C10 Bay Area build

[Marc_b]

Been on this forum for years and always wanted to do a build thread, but was always so busy with life that I never took the time. Since we're still in covid lockdown mode, life has slowed down for sure. I always enjoy reading other peoples build threads and think it’s a cool way to share with other enthusiast, get new ideas and keep a record like a time capsule of your project.

A brief history about the truck. It’s a 1970 C10 LWB I bought March 2013 for $1000 not running from the family 2 houses down from me and pushed it to my house. Got it running, and only had the intent of using it as a truck to help me in my various house projects and dump runs. Having already built several project cars that didn’t last long once I got the itch of what it could be. I always wanted to do a truck because they looks so cool, but never saw myself as a truck guy due to fact that I have 3 kids and a wife that all want to cruise with me. It was worn out for sure, but was really clean in the areas you want for a project. After doing a little research about the trucks history, I found out that the truck was original a work truck for the University of Arizona till the early 90’s, then lived down in southern California till the family I bought it from brought up in 2011 to the bay area. Being a desert truck really help preserve it and made it a great foundation for sure. Over the next 2 years I did a budget build sourcing parts on forums, cyber Monday, ebay and Craigslist, it got a 5/7 drop, front power disc, power steering, new motor, trans and learned how to paint. Next was a 71 k5 blazer in 2015 and a 70 c20 in 2016. Sold the 70 C10 to my brother in law to fund the blazer project in 2016. In late 2016 I finished the blazer and had no project cars till mid 2018 when I got the idea of building a SWB C10.

I found the prices over inflated for what was just some extra metal in the frame or bed that would separate the LWB from a SWB truck. At that time my brother in law was wanting to sell the C10 after having his fun with it. Which made it the perfect candidate for a full LWB to SWB conversion. So we agreed on a price and late 2018 it was back in my garage.

Looking back I always wish I took more pictures of some of the steps or stages my trucks gone through over the many years. I have lately made myself stop to take time to take more pictures, to document where I started from and where it may end up. Like any other project I have had, it never feels done and I am always thinking of ways to make it better or improve in my own skills along the way while working on it.

The Photos below are around early 2019 after I just purchased the truck back from my brother-n-law in late 2018.

I'll try to find some old photos to post of what it looked like when I first purchased it back in 2013.