63 C10 - restoration help

[bighunting]

I recently bought a ‘63 C10 Custom Cab Fleetside LWB, big window, and would like to get your thoughts on my restoration plan.* I want to keep it as original as possible.* I’ll try to post a few pictures later this evening.*
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The truck has a 283 V8 and three-speed manual transmission on the column.* I bought it from the original owner, but it’s got a bunch of miles – likely over 300K. The engine is original, well taken care of, and still running.* The transmission was replaced about ten years ago, but I also got the original transmission from the owner and hope to rebuild it.* The truck runs and drives pretty well, but the body needs work.* There’s rust in all the usual places, including 6 inch square or so (maybe bigger) holes in the floors on both sides.* Bottoms of doors, rocker panels, and hood will likely need replacing.* While all glass is intact, the door windows are pretty much shot – one rolls down with difficulty, the other not at all.* It also looks like the cab braces/mounts are rusted and will have to be replaced.* Otherwise, though, the cab seems pretty sound.* There’s also rust here and there along the bottom of the fenders.
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I’m comfortable handling the mechanics of the truck (engine, transmission, etc), but have absolutely no experience with body work, nor the time really to teach myself and do it right.
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In terms of restoration, what I’d like to do is disassemble/reassemble the truck myself as well as take care of all mechanical restoration, but pay someone else to do the bodywork piecemeal as I bring them the various panels etc that need work (weld in patch panels, paint stripping, refinishing, priming, etc).* I’ll then reassemble the truck including put in a new bed myself, and once the truck’s back together, return it to the body shop for painting.* I’ll also send the bench seat out for re-upholstering.
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My questions/concerns are:
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(1) Can I find a reputable body shop that will work with me in this way?
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(2) Will I save a significant amount of money this way?* Or is the time devoted to disassembly/reassembly minimal compared to the actual bodywork?
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(3) What about the cab?* My thought is to rent a small engine crane or something similar, remove the cab myself, trailer it to the body shop, and then bring back and reinstall when done.* Sound feasible?* Is your typical cab structurally rigid enough to do this once it’s removed from the frame and w/o doors?* How heavy is it stripped bare?
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(4) Perhaps most important, how difficult will it be to reassemble the body and get all of the panels, cab, and rehung doors aligned properly?

(5) Anything I’m overlooking, or other issues/problems I should be concerned about?
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A lot of questions, I know.* I appreciate any advice you might have.
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Thanks
Posted via Mobile Device

[bighunting]

sorry about the repeated "*" - formatting issue of some sort....

[1963c-10]

The mechanics are actually the easy/cheaper repairs. The rust repairs sound extensive and I believe that you may want to find a donar cab, which would be far cheaper than paying a shop to do all the repairs. The cab corners, footwells, rockers and the floor bracing is basically about 1/3 of the cab. I dont know the cost, but around here its around $80 an hour plus parts, which will run around $400 for the repop panels and they will have alot of fun installing them as they do not line up right. As far as assembly/disassembly, thats doable. But thats only a fraction of the work. If the front end and bed are solid, find a donar cab and save alot of headache. Pictures would really help here to allow some of the more advanced body guys help decide how bad the damage is. What you dont want to do is dump $2000-$5000 into a cab to still only have an $600-$800 cab. The seats can be done for $150 and they only take 3-5 hours to do at home. Did mine by myself in 4 hrs and it came out great. All the parts for the doors can be had either used or reproductions can be bought new. I would advocate to go with original parts when you can as the quality and fit is much better than the chinese repop junk.

[spacedebris]

Shame you and I are on different sides of the country. I could recommend a good body man.

I'm sure you will have no problem finding someone willing to help you do the body work piecemeal. Once you find a body guy to do the work, ask them if they want you to disassemble it or not. My body man asked that I not disassemble and bring the whole truck in. He says it is easier to get the lines matched to the truck better that way. And in many cases it is easier to do the work with the panels on the truck. When he does need to have it off the truck, most pieces take so little time to remove that you really wont save a significant amount.

[spacedebris]

just thought I'd add this as an example

I have to keep my truck in storage as I dont have room for it at the house. Unfortunately they moved my truck without permission and drug it against a concrete pillar. Here is the damage.



The 3 areas are the dent on the door, the dent behind the gas door and the gouge on the body line. Now granted I couldnt remove the rear panel but the door repair was easier to do mounted on the truck.

Here is the repaired section.

[MikeS.]

Spacedebris, so who paid for the repairs?

[MikeS.]

Bighunting, so where are the pics of your new truck? BTW I'm about 70 miles NW of you, just above Winchester.

[bighunting]

If I did this right, here are a few photos of my truck. I don't have any closeups yet of rust damage to the cab, doors, hood, etc, which despite appearances here is pretty extensive, but this should give a general sense of the shape the truck is in.

If you could take a look at my questions at the top of the thread, I'd appreciate it. The main thing I need is a better sense of how hard it will be to pull the cab off this and trailer it to a body shop for repairs. And then once all is done, will it be difficult to get the panels, doors, cabs, etc aligned properly when I reassemble. I've seen a lot of pictures that make it look easy, but am guessing it's not.

Thanks

[dthela]

Reassembling the truck is HARD. Doesnt look like a lot of parts, but there are! Lining up panels are very difficult, I wouldnt lift the cab from the roof. run slings around and underneath. Typical costs for the body work will run about $10,000 with materials

[spacedebris]

Originally Posted by MikeS.

Spacedebris, so who paid for the repairs?

sorry for the late reply, gone for the last few days. They did.

When it happened, they broke the front A-arm on the truck. This is a 1 Ton truck with 1-Ton running gear and they managed to break the A-arm



They called a tow truck to come move it and place it in another building. Luckily for me the tow truck driver would not touch it without the "owner" being present. So they had to call me down. Once I got there, all the evidence was there. I could see the damaged poll where they hit it with my truck. The tire marks on the drive way showed were they had pulled my truck sideways to get it off the poll.



It's obvious that what they did was hook up their pickup to the A-arm and drug it sideways to get it off the poll and this is where the A-arm broke. I can tell that because this is where the drag marks from the A-arm dragging the ground start.



I really laid into them when I got there. And the manager had the nerve to tell me that her body guy would fix it. I told her to go to hell, that my body guy would take care of it and send them the bill. She kept trying to tell me that they could decide who did the work. Sorry b**ch, the one good thing about CA is that the damaged party gets to decide on who does the repair. Luckily the owner called me the next day and was a stand up guy. He just said to get it fixed and he would make it good. And he did.

[aerotruk63]

OMG, a 63 with the A/C Cool Pack. Would I ever like to set eyes on that set up. Nice looking truck.

As for the disassembly thing that's straight forward, one piece at a time and cataloging the fasteners and parts with pictures.

Putting it back together is patience, and maybe you'll be lucky to get some help in trade for your talents on someone else's project.

Good body shops are through recommendations. Ask around, not every shop like's to do rot repair.

As for the original restoration thing, I could help you out with pictures and original literature.

Pulled my cab off with four guys on each corner for the first 63, did it by myself with an engine crane and scrap 4x4 on my 4WD project. Just make sure you can lift each corner of the cab off the frame by hand before you lift with the hoist.

[aerotruk63]

[aerotruk63]

[spacedebris]

While on the subject of diss-assembly, paint, and re-assembly. Has anyone painted the engine compartment with rhino liner (or other paint-able truck bed liner)?


I'm a long way off yet from being ready for paint but I tend to do a lot of planning before I actually do anything. I'm curious as to the results.