1970 C10 SWB - Project "Sprout"

[Tomahawk30]

I hauled my 69 GMC 4x4 stepside over to the body and paint shop last week (that I'm trading for the body, paint, and engine work on Sprout), and while I was there I spent some time removing excess wiring, air lines, and saddle tank fuel lines. I also bought some Simple Green and a bunch of shop towels and spent a couple hours cleaning up the engine bay... It was looking pretty sad with the shiny new engine buried in decades of grease and grime! I definitely have more work to do (replace hoses, new longer plug wires, plastic spiral wrap to bundle the wiring more cleanly, a bit more grease to remove behind the engine, etc...) but I was surprised how well the paint on the firewall cleaned up with some scrubbing.

Before:






After:







There's a bunch more pictures and a semi-crappy engine running cell phone video in my flickr gallery (in my sig) but I wanted to get something posted so I don't get completely behind on my build thread!

[Tomahawk30]

Correction, a REALLY crappy video. I think it got even worse when I uploaded it to Flickr...

[VA72C10]

Great job refreshing that engine bay!

[Tomahawk30]

I forgot to mention that I altered the deal a bit on the paint job... He is now respraying the whole interior of the cab, and I am also going with the white roof instead of all green. A guy here in town just painted a K10 lwb the same green and I just decided that it was too much green without something to break it up a little. Getting closer....

[ZUBZ]

Looking good, nice job on engine bay clean up....

[ZUBZ]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk30

Zubz, did you pick up the short bed? I'd love to see it!

Hi Tomahawk, Yes I made the final payment today into the banks account which is looking after the estate of the previous late owners. I will be updating my thread soon and will post up pictures of the original paperwork etc I received with the truck. Can you believe in 1970 the owner bought the truck brand new for R2875.00 (South African Rands) which roughly translates to about $330- if we use todays exchange rate, amazing hey! Thanks for the support guys.

[Tinkermc]

shaping up real nice

[Tomahawk30]

Got an update yesterday that the bodywork is all wrapped up, and he's picking up the paint. He was concerned that the original Chevy white had a little bit of a blue tint to it. Anyone ever notice that? I'm going over this weekend for a swap meet, so hopefully I'll get to see some new color for the first time!!!

Last night I spent some time cleaning up some of my spare parts to take to the swap meet and found a spare 65 Impala SS dash that I forgot I had. It has the factory vacuum gauge, which made me start thinking... It is roughly the same size as the center opening for a truck tach. I have a couple spare truck dashes to play around and experiment with, so I decided to see if I could make it work. With a little trimming of the gauge, and a hole cut through the dash tin, it fits like a glove! I still need to trim the hole from the black metal surround piece so you can see the gauge from the front, but it looks great in there. I need to find a large hole saw and make the cut, and then I'll post some pictures.

The gauge looks like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1965-CHEVY-I...-/370613095452

And now that I look on ebay, I kinda wish I hadn't "modified" it quite so much. Oh well!

[Tomahawk30]

COLOR!!!!

[VA72C10]

Very nice!!!

[Tomahawk30]

Thanks everyone for all the comments. I was just reading back through and realized I hadn't really responded much. I really do appreciate everyone's help and support, not just on this project but on all the troubleshooting I've done on my trucks these last few years. I tell everyone that is interested in these trucks that the forum is absolutely invaluable, and that the help I get is worth every penny (and then some) of being a supporting member.

[Tomahawk30]

One other small development... I think I've found a good in-dash 8-track AM/FM for the truck. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I want a cool retro stereo with a few select 8-tracks in a case under the seat. I'll probably install one of the inline aux adapters that installs between the antenna and the head unit so I can use my mp3 player as well.

[Tinkermc]

true Chevy white does have a blue hue

[Tomahawk30]

Originally Posted by Tinkermc

true Chevy white does have a blue hue

Ya, I've had a couple people tell me that offline as well. I decided to go ahead and use it though, as I want the correct colors (or at least a reasonable facsimile).

[Tomahawk30]

More color!!! I'll be adding more to the flickr album as well...

[ZUBZ]

Looking good, I love the US spec trucks that have side marker lamps on the side of the bed....

[Booya]

Looking good, cant wait to see it done. How was the fit on the rockers?

[Tomahawk30]

Originally Posted by Booya

Looking good, cant wait to see it done. How was the fit on the rockers?

Pretty good I think... The guy that installed them didn't complain about them anyway. I'll ask him though... They came from GMCPauls, and they seem to have a pretty good reputation for selling good parts.

[Tomahawk30]

Originally Posted by ZUBZ

Looking good, I love the US spec trucks that have side marker lamps on the side of the bed....

Thanks Zubz! I think it'll look pretty slick when its all put together.

[nuke1]

looks really nice!!!!! soon it will be a truck again.

[Tomahawk30]

We've been down to the "last week" for about a month and a half, but I'm staying patient! Still hoping for this weekend, but we'll see. I did get my new carpet and insulation, door sills, key set, hood bumpers, deluxe side marker lenses, and driver side mirror ordered, so they are all sitting in the shop waiting to go on. Hoping for some updated pictures this weekend!

[GMCJOE]

Truck is looking sharp from the last picture you posted. How's the truck coming a long?

[Low Elco]

OOOOOWEEEEEEE! Looks nice!

[Tomahawk30]

Originally Posted by GMCJOE

Truck is looking sharp from the last picture you posted. How's the truck coming a long?

Getting there... Keep getting bumped back at the paint and body shop so he can get cash customers done first. Part of the deal when I traded for the paint and body, but I'm definitely getting anxious!

[GMCJOE]

I did one of them deals with a motor install on a 74 Camaro I had. Never happened and the motors in my truck now. Glad your having better luck than I did. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.