Before
The truck was originally bought from an old man that lives next door to my brother back in November of 2003. The funny thing is when my brother first moved there (he moved into my SIL’s house when they got married) I was helping him move stuff and spotted this clean looking square parked behind this old man’s house near his workshop. My brother was in need in of replacing his truck (85 s-10) and I was trying to talk him into buying this truck to replace it and I was going to take his 85 s-10 (which he was going to just give to me) and that was going to be my project. About a week after helping him move he called me up saying that the old man would sell me the 77 for $1k. I was floored at the time (looking back I may have over paid on the deal but you live and learn :shrug) and called my dad up to see if he’d be interested in a father/son project. I was mainly doing it to help split the costs at the time but still would have bought the truck had he said no. Little did I know that the build would bring us closer together and makes the truck a million times more valuable to me than it otherwise would have and it’s also become really enjoyable between me and my boys. From the very beginning this truck was going to be a driving project and do things as we go and still keep it on the road as much as possible.
Anyway, here is when we first bought it.
We drove it home 500 miles from Markleville, Indiana (est 30 miles Northeast of Indianapolis) to just south of KC, Mo. It had a very weak 305 backed by an equally week TH350 and pretty much all of the drivetrain was original to the truck. The 305 used and leaked oil and was lucky to produce maybe 100 hp to the rear wheels. Before we left we replaced all belts, filters and a few other odds and ends to hopefully make it a successful trip. We did make it home with very few problems but it was not a FAST trip by any means
Keep in mind, this project started when I lived in my first house complete with just a one car garage!! I now live in a house with a 2 car garage and I’m still limited on space but nothing compared to the original setup!!
It was quickly discovered that the first order of business had to be replacing the motor. We had priced out what it’d take to just rebuild the 305 and quickly scrapped that idea due to the cost/benefit ratio just wasn’t there for the 305. We also priced out obtaining a used 350 plus rebuild but for just a little more we could get a 350 crate motor from a dealership in Illinois shipped to my door so that’s the route we went. It is the 350 rated at 330 hp at the flywheel and it came ready to go. Once the swap was complete all we had to do was tweak the timing and tweak the carb and we were ready to roll.
Goodies in the back of the truck (look how small that garage was! )...
Getting the 305 outta there! The older guy you see pictured here with the beard is Mike. He’s a friend of the family and a gear head with many years of experience! He’s an old retired Union guy and helped us out a lot in the beginning of this project. He just wanted to be around it cuz he enjoys it and we welcomed him over any time. He’s a great metal worker, welder and good with motors, too. He’s now in pretty poor health physically so this truck is also a tribute to him in a sense.
I don’t have pics of the next steps but we installed Dynomax headers along with 2 Flowmaster 40 series mufflers in a true dual setup with stainless tips exiting out the rear. Driving 30 miles to the muffler shop with just the headers was near deafening! I think my ears may have started to bleed
The interior started off with buying a set of seats from a member of the truck club I’m a member of. They originally came out of a 2002 Silverado but he currently had them in his lowered 66 stepside. He wanted something else so he was selling these seats and from there it all snow balled
Here are a few pics of the interior. You’ll find more in the link to my write up below at the bottom of this post...
Old77's '77 C-10 Build Thread (Pic heavy!!!)
I now live in a house with a 2 car garage and I’m still limited on space but nothing compared to the original setup!! 
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