Cadillac CTS-V Forum banner

My other money pit - 1972 C10 5.3/6L80

18K views 38 replies 21 participants last post by  pcf_mark  
#1 ·
I picked up a 1972 C10 350/TH350 fully loaded about 6 months ago with the plan of just driving around town in it until my next promotion when I would have more time at home to work on it and do an LS swap. One thing led to another and the truck started running worse and worse and since I have no idea what I'm doing with a carb I decided I'd just go ahead and do the LS swap now. Since I don't have time or space to do the work myself I hired a friend who's starting up a shop specializing in LS swapped hot rods in Houston.

The plan for the truck now is to basically update everything on the truck to make it a daily driver, then drive the crap out of it. So the parts plan so far is:

5.3L and 6L80e out of a 2011 Tahoe with a BTR Stage 1 cam, DOD delete, and VVT delete
Air ride with e-level control, tubular control arms, Ridetech single adjustable shocks
Wilwood 6 piston 14" front brakes and 4 piston 13" rear brakes
Updated but stock appearing electronic gauges
Move the tank to under the bed with Aeromotive Stealth 340 pump

Here's some pictures starting from the day I picked it up
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image


I found a great deal on this 2011 5.3/6L80 combination with the full harness and everything 60k miles.
Image

Image

Image


The first round of parts to show up, we're still waiting on most of the suspension
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image


We're hoping to get everything done by the end of March. I'll continue to post progress pictures when I can.
 
#3 ·
Looking forward to more on this. The information and products available for LS swaps are so readily available now that it just makes so much sense. When my house is finished, I'm looking at doing a Chevelle with an LS.
 
#9 ·
Yeah the LS side of things has been pretty easy, finding good info on the 6L80 on the other hand is a little more difficult. It seems liked everyone just goes with the 4 speeds cause they're easier and smaller. I guess the only reason I'm using the 6 speed is because of the deal I got on it, and it'll be unique.

Cool. I have a C10 project in the works.
Post some pics/info

Cool Project! Wish I could fit comfortably in the cab of one of those.
You can always modify them. I just saw one of the shops that's building one right now cut out part of the cowl/floorboard and added about 3 inches of legroom. They said it made a world of a difference.

Ive always wanted a C10. Thy re getting harder and harder to come by, pricier too.
Yeah it took me a couple months to find this truck. Overall it's a very solid truck with some rust holes in the drivers rocker panel and then the front of the passenger fender from a battery eating a hole in it. Both of those spots are kind of bad, but I'm going to leave them as is for a while, might look at getting those spots fixed next year or I might wait and just do the whole truck at some point. Besides for that, just some normal light surface rust that you'd expect on a 40 year old truck. They got the front clip off today and amazingly they didn't even have to use a single squirt of WD40/PB Blaster and no broken bolts so far.
 
#4 ·
Dang, thats awesome. I started one 72 shortbed, got the frame done, and had to sell most of it. Was a sad day. Good luck with your build.
 
#15 ·
They've been making some great progress the last couple days. They got everything pulled off the frame and set the motor and trans in just to check frame clearance and alignment. Next up is stripping the frame down and preparing it for paint and start working on installing a bigger cam, VVT and AFM delete kits, and CTSV pan setup. Should be getting the gas tank today and the first round of suspension parts tomorrow.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
 
#20 ·
Thanks for all the compliment guys, hopefully we can continue making good progress.

I just got the chance to make a trip back up to the shop and check out some of the parts that showed up over the last week and it just so happened that the main parts of the suspension showed up today too.

Doug Thorley Tri-Y swap headers
Image


Image


I wish I would have ordered the gas tank to be powdercoated silver, but by the time I thought about it it was too late. It'll be alright you won't be able to really see it and everything will be black anyways.
Image


Lets just say the UPS guy wasn't too happy about having to make this delivery today. Everything came in about 8 boxes weighing on average like 40 lbs. I must say these parts are extremely nice quality, I almost don't even want to powdercoat them.
Image


Image


Image


Image
 
#28 ·
Lets just say the UPS guy wasn't too happy about having to make this delivery today. Everything came in about 8 boxes weighing on average like 40 lbs. I must say these parts are extremely nice quality, I almost don't even want to powdercoat them.
Image


Image


Image


Image
Porterbuilt DROOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!
 
#22 ·
I should have some good pics this weekend to post. The block motor has been painted and is being assembled, working on vintage air install, and the frame should be getting blasted and painted in the next couple days.

As for tunnel clearance I just went ahead and bought a high hump. For about $50-70 for the high hump, $180 for new carpet (I needed new carpet anyways), and an hours worth of work I think it's a better option than screwing around trying to make things barely fit.
 
#24 ·
A couple small update pictures. We were really hoping to have the frame painted by now but the weather hasn't helped. They got 1 coat on the frame but it still needs at least 1 more coat on it. The suspension powdercoating is done but I don't have any pictures of it yet.

The wheels, I really hope that the rears fit. After looking at some pictures I kind of wish I got 19 or 20s for the truck, but we'll see how the 18s look once it done and go from there. Besides for the size I love the style of these, they just don't make them bigger than an 18".
Image


Got the motor painted, we'll start out with the truck intake to get it going and let my bank account recover a little bit. After everything is smoothed out hopefully this summer we'll go to a single plane (probably Victor Jr), throttle body adapter, and an old school round air filter.
Image


Low hump cut out to make some room for the high hump giving us more clearance.
Image


Finally, I decided to go ahead and upgrade to Vintage Air while we're at it. I plan to daily drive it and it gets 110+ down here regularly so a good AC is important. Good thing I did cause come to find out the mice had moved in at some point.
Image

Image
 
#26 ·
Not quite sure what you're trying to say, but I don't really plan on touching the paint or interior. The only plans for them would be just replacing them with the exact same thing but newer/better and maybe a hidden stereo. I'm also on the lookout for an old white toolbox for the bed but I need to measure it still.
 
#31 ·
I've been copy pasting updates from other forums and forgot to post the update on here yesterday so I'm just going to put them both together.

They got the frame painted a couple days ago with John Deere blitz black (and some kind of heavy duty rust prevention primer but I forget the name). I can say so far from what we've done to the frame putting frame braces in that the paint has held up pretty good. All the suspension parts were powdercoated matte black. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have the rest of the suspension on and maybe some brakes mounted up. We were ready to put the trailing arm crossmember in but we weren't sure on which position it goes in and it's a tight fit so we'd like to just install it once. Hopefully Pro Performance or Porterbuilt can help us out and we'll figure it out tomorrow.

Sorry for the crappy pics, tomorrow I'll get the real camera out and clean up the metal shavings.

Image


Image


Image


Image


Image


Got the rear suspension mocked up and tires mounted today. For those looking at Wilwood brakes, make sure you chase all your threads with a tap before you bolt anything together. Apparently even with the crazy prices they can't even clean the threads out for you, lesson learned. Seeing the rear wheels on and rear end mocked up today really got me excited about getting this done.

Image


Image


Image


Image


Image


Image


Image
 
#32 ·
They made some great progress the last couple days getting the front suspension completed, front brakes on, mounting the air tank brackets, and putting on the new bumper with hidden hitch. The next couple days should show some huge progress with rewiring the truck, putting the motor/trans back in, and then the body back on it.

Image


Image


Image


Image


Image