1974 Chevrolet C10 Cheyenne Super

Joined
Aug 10, 2023
Messages
41
Location
Glendale, Arizona
Here is the build thread for my personal 1974 C10 street truck, I will give some back story and cover the build from the day I bought it to current day.

I bought the truck in 2019 as my first truck and something more comfortable to drive instead of my CJ5, I paid 3k for it as a broke high school student and it came with everything needed for an LS Swap to a 5.3 lm7. The truck ran and drove, had A/C, the original interior (not in the greatest shape) and a passenger bedside that had been wrapped around a light pole, I eventually found out the most likely reason as to why later on, the master cylinder failed and wasn't putting any fluid out into the front brakes.

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I drove it for about a year in this condition and just did some maintenance tasks like rebuilding the front suspension, rebuilding the distributor, and replacing the passenger bedside. I also started to haphazardly do some bodywork which at the time I really didn't know what I was doing and looking back I should've left it as I bought it.

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Inevitably I had a rather large issue with the truck, I had been driving it and it blew a freeze plug and puked all the coolant out and proceeded to reach nuclear reactor type heat. I noticed before it did any significant damage but I pulled the motor anyway because the freeze plug it blew ended up being in the bellhousing. C10_motor_pulled.jpg
I disassembled the 350 I took out and gouged the hell out of one of the conrod bearing journals, so I went on summit and got another crank, new bearings, rings, and a small cam. I rebuilt the motor and tossed it back in the truck. C10_new_motor.jpg
It was after I had done this that I realized the jetting in the carburetor was wayyyyyy off and I was getting about 8mpg, working for $20 an hour and having to commute 14 miles one way wasn't going to work with gas being about $4+ a gallon at the time(would've come out to about $400 a week in fuel IIRC). So I did the next logical thing and tor the truck apart again and started to prep the LS, which I had stupidly sold the transmission for, and way too cheap at that (4L60E).C10_(6).jpgC10_(7).jpgC10_8.jpg
Since I had the truck pulled apart and I was daily driving my mothers CRV at the time (still hate that car to this day) I decided to do what some people may consider to be a horrendous act against humanity, I cut the frame to short bed length. I started by stripping the entire back half of the frame of all dirt and whatever factory coating was left and layed out tape markings to do a step cut since I didn't want to spend 300 bucks or whatever it was on a frame chop kit.
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I lied to myself again and again and said it wouldn't be a frame off resto, so yeah, the cab came off and over two weekends while watching/listening to the 2023 toyo desert challenge and KOH I finished stripping the underside of the cab and frame and throwing a fresh coat of raptor liner on it to prevent any rust in the future, because this was actually an original AZ truck with almost zero rust on it. I also did some bodywork on the cab and got it primed in this period of time. I also had sold my banshee around this period of time and bought all the parts to rebuild the LS, and also do the suspension drop which is a 4/6 drop from CPP.additional undercoating pic.jpg
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I got the cab back on the frame and totally stalled on the project until about Nov 2023 due to buying my GMC and a bunch of equipment/tools to try and get my own business started. Don't mind the KTM and the spitfire in the background, one is gone and the other is getting cut loose because I have too many projects that need too much money and time that I don't have. Anyway, I got back to it and had to redo a couple of patches in the body due to them cracking and was able to finally get the sealer and paint. I knocked out the paint on the hood and the interior and am currently working on the cab exterior, fenders, core support, etc. so I can get the front end on and get the engine/trans (ar5 manual from a Chevy Colorado of all things) in the truck to make the trans crossmember, then cut the bed floor down and finally figure out the fuel tank, and buy the rest of the bed.20240101_140916 (1).jpgInterior Paint.jpg20231231_181305.jpg
The truck will end up being a two tone, black and red, similar to a c10 that was built for SEMA a few years back (buck the truck if anyone is interested). Don't mind the absolutely abysmal layout of the sound deadening, this was my first time using it. Currently the interior is completely painted including the interiors of the doors, I will be updating here as progress is made, hopefully faster than it has been going the past few years with this thing.
 

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Well I finally went and got the stuff to finish up the paint on the front half of the truck, I shot the fender as a test panel since I've never done a two tone before, lucky I did because I masked it off too early and messed up the finish of the black. 20240330_154539.jpg20240330_154548.jpg
 
Well I finally got the paint on the cab and front end fixed and finished, I have to do some more polishing on the hood since some tree sap got on it and ate into the clear coat. I also got the engine and trans in it, its a LM7 (5.3 LS Truck engine) with an AR5 (5 speed from a Chevy Colorado). Next steps are fabricate the trans crossmember since its currently held up with a ratchet strap, and get the windshield in, then I can start to think about getting the bed done and the rest of the front end put back together.
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I got the bed floor cut down to short bed length, started wiring, put the battery tray in and started to put all the rubber in the doors until I realized I can't finish rebuilding the wing windows since LMC backordered half of the seals they said they had in stock. I also got the new bedsides and tailgate so I have to put the bed together, paint/body on that, a couple small engine things, then wrap up the wiring, interior, and other details and its more or less done. at this point I actually starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, granted that tunnel leads straight into another I'm sure.
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I got the C10 back into the shop after I wrapped up welding the rear half of the frame back together on my dads CJ7, I got the new gas tank somewhat mounted, along with the $400 sending unit :(. The A/C is back in, because I'm bougie like that, and the OG inner fenders are on because I wanted to buy new ones but didn't.

The gas tank is from a 3/4 ton squarebody (along with the mounting straps) and the sending unit is a special EFI deal from Holley that I probably could've made myself using the other sending unit in the original saddle tank, I wasn't actually 100% sure it would work, but it does if you relocate one of the crossmembers forward and its a hell of a lot better than paying 3-400 for a rear mount aluminum tank for these trucks, I will probably end up having to hack off the filler neck or find another way to route it as I'm sure it will hit the bed. Also to note, the pass. fender is stripped again because I smacked it on a wall pulling the truck out of the other garage.
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Excuse the pictures that look like they were taken on a potato, but the original inner fenders really weren't in as bad of shape as I remember, plus I have the original RPO tags and whatnot, the only downside is the repro fenders don't have the hardware welded in to bolt the inner lip on like the OG ones do.
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Yup the OG A/C box, a ton of people swap these over to Vintage air or restomod air, I don't see why the stock one has always worked just as good if not better than the A/C in my 07 classic GMC Sierra, and this box has a hole in it. I ended up pretty much completely rebuilding it, new blower, resistor, relay, heater core, etc. I also lined the inside with some of that foam core foil insulation to try and keep the heat absorption from the engine to a minimum. I also plan on mounting the ECU and fuse box for the engine on the passenger side since that's where the battery is, that is, if I can get away with it using the stock harness for the LS. Selected photo (2).jpg
I also wrapped up welding the C-notch to the frame, never really liked the idea of using the bolts, grade 8 or not, also I hate MIG welding, maybe its just because I spend way more time on the TIG but I'd much rather use it.
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Here's a reference photo of what my TIG skills are, wrapping up a prototype for one of my quick release tire cages.
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Well, I cranked out some more work on the wiring, trying to get the OEM LS harness stripped of the circuits I don't need, then I debated using a different fuse block thats a little bit more space friendly. I got the new crossmember in for the front of the fuel tank to finish mounting it, started plumbing the fuel lines but realized I didn't order everything I needed to convert the AN to hardlines. I got the steering column wiring almost done, save the turn signals and gauge cluster. Mounted the bump stops that came with the CPP 4-6 lowering kit.
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I've been cranking out work on my C10 just trying to get the engine running so I can tell if it will be okay or not since when I built the engine the piston/bore clearance was quite a bit looser than I would've liked because I used the factory bottom end.

That being said, I whipped up a bracket real quick to mount the fuse box and ECU to the inner fender, maybe a bit too quick since I had to make an adjustment with my angle grinder.

Other than that it worked perfectly, I'm just going to be copying the wire routing from my GMC so I can get it running as fast as possible since I would really like to have the truck driving by early November so I can take it to Dinos git down, which is an event for c10s and other GM vehicles for those of you that don't know.

The main hold up currently is that I need to buy a bunch of sensors, about 500 bucks worth to get it running since I didn't get them with the engine when I picked up the truck. I had a bunch of performance upgrades I wanted to do to the truck like brake upgrades and whatnot, but I'm putting that all on hold for now.
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