My small Bagged 63 BBW C10 build
 

Well I always promised I would be back with another build so here I am! It's not a blazer so I hope no one minds me posting a build thread on it. These are the only pictures I currently have of the truck but it's a 63 big back window short bed C10. This is going to be a low, loud and fast build unlike my blazer that was high, not very loud and slow lol. It's going to be a couple weeks before I get it home and into my garage but once it is I'll be getting to work immediately as time allows.

I've got new (replacement) rust free doors and fenders for it but unfortunately the color doesn't match so it will ultimately end up with a fauxtina paint job since I am more a fan of the imperfect look on these old truck as opposed to a shiny mirror perfect finish plus I intend to drive the hell outta it when I'm finished so prefect is not what I'm going for here. It's getting power disk brakes at all four corners with a 5 lug conversion and modern suspension including new control arms up front and sway bars front and rear. A power steering conversion will be included in the upgrades as well. The gas tank is being relocated under the bed with a fuel cell and I've got all new glass for the truck as well as a ton of other various parts.

For creature comforts it's getting AC installed along with keyless entry and remote start. The seat was just recovered and refoamed last year and is essentially brand new. Of course it will get a are upgrade and who knows what else.

I'm not sure on the motor/trans yet. I've got the option to buy a brand new turn key ready 330hp 350 with 4l60e trans plus complete plug and play wire harness and trans controller plus all the mounts needed to get it sitting properly in the truck. If I don't go that route I will be going LS (probably 6.0) with a t56 6 speed manual. The cost of either will be similar but the LS /t56 combo will take longer to get parts sourced and installed thus making it longer before it's drivable but it's probably worth the extra time. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...b5e958ce7.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...993cdc99b7.jpg
Now for the best part the truck and everything mentioned minus the motor and trans was given to me by a good friend/coworker as a birthday present!. He was looking to sell everything as a package deal and then realized how much money he was going to lose and decided since he had already written the money off a couple years ago he would rather gift it to me and see it get built than lose the money and never see it again. In total he's giving me about $12k in parts that he has receipts for not including the price of the truck. I'll get some more pics up once I get it home!

Very cool. Reminds me of the old '66 3/4 ton my father had. That one had the small window, a 283 with a one-barrel carburetor and a manual choke. It had a 4-speed but "first" was really a granny-gear. Good memories!

Following! I've done a couple of these trucks. My brothers 64 c10 has had a few engine/trans combos over the years. Currently has a destroked 377 backed by a 700r4 and 12 bolt. I'll post a pic later.

Very nice find!!

That is a nice gift. Looking forward seeing the resurrection.

Thanks guys. I've owned a 67 and a 70 in the past but that was 15-20 years ago when I didn't have tools or knowledge. The 67 I earned for a summer of mowing my neighbors lawn and then some ahole taking advantage of a kid convinced me to sell it to him for $350 so all I ever did with that was put a sticker on the window and sit in the driver seat shifting gears and making motor sounds lol. A few years later I bought the 70 running and driving with a nicely built 350 and proceeded to install one of the loudest exhausts I've ever heard. I drive it for about a year and then the law caught up to me driving without a license so I parked it at my grandma's and it was sold about a year later after I moved from WI to FL and didn't have any way of getting it there let alone working on it while living in an apartment.

I'm really excited about the 63 now that I have space, tools and knowledge to work on it and make it mine. With winter coming I'm setting a goal to have it ready to drive by the time spring rolls around. Thank God for a heated garage lol!

Well the first parts came home today! Just some small stuff that fit in the car but it's a start. I've got the aftermarket heater/ac unit, a full set of gaskets for the doors and windows, the trans controller and lastly this beauty. It's been fully rebuilt and set up to work with the modern electronics for the new motor and trans with the odometer set to 1 mile. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...fbd1f85ba.jpeg

Nice! Suits the truck perfectly...

Ah that's a beautiful panel.

Well it came home today! Loading was easy unloading not so much! We ended up dragging it off the trailer onto the ground and then with a combination of pulling and pushing with a truck we finally got it into the garage. I still need to get it up on jack stands and get rid of the pallet and tires it's sitting on but it's home so I'm happy. Once it's on stands I'm going to inventory the countless boxes of new parts and get it to a roller as soon as possible. I'm pretty sure everything is there to get it to that point. It looked like the only major things I'm going to have to buy are headers and a radiator everything else seems to be there with the exception of a bunch of small things I'm sure. I still need to pick up the seat and glass but I'll wait a bit cause I'm out of room. The only remaining question I need to answer is so I sell this motor and trans and go 6.0 LS and t56 or put it together and drive it for a while then do that later which doesn't make much sense to me. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...b6d212122.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...f80a41d76.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...ea8cf863a.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...217b504b5.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...5bd1e4615.jpeg

I forgot to post a pic of the freshly redone seat. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...313540a4d.jpeg

Woo-hoo!!! Always nice to get a new project home. I'd go straight to the ls motor.

