Project AirLS 70

[Hendo67]

I've been watching the forum for a while now, but this is my first post. I hope to document my build of a 70 Chevy C10 short bed step side.

I think I should start with a little history on the truck and try to elaborate on the ever changing goal of this project.

One of my boys decided that he really wanted a truck like this to fix up when he was a 16 year old in high school. He did some searching and located this truck on E-bay and decided it was the one for him. I contacted the seller, and got some information on the truck and a few additional pictures. I asked about rust and the drive train and was told it had some rust in the usual places and the engine had recently had the heads redone and was otherwise a good runner with no knocks or smoke. The usual places for rust being the cab mounts and cab corners. From the pictures it looked like we were getting fairly accurate information.
We were successful (I use the term loosly) in winning the auction and the bells should have started going off when the seller wanted FULL payment before we picked up the truck. Like an idiot, I bought into his story of needing the money to snag up a good deal on some race car parts plus it was going to take me a week or two to arrange the trip from Minnesota to central Illinois to pick it up.
I made the trip down with a car trailer and was quite disappointed in the actual condition of the truck. You could see through the floor in several places and the area above the windshield was rusted through on the inside. The rockers were history as was the bottom of the kick panels on the inside. The rear ends of the frame rails were swiss cheese and the bed was held on with two bolts. To top it off the engine had 3 flat lobes on the cam (but no knock or smoke). This was my last vehicle purchase on eBay.
I got the truck home and the poor condition didn't do much to dampen my son's enthusiasm for this "project". We decided that the easy fix would be to find a new cab as the rest of the truck was actually not too bad. While we waited for the right cab to come along, we tore into the engine and did a full short block. It was good experience for him and a great refresher for me. With some sheet metal patches on the floor and some strategic duct taping, he was able to drive the truck through the winter. Unfortunately he realized that the truck was going to cost him too much in gas to keep driving and he wasn't going to get it done in time as he was planning to join the military when he was done with school. Long story short- I traded him a 2001 Chevy impala for the old truck. Not exactly what I had in mind for a project, but because it was his, I took it on.
I had originally intended to do a typical rebuild/ mild resto mod to the truck. Unfortunately for the check book, I let the project snowball.
My second plan of a stage 1 Porterbuilt suspension has morphed into a stage 2 front and rear with A- arms. The throw some aluminum heads on the small block has evolved into a gen IV 5.3 with a 4L60e. Naturally the rest of the truck will need to be pretty heavily modified to go along with the suspension and drive train, but that goes without saying-right?

I hope you all enjoy following along with this build, as I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy (gulp!) doing it.
Here is a rendering of the direction I want to go. Unfortunately the program (digital paint booth) doesn't have a step side in the database. I would like for the truck to have a NASCAR vibe to it and little to no flash. Very subdued and purpose built is the ultimate goal.
The color is a satin white (looks gray in the rendering).

[Hendo67]

I am still trying to locate all my pictures from the early days of the build. They are on one of 4 computers (I think) and a phone or two (I hope).
Here are a few of the tear down.

[Hendo67]

More tear down.

[Hendo67]

You can see some of the cancer on the rear frame section and the spring doubler above the rear end. The body mount areas of the cab were rebuildable, but I really didn't need to unbolt the cab from the frame. For the most part, the bolts pulled right through the cab mount pads. Its hard to tell in the pictures but the trailing arms were in pretty bad shape too. I probably could have gotten away with patching them up and adding a doubler over the seam, but didn't really want to once I started seeing the Porterbuilt products.

[Hendo67]

Getting it down to the bare frame- and then some. Say goodbye to the old cab- redneck style! My neighbors must love me.

[flashed]

Im in for another one .

[wreckedchevy]

that is definitely some serious rust, look forward to seeing your progress we could always use another stepper on the streets

[Mike C]

Going to look great! Looking forward to more updates. I've got a 69 short step I'm working on so this hits close to home.

[hdff]

sub'ed
did you give the guy good feedback ? lol it is dicks like that that screw sites like that. be HONEST people!!!!!!

[Hendo67]

I don't think he really cared much about the feedback, but he did get 80 characters of negativity from me! I should have learned after the 67 Camaro convertible I bought a few years prior.......but I didn't.

I had the stripped frame, some components and the rear end media blasted. I was surprised at how clean it all came out, but the heavily rusted areas were pretty much gone. I was able to repair the frame damage with some 11 gauge rectangle tube that I cut into a channel and sectioned. The radius and thickness matches the old frame almost perfectly.
I also fabricated some new upper spring mount/ shock crossmember gussets. I was going for the "Porterbuilt look" as I had my stage 1 front/ stage 2 rear on order. No offense to Nate and the gang- imitation is the best form of flattery!

