68 C10 CST Restomod

[WhiteCST]

Well I finally have the money to fund the C10 so I guess it’s officially time to start the build thread. I bought this truck about two months ago and literally fell in love with it. To the point where I made the decision to sell my daily driver to build the truck and drive my back up car during the build. The idea is to replace one daily with another. I have a pretty good budget to get started, and a pretty good sized building to work in. I plan to go low and perform an ls swap with an overdrive transmission. Very excited for the build and will be sure to post lots of pictures. I hope to move quickly on this so check back regularly. Already picked up two 5.3 engines that I’ll post pics of later. All suggestions and input will be greatly appreciated and I’d love to see other truck builds along the same lines as mine

[WhiteCST]

Here’s a couple pics of the truck. Hideous rims have since been sold for $500, surprised I got that much for them. Last pic is my 06 Charger I sold to fix up this truck. Buyer got pulled over only a few minutes after he bought it lol.

[WhiteCST]

Here’s where I basically am today with the truck. It’s ready to be blasted (by me) and I plan to coat the frame in por15. All body parts and bed have been pulled. Still working on pulling the cab. Pulled and sold the 350 in it (not original) and working on selling the th400 which is original. And that’s pretty much where I am now. Been waiting for the car to sell to buy the new suspension components and drivetrain.

[WhiteCST]

Here’s two 5.3’s I picked up last night. The first is an lm7, not 100% sure of the year but I do know it was drive by cable. The second was supposed to be a gen 3 lm7 as well but loading it up in the dark I didn’t notice until this morning that it is in fact a gen 4 ly5. It’s an iron block so that deceived me at first as well. The more complete engine has a low end knock but has all of the good parts I needed for the other, it cost me $100 plus an intake. The ly5 set me back $650, came with 317 heads which I’ll probably keep for boost later if I keep the motor and the factory ly5 intake which I’ve learned flow very well (tbss intake). I’m debating selling the ly5 and trying to find a later 5.3 like I wanted, but I need to talk to an experienced ls guy about the ly5’s reliability compared to the lm7 in boost and NA form. I believe it doesn’t have the active fuel management/displacement on demand crap on it, but I’m not 100% sure of that either. I know the ly5 has better rods and pistons and slightly higher compression so maybe it’s the way to go. If anyone could offer any I ou in the motor dilemma, it would be HUGELY appreciated, I’ll proobably pop on the ls section and ask there as well.

[WhiteCST]

Apologies for the flipped pics, cant figure out how to fix that. Very cheap low mile 4l60e is on the way and I’ll post pics and all of that upon arrival. Will be ordering suspension this coming week. Looking at the ece drop/disc/5 lug kit and preparing for my 4/6 drop. That ought to get everything up to speed and do it for today. See y’all soon

[cornerstone]

From what I have learned. if you hold your phone with the home button on the right hand side, (as in sideways, not upright) the pics are uploaded correctly. It worked for me, so if you are using an iphone try it out.

[flashed]

Wow , when you dig in you are all in , Im watching the rest of your build ,cool truck already . Im gathering parts for an LS Swap so I may learn something new .

[WhiteCST]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

From what I have learned. if you hold your phone with the home button on the right hand side, (as in sideways, not upright) the pics are uploaded correctly. It worked for me, so if you are using an iphone try it out.

Thank you, I’ll have to give that a shot. And yes I’m posting from my 8.

[WhiteCST]

Originally Posted by flashed

Wow , when you dig in you are all in , Im watching the rest of your build ,cool truck already . Im gathering parts for an LS Swap so I may learn something new .

Yeah I’ve been tossing around the idea ever since I got the truck and decided after two years of owning my Charger, it was time for a change and that life is too short to just think about building the truck lol. Plus I’m extremely impatient and very eager to have this bad ride on the street as it’s been out of commision for years according to the PO, so having the money up front to get it all done is a big help. Let me know what you need for LS parts, my donor motor was 95% complete and fully stock had 145k miles on it.

[WhiteCST]

Putting in my ece order tonight. That will take care of the front conversion and lowering. Still trying to figure out which kit would be best for the rear. I kind of like CPP’s 5 lug conversion kit that comes with its own drums. Downside is those drums aren’t in store anywhere and I’ve heard very mixed results on cpp products. Anyone have any suggestion for a rear 5 lug conversion kit? I’d prefer to keep the stock axle size which I believemeans I’ll have to buy new instead of use 71-72. Currently on a surprise 4 day trip to Westcliffe Colorado. Any of you guys out this way? Let me know!

[WhiteCST]

Well it’s been a few days, but, I’m back at it. The ECE stuff is here! Took 5 business days ground which is impressive for where I live. And about the only thing more impressive than the quality of this stuff was how well packaged everything was. Not a single damaged item or box out of 8 boxes and many items and it just goes to show the extra mile I heard they went when I was searching for this stuff. I have to give Jeff a shout out as well, he made the process easy and kept it simple. He asked what my goals were and made sure I got what I needed which was awesome. ECE is an amazing company, I almost cheaped out a little and went with CPP (heard good things about products but terrible customer service) but I’m very glad that I just pulled the trigger and spent the extra $$$, and I think that feeling will grow when I get this stuff put on. Another added benefit is they use warrantied parts that are found in stores.

[WhiteCST]

Here’s how the truck is now. Preparing to paint the frame on Wednesday or Thursday. Probably going to spray gloss black tractor paint, but I would love to hear alternatives or what others did. I want black and I want tough. Considered por15 or KBS but half of the frame is sanded to bare metal and half isn’t (long story) and I feel like because of that, it might be a lot of extra prep work. Looking forward to posting more pics of the frame when it’s done, and with all of the ECE components.