72 C10 LB LS Swap

[Upstate_LS_C10]

My brother recently purchased a 1972 fleetside long bed with an inline 6 and 3 on the tree. The truck is in need of some body work, but we plan to hold that off until its running and driving. He's still finishing up school and told him we could tackle the project together while hes on breaks. Winters are slow for me and a great time to get some projects done so I told him we would tear into it and see what we can build. Neither of us are fabricators, so we plan on a lot of trial and error, and probably a few beers.

After tons of reading and seeing some incredible builds on this site, we decided to do a gen 3 or gen 4 5.3 LS swap with a t56 trans (still to be sourced). For now we will keep it simple, frame off, blast and paint the frame, brakes all around, new bushings and get the chassis to a running point before getting into the body work when budget allows. I spent about 10 years restoring a 1968 Z28 RS so I know how long the process can take with a limited budget and spare time. I'll post some pictures of that for entertainment I'm sure there will be tons of questions along the way but wanted to stop in and say hi... and thank you in advance! We're looking forward to the brotherly bonding

[Upstate_LS_C10]

Some more pictures of the project

[flashed]

Welcome , heck of a nice truck to start with .

[mongocanfly]

Welcome...should be fun...nice rs btw...

[Upstate_LS_C10]

Hi all,
We have decided to go with a 5.3 LS in the truck. We plan on getting the engine in a day or so although we have not had luck with transmission shopping. We were hoping to back it up with a T56, but cannot find any cheap ones around. Does anybody know of another cheap manual 5 or 6 speed that will bolt up to a 5.3 and hold the power?

Thank you!