1970 Chevy Longhorn Restoration progress

[70LonghornCST]

Hi there!
I am in the process of restoring a 1970 Chevy Longhorn. My 69 C10 was stolen a year and a half ago and I bought this one to build. I wish I had taken pictures of this truck before I started tearing into it. This truck was an upgrade from my C10 as my C10 was a 6cyl 3-speed...very basic. This truck has a 350 with air and a wood bed. However, all needed to be redone except for the engine. It was a crate engine with 2700 miles on it when I got it. However, it was very dirty so I needed to detail it. Here is the truck just after I removed the front clip, painted the firewall, and detailed the engine. You can see that this truck had the saddle tanks as many Longhorns did. I wound up welding them closed. I had purchased aftermarket doors and a tailgate...all junk. I eventually found some nice originals. The tailgate that I found was from a truck that the owner had put a camper on it when new, and stored the tailgate. It is near NOS. I also repaired the kick panels, and replaced the rockers with NOS GM rockers. The pics show some of the progress. I have done much more, and I will post more pics and keep you all posted of my progress, and dilemmas.

[Longhorn Man]

let me be the first to welocome you to the forums!

[JayDubBlazer]

Looking good, and welcome to the board

[LockDoc]

..from the Corn State.

Looks like you will have a great truck when you're done. Any questions just ask, there are a lot of knowledgeable people on this board.

LockDoc

[Castiron9]

Welcome................Oh Yea......Longhorns...........Rock...........

[jd4300fel]

welcome to the site, always good to see another longhorn

[stllookn]

Welcome from the land of liquid sunshine! I love to see another Longhorn restoration. Good luck and post more pictures.

[72BlckButy]

to the boards from Mid-MO!!!

Great looking project!

[Longhorn Man]

Originally Posted by Castiron9

...Oh Yea......Longhorns...........Rock...

That part is implied. Everyone knows its all about the extra six inches!

[68,69 K20]

Nice looking project, and welcome from NY!!

[70LonghornCST]

Thanks to all of you who have posted. Here are more pictures. The progress shown in this set shows that I am in the process of changing the color from Gold to White. I removed the gas tank and painted it white behind it. I guess I could have just covered the tank and painted around it, but it would bother me knowing there was gold paint behind it. I also prepped and primed the entire inside of the cab. The other pictures show that I have welded shut the gas doors on the bed, and did the major body work where needed. I also stripped the roof of the cab down to metal and etch primed it.

As many of these trucks have, this one had the radio slot hacked out for an aftermarket radio. Since beginning on this truck, I have gotten a little better with my welder. I managed to cut the missing parts from a donor truck at a wrecking yard. I cut pieces only the size of the missing chunks from the radio...kind of like puzzle pieces if you will. I then tacked them in, working slowly around, and cooling it off with a wet rag to prevent warping. And Walla! A repaired radio slot. That was one of my proudest moments in working on this truck.

I also began to reassemble the front clip, and to put together the air conditioning unit. I managed to find a gorgeous POA valve with the date code/part number still vividly visible, and the unit cleaned up nice. I also found an NOS actuator for the firewall. I am trying to go for as much original parts as I can. Light lenses, sheet metal, and anything else I can get my hands on. I have spent so much money on parts already for this truck; it doesn't make sense to cut corners now.

The next batch of tasks are: mount bucket seats; cut slots for cargo light; remove wood bed; finish all minor work on the body and block sand.

I will post more pics as I make progress.

-Richard

[santana474]

Nice looking project!! And welcome from southern Miss!

[70LonghornCST]

I got a little more done on the Longhorn. While the temperature here in Hughson California reached 106 degrees, I decided I'd go ahead and rip out the old wood bed. I got her all done with the help of an angle grinder with a cut off wheel. I even used the skill saw with a metal cutting blade when possible. No chance of working those old rusty carriage bolts free, especially with the rotted wood and rusty bed strips. I have all new oak and polished stainless to take its place when
the paint is done. I am going to use spray in liner on the inner walls and fender wells of the bed. If it's a good quality liner, it comes out quite sharp looking. I'll Por15 the frame and take care of any imperfections in the bed before moving on.

The next step will be to mount the bucket seats into place where the old bench seat was...

[Longhorn Man]

very impressive richard

[too much stuff]

Looking good richard! Some of the lenses you are looking for may still be available from GM. I like what you did with the avatar. Looks kinda like mine... Eric

[Sinisterspeed]

Nice progress. Moving right along on the Longhorn.

[70LonghornCST]

Thanks for the compliments everyone. Eric, I'm looking for the red tail light lenses that are original NOS. Those are the only lenses I need. How do I locate them? Through a GM parts store? Or is there a vendor on here?

[67shortie]

Welcome to the board

I'm over next door to you in Turlock, howdy nieghbor

Good looking truck, by brother in law had a longhorn for many years. I spent many hours under the hood on that truck....

[longhorn70gmc]

Hello Richard,
Nice build and it is good to see a LONGHORN LIVE ON!!!!! It is looking really nice. I can't wait to see it done. Oh Yea, I got my Red tail light lences for my Longhorn at Napa!!! Good Luck and we all patiently await the new looking Longhorn when it is done.

[OhioDan]

Looks like yer moving right along. I'd like to see it when yer done.

[70LonghornCST]

Temperatures were in the high 90's to 100's again, so I waited until late this afternoon to do any work. I got the buckets pretty much figured out. My first problem was the mounting holes. I had bench holes, and now I needed bucket holes. I measured and drilled the extra holes in the floor for mounting the bucket seats. All in all, it was pretty simple. I just wanted to have all of this part figured out before I paint the inside of the cab. I don't want to be trouble shooting anything with new paint and risk scratching anything.


My next problem was that one of the right front driver seat track mount tabs was hitting the center hump in the cab, making it difficult to mount the seat where I needed. So, I bent the tab 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and drilled a bolt hole there. I still need to flatten out that tab to make it perfect. I will paint these seat tracks a semi-gloss, as they are only covered with an self-etching primer now.

[70LonghornCST]

Another (big) problem was the driver seat brackets. The driver seat bracket appeared to be from a 73 or later blazer seat track, as it was too tall when compared to the console and the other passenger with the stationary brackets. Thank goodness for cutting wheels and welders.

I cut the top perch in half, overlapped it 1.5 inches, and it gave me the needed 3" reduction in height. I had to do this to all four of the perches. I drilled two holes in the overlapping area of each perch and ran bolts through them. Then, I welded all the seams for added strength. They're not going anywhere!

I have new foam and black seat covers for these seats, but I'll wait to cover them until the cab is ready to accept them.

So here you have it, bench to bucket conversion.

[bad_turbo]

Very nice work and welcome from arizona.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice truck. Can't wait to see the finished product. It's nice to see pics of one not all rotted out when the wood is removed. LOL

[70LonghornCST]

Finally, just recently having a newborn enter my family, I got some work done on the Longhorn. More pictures to follow as I am motivated and am starting to find some time to get moving along once again. I got started on, but not finished, Por15'ing the frame. I coated the cross rails with rubberized undercoating. I replaced the front bed panel with a new, thick Goodmark replacement. I got the outer skins of my doors perfect, stripped to the metal, and metal etched. I will remove them to finish them shortly. The inner bed has been partiall stripped to the metal and some filler added to where I will need some perfecting. A new rear wiring harness has been installed as well.