68 C10 Build: Transforming a Truck from Humble Beginnings

By Joe McCollough – Images by the Author

Here at Speedway Motors, we love working on our in-house projects. It’s a great chance for us to put our parts to the test and develop new products to help our customers tackle similar projects. When we decided to build a C10, we wanted to start with something that would showcase the huge variety of truck parts that we offer and inspire us to create some new ones. In other words, we were looking for a truck that needed just about everything. Our goal was to find a C10 that needed to be saved, then hit the Speedway Motors shelves for the parts we would need to transform it from humble beginnings and make it into a fun driver.

02 Those fenceposts weren’t just randomly leaning there In fact they were holding the door closed The original door latch had long ago been pirated for another truck — Those fenceposts weren’t just randomly leaning there. In fact, they were holding the door closed. The original door latch had long ago been pirated for another truck.

03 Broken free from its snowy tomb and ready to load we were shocked that the tires were still holding air — Broken free from its snowy tomb and ready to load, we were shocked that the tires were still holding air.

What we ended up with was certainly humble. Our search turned up a ’68 C10 shortbox that was rough, rusty, and had been slowly decaying next to a South Dakota barn for who knows how long. The box, engine, transmission, and most of the interior had flown the coop ages ago. But it was a real shortbox and had that cool ’67-68 front sheetmetal that we were looking for. We fell in love at first sight with what many would consider to be a lost cause. You know how that goes.

04 The back of the cab was pretty rough and the original rear crossmember had been “modified” with a torch and a stick welder long ago — After shoveling some of the snow out of the way, we could see things more clearly. The back of the cab was pretty rough and the original rear crossmember had been “modified” with a torch and a stick welder long ago.

05 All loaded up for the long trip back to Nebraska we spent the whole trip home gleefully daydreaming about our new project — All loaded up for the long trip back to Nebraska, we spent the whole trip home gleefully daydreaming about our new project.

The first phase of our mission was to literally drag the truck out of a snowdrift. It was so buried that the right rear was packed full of snow and wouldn’t roll. We winched it onto the trailer and hit the road back to our Lincoln, Nebraska, shop. We had a few hours on the road to daydream about the new project that was bobbing around in our rearview mirror. Our vision was to transform the crusty C10 into a clean driver with modern power and an updated suspension that we could drive anywhere, but it was also important that we respect the truck and not compromise its character. We love C10s and it was very important to us that it retain the soul of a classic truck with no wacky modifications that would screw up that soul, just tasteful updates to make it capable of hanging in modern traffic and look good doing it.

06 the farmyard C10 looked pretty rough but we were confident in our parts and ability to transform the old truck — Back in the Speedway Motors shop and parked in front of a few of our completed projects, the farmyard C10 looked pretty rough but we were confident in our parts and ability to transform the old truck.

07 The homemade galvanized transmission tunnel wasn’t going to cut it Neither was the seatbelt serving as the driver door limiter — The “interior”—or what was left of one. The homemade galvanized transmission tunnel wasn’t going to cut it. Neither was the seatbelt serving as the driver door limiter.

Once the snow melted and we had power washed off most of the dirt and moss, we pulled our new project into the shop to make a list of what we would need to bring it back to life. This truck had started its life in the military and still had some of the original olive drab paint hiding under the yellow rattle-bomb job. It had been used hard and had dents in places we had never seen dents before. The cab had rust in all the usual places as well, but we had certainly seen worse. It was important that the original chassis was straight and rust-free since our engineers would be using it to prototype new parts to add to our line of Speedway Motors C10 products. Fortunately, the chassis was the best part of this truck, with the notable exception of a terribly torched and stick-welded rear crossmember modification. Not a problem for us since we planned to replace it with our G-Comp rear suspension.

08 An LS engine was part of the plan from the beginning so we weren’t worried about the big empty under the hood — Something seems to be missing here. An LS engine was part of the plan from the beginning, so we weren’t worried about the big empty under the hood.

09 Disassembly was tedious as five decades worth of rusty fasteners fought us at every turn — Disassembly was tedious as five decades worth of rusty fasteners fought us at every turn. But we had the front clip and cab separated from the frame by the end of day one. The simplicity of these truck is part of what makes them great.

With the damage assessed and a battle plan made, we got busy ripping everything apart. Everything was just as rusty and stuck as you’d expect, but there were no surprises. We sent the cab out to the media blaster and stripped everything off the frame. The frame was then blasted as well and treated to a coat of semigloss urethane. We were thrilled to be done with the rusty parts for a while and ready to start bolting up some cool suspension pieces to lower the truck and make it perform better than ever.

010 With the cab removed we were able to assess the condition of the chassis Under all that surface rust and grease was an extremely straight original frame — With the cab removed, we were able to assess the condition of the chassis. Under all that surface rust and grease was an extremely straight original frame.

011 We had big plans to replace the rear suspension and axle with a Speedway Motors G Comp kit and bolt in 9 inch housing so the original was set aside — We had big plans to replace the rear suspension and axle with a Speedway Motors G-Comp kit and bolt-in 9-inch housing, so the original was set aside.

Stay tuned as we get busy transforming our project truck. Next up we work our way to a rolling chassis with a lowered suspension and a hopped-up junkyard 5.3!