1969 Chevy C10

['68 Coronet R/T]

A preacher friend of mine from California dropped this off a while ago.
He said he wants the rusted parts repaired or replaced and the rest of it in primer and ready to paint.
I sent him a list of missing items and the bill was close to $1000 without shipping or tax.

Tailgate is a bent up:

Here's the worst of the rust but both rocker panels are toast as well:

Once I hear back from him I will start dismantling the truck and see what "surprises" I find.

 

[sprint_9]

Looks like a lot of work.

 

[Gmills]

I did one similar a few years ago. The bottom of the A-pillar will probably be gone when you pull the rocker off. Cool truck though.

 

[metalman]

That truck was "rode hard and put away wet" as the saying goes. Anything can be fixed, just takes more time.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

In order to gain access to the front portion of the rocker panel, I need to remove the fender. Sounds simple enough but it turned out to be quite involved.

In order to remove the upper fender bolts I had to remove the cowl grille. Then I discovered the hood hinges are actually mounted to the fenders so the hood had to come off.

Then there was the inner fender to deal with which is also metal and in the way of easy access to the rocker panel.

Had to straighten the lower flange on the rocker panel so I could drill out the spot welds. This produced a pile of rust and dirt and was only the first of many that I had to vacuum up.

There was cubby hole that produced some treasure:

The handle turned out to be for the seat adjuster lever.

Finally got the rocker panel off and called it a night.

 

[texasking]

As long as the roof gutter and firewall, cowl area, aren't rotten, that is a good cab Seriously, those areas need replacement on 99.9% of the cabs I see. The extent of the rust in that area matters little. They are relatively easy to repair because every single piece is available, but a lot of the replacement sheetmetal is not very good, especially the doors.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

I just finished a C10 that was cherry compared to this and several things on this stand out. That tailgate is gonna be a bear to repair. One I had was "C" shaped similarly and owner didn't want a repro. (they weigh like half what an original one does). I had over 100 hours (yes) in that sucker, deskinning it and trying to get the "C" out of it. Then patching the lower inside and working all the dents front and back. Get him to get you a tailgate. The other is the bed. I hope he doesn't want you to get it near perfect. If he wants it nice you would be better off adapting another bed floor to that truck. I had 150+ hours in the bed of the truck I did and nowhere near as bad as that one. Also watch for the bed bolt holes and make sure the metal is strong around each one. I had one bed bolt pull through when I was reassembling it (the first time). Had to redo the bed floor because of that.
Another thing that comes to mind is the cab corners that are out there for this truck are all junk. You need to watch that the body line doesn't tail down front to back. Ones I had were supposedly "the good ones" and both sides did this. I only caught it because I put the bed back on to make sure everything looked decent. By time it was said and done I had pie cut and sliced up those replacements quite a bit trying to get them to fit right.
Look closely at the bottom of the inner door frames as they are more than likely going to be rusty too. Passenger side radiator support and inner fender underneath the battery tray will be eat up with rust also.
Better you than me '68. I don't want to see another C10 for a long time.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Do either of you guys have a preferred source for parts?
LMC, AMD, Brothers are a few I have seen but not sure if they are all selling the same quality/make of parts.

The owner bought the outer rocker panels, they are made in Taiwan and the fit is not that great.

Chris, I am thinking this guy only wants cosmetic repairs and not a full blown restoration. When he saw the list of missing parts I sent him, his reply was to concentrate on the rusted metal for now.

He's got some serious wiring issues to deal with as well. Side marker lights have no sockets and I already found two places with bare or melted wiring.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

This place has the best prices and they have most of the small parts in stock that the others don't. Where I got the majority of the parts for the one I did. Most of the stuff sold by the various places is all from the same manufacturer. Only thing that I didn't like from this company was some of the weatherstripping. In particular the window felt. Ended up finding higher quality stuff at one of the other better known places. (name escapes me ATM)
But for the vast majority of stuff you will need, they have it and at the lowest prices. Relatively quick service too.

