...all I wanted was a cool Rat Rod shop truck.

[rusty lover]

I guess like most of the truck lovers on this site, my name is Rusty Lover and I have an addiction. Lol. My name is not really Rusty Lover....but I do have a real addiction. Since I was a little Kid, I have always wanted to be a mechanic and work on vintage iron. Becareful what you wish for cause one day it will come true. This is my build of what was a $200.oo 68 C10 that I picked up from a customer about 10 years ago. It cracked a head while being abused as a work truck. I just so happened to see potential through all the rot and it also helped I had a set of fresh heads at home for another project. For $600.oo I drove this truck into the ground for years after. I moved to 4 houses with it and a couple of shops. Moved and towed more things than I can imagine and bent the frame doing so more than once. I even traded this truck for an all original 52 3/4 that I Rat Rodded and then sold. A year and a half later my Buddy gave me back the 68 cause he had no where to keep it and it was just getting rougher. Of course this was after he too abused what was left of it. When I got the truck back, I lowered it with a Brothers 4.5/5.5 deluxe kit with 6 stud disc brake conversion and sway bar package. For the outside... I think I wash it, but I don't really remember. I called it 'The farm truck gone wrong' and drove this truck again for years without hesitation towing and hauling and abusing in all seasons of the year. Anyway. The truck finally started to look like crap but I loved it enough that I decided to use all the left over decent panels from all my other projects that have come and gone to make a shop truck. I live in Canada so there are times of the year when trying to get out of your house is a not so easy task. I have a single car garage that is just a shell with a door for a vehicle and a door for a people. I live in a town house that has a decent size yard but is not meant to fill with vehicles and parts. Enough about bla bla bla. Heres the pictures of 10 + months of build a Rat Rod shop truck.

[tantrumpipeline]

sounds like quite the story, let's see the pics

[rusty lover]

Ok. Its not pretty but what the truck was built for isn't either. Lol.

[VA72C10]

Looks good! I liked it before too but can see the rust issues...

[rusty lover]

It was so fugly I had to do something with it.

[rusty lover]

The rust had eaten out the cab to the point that you could see the windsheild shift in the cab around corners. It was rough.

[rusty lover]

The cab recieved floor pans, kit panels, interior roof/front window opening, cab corners, front fender mounts, rockers and all new floor braces. The firewall had a lot hole that needed to be filled as well. All the cab seals and mounts were from Brothers.

[rusty lover]

This was low buget build so I used a lot of throw back and used parts in this truck. The rims were warrenty's that a customer disliked the chrome finish. The tires were what I could find in the used ads an what I had around for use.

[rusty lover]

I boxed the frame rails from the trans cross member just past the c notch. The c notch was re inforced every way possible as I found out bolt in c notches are not meant for what I do with my truck.

[tantrumpipeline]

Looks like a pretty sweet truck to me and I like the Denali wheels
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[67cheby]

great project !

[rusty lover]

Thanks. All together it took from 05/15/11 to 05/04/12 to do this whole project. For the amount of time I am please with the appearance but I didn't build a pretty truck. I built a shop truck that is fun to drive when used for work and even funner when it's time to go grab a beer.

[rusty lover]

Anybody know where to find or get security tokens? Apperanantly I have to go find some so I can post more pics?

[Tinkermc]

looks good so far, keep up the good work. I would like to find a set of those wheels myself.

[rusty lover]

If I could post more pics... don't know whats up with that. I paid $50.oo a wheel for the GM 20"'s. They were a warranty issue with the chrome not being perfect. Being that this is a shop truck, I thought they would work out well. The spacers I used were from Wheelspacers.ca in BC. The owner of the company makes all the spacers from 6061-T6 billet and studs them himself. The cost of the spacers was $320.oo to my door. To mount everything I re studded the truck to 3" 14mm studs and the tires and balance was a case of beer. Lol. The spacers are 2" thick in the back and .5" in the front. I had the holes in the front spacers sized to the stud shaft so they are pressed through the hub of the rotor and the spacer. I can't stand spacers. In this case it was use whats there so if I was going to use this set up, it has to be right.

[67cheby]

resize your pics to 640x480 and they should work

[rusty lover]

Sweet!! Thanks, I'm in business again. Here's more pics.

[rusty lover]

More pics.

[rusty lover]

I had to lift the cab in the rafters of the garage and crane the trans and engine into the frame at the same time as my little garage has a lack of room. The frame rails under the cab were boxed while the cab was hung from above and the engine and trans were bolted down at the same time. The rear aft frame rails were boxed after the cab has on. The floor (and all rust) was removed, repaired or replaced as work progressed. Not the way I would have liked to do this build but when there's a lack of room, what do you do.

[rusty lover]

All of the panels have been painted seperately. The front fenders were off a 70 C10 that were still good but not good enough for the 70. I shaved the turn signals, hung them and painted them satin black inside & out. The wheel wells were for another project but again I did not like the aftermarket stamping so they too went into this truck. All of the front sheet metal that was 68 was taken down to the metal and respayed inside and out.

[rusty lover]

The doors I used were left overs from another project. Still good but not good enough for that project. I re skinned the drivers door and also welded in a new bottom. The passenger door was dented in several places but like the cab I used a welder and slide hammer to straighten out as much as I could than hammered and dollied the rest. The roker panels were also a bad aftermarket stamp so I used them on this project.

[rusty lover]

The box was left over from the 70. The 70 was a longbox fleetside that is being built into a stepside shortbox. I will be dis assembling the box and re doing it when I have a more suitable building to work in. The tailgate is aftermarket and I shaved the handlemaking my own relocater handle. Again the turn signals had to go. I like a nice clean look even though the truck is a true Rat Rod.

[rusty lover]

For the interior I sprayed the whole inside of the cab in rockgaurd, used mid 90's regular cab bench seat with three point seatbelts. The inside panels are left overs and so were all the handles. The smokers window was 68 and are stainless. All the gauges work and lights needed new bulds after installing a lager aftermarket alt with almost 80 output amps. The dash pad, window seals and cab seals are all from Brothers.

[rusty lover]

The truck was built to work not to be pretty. Not wanting to ruin my other vintage tin and especially ones with time and money invested, I am happy to use this truck for what I built it for. I can go out on Saturday night and people give the odd thumbs up and on the week days it can be seen haul'n a$$ down the highway full of parts, towing a trailer and moving projects. I did get a lot of ideas from this site and I just want to say thanks for the people who submit and dare to imagine. Plus my 60 Fury does not make a good parts runner. I am happy not to use my poor car for anything like this again. Lol. Keep on truck'n.

[rusty lover]

The tool box is a Snap-On KLR 9000 triple bank top and bottom. It weighed in around 3000lbs loaded with tools. The old Chevy on the trailer is my daughters 51. It has a late 70's Camero clip, full air ride, cantilever in the rear with two 10 gallon tanks and a massive switch box. The truck is getting completely re done in pink with an off white two tone. The 68 hauled all of this with out an issue right after the paint dried. I moved the tools seperately from the box as I don't think my drivetrain could take the abuse of that much weight.