1979 Chevy C10 Hellride

[irk miller]

Here is my old Chevy C10 Bonanza that my mom named Clunky many years ago.  It was bought new off the lot by my great uncle to work his peanut farm in Sylvania, Georgia. The first thing he did to it was rip out the nozzle hole in the filler tube so he could fit the lead fuel nozzle.  He ran his farm equipment on leaded gas until he couldn't anymore.  The second thing he did was cut out the catalytic converter.  The truck has been passed down through my dad and on to me, so I'm a 3rd generation owner. 

I'm part of a couple C10 and Chevy forums that I'm not super active on and the crowd is just a little different, so I figured I'd add it to the list of builds I have here instead.  I'm less than two weeks away from summer vacation, so I'm hungry for a good summer project.  I've been driving mostly on weekends, and my kid loves to go to school in it on Fridays, as my insurance is set up to allow me only 7k miles a year.  The plan is to make it a good bike hauler so I can start to rest my '99 Grand Cherokee, which is about to pass 200k miles.  Typically, I trailer the bikes to events with the Jeep. 

I've done a few things since I got the truck, but hopefully the summer produces way, way more.

This is what it looked like when I got it home for the first time:



Here it is today:



It's a Bonanza, which was a dealer package that basically added the white wagon wheels to an already loaded Silverado. 
The stock 305 has been swapped out for a rebuilt 350 with '87 Vortec heads, an RV cam, Edelbrock aluminum intake and a 600cfm Holley 1850 carb.  The transmission is a TH350 that I rebuilt for my G10 van, but that van has been retired, so the tranny was moved here.  I don't know how much of a fan I am of the Holley, and I definitely want to swap the transmission for a 700r4.  I go back and forth one whether to do the LS swap and run a 4l60 transmission.  That will more than likely be way down the road.  Up next is further dropping it to 6" in the front and 8" in the back.  We're currently at a 3" and 2" drop.

[Hurco550]

 All in

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[WhyNot]

In as well, interesting to see how things transform.

[SONIC.]

I guess I'll tag along 

[The Jimbonaut]

Great looking truck, ticking all the right boxes as far as I'm concerned.  Have at it!

Edited - what are your plans for the body work Irk?  I love the look of that green/rust/patina - re-paint the white with a white metallic/pearl and this thing would look the absolute business.  Slam it a few inches, trim the fenders...man, I need me a truck.  And a big yard to work on it.  And more skills.

[canyoncarver]

neato

[irk miller]

Great looking truck, ticking all the right boxes as far as I'm concerned.  Have at it!

Edited - what are your plans for the body work Irk?  I love the look of that green/rust/patina - re-paint the white with a white metallic/pearl and this thing would look the absolute business.  Slam it a few inches, trim the fenders...man, I need me a truck.  And a big yard to work on it.  And more skills.

I'm tossed on the paint.  I have all the original trim- good, clean, straight and fully intact, but I really don't intend to re-install it.  I do love the patina.  It's never been painted, which is really cool considering it's had the hands of three generations all over it.  That said, I'm not the biggest fan of the way the paint is wearing on the bed.  It looks like a bad spray can job the way it's coming off unevenly.  I absolutely love this metallic green, so if it gets painted, it will be the metallic green.  The current plan, which is like saying the current night of drinking plan, is to weld up all the holes and do more of a touch up paint job to keep the roof patina and the front hood patina.  The tail gate also has worn nicely.  Then clean up the bed paint and the doors, while also removing the white panel paint down the sides.  The passenger front quarter is rusted beyond repair, so I have a replacement fender that is white.  And there are the typical holes above the bed fenders that need to be patched.  Otherwise, being a southern truck, it's really solid. 

[1fasgsxr]

I love the square body chevy's . Can't wait to see what you do with it.

[advCo]

Sign me up.

[The Jimbonaut]

Good plans, one and all.  Me too I love these square-body's - totally badass, look like you could drive straight through a mountain range with nothing to show for it save some dust on your shoulder.  Which you'd brush off with a flick of your hand - natch.

Dig your bikes man, looking forward to watching what you do with this