Classic Parts of America

Buy Chevy Truck Parts from Classicparts.com. With over 30 years of experience, Classic Parts of America is your Chevrolet truck restoration headquarters.

www.classicparts.com

 

[OJ86]

Good luck with the project! I have anxiety just looking at it!

 

[MP&C]

Dewayne Morgan sells parts to fit the C10's at...

Nsane Hot Rod Partz

dewaynemorgan@nsanehotrodz.com

nsanehotrodz.mybigcommerce.com

They also do restorations so they can tell you what parts work and what don't, or what is needed to make them work...

Nsane Hot Rodz Tennessee Restoration Shop

Nsane HotRodz is a one of a kind restoration shop located in White Pine, Tennessee. Now Offering sheet metal replacement parts for cars and trucks 1947-16

www.nsanehotrodz.com

 

[MDPotter]

I'd say that rust is average for these trucks. Definitely seen much worse, but not too many trucks are better. I think money is better spent on the rust repair, mechanical and electrical improvements, and leave the patina. A paint job is nice, but it's expensive and doesn't improve the driveability of the truck at all.

Overall it looks like a good truck though. What's the inside like? Powertrain? Leaf or coil rear?

 

[RosharonRooster]

Alot of money going into a long bed. Not that it matters to anyone to anyone but the customer. I remember as a kid my dad had a 68 and the inner rockers were full of beer can tabs lol

 

[sprint_9]

I used a local guy for some parts your looking for, some worked good from him and some were junk. I used and had good luck with Classicparts as listed above, in my experience they had Counterpart name brand parts most of the time. They make or repackage a wide variety of stuff, some of it is really nice, but their sheetmetal was hit or miss. It mostly was usable with work, but in a case or two it was better to just try something from somewhere else. Gmcpauls is smaller family owned store, I believe they carry more Triplus or Keyparts items and they are of a little better quality it seemed like, but still hit and miss. They carry good Precision rubber products. Nsane had a good reputation too, but I never personally got anything from them.

If you end up with an aftermarket tailgate buy from someone like Nsane or Gmcpauls. I got one from my local guy and was really happy with it, I believe it was a Triplus.

Here's a picture of one of my drivers side rockers, this was the second one I tried and it fit better than the first. I still had to chop and beat it into position to get the door gap to look right.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

Wish I could remember the name of the rockers I used, maybe Keystone, not sure. They fit exceptionally well. Only other new body parts I used were the cab corners and a right inner fender that I got from Ecklers. It fit nice, roughly same gauge as the old one, and looked correct.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Thanks, I'll check these sites out.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Believe it or not I found more stuff in the cubbyhole including the original gas cap.

The passenger side rocker panel is off:

Ordered some sheet metal today from Auto Metal Direct. The patch panels are made by Triplus and are supposed to be decent quality from the reviews.

Cut some rusted metal from the right side of the cowl:

Gonna media blast this area and get it covered in epoxy primer.
Found some more bare wires running above the radiator.

 

[RosharonRooster]

I've never built a 68-72 c10 but its on my bucket list. I'd imagine american auto wire sells a complete wiring harness for these trucks. I dont have experience in this particular application but I can say the aaw kits for 61 thru 64 impala are a no Brainer at 575 all inclusive...I tell this to alot of guys...u put 40k in a car and cheap out on the wiring. All good til it catches on fire and you wish you did

 

[theastronaut]

The inner cowl corners where the metal overlaps the kick panel (going from memory) is another place that rust is common, and another spot is around the windshield wiper motor. Take a good look under the dash and see if any of that needs to be repaired.

 

[MDPotter]

Basically the bottom 6" of the cab and front cup of the fenders rusts on these trucks. And yes, AAW makes a "Classic Upgrade" harness that works great and has extra circuits for upgrades like power seats, power windows, or anything else that requires constant or switched power. I used those circuits to power my LS harness.