to the truck's past owner. The well preserved SPID confirms that my truck is the not-so-commonly seen 512 dark green. It was also optioned with heavy duty front/rear springs and clutch and a painted rear bumper.





I'm not entirely sure why this truck would be ordered with heavy duty components, but only have an inline 6 in it. Maybe the 6 was more capable than I'm giving it credit for. Either way, it is quite unlikely that I will put any effort into rebuilding this engine. I like my 5.3 swap in Bluey so much that this truck will likely get the same treatment.



The last thing left to do was get this truck in my garage. Once inside, I pulled the loaner wheels off and bolted up the stock steel wheels again. When I'm ready to pull this truck apart it will go up on stands. For now, I am going to let this one settle into its new resting place while I finish up a few projects I started on the GMC.

[loudchevy]

Sub'd to follow along! Nice find.

[landarts]

In for the ride.

[hewittca]

It's been a few months since I pulled Lowly home, yet I have not been able to start on it until now. That is mostly because I've been busy working on a few other projects. First, I decided to let Bluey go which required some final touches and coordination with the buyer to seal the deal. The details and conclusion to that build thread has been posted.



Next, I had to spend some time getting reacquainted with my VW. During the build of Bluey, I regrettably neglected it and its condition was starting to degrade. I spent some time fixing all the small items it needed, doing a complete paint restoration, and replacing the dry rotted tires. After all this, the joy of driving the R returned and it will by my go to while I build Lowly.



Lastly, I've also been helping my friend build his truck after all the help he gave me on project Bluey. He is building a '78 C10 that is going to have quite a unique suspension setup with a quick change rear end and wide five hubs. We got to the point where we married the cab and frame together and it was quite motivating for me to finally get started on Lowly.



Unlike Bluey where I was impatient and didn't want to do a full frame off restoration, on Lowly I want to start from the very beginning and methodically work through each part. After seeing my friends truck with the frame/cab complete I feel like that is a good base to work with. Therefore, I will start with complete disassembly and then address everything that needs to be repaired on the cab. Unfortunately I had to confiscate this poor mouse's life savings before I could figure out what I had to work with. Luckily for me, the main floor section is very solid, despite some surface rust. The rockers, on the other hand, are not so solid. This cab will need inners, outers, kick panels, front cab supports, and cab corners. I was fortunate to avoid all this on my last two trucks, so I am actually looking forward to doing some panel replacement and making this cab solid again.





Underneath all those acorns was a pleasant surprise, the original radio delete plate! These things have become unreasonably expensive so it was nice to find the original. After stripping the strange wood grain insert it fits the look I am going for. Originally I considered leaving the wood grain but it is flaking and peeling in most places. A decal eraser wheel does wonders on this stuff and simplifies an otherwise daunting task. My daughter occasionally joins me in the garage which is nice!





After cleaning out the interior, I started to experiment with how to restore the original paint. This paint is trickier than my last two trucks for two reasons. One, it is metallic and two, it has a consistent speckled rust pattern on it. I tried wet sanding on a small area and it completely changes the sheen of the paint due to the metallic content. Even using the standard steel wool/CLR treatment resulted in splotchy results. This paint is very sensitive to any abrasion. The front passenger fender illustrates how inconsistent the paint looks after steel wool.



The opposite approach was to try the bare minimum. Most of my cleaners didn't do much to improve the look of the paint. I tried progressively stronger cleaners until I ended up with Wynn's intake cleaner. This stuff is STRONG and did clean the paint quite well, but I also figured out that it softens the paint. It also leaves it with aglossy sheen, almost like a linseed oil treatment. I was liking this look the most so far, but I was not fond of treating the surface with such an aggressive chemical.



After experimenting with several other techniques, I landed on one that gave me the look I was after. Using a coarse pad I machine buffed the surface directly, rust and all, with Mequiar's ultra cut compound. After a quick wipe down with Chemical Guys speed wax to remove any compound residue, the surface had the look/feel I wanted and the paint color was uniform. The bedside shows a few of my final experiments. The vertical section above the marker light is speed wax only. The next vertical section is machine buff and wax. The final section above the rear wheel is straight out of the barn.





The roof illustrates before and after, where after is the rear half of the roof. The corner of the cowl is a good example of the final result.





At this point, I was satisfied that I had finalized how I would treat the paint. My strategy now is to completely disassemble the truck and completely restore each panel separately as I address any other imperfections. One thing I am left wondering is how I will blend in the paint after panel repairs. The filler opening complicated things because it highlighted how much the paint color has changed after years of exposure to the elements. Color matching this 50 year old metallic paint is going to be a challenge, however, this is a problem for after I finish panel replacement.

[sfont66]

Cool beginning to the upcoming saga!