Just got to thinking the other day, after I saw a pretty sweet early '70s GMC on the road, trucks must be pretty easy to restore. With all the junkyards full of them, and plentiful donor bodies, plus being able to remove the bed and work separately on the cab and bed, I got to looking at my '68 El Camino. I would love to build up a big block early half-ton that could haul more than the 400 or so pounds that the Elky struggles under. Also, I cringe when loading anything in the bed, even though it's not pristine. Anyone done one of the pre-computer and emissions Chevy/GMC trucks and are there certain years that are 'better' than others or years to avoid?

Get yourself a '68 C/10 - They've got the cool front with the slope nose hood and are pretty easy to do just about anything you want. I've got a 1966 Suburban, the last of the two door truck/wagons. I love it, but it has a bunch of older stuff that's harder to upgrade.
The '67 on series is pretty much same chassis stuff on thru the '80s
Great Forums at:
67-72 ChevyTrucks.com (http://67-72ChevyTrucks.com)

Dan

Get yourself a '68 C/10 - They've got the cool front with the slope nose hood and are pretty easy to do just about anything you want. I've got a 1966 Suburban, the last of the two door truck/wagons. I love it, but it has a bunch of older stuff that's harder to upgrade.
The '67 on series is pretty much same chassis stuff on thru the '80s
Great Forums at:
67-72 ChevyTrucks.com (http://67-72ChevyTrucks.com)

Dan

68`s are my favorite and i`m a member of that board too. The 67-70 have the same chassis stuff and are 6 lug. !971-1972 are the same and are standard disc brakes. From 1967-1972 the stuff pretty much interchanges but after that they are different. The front crossmembers from 73-87 will bolt up to the early frames all the way down to 1960 with a new hole drilled on each side. Check out the site, tons of info. If you go with a 67-72 chevy or gmc there are tons of parts available.

I have a friend that lives in New Mexico but owns a home up here and he comes up several times a year. Sitting at his house up here he has a very nice 68 c-10 and when he was here in November, we started talking numbers and I do believe a deal will be struck when he comes again in spring. It needs a resto, but it should be fairly easy as it is in such nice shape. The first time I saw it, I knew I wanted that truck. It just sits at the house up here and never goes anywhere anymore, so he is finally willing to part with it.

Jeff

I've got a 71 I bought about 6 years ago, drug it out of a barn (metal barn, but a barn none the less) and towed it home. It's a shortbed fleetside and a 2wd stripper model (3650lb curb weight), was originally used as a Tracy CA city service truck. I tore it down, painted it, lowered it and finally getting around to installing the new 350 I built for it so I can get some power under the hood :). Also, I used a blazer tank and got that tank out from in the cab, to edit :)

Neat truck, never having owned a pickup in my adult life, this is real easy to restore and work on. Solid too, real nice to drive. The only thing you can't buy repo on these year trucks are the frame and cab. Which is not to far off from being done by dynacorn.

I put early front sheetmetal on the front, and shaved a bunch of trim. I enjoy it, almost everyday.

Chance to show it off too helps :D

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/mytruck123/IMG_0302.jpg

those old 67-72 trucks are pretty sweet- except for the gas tank being behind the seat inside the cab..
i think it would be neat to get a good solid old body and put it on a '99-'05 chassis with all the late model driveline still intact. then you'd have the truck that GM should be building..

Chance to show it off too helps :D

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/mytruck123/IMG_0302.jpg


That's a good looking truck, Craig! :thumbsup: :D I've always liked that body style. :cool:

go to www.67-72chevytruck.com and look at the different year message boards. There are very detailed build threads that show the opportunities and challenges regarding suspension upgrades, MT swaps, rust issues, etc. I learned a lot that saved time on my 59 frame off. Great bunch of guys to similar to here, no bs and family friendly.

The 73 to 79 models are starting to draw some attention around here. And I've noticed some reproduction parts becoming more available. I liked that body style when it still had the round headlights. When they went to the square and rectangular headlamps was when that body style jumped the shark. When Chevy started running out of ideas for the headlights and grills in the mid 80s, they started getting really ugly.

I think the 73'-87's are cheaper to restore and initially get into. They're tons in the junkyards and people parting them out compared to the older models. I have a 79 chevy k20 3/4 camper special 4x4 and really like it except for the fact that it's full time 4x4, but I also prefer the 73-79's with the round headlights but all the autos are full time 4x4.

I recently acquired a 71 chevy k10 4x4 and plan on fully restoring this one instead of the 79, just because it's more different than the square body style, and you just don't see the 67-72 4x4's on the road, which I like. They also seem to bring more money than the square body style so it also makes more sense to me to rebuild this one instead of the 79.

I did a few 73-87 Chevy trucks over the years. They sure do look nice with flames! :D Here are two of my work trucks I built. The white was an '80 with 7" of lift and 36" Swampers. The dually was a 9.5:1 468 bbc. It ran like it looked. It could smoke all four back tires with no problem. Anyway, here ya' go......

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p224/earthquake68/80Chevy4x4.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p224/earthquake68/TheDuallie.jpg

I like 60-66-lots of parts out there for them-my old bucket -o rust is not restored,but it needs parts here and there like any 45 year old truck-theres a pic in my showroom-cant get the pic to show here--
67rat

Alan- Earthquake---

Aren't you doing one of these trucks now??? Saw a pic on another thread. I'm working on the truck in the pic below. Gonna be a 468 2WD .

Would like to make it a flip front end.......not sure how though.

ktownkid

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v448/ktownkid/3333.jpg

if you can find one, the 73-87 long box step side is kind of an oddity.
i knew a guy that had one, and i could never really figure out what looked "wrong" on it, until i realized it wasn't a short box step side.
somewhere along the lines i saw a 70 that was made into an extended cab.. must have been a lot of work, but it looked good.
that's the sheetmetal that GM should be stamping out for their new trucks.
but whichever year you get- the 67-72 cabs were still made by GM at least until the early 80's for dump trucks, 73-87 stuff was used until not too long ago for dump truck cabs- there is still a lot of reasonably priced sheetmetal available for them straight from GM, so worrying about trying to get a piece of Taiwanese steel to fit properly isn't an issue.

Alan- Earthquake---

Aren't you doing one of these trucks now??? Saw a pic on another thread. I'm working on the truck in the pic below. Gonna be a 468 2WD .

Would like to make it a flip front end.......not sure how though.

ktownkid

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v448/ktownkid/3333.jpg

I have a '74 Chevy long box that I'm not sure what to do with. All the pro street parts are going into the S-10. If I don't sell it, it may end up a monster truck on a fabb'd frame with 5-ton axles and 4WS. eh, who knows....

I have 2-67 Chevy C-10 project trucks, and have started stripping one down now. I have a 396 built to put in it, and ready to work on the frame and suspension now. I have a donor front disc brakes as well. I hope it will be an easier, and cheaper build, then the last 5 Chevelle projects i have done lately.

I have a great '80 C/10, smooth side long bed, "Round-corner"!

pdq67

If you are building a early chevy www.brotherstrucks.com or www.lmctruck.com are 2 places to look at for what is available. LMC also does later model stuff and Ford stuff.