I probably will. My mom's boyfriend has an ATK built 460hp 6.0 with 5k miles on it that he will sell me complete with wire harness and tuned ecu for $2k so I'll probably pick that up from him for it. There's a place local that is selling low mile t56's for $12-1500 as well from wrecked corvettes so cost wise it's not that terrible as long as I do the harness modification myself.

No big updates really. I got it up on jack stands in the garage and started doing an inventory of what I have. I'm going to have to put everything in a spreadsheet cause there are just so many parts. While digging through everything I found a stack of parts receipts totaling $18,218.17 and from comparing the receipts against my inventory list that total is still less than what I have in parts and that doesn't even include the cost of the truck!

Score!

Yeah not bad considering we worked out a deal for the motor and trans as well so I'm all in at $2500 for everything!

You got a hell of a deal! I can't wait to see some progress pics. These are one of my favorite body styles.

Been getting my parts list together and this is what I have so far

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...c8c50576cb.png

Found a little time over the last couple evenings while the wife has been out of town to get a couple small things done.

I cleaned the cab out and did a quick wire wheel of the floor to figure out which patch panels I need to order.

Driver side

https://i.imgur.com/4xKdUyJh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mZdpauzh.jpg

Passenger side

https://i.imgur.com/6tJsFG2h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gkkAdmZh.jpg

And then pulled the windshield out. I have a new one and this one was destroyed so I figured I'd get it outta the way and allow a little extra fresh air and light into the cab while I'm in there.

https://i.imgur.com/npnP3Rqh.jpg

It's only got one small rust area around the windshield which isn't to bad at all luckily.

https://i.imgur.com/IwFQvqgh.jpg

I'll get my patch panels ordered after I figure out how much I am spending on xmas gifts but for now I am going to start working on getting the front suspension put together.

It doesn't look too bad. Glad to see an update on this build.

The budget looks remarkably similar to my '74 build ... :-)
Your Rims and Tires budget is a bit more ... practical.
Thanks for the details.

Not much but I got the power steering box mounted and cleaned up the engine bay a bit. I still need to cut and weld the shaft but I didn't want to drag the welder out just for that so I'll do it when I've got it out for a bigger welding project.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...98be13b10.jpeg

Coming along nicely. Lot of luck to have the windshield frame nearly intact with only little rust.

You sure you need patch panels for the floor? LOL looks more like a whole floor pan.
Good continuation with that project.

Yeah I've seen lots of people with totally rusted out windshield frames so I was happy to find only one little spot. As for the floor they make panels specifically for every location that I have rust and the rest of the floor is really solid. I thought about doing the entire pan but it's double the cost after shipping is figured in (about $1k) and its way more work to keep everything square and lined up so I figure I'll just take my time with the smaller patch panels and hope I don't screw it up lol.

Look who's back in the Chevy world.

I always knew I couldn't stay away! With the holidays time has been limited on doing anything at all but now that thats behind us I hope to be able to get some more hours in on it. So far I have only managed to remove some uneeded things in the engine bay, do a bit of wire wheel cleanup and got the power steering box installed on the frame. I still need to cut and weld the flange on the steering shaft but I am waiting to do that until I have the front suspension and steering done so I can clock it properly.

https://i.imgur.com/6GiQprHh.jpg

Thats all for now but hopefully the updates will be more regular and I can start to feel like I am making some progress soon!

Finally found a little time to spend in the garage this weekend. I got the front clip removed so I would have a little more room to work and this way I can clean up and paint the frame and firewall. This also makes it that much easier to install the suspension and motor. I dropped the front engine crossmember to make it easier to clean up and drill out the u bolt holes to accept the larger 9/16 u bolts.



https://www.s10forum.com/attachments...d-jpeg.337035/





Luckily a full replacement bolt kit is cheap for the front clip! I've got some broken bolt removal to do I guess. Some idiot put those two shiny bolts into the inner fender to fire wall holes and decided to just send it when they realized they weren't the correct thread size.



https://www.s10forum.com/attachments...c-jpeg.337032/



After that I pulled the rear axle to clean it up and rebuild. I have the outer bearings and new carrier bearings but I'll need to get new pinion bearings. I probably could have left them alone but if I'm this far in I should do it all I figure.



https://www.s10forum.com/attachments...f-jpeg.337033/



https://www.s10forum.com/attachments...6-jpeg.337034/



I still need to clean and de-grease the axle more but this is where I got to today. Hopefully I can keep moving forward and get this thing at least as a roller here in the next few weeks.

