By Rob Fortier – Images by NotStock Photography
Back in 1983, Wendell Bentley, a mechanic at a local sawmill in Fredonia, Arizona, bought himself a brand-new Chevy C10, which he used as a work truck right up until his retirement. When his grandson, Josh, turned 15, Grandpa Wendell gave the truck to his parents, with the intention of it being Josh’s high school driver—which it was, and continued to be clear through college … and it also traveled to a handful of states in the process, eventually ending up parked at his sister’s house in Illinois while he finished up his cerebrovascular and endovascular neurosurgery fellowship in Seattle.
Rather than have the Squarebody shipped from Illinois to his new residence in Dothan, Alabama, Josh instead worked out a deal with Vini Madrigal at Vini’s Hot Rods in nearby Alabaster to “restore” Grandpa’s C10. As you can see, they did a little bit more than restore!
Check it out: 1982 Chevy Squarebody C1500 Custom C10
First and foremost, Vini’s crew swapped out the stock ’83 chassis and running gear for a more modern day–appropriate Roadster Shop SPEC chassis complete with a factory-fresh supercharged LT4/8L90 (with full custom Ultimate/Borla exhaust), 14-inch Wilwood binders, and 20-inch Nitto-wrapped Budnik G-Series Tungstens … but that just got the wheels rolling, so to speak! The hard part was yet to come.
Keeping with the non-stock theme, Vini’s took to the body—and bed and underhood—and completely smoothed and/or reworked everything from tucked bumper to tucked bumper … the entire interior perimeter of the bed to the elaborate sheetmetal work in the engine bay. Topping that all off, Illinois’ Miller Restorations handled the bodywork and subsequent Axalta Titan Blue paintjob.
Finally, the C10’s inner sanctum received just as much custom detail work (center console/3-D–printed door panels, CNC’d trim/handles, and so on) before Kellyton, Alabama’s Built By Ricky did his thing with the upholstery. Along with building the bench seat, Ricky (Howard) wrapped everything in tan Moore & Giles leather—including the perforated headliner. Wrapping the interior up, Vini’s included Dakota Digital gauges, an ididit column with a Sparc Industries wheel, Vintage Air A/C, a Kicker sound system, and brought everything to life with an American Autowire harness.
Don’t Miss Out: The Bigelow Family’s Patina ’68 C10
Josh’s family heirloom debuted at SEMA 2022 and was subsequently featured in the Builders Showcase at the 2023 NSRA Street Rod Nationals before we had Mr. Jackson grab these amazing shots of the Squarebody—but then again, we weren’t too worried about the C10 ever changing hands, either!
Click on this issue’s cover to see the enhanced digital version of Josh Bentley’s Vini’s Hot Rods 1983 Chevy Squarebody C10 With a Roadster Shop SPEC chassis.
