This thread is going to run for months, if not years.

I'm going to ramble a bit to give the history behind this thing......
My grandfather had a 1972 Chevy C10 shortbed, 3 on the floor, headers into cherry bombs that dumped right behind the cab.  My dad's parents lived on the same property as me and my parents.  Us on one side of the hill, them on the other.  Many winter mornings I'd sit in this truck waiting for the bus when I was really little.  If I was lucky, we'd run down to Maria's corner shop to get donuts or chocolate milk beforehand.  Before he went full time with his own business, he worked second shift.  I'd spend the night at my grandparents laying awake waiting for him to get home, I'd hear this truck burbling, gurgling, and popping as he slowed down the hill.  A few years later my parents got divorced, I was 7 or 8.  For some reason the night my mom cleaned out the house and took me to her parent's house, my dad drove this truck to work.  I guess his was broke down or some shit, I don't know.  I'll never forget hearing this truck roaring down the road seconds before my dad kicked down my grandparent's front door.  There was a stop sign maybe an 1/8 mile away from their house, boy did this thing scream pulling out.  A second after kicking in the door my dad collapsed into my grandfather's (my mom's dad) arms crying his eyes out.  That grandfather was a Marine staff sergeant, a man everyone loves and respects.  

Anywho, fast forward a few years, my mom moves half way across the country and takes me with her.  I spend the summers with my dad, well, a little bit of the summer.  The summer I'm 13-14 my dad and I decide to start working on the C10.  It had sat for a few years at this point.  We wanted to fix it up a bit and make it my first vehicle.  I go all in instantly.  I strip the truck down to the chassis, sand blast everything, and start painting it all.  My summer with dad is over and I have to go back with my mom.  A few months later I find out my dad fucking sold it.  I don't know what the circumstances were, but I was devastated.  

Fast forward 19 years, my half brother finds the truck.  He has zero memories of it.  He wasn't even born when my dad sold it.  He buys it.  Let me frame this for you guys, I adore my brother.  He is one hell of a kid and is going to be a hell of a man.  He is extremely talented and that is an under statement.  I'd put any amount of money that he can tig weld anything better than anyone on arfcom, period, the end.  However, his mom, my stepmom, I tolerate only for him and my dad.  She has driven a massive wedge between me and my dad, and between my kids and my dad.  She despises my grandfather and wishes death on him.  She basically does her damndest to convince my dad that I'm not his kid, only my brother is.  Anyhow, between my dad and brother finding the truck and buying it, it stung bad considering how my dad essentially went "lol fuck you" and sold it away from me.  I voiced my opinion about the purchase.  I straight said "I'm happy for you guys, but that stings, that was supposed to be OUR project."  My dad instantly responded, "oh, that's okay, after we fix it up you can buy it from us, but it won't be cheap".  I said fuck you and hung up.  

I explained to my brother that I have no ill-will towards him over this, he couldn't have known the back story.  I explained the back story.  My wife told him too at one point when we were hanging out.  Fast forward a year and my brother asks if I want to buy the truck.  I respond with a resounding FUCK YES.  He did a bunch of body work and patch panels, put a rebuilt engine in it, etc. etc.  This was about two weeks ago.  I have been ecstatic as all hell ever since.  

When my dad and I started restoring this, in his infinite wisdom, he convinced me to toss the bed because it had some rust and it would be easy to replace.  LOL.  A shortbed C10 easy to replace?  Not in a million years - but this was 20 years ago.  These beds are as good as gold now.  So since the truck is going to be mine and doesn't have a bed, I started poking on FB marketplace.  Well wouldn't you know it, I found a dude right down the road selling a '72 C10 shortbed that was in pieces.  I see a picture of the bed buried in the woods covered in shit.  I messaged him and said if it's solid enough to lift in one piece, I'll give you $500 for it.  He said he didn't want to part it, I said I don't care, I don't want the rest of the truck only the bed.  Well, I wound up getting a pristine (for the condition of most) 67-72 C10 short bed.  I could sell this bed within a week for $5k.

Anyhow............

The truck is still with my brother.  The bed is in my garage.  The bed will go up to my brother's for some patch panels and welding.  We'll throw it on the truck, then the whole shooting match will come to my house.

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The truck after my brother got it fired up.
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And I give you the crowning jewel to this OP.  My dopey 13-14 year old ass with the truck.  All the sand on the ground is from me sandblasting.  I swear to god I don't look anything like this anymore
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#metoo

Lol

My wife's boss bought us dinner.  We ate, then left it sit in the garage until it got cold, then we got hungry again

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If anyone wants to start a go fund me to speed this along, feel free.  I also accept beer.

It's strange ripping into this thing.

The wheel bearings and seal on the driver's side are brand spanking new.

I may have missed it.. But whats your overall goal here? stock ride height? Stock size wheels? disc conversion?

You're making far better progress that I do on my projects! The work is looking well done too! I would HIGHLY suggest finding yourself a Craigslist shielding gas wirefeed or even one from Hazard Fraught. You're doing sound word on the patch panels and it would really help you out on finished quality.

Low, not on bags, wheels....dunno if I'm going to do 20" rallys or 15" rallys.  Discs are in the front and will be in the back.

I'm making shit up as I go homie.

Oh I know.  A 120v flux is stupid easy for at home though....especially given 99% of all welds are grinded flush.

My dad has a 68 that we are getting ready to go back over.. It was redone in the 90's, so it has the 90's feel.. We are going to do some suspension work, discs up front, and some 20's to bring it in to this century.. Maybe 22's in rear..