Looking good!

Nice to have room to work. Looking forward seeing it come together again. I guess it will be a while but if done nicely as you do it will be a really nice truck.

Thanks!

Thanks for the compliment!

Nothing much to update other than I got the axle bearings removed last night after receiving my bearing and race driver set from Amazon yesterday. I almost ordered the proper bearing removers and slide hammer but I figured I would see if I could make this work and I'm really glad I saved the money! I slide the driver inside the tube followed by a piece of scrap 1x2 and three wacks with a dead blow and the bearings popped right out.
https://i.imgur.com/MCBhfOfh.jpg

Nice! Mcgiver is always handy lol

Sold my motor on Saturday faster and for more than I expected so I ordered a full air ride setup today! After looking at complete kit options I opted to piece everything together via eBay. Ended up with the following

Accuair VX4 manifold
AVS 7 switch controller
5 gallon 9 port seamless aluminum tank
Dual Viair 444c compressors in stealth black
Airlift dominator 2600 bags for all 4 corners
SMC water trap
All the various fittings, pressure switch and safety/blow off valve
50 ft of 3/8 air line
Bag brackets for the front

The only pieces left that I need are air gauges, some sort of notch and shocks and shock relocators but I still need to do some research and figure out what I want before those are purchased.

A few of the air ride pcs have started showing up!
The sticker is going to have to be removed...
https://i.imgur.com/A0ccYkuh.jpg

And the controller, manifold, adapter harness for the controller and 50ft of 3/8 hose. Accuair does a killer job with the packaging on those manifolds. Opening the box is like looking into a display case!
https://i.imgur.com/Z0mMbn7h.jpg

Nothing much to update other than a few more parts have arrived.

https://i.imgur.com/3NDElf2h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0klilyIh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jU13tbSh.jpg

I sill need to order some notches and I plan to order the sheet metal for the cab repairs this weekend as well.

Love new parts!

Thanks me too!! I ordered a new trailing arm crossmember, notches, drop spindles and some mounts to mount the compressors on the frame yesterday to compliment the rest of my recent acquisitions:)

Have you thought about paint? Or are you going to leave it as is and give it that beater look?

I was originally planning to leave all the patina because I am a huge fan of the patina look and this truck has some really cool patina I think, but my replacement doors don't match at all and trying to recreate the patina would be way above my skill level which is zero when it comes to paint and body work lol. My wife is telling me I need to paint it which means she has to "ok" the cost in my opinion so I am going to talk to a friend who runs a body shop and also has a home shop and see if I can work out something with him possibly. If I do paint I am strongly leaning towards going with the Dodge Destroyer grey in a matte finish and then making everything that is white and chrome currently black along with black wheels.

Well it's been way to long but I am finally back to working on this thing after waiting for the cold weather to arrive!
I got the cab pulled and placed on a rolling cart I built for it

http://i.imgur.com/d6kq9i4.jpg

Then I pulled the bed apart into manageable pieces

http://i.imgur.com/THnZ89i.jpg

I was left with this after that.

http://i.imgur.com/qAvibMK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1Ni6l96.jpg

So I pulled all the remaining rusty bits from the frame and trashed those and got to work cutting the trailing arm crossmember out to make way for the new adjustable crossmember.

http://i.imgur.com/tyzrIZO.jpg

I guess you could say I am finally in the mockup stage of the build since there is now a shiny part on the frame!

http://i.imgur.com/JUXDQf4.jpg

I was able to get 7 of the 8 bolts in and the 8th will go but I need to ratchet strap the frame to make it happen and ran out of time so thats on the agenda for tonight. I ordered the axle rebuild kit today so it should be here Friday so I can get the axle built. In the meantime I am going to get the factory bump stops cut off so I can layout and start cutting the C notches and then get the trailing arms installed and start getting the bag mounts in place. If I can make the time I hope to have it sitting on the rear axle by Sunday night but I'm not holding my breath that that is actually going to happen!

Oh man I'm getting excited!!! So happy to see progress on this again