The Classic: my 1969 Chevy CST/10 resto project

[texanidiot25]

I know this thing could be the apocalypse to some die hard ecomodders, but this truck is my pride and joy (except for the very thin wallet).

Back in January of 07, my neighbor called me up to make me an offer. I go over to his house when he's out wrenching on his '67 Cougar XR7, and have gone off-roading in his 88 Toyota mini truck once, and he knows my love for classics (grew up in a bracket racing 11 second '74 Camaro, '78 El Camino, with a '50 Styleline sitting in the driveway for a future resto). He had a '69 Chevy CST10 sitting in a friends driveway that he was going to build up, but didn't have a place to keep it any more. Instead of selling it off for 2k, he sold it to me for $500 bucks. No engine, trans, rust only in the common areas, the truck is straight and in damn fine shape for it's age.

18 feet long, over 6 feet wide, and roughly 5000 lbs, it's no light weight, but it sure is purty.

So, pics of when I 1st got it:




And now as it currently stands:




A newly rebuilt 350ci V8 out of a 70s C10. I guy I bought it from had it in his Camaro for the past 20-30 some-odd years actually. It runs and sounds great, and it still pretty fresh from the rebuild. Stock, based off the block numbers, it had 260hp and 350 ft lb of torque, though you can reckon it's probably a bit higher then that. HEI dizzy, and a 4bbl Q-Jet carb. Power is spun through a rebuilt TH350 transmission, though nothing special about it. What is fairly special is that this came from the factory with a Dana 60 rear axle, which was extremely uncommon on the half ton trucks with a 350 small block.

For those not familiar with axles, the Dana 60 is one of the top-dogs of axles that were put into trucks and muscle cars.

Hopefully will be able to finish it by the end of summer. Trying to get a job and save some up, sell the Firebird for a few grand, and finish it off. Still needs power steering, a/c, brakes (and a front disk brake conversion), new shocks and coils all around (previous ghetto rigging the rear shocks with bolts to compensate for the sagging is just not cool), and some interior and rust work gets it to a good daily driver status.

YouTube - The 1969 CST/10 running, revving

Hope you enjoy

[Frank Lee]

She's a beauty but I seriously doubt it weighs anywhere near 5000 lbs.

[texanidiot25]

Originally Posted by trev0006

Thats a nice truck as long as you don't drive it much.

I put over 20,000 miles on it in a year, and took a dallas road trip. Daily driver, and a total work horse.



If anyone's interested, I'll update this. I know it's not the site's point of interest for the most part.

[bgd73]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

She's a beauty but I seriously doubt it weighs anywhere near 5000 lbs.

I remember one of these local..as nobody treated trucks good, this model hung on and on.. they are not like today. In fact , that generation even dished out 8 lug wheels for the heavy stuff.. they were not kidding around with steel guages. The truck local I rode in was so dense, a six cyl with 2 valves burned and piston slopping couldn't even shake the truck. Try doing that today...equivelant to an earthquake through the cab.
I always wanted one...they stopped in 1972.
Although I did have a 74 ford.. and they played games with real density some years after the chevy stopped. Today it is all..well... Gay.

nice truck. I remember seeing this before...

a downdraft by factory is going to be tougher anyways by oe build <- remember this.

[robertwb70]

I love the 67-72 GM trucks, probably won't ever be without one again, I've had 3 of them. My dad has had 5 or 6, still has a 67 SWB GMC. My cousins and uncles have all had one or more and one of my cousins still has one that he's been driving and rebuilding for 10+ yrs now.

People like me HAVE to own a truck, there's just no way around it.

The one I have now is a 71 K10 (4x4) it only gets driven when there's work to be done that requires a truck since it gets something like 12 MPG.

As for the weight mine is 4800lbs with an extra differential, granny 4 speed, NP205 Xfer case, 31x10.5 tires and a crane mount in the back. IIRC my 2WD was just under 4000lbs with a SBC and an TH350.

[texanidiot25]

It's been a great truck. Carried 1000 lbs of flooring, truck cab, a few engines, rear axles, pulled several cars outta flooded roads (and crossed them with no issue), and so on. It's hilariously easy to fix, and parts are still a plenty.

A lot of work went into getting it back on the road, I'll have to update it.