I feel like stock old trucks are more unique than the lowered custom ones these days.  I'm sure it'll look great regardless though.

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Another Saturday where everything kicked my ass....

Snapped a timing chain cover bolt in the block

Today is not going better.  Talk about pucker factor

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You buying a repro core support and fender, or did you manage to find some used ones?

I bought all repro

Strip the threads taking off the damper?  Yeah, that is a big pucker factor.   You might want to be really careful putting that bolt back in, even if you do get the threads chased, and avoid hammering on it with an impact.  Easy to run it in too fast and get the threads to gall and then the crank is ruined.

I dunno how it happened but it wasn't me. I got it like that

So I kinda went on a spending spree...

New ceramic headers
Parts to do power steering
New booster/master
New oil pump and pickup
New valve covers
Drop springs for the rear
Scheduled the wheels to get powder coated
New motor mounts
New pan

Fuck

how many inches of drop on the coils?

A reinforcement plate kit is sold or easy to fab that goes under the steering box.  The frames commonly crack there.

Is it a 327?  Some of them had no threads, no bolt, and the front of the crank was machined as an inverted cone.

Energy Suspension makes polyurethane zero fail engine mounts that I use on all the things.

5in for the back

I'm serious thinking about buying an old chebby truck for my next daily driver when my current ride dies.

After looking at this thread I know I'm willing to spend alot more up front to get one with a decent body to start with.

67-78 3/4 ton, 2wd, manual trans, std cab and std box would be great.

I'm burned out

Walk away, mess with something else for awhile, come back to it.

I have Jeeps, an 83GMC, and about a dozen ATV's in various states of disrepair at any given moment.  When I get burnt out on something I switch to something else.

When I get tired of enginey things, I go to my loading bench and resize brass.  Simple, requires no thought, and gives me something productive to do.

I think part of it is I was extremely focused on wrapping up the engine, but I'm waiting for parts, so I'm fucking around with other stuff while I wait

New headers, new mounts, dry fitting master

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Ooh, shiny.
Looks like it'll be a damn nice truck when you're done.

Great progress.  After I extend the shop I’ll start my 68.

So the other day I went full retard on installing a new pitman arm.  We're talking turning colors hot and being beaten with a five pounder.

Turns out they sent the wrong spline count

I suggest that you consider using 'Stage 8 Locking Fasteners' header bolts to secure your headers.

They worked flawlessly on the headers I installed on my 2005 Silverado.

They hold the header flange tight against the gasket and I never had a leak/gasket issue with them.

Good luck

Got all the steering linkage hooked back up

The most painful experience of my life.... Buying belts that don't have a make or model at advance auto.... Jesus Christ.... Four fucking trips back and forth.  Two times it was a breeze since they let me in the back to pick my belts.  The other two other times they insisted on looking things up in the computer.  The last visit the guy was a complete moron.  I am telling him the part number I need and he is lost in the computer instead of waddling his fat ass in the back and just getting it.  Finally I just walked behind the counter and went and got it.

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I had a ‘72 C10 that was a retired USAF truck, still baby blue.
The Airman that had it before me put all the chrome doo-dads on the engine (smallblock 350), and the bed was  lined with wood.

Fun truck. Had a lot of fun in it.

Are you far enough along to give an opinion on the aftermarket core support?

I decided to try and save mine but it’s a little worse than I though. Now that I’ve got it off I can see why the front of my truck looked a little off.

Nah.  I just put it on and it's crooked as hell without the fenders on, so I can't give an opinion

Art, with flux core

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When you get to the point of spreading some filler on it, I would highly suggest putting a coat of fiberglass filler (something like Everglass or Kitty Hair) over any welded seams. Those pinholes from the fluxcore will be susceptible to rust down the road, the fiberglass fillers are waterproof and will do a great deal to help keep moisture from wicking in the backside and causing issues post paint.

The progress looks great!! Shaping up to what will be a nice pickup.

I'm not putting filler on anything right now.  Maybe later, but I hate filler.

The worst thing about these projects for me is trying to figure out where to quit. I should have kept the wire wheel away from the cab, but I didn't, and now I too have some welding projects lined up.

Yup.

Not only that but all the crumbs you find along the way that keeps altering the path.  For example - I'm real pissed that I didn't just trash the rear and get a new one.  Saturday I discovered the axle races were destroyed.

Edit - I just realize I didn't share what got me to that point.  I had the wheels scheduled to go powder coat.  The fronts have been off, the rears I kept on the axles for ease of pushing the axle around while doing the diff.  So sunday I started to take them off. Notice I said started?  A huge mallet unstuck the axle from the wheel bore.  The other wheel?  About 20k lbs of force in a fucking press.  Ruined the wheel, bent it to shit.  Not only that, but after dismounting the tire on another wheel, my tire guy threw on a good tire and filled it - wheel started leaking like mad.

FUCK

Double edit - please excuse any typos, I'm actually on my laptop and there's a few keys that don't work without being hit with a mallet.

Finally got a key piece that has become backordered and unavailable everywhere.

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Don't fill pinholes with anything but more welding.  Nothing will stop that from rusting out again. But first spray a coat of epoxy primer on it.  Oh, and for God's sake, get a gas MIG.  

Still refusing Bondo

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You could always use lead

The body will have filler... It's a fact of life.  Under the hood? Nah fuck it.

Maybe I missed it but are you putting in one of those aftermarket air conditioners? I just noticed you made all the holes in the firewall go away.