C10 Builder's Guideの Winter 2020 の目次

OVER THE PAST year we have been diligently disassembling our ’65 Chevy C10 and replacing the original outdated components with new modern bolt-on replacements. The process has been painful, and the build budget was blown quite a while ago, but a combination of persistence and peer pressure eventually pushed us across the finish line and into the history books with another great magazine project build. We learned a lot of important lessons along the way, met tons of really cool, passionate people and most importantly, we finished what we started. Even with a predetermined project plan, expectations of unexpected issues and a little extra money in savings that we could throw at the build if need be, we were still pulling our hair out with aggravation at times. The trick…

IF YOU WANT TO TOP OFF YOUR VINTAGE APPEARING LS SWAP, then look no further than Lokar’s new LS Classic Series Distributor and Plug Wire Set. The kit starts with a set of high-quality, 7 mm, Kevlar spiral core spark plug wires with high-temp silicone boots. The wires are 9 feet long with 40 ohms of resistance per foot, giving you all the length and performance you need to remote mount your coils, out of sight and out of mind. The plug wires first connect to the coils and then pass through the hollow cast aluminum distributor body that is bolted to the engine’s valley plate, and then to the spark plugs for an authentic nostalgic look. The LS Classic Distributor kit includes the plug wires with pre-installed 90-degree coil…

THIS WHOLE pandemic thing has really put a damper on get-togethers, and as serious as it is, a lot of people have been hoping for a sense of normalcy in their lives. Shows have been cancelled left and right, which means that a lot of vehicle enthusiasts haven’t been able to get their proper fix. The town I live in is pretty small, but somewhat famous—or infamous—depending on how you look at it. Hollister, California. Ever heard of it? If you’ve ever owned a Harley, you have. It’s often touted as the “Birthplace of the American Biker,” and as the location of the legendary “Hollister Riot” of 1947, it shined a huge spotlight on “outlaw biker” culture. Heck, even the Marlon Brando flick “The Wild One” was based on the…

IF YOU HAVEN’T HEARD about the annual Loedown at Homestead Hollow in Springville, Alabama, keep reading, because it’s a car, truck and bike show—and crawfish boil—that you need to know about. Hosted by Tim and Tonyia Morris of Sparkles Detail, the fourth annual Loedown took place June 5-7, 2020. It was the first national truck show to officially take place after the coronavirus pandemic shut down large gatherings. The weekend began Friday night with a preparty, where more than 300 people ate through 480 pounds of crawfish, 125 pounds of catfish nuggets, 125 pounds of boiled shrimp, 200 hamburgers, 200 hotdogs and all the fixins, reports Tim. That’s a lot of food! As the Saturday morning sun rose upon the beautiful scenery at Homestead Hollow, participants and spectators began to…

THE YEAR IS 1999, AND MINI-TRUCKIN’ IS AT AN all-time high. Tilt beds and insane graphics were all the rage. Donnie McMurtery of Bethpage, Tennessee, remembers this era like it was yesterday. Donnie is a self-taught builder and has been in the custom vehicle scene for many years. He has built several vehicles in the past, but one has been more important than all of the others. Donnie originally started to build his ’68 Chevrolet C10 with all original parts and maybe just a few upgrades. “It was a low-mileage, all original truck when I bought it in 1999,” he says. “I also had to use it as a work truck when my daily driver broke down in early 2000.” However, things quickly changed for Donnie. Unfortunately, he was involved…

LOKAR RECENTLY INTRODUCED A full line of parts and accessories designed to give your LS engine a vintage look. Among these parts are its new valve covers, which have the appearance of a classic Chevy big block from the ’60s and ’70s. The scaled-down cast aluminum valve covers are available in a raw finish, chrome or Chevy orange and bolt directly onto LS cylinder heads with no adapters. Only 2 inches tall, they come complete with a ported PCV fitting, internal baffle, screw-in oil cap and all associated fasteners and hardware. Made in the USA. Lokar Performance Products www.lokar.com 865-824-9767…

POWER COOL SYSTEMS’ NEW LS/LT ENGINE SWAP PERFORMANCE Radiators are the only ones to feature a United Systems Group (USG) three-channel dimpled core—the exact type of radiator developed for and used exclusively on the 2018-’19 Corvette Z06. This state-of-the-art fin/tube design provides peak heat transfer efficiency and increased operating pressure—perfect for boosted engines—for the highest amount of engine cooling possible. Because the Power Cool LS/LT engine swap radiators use this exclusive core technology, it means they are validated to meet all current GM durability standards. They are also the only radiator to be endorsed as an officially licensed product for cooling LS/LT crate engines by Chevrolet Performance. Check out all of the Power Cool performance radiator features: ■ Available for most popular GM applications with LS/LT engine swaps■ Cools engines…

FOR DANIEL, building custom cars and trucks has been a passion in his life since 1995. During those times, he has had the opportunity to hone his fabrication skills on a wide variety of vehicles including mini-trucks, a ’64 Impala to a Honda Accord wagon on hydraulics. During the late ’90s, Daniel joined the world-famous Negative Camber car/truck club with his tricked-out Mazda B2200 mini-truck. While traveling around the nation showing off his Mazda, he met a lot of Negative Camber members and other key people in the truck scene. In 2004, at the Texas Heatwave show, Daniel got to meet the famous Street Trucks photographer Courtney “Tito” Halowell, and they got to chatting about getting his Mazda featured in Street Trucks. So, after the show finished up, they headed…

