Derek's 70 C10
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I got a phone call about a C10, shorty for sale. Widow sale, ex body mans truck. New box, New tubs, pile of parts, ran, all sheet metal already body worked. Made the purchase and I was off to the races.
Some early thoughts about mods were full extreme drop members, CPP big brakes, 6.0 lQ9 6l80e, accuair, and more!
I pulled in the 70 Chev to my shop at home, pulled the full front end off, then got the cab ready to lay it back so i could start on the floor underside. it had some patches put in it, I wanted to final weld them up/grind them and ready it for seam sealer/raptor guard. So the oem cab floor undercoating is a PAIN to remove. Wow it sucked! heat lamp, razor scraper, thinners, we got there. Oh and beer to ease the pain! Then i had to patch the lower firewall corner, which was a bit complex. Bunch of angles and seams, got it done tho. Was easier with the cab laid on its back. Then the frame was ready for the next stage. I got the complete setup, extreme front drop member, inc a arms, power rack, gas strut hood hinges, front tube x member, and rear extreme with inboard bags, outboard shocks so i can run some big boots out back. Then I patiently waited for the mail to do its thing! But here in Canada EH, I had to go claim it myself and bring it across through customs at the airport where i had it shipped.
First off i wanna say this was my first C10 build ever. I don't have any experience bagging trucks or even doing a frame off build. I enjoyed it though for sure. After cutting/drilling/air chisel all the stock x members were gone. My PB stuff came in and I prepped for mock up. I Had already installed the drop member rack notches and started putting the tubular cross members in.
Also i deleted the factory frame curve for the fuel pump (i believe) that's what it was for, and made it flush. I later did more work on it and made it symmetrical to the other side . With a little radius to a point. I was planning on boxing the frame upfront, and in back in a section. Also picked up a 6.0l truck motor and it is mated to a 6l80e. Came with all the wiring, dbw, dash, seats, pile of parts.
I also started shaving my firewall and installed the porter built hood hinges.
Alright, so then I welded up the back notches, then cut the frame pieces out. buddy dropped off his 220 (250v) plasma for me so i used that. Sweet timing for me cause a cut off sucked for the first bit. Also I cut the low rise tranny hump outta my cab while i had the plasma. Have to put in a high rise (4x4) tranny hub cause the truck is drop membered. Here's hoping the 6l80 clears that! That trans is a giant. I then boxed the notches with some 3/16 supplied by PB. Nice kit to weld, big true steel. Then i made a couple boxing plates for the front, then started making templates for the back end. Got 3/16 plate and welded it in front and back in spots. Trying to get it to paint I made a deadline and hunted it down. I took a few days of my holidays and brought the frame to a buddy's shop and body worked it and primed it. Then I single staged it with endura black. Haven't sprayed that stuff for 7 years but it dried wet (shiny) so i m happy with it. Then also I sprayed two cycles of PB suspension. While I was at his shop I tried to paint as much as I could.
So I brought the frame home and put it on my frame table. Then started final assembly. I painted the parts with a single stage green, basf, just a chip i liked off the wall really. Epoxy the bare metal parts and then sprayed the green. It was starting to look like something
Epoxyed the blasted frame, mudded up all the welds in the back end and smoothed them all out. Then single stage black for the frame. (endura) I'm happy with it. The it came home on the rack for final assembly.
It really started to take shape. Received my accu air e level kit. 2x 400c compressors, one 5 gallon tank. Then had a hard time deciding on my fuel tank. Ideally i want a boyds with in tank pump for a LS. I see they've changed to aeromotive pumps. The problem with boyds is the $ for me. Plus it has to ship to canada and clear customs, blah blah so in other words we are talking around 869$ I'd say after exchange and shipping and duties. Also i have the oem tank/pump that came with my 6.0/6l80e swap. Ideally i would love to incorporate this pump with some sort of cell, but the boyds isn't deep enough. I was thinking a oem blazer tank and fabbing my pump in there somehow. My stock tank is running the return in the lid of the pump also. As I've been told by a gm mechanic, not sure that makes sense to me but.
Next I started cleaning up my firewall. I had to trim a lot off my tie rod ends obviously, I threaded the ends on and it was real toed out I must say! They're narrowed arms so i was aware to begin with they needed to be narrowed. That came later. looks like I may need to trim around 2" off each tie rod. Good times hah.
At this point I took a little break and got hitched. But after a few weeks was back on the project.
Ordered my new wheels and tires. I was stoked to put this set up on the ground! 22x8.5 and 22x9.5.
I put the complete rear set up in with axle to set up my rear bags. Needed to mock up to find ride height, then determine where to put my bag mounts on the rear axle. Threw fittings in the rear sleeve bags and actually cycled the suspension. That was pretty neat to finally see some working parts!! Then i set up my pan hard with my PB kit. This came with the rear extreme drop kit, now the bracket needs to be welded in the rear driver side notch, pretty much where the truck is at ride height, the bar should be level. My problem was i didn't have wheels on the axle. So we measured, mocked up and measured some more. My buddy came by who has experience in bagged trucks and showed me the ropes, since I'm new to this all together. Got it all sorted. Tacked the large bracket in place, then blew it all apart again for final welding for bag mounts and the bracket to the notch. Sure was a shame to grind my nice black paint but i knew it had to be done, ran outta time in the summer when i wanted to paint the frame.
Later I will blew in the back little spot and you can't see the difference! Then i pulled the axles in my 72 5 bolt posi, in order to assemble my 12" rear disc kit. Mocked all that up. It's the cpp BB kit and i modified it a little, not to use these large band clamps that come with it to hold a bracket to the axle that the rubber lines plug into and the hard lines join to. Mocked all that up, pulled the diff cover, banged some dents out of it and filled the rust pits, primed it and painted it. Then on to the POR15 and axel and assembly.
For now i am running 22x9.5 wheels, 295/30/22
Here is my rear 72 factory posi. Got it free. Welded on my bag mounts, then mocked up my rear disc set up. cpp BB kit. now time to paint the rear axle.
My tailgate, I've blasted it, shaved the front and updated the handle to 88-98 and flipped it around back.
My rear diff cover was rusty and looked awful, as you can see, so i fixed it, painted it and had a buddy stripe it for me. Now the rear axle was ready to be put in the frame!!
She's a roller! actually rolled it outta the shop for its first daylight in a long time!
