Papa's 68 C10- Frame Off Build

[Karl's Kustoms]

The History:
Approximately 2 years ago I purchased my wife's grandfather's 1968 C10. He had bought the truck in 1969 as a year-old Red short bed with matching Red interior and wood bed. It was powered by an inline 6 and had a 3 speed Saginaw column shift transmission. He drove it until he passed in December of 2007. It was a truck built by GM for at least one lifetime.
During that time the truck went on countless camping trips pulling a camper from the Piedmont of South Carolina up into the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and beyond. It was his sole source of transportation to and from work, as he worked until retirement at both Spartanburg Steel and Firestone. And as mentioned before, he was still driving it when I started to date and eventually marry his granddaughter.
By that time he had long ago replaced the inline 6 with a 283. He had rebuilt the transmission himself more than once. He had repainted the truck once in Chevy Red/Orange, replacing the driver’s side cab corner and driver’s side front fender. He took the time to put the trim back on the truck after repaint and kept it on with all manner of screws. He added 6-lug rally wheels. He also added an aftermarket bed liner and of course kept up with all maintenance issues as best as he could into advance age.
He left the truck to my father-in-law, who after the grieving process decided to do a mild restoration and repaint. But soon after, my father-in-law suffered a debilitating leg break, preventing him from walking for over 2 years. When he did regain the ability after long hours of physical therapy; he was unable to shift gears and stop the manual brakes truck. He eventually offered it to me in hopes that I would provide the truck with the restoration he felt it deserved and one day give the truck to my son, his grandson.

More to come soon…

[Blown06]

I love it when these trucks have a known history. Looks pretty good as it is, I'll hop on for the ride.

[Karl's Kustoms]

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:
Well with all old trucks there will be varying degrees of disrepair. Mine started out Ok.

The Good:
On the day of its purchase it would crank and run fine. The 3 speed transmission shifted well. The power steering worked great. All aspects of the electrical system worked fine. The old paint was presentable enough for a driver truck. The body was fairly straight, with minimum dents. The 6-lug Rally wheels looked very good.

The Bad:
Although the truck ran well, it would not stop. The first thing I did was have it towed to a knowledgeable brake/front end alignment shop in the area, Gardner’s Alignment. 3 days and $40 dollars later, I had the truck back with working manual brakes.
Visible rust was not outwardly apparent, but it was there. It was in the exterior rockers, interior rockers to some degree, the driver’s side kick plate, and there was some bubbling in the driver’s side cab corner. The passenger door had some small rust issues also. Under the hood there was some battery tray rust and yet undiscovered radiator support rust.
Very soon after the truck was roadworthy, I was plagued by linkage issues (binding or locking). This normally occurred driving down the road and basically losing the ability to shift into a gear.
The hinge was weak on the driver’s door and the stop was broken. This led to the door not closing properly all the time, and on more than one occasion flying open on right hand turns. Luckily this caused no accidents, and the lap belt kept me firmly in place.
The tires were dry rotted.
The glove box latch was broken.

The Ugly:
Well “Ugly” is an opinion. But some things were hard to overlook. The windshield was cracked. A lot of the trim was dented and held on by any screw that could have been found at the time. The door panels were gone. The rest of the original Red interior was well worn, and did not match the now Red/Orange paint. The mirrors were aftermarket “camper mirrors” and the more attractive originals were long gone. The tow hitch was very serviceable, but also very ugly.

My Assessment:
I had tons of people tell me, “Just fix the little things and drive it. It is a great truck.” But I knew that if my son would ever drive this truck some things would have to be addressed. So when I approached this build I did it with a 50 year mindset, and the idea that Safety should be paramount. Brakes would have to be upgraded. The gas tank would need to be relocated. Of course the door, windshield, and linkage issues would have to be fixed. 50 year old wiring would have to be replaced. Seatbelts would need to go from lap belts to 3-point belts. Aesthetically, the truck would get new paint and all body issues would be addressed. The tired bed liner would need to be taken off and the bed wood replaced. The powertrain although operable now, would need an upgrade to increase fuel economy and dependability.

The Decision:
After lots of time pondering I decided that this truck would undergo a frame off restomod, with the intention of building a safe, dependable, “modern truck”, with the creature comforts of A/C and an automatic drive train (the former demanded by my wife so that she could drive the truck if the need ever arises).
Now with my vision in mind I will show you the actual work, that done up to this point and beyond.

[Karl's Kustoms]

Step 1. Strip and pull bed so that I can send it to the sandblaster.

The bed liner came off easy enough along with the tailgate, taillights and side markers. The bed to frame bolts and bumper bolts were not so forgiving. I had to spray them several times with Liquid Wrench and still use a ½ inch breaker bar in many instances. Some bolts were eventually cut off. I knew the trim could not be saved from the very beginning, but some of that had to be drilled out (due to all of the added screws to secure them).

The bed wood came out easy with a 5 lbs. sledge hammer, and then I removed most of the bed cross sills and reinforcement strips. I left the front and rear cross sills in place to keep the bed square for transportation.

[68bowtie]

great truck, story, and plan. good luck!

[Katrina/10]

Nice work so far, I really like the truck.

[cooperhw]

First off welcome to the club. Glad to have you here. Awesome story on the truck. Really nice platform to start your journey from.
Keep us posted with updates (no matter how big or small) and pics. It inspires us to get off the couch (or computer) and get busy on our own projects.