"BUILD: 1970 C10 LWB--->SWB “Jumping Cholla”

[cj847]

In my case I used the 3M stuff. It's an epoxy and was hard the next day, but I didn't sand it until about day 3 I think.

[loudchevy]

Productive 3 day weekend. The cab, hood, cowl, and glove box door got their Urethane primer. Feels good to have the cab forward completed on this step. I left the floor, rear lower wall, behind the dash, and A-pillar side walls in Epoxy primer. My plan is to Raptor Line those areas. I can see a few dings and pin holes that I missed filling before this coat, so I'll need to take care of them. The boy and I also need to pick a final color too.

Life gets busy the next few weeks, so zero progress will happen on the body. It will give the primer awhile longer to fully harden. My rear patio looks like a C10 bomb blew up right now. The frame is back in the garage and It's about time to start working on something other than bodywork.

[loudchevy]

Working on something other than bodywork has been a great change of pace. I started cleaning up the 454 the last few evenings. I was going to swap out the chrome oil pan that I never really cared for, but decided against it. It wasn't leaking so I told the "might as well" devil on my shoulder to piss off. I scrubbed the oil pan, block, heads, and intake down with some brushes and degreaser. It was pretty easy with all the practice of sanding of body panels I have been doing as of late. I scuffed up the old red paint, wiped it down, taped up everything and sprayed a few coats of Eastwood Chevy Orange high temp ceramic engine paint. It looks great against the alum heads and chrome oil pan.

Next up is to clean up the water pump and the rest of my serpentine accessories. I still need to buff out the alum valve covers at some point to really tie it all together.

Once the paint is dry on the block, I'll bolt it up to the 700R4 and get them sitting between the frame rails by the end of the weekend. I bought a set of POL engine mount brackets with some new poly motor mounts and a new tubular transmission xmember with a poly mount a while ago, so I have those to install as well. I want to test fit my long tube headers and see if they will work on the C10 frame. They fit perfect on my 85' K5 frame with this 454, so I hope this will be the same.

I would also like to drop the primered cab back on the frame just to make sure everything is good before (at some point) spraying some color on the body.

[Shifty One]

That's a fantastic place to hide a vintage Milodon pan....

[clay68c10]

I love some Big Block torque! I bet that’s a strong runner, and it looks great.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Shifty One

That's a fantastic place to hide a vintage Milodon pan....

HA! I have too many other things to buy that are needed more than an upgrade at this point....something like a Boyd Welding gas tank

Originally Posted by clay68c10

I love some Big Block torque! I bet that’s a strong runner, and it looks great.

Big Block torque is the best! It's a strong engine. It would move my lifted K5 with 37" tires and 4:56 gears too well.

[Chaparralman1974]

Scott, the day you fire that up in the '70 let me know! I will bring some adult beverages so that we can enjoy that awesome first start sound!!!


Clay

[Shifty One]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

HA! I have too many other things to buy that are needed more than an upgrade at this point....something like a Boyd Welding gas tank

Aw, c'mon...admit it, some black crinkle M/T valve covers, or some old anodized Moroso's....

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Shifty One

Aw, c'mon...admit it, some black crinkle M/T valve covers, or some old anodized Moroso's....

New valve covers might be needed to clear a brake booster.......

[KyleSeal]

Great looking build. I soon need to paint my roof, and am terrified as I am going to use an actual gun. Cant wait till its over. Good job on the seam sealer!

[loudchevy]

More progress this past weekend! We got the 700R4 temporarily bolted up to the back of the block and stuffed between the frame rails. The oil pan clears everything perfectly (I already knew it would as the BBC was pulled from a 1969 C10 when I bought it). The drivers side long tube slide in place with plenty of clearance. The Passenger side needed a little grinding on the upper and lower frame rails to get it to fit. I had to do the same grinding on the K5 as well. The drivetrain will get pulled again and the TC will get installed. When that is out, I'll clean up the grinding spots a little better and plug a frame hole that is really close to the trimming I had to do, then I put some touch up paint in those areas before putting the drivetrain in for the final time.

We threw the cab on the frame to make sure everything cleared on the firewall before final sanding and color. Plenty of clearance to the body, it's going to be close between the driver's valve cover and brake booster (which was the same issue I had on the K5, and it barely cleared it).

