1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

I am in the process of doing a frame off restoration of my 1971 C10. I bought the truck about 3 years ago and enjoyed driving it around for about a month.

It was a primer gray longbox fleetside still running the original 307 with manual 3 speed. It was fun to drive and my friend had me hyped up that at $2,300 it was too good a deal to pass up.

The column shift had been converted to a floor shift. The shifter was so sloppy that after just buying it and driving halfway home, I wasn't able to get it back from first to second and after winding out in way too low of a gear for too long, we finally made it home and replaced the worn out shifter.

The previous owner had heated up the springs to lower the stance, and lets just say it was a little too low a lot too rough.

Within a couple weeks I had replaced the intake manifold and changed to a Holley 4 bbl carb. Things were better, but not quite the look I was going for.

Quickly, I realized it needed much work and after figuring out many of the things that I wanted to be fixed, I started pulling it apart piece by piece, and here we are.

I have been using this board for a while now as the go to manual on my restoration.

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I have a construction background and I'm great with computers. Unfortunately, I am most definitely not good at either automotive or mechanics. But, I do have a friend who is helping me. I would still have this truck in a bunch of boxes in the barn if it wasn't for him.

Hopefully, I am going to be able to share some pictures and questions, and get some guidance and encouragement from those of you who have been down this road before.

Thanks for reading,

-Chad

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Some pictures of where I am so far..

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Chopping the frame. From Long to Short.

I realize that I need to take more pictures. Would have been more useful to include pictures before paint at least.

Anyway, this is the frame after we cut a 12" section out of the middle under the cab. We cut it on a 45 degree angle both cuts exactly 12 inches apart and welded back together. The channel frames inside dimension is about 5 3/4".

We fabricated our own custom inside channel that size by combining a piece of 5" angle with two pieces of 3/4 square tube side by side on top. Once that was all welded together to look like one piece, we welded it to the inside of the frame for reinforcement. All said and done we added about 16" of heavy steel to box that section of the frame on both sides.

Here it is after grinding all the visible welds smooth and painting the gloss black epoxy frame paint.

Also a necessary step to go from longbed to shortbed is cutting exactly 8" off the rear of the frame for a total of 12" + 8" = 20" shortening of complete frame.

Also moved the rear cab mounts back the extra 12" that was lost between them by drilling out the rivets and bolting them back in place with grade 8 hardware.

Here is the most non eventful picture of the final product.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Finally got the cab out of the barn and to the body shop. Bought a ton of new steel from LMC. Complete new one piece floor, rockers, rear corners, front and rear pillars. New bottoms skins and inner shells for the doors. New inner and outer fenders, radiator core support. It will need a completely new bed, haven't bought that yet. The bed was in so bad of shape it went to the scrappers along with everything else covered in rust that came off the frame.

Sheetmetal that will be saved: The cab, the hood, the cowl, and the doors. All else will have to be new, unfortunately its getting $$.

Also a picture of the original 307 motor after coming back from the machine shop completely rebuilt. We just added some fresh gloss black engine paint to get it ready to start assembly.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Dropped the motor on the frame and started assembling everything together.

Also the magnaflow 2.5" dual exhaust system had arrived so it was time to get that installed before the cab comes back from the body shop. It was pretty hard to get everything where we wanted it until it finally all comes together in the end. I suggest starting from the back and working everything towards the front. We had to cut the section between the collectors and the x to make it work. After getting everything dialed in we tacked all the clamps to the pipes to make everything a little more permanent.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Wanted to try to clean up the plug wires as best as possible, this takes care of getting it to the back. We will have to fabricate some brackets in the back to turn the wires and bring them up to the distributor. I am pretty happy with how they look so far.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

I am working on finding some pictures of the truck when I first bought it. Its bad how you can start working on a project and then something changes and it moves to the barn for a couple years because life throws you a curve ball.

After the tear down of the truck and everything was bagged and boxed up for storage, it was time for the frame to go to sandblasting. After having the frame, and all the suspension and drivetrain done it was time to get everything painted.

I ordered new tubular trailing arms, shocks, and springs (2" drop front, 4" drop rear) from CPP. After a fresh coat of black epoxy frame paint on everything, and new hardware. I replaced the ball joints in the front end and started putting it all back together into a rolling chassis.

That was 2 years ago. After that it went to the barn and collected dust until about a month ago. Since then we have chopped the frame, assembled most of the motor components, got the engine and tranny mounted up, ran the headers and exhaust system, started body work, and working on getting the engine ready to fire up.


-Chad

This is one of my inspiration style photos I'm working towards. Think body styling and paint, not the lifted up 4x4 stance and big tires. Although if I had a k10 laying around I would be proud to own one like this. Of course I am going stepside so I guess I need a new role model.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

I like the swept back look of the plug wires. Looks a lot cleaner than how my 305 looked.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Thanks Bluebomber, I have always liked how a good job is complimented by clean wiring.

Here are the original pics of how this truck looked when I first bought it.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

This is the direction I am going with a two tone paint job. What do y'all think? I was thinking the chevy red-orange with a satin black with about the same layout.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Nice build so far. Like the look of the black/red combo!

BTW, welcome to the forum. You might want to get the mods/admin to move this thread over to the 67-72 build section...

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Yeah I think that two tone is going to look great!

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Here are some better pictures of the frame reinforcing after shortening the frame.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Updated Pics:

Installed rear gas tank and fuel lines, alternator..

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

More pics..

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

The shortening looked good until the side shot. I don't know how I feel about the two thinner square tubes on top of that C channel. Any reason you didn't just use a piece of 3/16 plate steel?

I personally would weld a fishplate on the outside of the frame to distribute the weight over the weld.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

It seems really solid. I wanted to use channel instead of flat plate and that's what we came up with to work out the size difference.. If it breaks I will make sure you can be the first to say "I told you so." But, hopefully, and with fingers crossed it doesn't happen.

What is a fishplate btw?

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

It will probably be fine. Fish plate is a piece of steel welded to the outside to take the stress off the weld. Here is a fish plate on my Z.

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Re: 1971 Frame Off Long/Fleet to Short/Stepside
 

Would it be possible to move my thread to the 67-72 area instead of the 73 up ? I am not sure how it got there..

If its not possible can I delete the thread and create a new one?


Can anyone help with this, the site moderators have not been responding...