BACK IN THE day when names like Tinker Juarez, Perry “PK” Kramer, Travis Chipres and even Dennis McCoy ruled magazines such as BMX Action and BMX Plus, the raddest of the rad used trucks to carry their bikes to the track or legendary spots like Pipeline or Del Mar. The ride of choice for most seemed to be the Toyota 4x4, with the occasional lowered Nissan 720 for guys like Mike Dominguez. But, if you had a bigger budget you might go for a C10, and if you had a mega budget like the owners of Mongoose (a.k.a., Skip Hess and Billy “Bones” Miller), you went for a C20 Suburban and turned it into a team hauler. As one of the dudes at Squarebody Syndicate and a BMX rider, Joey…

CHARLIE CAMPBELL SPENT most of his life building dreams. During the day his construction company built custom homes for other people. In his spare time, he constructed his own automotive dreams. Naturally he hoped his son would follow in his footsteps. Stacy Campbell didn’t initially share the same visions as his dad. Growing up around the jobsites, drag strip and car shows, he didn’t always appreciate his dad’s business or his passion for classic American cars. Stacy’s interests leaned more toward skateboards, BMX bikes and Volkswagens. The young man matured and began to understand what compelled his dad to teach him every aspect of the construction business. Stacy also learned to appreciate his style of automotive passion. As a tribute to his father, he hoped to pass this legacy on…

SQUAREBODY TRUCKS HAVE become extremely popular over the last few years. Luckily for us, this means more and more restoration parts are being produced, including better body panels, to bring these beauties back to life. For years there have been lower quality crash parts, but nothing deserving of a custom build or restoration project. One of the worst areas on these old trucks are the beds. They get beat up, and if you are in the rust belt they rust out. Our friends at Auto Metal Direct have stepped up and are now offering complete short bedsides for ’73 to ’87 squarebody trucks. Each bedside is stamped from high quality OE 19-gauge steel on new tools, and each premium bedside is assembled on a new robotic assembly line and features…

THE CHASSIS UNDER YOUR OLD TRUCK WAS ADEQUATE for its day. But that day isn’t today. They weren’t designed to handle the horsepower modern engines make, let alone meet the ride and handling demands we expect from our hot rods. It might be a good idea to slide a new Heidts Complete Chassis Kit under your vehicle. The kits feature a TIG-welded 10-gauge steel frame with body mounts, complete front suspension with disc brakes, a four-link rear suspension with a 9-inch Ford rear axle, and rack-and-pinion steering. Compared to the money, time and effort needed to bring your old junk up to snuff, a Heidts chassis can be money well spent. ■ Heidts Superide II independent front suspension with stock-height spindles■ 1.25-inch upper and 1.5-inch lower tubular control arms■ Single-adjustable…

SOMETIMES THE BEST creations emerge from plans that never should have been made in the first place. When Brian Oswalt met Eric Banks at LST 2016, that alone was a luck of the draw. Brian, being from South Carolina, and Eric, being from Oklahoma, being brought together in Texas only by discussing Eric’s then F-100 build is quite the one-in-a-million statistic on its own. Leave it to the truck scene, right? Well, after some mutually given compliments and construction criticism, car guy to car guy, the connection must have clicked pretty well, because later that year Brian contacted Eric to do some work for him on his ’53 Bel Air build. After a painter dropped the ball on getting that car done in time for SEMA, the two decided it…

SMALL TOWN USA RESIDENTS love baseball and classic trucks. When Rosbel Renden is not coaching his son Omar’s little league team in Baytown, Texas, he enjoys attending Houston Astros games with family and friends. Somehow he manages to find time between work and coaching duties to feed his passion for building old GM trucks. Having owned and restored C10s in the past has prepared him for his latest project shown on the pages here. In late 2014 he came across a solid shortbed that showed plenty of potential. As much as Rosbel enjoyed his previous builds from this era, he had always wanted a ’68 Custom with deluxe trim. He wanted to retain the unique ’68 frontend styling that initially attracted him to these trucks, with a plan to take…

EAST TENNESSEE SHOWDOWN CAME back for lucky event number three! Located at the East Tennessee Distillery in Piney Flats, Tennessee, and presented by Direct Paintless Dent Repair, the event was open to all makes and models. East Tennessee Distillery is steeped in the tradition of the Appalachian Mountains. Nestled in the hills of Piney Flats, East Tennessee Distillery produces award-winning moonshine for its customers. What a great place to host a truck show! This year’s event was themed, “Moonshine and Mini-Trucks,” as the show’s organizers, participants and spectators are a group of mini-truckers putting their spin on the show scene. Distillery tours, special show-labeled moonshine, club games, DJs and great food all on-site made this a family friendly event. Available awards included Top 50, Tennessee Top 3, Best Interior, Best…

WHEN WE REMOVED THE FIRST set of bolts from our ’65 Chevy C10, our rebuild goal was for the truck to be reliable while we stayed on a budget that most can relate to. No custom framework would be necessary, and an LS swap was out of our price range. So, we did like any sane truck-loving person would do in a similar situation: keep adding until we ran out of budget! A bolt-in coilover suspension system from Classic Performance Products gave the originally stiff suspension a whole new life. Power steering and power brakes gave us more control with less effort, and a FiTech electronic fuel injection system took away our frustrations with the older, carbureted, small-block engine. After all that, a budget friendly set of wheels and tires…