1968 C10 --> Daily Driver resto

[mccormick]

I picked up a 1968 C10 last spring for cheap with the intentions of using it as a daily driver for summer then tearing into the rust over winter to learn how to do some basic bodywork. I've got a couple nicer rigs that I wouldn't mind restoring in the future but didn't have the balls to cut into so I found this project!



Got it for probably way less money than I should have but same old story of an old guy owning it that wanted to restore it but couldn't get it running. Needed a carb rebuild and a brake job according to him which turned into me pulling the in line fuel filter out and putting brake fluid in the truck.. Runs and drives awesome.

250ci 6 cylinder with powerglide tranny. I believe the truck is all original aside from a paint job at some point. I'll have to dig deeper and check the build sheet and numbers on the truck but my energy has gone elsewhere with the project so far. I'll post some pics of the rust repair I've been doing so far.. Starting with the floor/rocker/cab corner/door on the passenger side because if I screw up I won't be walking up to the ****ty work every time I drive it haha.

Feel free to chime in if you have advice or questions, I'm just learning as I go and by no means a weapon of a mechanic or body man at this point in my life. I learn lots from this forum, YouTube and my old man and uncle.

Cheers!

[mccormick]

Here is the pic of the truck the day we got it but turned the right way.. did my first post on my phone and it turned it sideways for some reason.



So I decided to take a pic of the build sheet in the glovebox and seems to match up with everything about the truck so I think its the original.



The first bit of rust repair I did was the passenger side front cab support and a decent sized floor patch, I don't have any pics of the cab support done but I got a pic of the floor patch roughed in. You can see how much rust I had to cut out of the floor and how much work the rocker and rocker back are going to be.



as you can see I didn't brace the door opening when I started.. bit of a rookie mistake but on the same note my floor was so far gone the bottom rear part was probably not lined up perfect anyways. I'll deal with that when I get the door finished and mocked up.

Speaking of that, here is a pic of the starting work on the door. Cut the lower skins out and used POR15 all on the inside to get the rust treated.



Once I had the POR15 done I wanted to insulate the door for some sound deadening and to help out in winter.

My uncle has done a bunch of work on these old girls over the years and he is a farmer, so likes to find cheaper ways of doing things that turn out to work the same. He doesn't like the idea of spending $1000 on Dynamat for the interior on his farm trucks, so he has his own recipe... bit of roof sealant tape you can find at any hardware store, and then some aluminum/bubble wrap sheeting. Have to use spray adhesive to get the second part on but it seems to work and last good for him!

I picked my supplies up from Rona here in Canada, I think total for the roll of the butyl/aluminum roof covering, the aluminum/bubble wrap and the spray adhesive cost me $75 (CAD) so you guys down south thats like what, $20 right now? haha. I should be able to do both my doors and the whole cab floor/back for like $100

anyways heres a pic of the inside of the door during the process, you can see I have the first layer done and working on the bubble wrap layer.




I'll post some pics of the door skins done up on the truck next

[mccormick]

Here is a shot of the front side of the lower door skin roughed in.



and here is a progress shot of the other side of the door lower skin getting stitched in. You can also see a bit more insulating tape work done by my buddy on the door where the door panels cover.



I'll have to post some more pictures once i get all the welding done on the door and clean it up with some filler.

Here is a shot of the other rigs sitting in the cold out front



Going to get back to work on some stuff tonight so should have some more progress pics soon!

[mccormick]

Got the engine cleaned up a bit. Waiting on gaskets for the intake and exhaust to go back on

[mccormick]

I put a lot more effort into cleaning these pieces up and doing a nice job, the block I just did a half ass effort because it's tough to clean in the engine bay and I'll do a proper job when I pull the engine one day. This is good enough for my daily driver I'm planning to have this as.

Also considering swapping the L6 out.. But it runs real nice so we'll see

[mccormick]

I haven't done any work on the 68 for the past couple of months.. stumbled on a 1989 3/4 ton suburban that i took on as a project to get painted and flip for some cash. Turns out I really like driving the truck so it might stay around.. we'll see. Heres some pics of the rig:

[raggedjim]

Nice work on both trucks. I like the way the newer (73-94) trucks drive but the earlier trucks look better. The 67-68 trucks have one of the best designs ever.

Good luck, Rg