Life is going to get busy for the next few weeks so C10 work will slow. We already removed the cab from the frame. Next up will be some plumbing for brakes, fuel lines, gas tank, and then exhaust.

[Chaparralman1974]

I can't wait to hear that thing come to life Scott! What are you going to do for wiring? Are you going to go with a new Painless harness or something else?


Clay

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Chaparralman1974

What are you going to do for wiring? Are you going to go with a new Painless harness or something else?
Clay

Ya, most likely a painless harness kit. I didn't even bother saving the harness I pulled out of the truck, it was so cut up and spliced. Looking forward to starting with something brand new and clean.

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Ya, most likely a painless harness kit. I didn't even bother saving the harness I pulled out of the truck, it was so cut up and spliced. Looking forward to starting with something brand new and clean.

Yeah, I am in the same boat. I am still trying to find out which harness to go with.


Clay

[loudchevy]

Not a very big update, but I have started blocking/sanding all the high build panels this week. So far I got through both fenders with 400grit and then hit them with 600grit. A picture doesn't do any justice for the work it takes to make a piece straight and smooth. Still have the doors, hood, cowl, and cab to get to.

I ordered a new SS brake line kit from https://www.inlinetube.com/products/sctb67d4 on Monday and it should be here next week. I still need a new master cylinder and booster, but I'll hold off on those until I get the painted cab back on the frame for the final time.

I have been flip flopping on the gas tank fill config (top or side) and think I'm going to go with the side inlet. I'm going to steal the gas tank filler door from the blazer and graft it into the side of the C10 SWB bed (that I still need to cut down from it being a LWB). I've seen a few people do this setup (https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...18&postcount=6 and I like it better than having to drop the tailgate every time you fill up. It will also eliminate the chance of dripping gas on the bed/tailgate.

Next week I'll probably stop by Speedway Motors and pick up a 3" exhaust tube builders kit and some mufflers to start laying that out soon.

[Chaparralman1974]

Hey Scott, so you started with 400 grit on the high build? Did it eat through it quickly? I was going to start with 320, but I am not thinking that may be a bit to aggressive.


Clay

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Chaparralman1974

Hey Scott, so you started with 400 grit on the high build? Did it eat through it quickly? I was going to start with 320, but I am not thinking that may be a bit to aggressive.

Clay

The 400 grit felt good to start with on the big areas with my block. I was worried 320 would take too much to start with. I did use some 320 grit Duro-Gold pads wrapped around a 1" round Duro block for the inner corners/radius parts of the fender. Those seemed like it took off just as much the PSA 400 grit paper. For the 600 grit, I used the same Duro-Gold pads with a block behind it to finish all the areas of the fenders.

[loudchevy]

After spending the evenings of the past week sanding panels, I finally got to spray some color yesterday morning . I went with a single stage acrylic urethane from TCP Global. I was going back and forth about single stage vs base/clear and decided to go with the single stage even though I watched plenty of YT videos saying single stage is hard for first time shooters. The body color is Frost Green Metallic and the cab roof/door window frame will be Championship White. I added 1 part of 85 slow reducer since I sprayed in my garage (in phx) and I think the fenders and inside of the cab turned out pretty good for my first time shooting color. I had a couple of small runs and a little orange peel that should wet sand out. Overall pretty excited to see some color on the truck.

This morning I'm shooting the white on cab roof and door window frames. Tomorrow I'll tape off those areas and spray the bottom of the cab and the rest of the doors, cowl, and underside of the hood with color. Sunday I'll finish off the top of the hood. At least that is the plan

[raggedjim]

Nice! It's gotta be a great feeling to get some paint sprayed on. Great work, Rg

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Truck is really coming along nice.

[Shifty One]

Cool color!

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

Nice! It's gotta be a great feeling to get some paint sprayed on. Great work, Rg

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Truck is really coming along nice.

Originally Posted by Shifty One

Cool color!

Thanks Gents!

[loudchevy]

It's a white xmas in July! Just shot the white and it's looking good. I do have a few runs on the top of the window frames from trying to get the very thin frame top covered in white. I didn't notice any run on the roof. I'll pull the tape/paper in a little bit and then it can bake in the garage all day.

Tomorrow morning will bring some more color

[Chaparralman1974]

You are doing a hell of a job Scott! The color looks great!

[Stickman]

Awesome job, very nice color.