The shop truck - 71 C10 Deluxe LWB

[SchochCustoms]

So I have a side business building cars and selling car parts. It came time that I was in need of a shop truck. I ended up with an 89 F150 I bought in a package deal with another car I needed for the business, but it pissed me off and I sold it after a couple of weeks. I hated having a Ford anyway.

So after I sold the Ford I had some cash in hand and wanted something older. My ideal goal for my business is to build old stuff, most of the stuff I have been doing is newer because I could buy it cheaper and fix it up easily to make money. If I was getting a shop truck though, it was going to be something old and cool so I'd have it for that next step.

Anyway, a friend at work had a 71 C10 that he has owned for a long time, but was talking about selling. Well, took my cash from selling the F150 and waved it at him and talked him in to selling it to me.

I picked it up last weekend and drove it about 35 miles home. I am in love with this truck.

It is a 71 C10 Deluxe with an older Goodwrench 350 and a TH350 trans. The body is straight but the rockers are shot. That is the only real rust on it, other than a few surface rust spots. The bed is straight, floor pans are straight, everything is almost perfect. Visually at least.

The plans are to drop it 4" or so, upgrade the brakes, redo the body and paint it in the original green/white. The interior will be changed to black with the metal painted the green color as the outside is. It'll have some 17" Rocket Racing wheels on it.

Here it is the day I bought it.

[SchochCustoms]

Here's the engine pic:


My boys also approve of the truck.


First order of business was replacing the headlights. They sucked really bad, could only see them when the high beams were on. I guess they were the original headlights.....not quite sealed beam any more.


Second order was to upgrade the seatbelts to 3-pt shoulder belts. I ordered some black ones, they should be in later this week.

[SchochCustoms]

Well, that Edelbrock carb has seen better days. It is over 20 years old and stumbles and sputters and needs a new accelerator pump. I was pricing out the parts and came across a new 1406 Edelbrock for a really good deal. I figured with a carb that old and the price of the parts plus my time to rebuild it, I'm just going to go ahead and replace it with a fresh new one. This truck is going to get driven a lot, so new is better to me.

I got my plate for the truck today too, so going to start driving it once it stops raining so much.

[SchochCustoms]

OK, so think I have an idea for the truck but not sure yet. The body on it is really straight other than a few surface rust spots and dead rockers. The paint isn't bad, has a little patina to it.



I am thinking of buffing the body and rubbing it down in Gibbs oil and leaving it as-is. I will replace the rockers and color match them and spray them in a semigloss green so the sheen matches the body and doesn't stand out. I may actually be able to patch them with some sheetmetal, need to see how bad they are. The rest I can clean up and use Gibbs on.



This way, the truck still retains that cool shop truck look and I can spend my money on lowering it, new wheels, and redoing the interior.

[aggie91]

The truck does look good in the pictures. I like the idea of rubbing it out and leaving it after fixing the rockers.

Looks like you have a couple of eager helper too!

[SchochCustoms]

They are very excited. The new seatbelts are waiting on my doorstep right now, they are very excited for me to get them installed so I can take them to school in it.

[SchochCustoms]

So I washed the truck today and painted the wheels black till I can get some new wheels. Going to install the seatbelts tomorrow.

[SchochCustoms]

Got the seatbelts installed. Also should have the new carb in on Friday. Took the place a week to ship it, but oh well, at least it wasn't for a car I was in a hurry to finish up.

[SchochCustoms]

So my new carb will be here tomorrow. Yeah, a week and a half after I ordered it. At least it will be here soon.

I also ordered a new dash pad and new rocker panels for the truck along with some Gibbs oil.

[SchochCustoms]

So I've decided I am going to go with the Rocket Racing Booster wheels in gray. Probably order them in a couple of months.

[VA72C10]

Love that color combo on our trucks! Nice solid looking rig for sure! Where were the seatbelts from? They look good in there...

[SchochCustoms]

I got them from:
http://www.seatbeltsplus.com/

They seem to be really good quality. I wish I would have bought a longer middle seatbelt, but my wife is pretty small so it should fit her fine. Keeps any fat friends from trying to ride snug with me. LOL

[SchochCustoms]

Got the new carb installed. Gotta tune it up a little bit, but man does this thing run better. No more sputtering, a lot more power off of idle, runs like a a brand new truck. My son and I took it down to the store to pick up a load of 2x4s for finishing off the upstairs in the house, I love this truck.

Of course, it also handles like an elephant on roller skates.

New carb pic attached, don't mind the crappy air cleaner assembly, it was an old one I had sitting on the shelf. I can't believe I let any type of Fram filter touch any of my cars. But hey it was free. I'll replace when I can, I feel like it is brand new but already choking my performance.

[SchochCustoms]

So made a little change with my wheels. As much as I love the Rocket Racing Booster wheels, I found some B&G Rodworks wheels that I like that are about half the price. I plan to buy these this week if I can. I realized on my way to work today that my tires are like 10 years old, probably older.

[SchochCustoms]

Rubbed the truck down in Gibbs oil yesterday. Looks pretty good and should protect it a little bit.

[SchochCustoms]

My son and I took the truck camping over the weekend. We pulled up and started to unload and then heard hissing.....

So yeah, ordered the new wheels over the weekend....

[SchochCustoms]

Well, the B&G Rodworks wheels were backordered for 60 days. I changed my order to these instead.

[SchochCustoms]

Wheels came in today, tires tomorrow!

[Number98]

Looking forward to seeing them on the shop truck.

[SchochCustoms]

So test fit the wheels, they fit nicely. Going to have tires put on them tomorrow and should have them installed tomorrow night. Also installed the new dash pad.

[SchochCustoms]

Blingy bling. Tires are a little small for current height, but planning on lowering it soon and didn't want to buy two sets of tires.