1970 C-10 Stepside Build Progress Thread

[sircrunch]

Hey all, I bought a project that was in progress. Guy I bought it from had moved and needed everything out of the other house he was renting by the 31st of that month. I had approached him about selling it many other times but on the 30th of the month, he was faced with a decision.... Put the truck in costly storage or sell it. So... right place, right time I bought it. The guy I bought it from had never done a restoration before and I think he was stunned at how much work it was going to be. The very interesting thing about this truck is the sheer amount of small detail parts he had collected up over the past 4 years. Strangely, its stuff that I would consider finishing touches. Its almost as if he enjoyed catalog surfing and shopping but never wanted to buy anything BIG because either he'd have to store it, or it would cost too much at the time. So along with the truck came about 10 boxes of new parts and 3 huge tubs of the old parts he had bagged and labeled.

Here are a few things I know about the truck. It was a running and driving truck when he started pulling it apart. It had recently had the transmission rebuilt. The engine runs good. It is missing the following parts: the windshield (cracked when he removed it), the seat (was stolen from the upholstery shop he took it to), and the keys (guess that means i'll be sawzalling the switch out of it)

Here are a few pics of the day I bought it. All the parts were scattered around in the bed of the tow truck and another truck that followed.

[sircrunch]

Here are some pics of the boxes of new parts, and some boxes of parts that were stripped off the truck for restoration. Some closeup pics of the trucks rust damage, and finally a pic of the one thing I've accomplished, a patch panel for the front bottom of the right fender. The little patch panel came with the truck..... one of only 2 patch panels the previous owner bought... Oddly enough, the other patch panel is just ONE INNER rocker.... !??!!??!

[sircrunch]

last night I made a little improvement. I was very fortunate to be able to straighten out the speaker grill on the dash (which will save a lot of money over having to buy a new one. I used a hammer and dolly plus needle nose pliers. It went a lot more smoothly than I thought. Unfortunately though, the radio hole is chopped and butchered, but at least there is a patch panel available for that. (anyone got one for sale??, repro or orig)
Before/After

[junksaver]

Nice score. I love buying vehicles with lots of extra parts.
To remove the ignition switch, just drill it out in the center. All the pins will fall out, then you turn it backwards to the accessory position and put a paper clip in the small hole on the front and pull it out. This is just the lock cylinder and you can buy a new one.
Good luck.

[LockDoc]

-
Before you do any drilling or sawzall work on the switch check the original door lock cylinders, if they are there, and see if there is a code number on either one of them. The code number would look like the one in the picture below. If there is one there take the lock to your local locksmith and have him cut you a key from it and try it in the ignition. If none of the locks have been changed it should fit.

LockDoc

[TXBoudy]

Being in the right place and the right time is always a good thing. I wish I could buy tickets for it. lol...

Great score and good luck with the build. Keep us posted.

[sircrunch]

Yesterday I welded up some stress cracks on the door around where the upper hinge is mounted. The next project is to install a patch for the inner bottom or the door. I purchased the patch from summit on ebay because i had an ebay bucks certificate. I have a question about that: HOW do I remove the old inner part of the door while SAVING the outer bottom or the door? Most videos i find have people grinding the edge off the bottom of the door to pop the inner out. I'd like to prevent damage to the outer skin and the overlap area.

[sircrunch]

Originally Posted by sircrunch

Yesterday I welded up some stress cracks on the door around where the upper hinge is mounted. The next project is to install a patch for the inner bottom or the door. I purchased the patch from summit on ebay because i had an ebay bucks certificate. I have a question about that: HOW do I remove the old inner part of the door while SAVING the outer bottom or the door? Most videos i find have people grinding the edge off the bottom of the door to pop the inner out. I'd like to prevent damage to the outer skin and the overlap area.

Anyway heres a pic of the stress cracks welded up:

[sircrunch]

Now I'm working on the bottom of the door, I have the old metal cut out. I was always told that, even as tempting as it may be to use the entire patch, to only cut out whats bad, and use as little of the patch panel as possible. So about 4/5ths of this patch panel isn't even being used. I'm in the process of getting the cuts "just right" then i'll butt weld it all together. I cut the patch oversize by a little bit in every direction, then I'm finessing it down little by little to the exact right specs.... More pics of that soon.

[mattfranklin]

Great start. Looks like a lot of fun.

[sircrunch]

Door bottom patch is being cut into shape. Takes a lot of patience. Now I'm just wondering what I can spray inside the door to kinda prevent further or future rust... any suggestions?

[sircrunch]

very little progress, but I got a few welds in over the weekend.

[TXBoudy]

Originally Posted by sircrunch

very little progress, but I got a few welds in over the weekend.

Yes but every little bit helps, I'm learning to take the small wins.

[70 shorty]

From one 70 C10 shortbed owner to another, I'm loving seeing the progress. I'm in the middle of a back yard rattle can resto on mine. Wish I had the skills to weld so I could properly repair the rust on mine.

[sircrunch]

Here are some pictures of the slow progress I'm making on the door. I put a goodmark inner door skin on as shown in the previous pictures, but you'll notice I had to take a very small portion of the outer skin off along with the sheet metal that wraps around. So I made some pieces. I also filled a lot of holes where a previous owner (or owners) went haywire with mirrors

[bill3rail]

Great job, I need to learn to weld panels up so I can pick up some project trucks that are around.

Bill

[sircrunch]

thanks, It was a lot of work. Since the other door is in worse shape, I've decided to buy a new door for the other side. Its repairable, but... Just too much time invested.

[sircrunch]

The radio hole on this truck had been hacked up by someone with some tin snips. I cut the area out into a perfect rectangle then added a patch. At a later date I plan to cut a rectangle for the size of a double din stereo unit.

[Grumpy old man]

You mentioned the truck coming with bins full of new parts , When i start stripping a truck to rebuild as the bad or parts that need to be replaced I start a list and start shopping for all these needed parts on ebay and anywhere else I can find the replacements on a deal rather than opening a catalog when the truck is painted and having to start paying retail for parts that could have been bought at a discount over the course of the build ,Also they are already sitting in my bins waiting to be installed ,Not hunting for parts on assembly saves time and a ton of cash along the way . Also all the parts that can be saved are media blasted primed and painted then wrapped and stored away until reassembly time comes , it really saves time and $

[RedRider]

Wow! That's a lot of door work, I wish I could send you a nice one from here in CA.

[sircrunch]

I have begun work on the rocker panels. Started on the passenger side, its the worst. Started out by drilling out the spot welds. It came off pretty easily due to rust. Take a look at these pics.

[sircrunch]

Trying to get a few things done, but my welding helmet is not auto darkening like it should so I've been avoiding welding for the time being. My air compressor hose has sprouted a leak too so it seems like all my stuff is falling apart. but i'll take care of that soon and get back to it. But I'm liking how things are coming together very well, but I'm being extremely careful and working slowly.

[Baker72chevy]

Look good

[sircrunch]

finished the "pillar" part of the front corner of the cab




Then, since I moved to the other side because I didn't have anybody around to help me mount the doors (need them mounted to align the outer rocker) Later, I had the new floor patch partially welded in, pics of that later.

Started by cutting out the old floor

[sircrunch]

Here are some more pictures of the progress on the DRIVERS side. pretty much finished with the fabrication on both sides except the outer rockers and the inner kick panel. Kick panels are planned to be next. and the good news is now that I have 2 good doors I can install them to make sure I get the lower rockers aligned properly. PICS: