Thread: 78 chevy c10

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start of my 78 c10 project started out as a drive.r now tearing apart and restoring it to a show truck still deciding about leaving it oem or lowering the truck, so far leaning toward the lowering of the truck.

Lots of work to do from where it's at to a show truck. My experience with show cars and trucks is that it takes either a very unique vehicle, or some really standout features on a common vehicle like your pickup. If you go all original, it's going to have to be a really outstanding, flawless restoration to make it stand out at show time.....

thanks it will be alot of work but i plan as i go right now im just trying to get everything apart to start working on snading everything the way its supposed to be done. then i will work on planning the paint and everything else that needs to be done.

I would suggest that you start with an exercise that costs nothing but is very important to the outcome: write down your theme for the truck....not just "show truck" but make a spreadsheet of every component and write a plan for each. The theme might be "mild custom truck that can be competitive at a show while still driven on the street." For your list of components, you might have entries (Excel makes a good platform to work in) such as FENDER, Front with comments like "remove side marker lights and K10 emblems" Under dash, you would spell out your intended gauges, radio, switches that kept with your theme......this way, you can plan the build so you dont end up with contradictory components like a billet air conditioning knob on a stock dash.....
Then, you can keep making revisions to your plan as your theme changes during the build process. From your spreadsheet, you can also assign cost dollar amounts to the components to see what your total might be (of course, the total cost will escalate as all project costs do). You can plug in an average show quality paint job of $25,000 for instance and see where that goes in your budget.

mike in tucson

I've seen a few of these done up nice; Chevy made a version of this body style of truck called the "Gentleman Jim" that was pretty decked out, if I remember. Anyone else remember that one?

im looking into a auto cad program that will help me plan my process on building up my truck which looks pretty good so far. but ths will be the hardest project i have done because i have back issues which is slowing me down and money is xtremely tight also making it even harder.

You DO NOT need to buy any AutoCad program.....there is NO WAY that you can model an existing truck well enough for the program to have ANY usefulness during a build. IF you had a contact at GM, you could get the CAD models and use that but the body is not modeled in a format that is AutoCad compatible......forget the computer, just use a pencil and paper and write down every part and every operation. When you add estimated costs to your document you will have a $$ figure to shoot for as a budget. To be honest, for that truck in that condition, I would budget $45,000 as a minimum. Next, go see what you can buy a cherry truck of similar vintage for.....probably $10,000. I would suggest starting with a cherry body.....cheaper in the long run.

Not meaning to burst your bubble, just a bit of reality. "money is tight" and "show truck" probably don't belong in the same sentence. It can be done, but it'd be very labor intensive and still require a lot of new parts. Some things to consider;

1. Show truck means everything comes apart and gets media blasted to within an inch of it's life.
2. After the blasting, then it's time to grind, sand, fill and smooth every joint and every square inch of the frame an suspension pieces.
3. No rattle can paint, all the small parts get smoothed, filled, and sanded then either powder coated or painted
4. All new hardware, no used nuts and bolts here. Also plan on either cad plated hardware or stainless steel
6. Body work, if you are quite experienced and have all the necessary tools, plan on about 500 hours of fill, smooth, block, high build, smooth, block, high build, smooth, block, and on and on after all the existing damage is repaired. Cheap materials won't cut it, top shelf stuff only!

When you get into the engine and drivetrain the above continues on and on... Then all new wiring and connectors, even faded color on the wiring will cost you points at a show. Also, all new glass, seals, and trim.

The list to go show quality is long and expensive, requires a lot of $$$$$, skill, and patience!!!

I'm not trying to discourage you from your goal, just hate to see you get into a show project thinking that 3 months and $10K will do the truck to show quality....It won't!

thanks it wont be in show it will just be a fun project to just show off at little get togethers in parks nothing extremely special. it definately wont be 3 months i plan on alteast 3-5 years working due to having to go through back surgery proably in august. plus being 22 with 2 kids i put them and my wife before anything or anyone else. =)

Looks like a good start. Seems like every piece is available for them to restore or hot rod it. If you are leaning towards lowering it do it. You have to have a project that in the end says "thats exactly what I had in mind" Best of luck.
Don Jr.

Great platform to work with...lots of aftermarket parts available including body parts.......take your time building it.......and pay attention to the small details. You dont have to spend BIG$$$$$$ o get a show car to tkae to the weekend Streetcar and hotrod meets.....heres the motor that I just finished.....had it hot tanked and painted with Duplicolor spray bombs(engine enamels).....cleaned up all the parts and bolts on a bench grinder wire brush and die grinder wire brush and repainted them all.....made tons of difference in looks for cheap.

thanks for the support and understanding it helps alot i like the way you did the engine it looks great. how long did it take to get the engine complete i need to find a hot tank to get the engine done when i get my 454 stripped down if i find one in utah.

to take it apart and bag and tag all the bolts, take off all the old gaskets and clean all the mating sufaces was about 1 week, to have the heads and block hot tanked with new freeze plugs and cam bearings installed was a couple of days. To mask and paint block...couple of hours, to do all the pullys, parts and hardware to clean and repaint.....couple of days, and to assmble the block back to what we see couple of days......total time for me was about 2 weeks. I tried to make the engine as clean as possible. 1 can of Dark Ford Blue, 2 cans of Satin Black, 1 can of Aluminum is what it took to paint everything you see except the intake manifold. Total cost for hot tanking, freeze plugs and cam bearings, wire brushes for die grinder and paint....approx...$290.....

I put in $1400 of new parts, rings, cam, lifers, springs, retainers, oil pump, intake, edelbrock carb,timing chain, oil pan, valve covers, Ford racing air filter, water pump main bearings, cam bearings. Pullys are from the wrecker off a 90 ford F250 with 460 motor and the harmonic balancer is the original from the 72 lincoln all cleaned up and repainted.......total cost for the rebuilt motor.... including the purchase of the motor is $2100.

thats not bad most people make it seem like this 8-10,000 dollars to make the whole build come to life of an engine. but that might only be in the extreme high performance engnes which im going to try to do if i can get my hands on a 454.

Originally Posted by djaccent718

thats not bad most people make it seem like this 8-10,000 dollars to make the whole build come to life of an engine. but that might only be in the extreme high performance engnes which im going to try to do if i can get my hands on a 454.

this one is estimated at 535HP at the flex plate.....you dont have to go extreme big money to get descent HP.