[Boog]

I'm not an ebay user but I thought you had the right of refusal if the item was obviously misrepresented. Is that not the case?
It looks like your fab skills are up to the task of this rebuild.I like the Nascar theme.

[Hendo67]

You really don't have a lot of recourse when you've paid in full. The guy went as far as to have his nephew meet me to give me the title and stuff. Most likely so he wouldn't have to face up to the BS he told me. Its all water under the bridge now, so I don't let it bother me.

[Hendo67]

I got the reared stripped of the backing plates and lines and prepped it for paint. I used KBS coatings, which is marketed as "the next generation POR15". I did the base coat in KBS rust seal. It wasn't really necessary as I had the rear completely clean from the blasting (can't find that pic right now). I then top coated it with the KBS's appropriately named "top coat". I wanted a satin black of about 20%, which they unfortunately don't make. I mixed some of the chassis black and flat black (75/25) and am very happy with the result. The axels are being replaced with new 5 lug versions of the correct length.
And for those of you that live a little further south- the orange thing in the back is a S-N-O-W B-L-O-W-E-R.

[Hendo67]

Frame repairs..... I did some frame repairs before I sent it off for blasting. I found a few more spots that needed repair after I got it back. I used the 11 gauge tube for all of the frame repairs- mostly because this is what I had at the time but it also was a very close match to the frame thickness. Back when the frame was newer it probably would have been close to 3/16. but with rust and blasting- not so much.

[Hendo67]

And more repair.........

[Hendo67]

And more........
I ended up re-doing the tail of the frame repairs. I had actually used a thinner gauge tube in the first repair, and it just wasn't right. The radius didn't match and it was noticeably thinner. Now it is almost impossible to tell there was a repair.

[Rod Run]

subscribed

[Hendo67]

I placed my original order with Arizona Performance for my Porterbuilt stage 1 front and stage 2 rear in March of 2012. When I placed my order they had a lead time of about 6 weeks. That date came and went and all I had received to that point was the air system and other misc stuff- no PB! I contacted Travis with AZP and he checked on it to find that they were still back logged.
It was 17 weeks after the original order before my components shipped. Apparently I had placed my order about the same time that PB was expanding/ relocating(?) or some other disruption to manufacturing. This really put a damper on my progress as I needed most of the components to move forward on the frame. I also get pretty busy the last half of the year with work, so my hobby time is limited.
While I was waiting on frame parts, I figured I was safe to start painting the parts of the frame that wouldn't be modified with PB parts (wrong)!

[Hendo67]

Happy day! Porterbuilt arrives!

[Hendo67]

Another angle.

[mud.man.rj]

To bad on the rip off part, a lot of rust for sure but you sure are doing a fine job on the repair, bet your glad you can do it yourself, many can't so would really be screwed or cost a lot to repair. Interesting build, on board for the long run.

[Hendo67]

Thanks!
It was a bummer for sure when I first loaded it up. I probably would have stopped bidding abut $1000 sooner had the seller been honest. At least I'm finally getting to use the welder though. I didn't think there would be quite as much frame repair as there was, but it's turning out okay.

[slowcpe]

Sucks about the purchase. Your story and build is similar to mine. I'm starting to have a knack of finding rusty trucks. My first one was rusted by the drivers spring in the same place as your truck. Sold it for that reason and bought my current truck. While tear down I keep finding more rust. More than likely I will he swapping cabs.

Your frame work looks great.

Tagging along for the ride.

[mud.man.rj]

I have bought a few deals like that too, from guy's I thought knew what they were talking about, a few did it on purpose and a few just didn't understand, yours...well they understood. Glad you rescued it though, turning out nice, just more work than you thought.

[Hendo67]

I got all the cross members out from the trailing arm support back. Easiest way was center punch the head of the rivet and drill it with a 5/16 bit to just below the head/ shank area. Take the air chisel and pop off the head (should be quick) and punch out the rest. It still took a while to get them all out though.
There is also a picture of my "center finder". In this case it was a 1/4 nut- just set the nut in the hole you want to mark and either use a center punch or a drill to mark it. It was spot on every time.
If you have never seen the PB components, and/or have never done an air suspension (me), there is a learning curve for sure. The last pic is the upper rear spring cups. They look similar to the front cups on a stage 1, so there was a little head scratching.
Already some flash rust starting to show- damn humidity!