67 c10 LS swap build

[AZlml]

I bought a 67 Chevy c10 short bed fleet side in April 2017 with the intent of swapping a ls into it and having another daily driver. Found a straight truck with most rust and body work already completed which was a huge win because rust/body repair sucks. Drove it 40 miles home on 3 different freeways with no seatbelts, half the seat track bolts loose, at least half a steering wheel rotation of slop in the front end, and later to find out no rear brakes. Had a s*** eating grin the whole way home.

 

[TheBac]

Nice find, Bryan! Love those trucks.

 

[AZlml]

After getting it up on stands and removing the bed I tore the stock 12 bolt out. Wheel cylinders leaking, diff leaking and really low on it's milkshake brand fluid, I decided the rear end was going to be built and done right the first time. Bed had one of the supports cut to clear a fuel tank at some point is my guess.

 

[AZlml]

Someone decided that torching off the rear bumper was easier than removing it.. After removing exhaust and other misc items next up was a c-notch in the rear. I'm dropping it 4/6 and wanted to be sure I wouldn't be smacking frame rails, and gave myself the ability to go lower later on. I measured 25 times and cut once..

 

[AZlml]

Next up was removing the factory rear cross member and installing one that supports trailing arms. Majority of these trucks were trailing arm from the factory, I had a leaf spring truck which was a camper special or HD version I guess. After removing the cross member and finding someone's handy brake line work my new rear suspension showed up and I installed the new cross member. I bought an entire rear setup with tubular trailing arms, springs, pan-hard bar, shock relocation, axle perches, u-bolts, etc..

 

[AZlml]

Had to take a few months off from the truck for our peak season through work and moving to a new house during December. We had 2 vehicles (57 and 67 Chevy) that were completely torn apart that needed to be moved. I was finally able to get out from a car port on the side of the house into a 30x40 shop where I could really get some work done. During that time I had my 12 bolt built. I shortened it 3" welded the tubes to the housing, put Ford 9" big bearing housing ends, 33 spline Moser axles, a Detroit trutrac posi with 3.73 gears and a diff cover/girdle. I was finally able to test fit my axle and trailing arms to see if my c-notch was in the right place after measuring 25 times. Fit like a glove..

 

[Trimox]

That is going to come out great when it is done. You are going to reuse that exhaust right it has a few thousand miles left in it .

 

[AZlml]

I'll post up the rest of my progress later tonight. Got a few more months of pics.

 

[OregonDMAX]

why is everything I own in the background of all of your pictures :secret: oke:

 

[AZlml]

why is everything I own in the background of all of your pictures :secret: oke:

Why you muckin' up my thread with your assumptions

 

[AZlml]

After the holidays I got back to it and got my fuel cell for the rear and removed the bench seat and fuel tank in the cab. Found a small spot of rust on passenger side rear seat mounting holes but so far no bad rust surprises. I also picked up my donor vehicle for my engine/trans. 06 2500hd with a 6.0/4l80e. Truck was in a roll over and doesn't have a single straight body panel. Had to weld the pass side tie rod back on to drive it off the trailer.

 

[AZlml]

I pulled the front clip and got a look at the front frame rails and suspension. Found some frame damage and a "nice" welded up plate on drivers side where the cross member bolts up. Torched the tie rods off after beating on them with a BFH and then a BMFH. I laughed at the amount of sterring slop driving the thing home originally and I couldn't hardly break any steering components free after their 50 years of grime.

 

[AZlml]

This weekend I pulled the cab and found a twice broken cab mount and another broken one. Looks like someone bolted a plate to the original mount after it broke and now this one broke. I'll be throwing some new body mounts on the frame for sure. I cut out the worst part of the previous frame "fix" up front to weld in some new metal and beef it up. I got around to pulling the motor and trans out of the donor vehicle this weekend as well. I labeled the wiring harness as I went because I'm going to cut it down and make a stand alone harness myself. Trans is headed to Inglewood Transmission with my bro (OregonDMAX) on Monday so Mike can give it some love while Sean is getting his trans re-built.

 

[AZlml]

Nice find, Bryan! Love those trucks.

Thanks Tom, I looked for awhile trying to find a short bed that wasn't needing a ton of rust repair. Crazy how a long bed goes for $1-2k all day long but a decent short bed is $5-10k easy..

 

[AZlml]

That is going to come out great when it is done. You are going to reuse that exhaust right it has a few thousand miles left in it .

I gave those to my neighbor who bought the sb350 and th350 I pulled out of the truck. The thing actually sounded really good with those dual pipes tho..

 

[melms23]

Thanks Tom, I looked for awhile trying to find a short bed that wasn't needing a ton of rust repair. Crazy how a long bed goes for $1-2k all day long but a decent short bed is $5-10k easy..

I would love a long bed c20. I didn't know they were quite that cheap down there.

 

[sawmilldmax]

That's a nice project. Nice work.

 

[OregonDMAX]

I would love a long bed c20. I didn't know they were quite that cheap down there.

Yeah because nobody wants a long bed :roflmao:

 

[Schwinn68]

Awesome project! A buddy of mine is redoing one right now too. I've been helping him with little bits here and there. He actually took a long bed and used the brothers trucks kit and cut it to be a shortbed.

I would be interested to see these long bed trucks you have down there for 1000 bucks. After seeing how easy it was for him to shorten his makes me want one of my own again.

 

[AZlml]

It all depends on how much body work they need but I've seen long beds go from $1k up to $3k down here. I never really looked into shortening one, my concern would be cutting the bed and having it line up straight not so much the frame.