A 1967 C10 Story and Build.... "Radio Jones"

[EZ SPEED]

Hello fellow C10 family, my name is Eric.

Thought I would do a build thread of .....” A 1967 C10 Story and Build.... "Radio Jones" “

This truck has been in my life for 32 years , it is currently owned by my step-dad Doug Jones.

I named this thread with that title because of where this story begins.

The story begins with my step-dads father…..Jeff “Radio” Jones. His nickname “Radio” is because he talks constantly…just like a radio. LOL

Jeff “Radio” Jones is 95 years old right now. But this story begins about 45 years ago, around the time he was turning 50 years old in the summer of 1970. (which just also happens to be the year I was born

Radio ran into one of his friends in town and noticed that he was driving a new truck. Radio asked him what he did with that pretty blue 67 Chevy pickup, and found out that it had been traded in at the local Chevrolet dealership. Radio had always admired that truck , so the very next day Radio and his son Doug (16 yrs old) went to the dealership and bought the truck and brought it to its new home.

Originally:

1967 C10 Small back window with a longbed
283 Engine – 3 speed on the column
Manual 4 wheel drum brakes
No power steering

Over the next few years the truck was used on Radio’s small farm. Hauling dirt, rocks, feed, and any other chore that it was needed to do. Radio built some stake bed sides so that he could haul large loads with it. Occasionally Radio’s son Doug would borrow the truck to go hiking, camping, canoeing, and other outdoor activities with his friends since he didn’t have a truck of his own.


Now we are up to 1983:

Doug married my mom and they bought some land to build a house on for us. He once again borrowed the 67 truck from Radio to help clear off the land. After about a week he decided that the he really needed this truck badly and asked if he could buy it. Radio sold him the truck in the fall of 1983. It still had the stake bed sides you can see in the pic.
The truck was used to help clear the land by hauling trees, rocks, dirt, building materials, and much more for the next 3-4 years. During these years I drove it a little when I was 13-15 years old.

This is a pic of Doug in 1983 with the 67. How do you like those mud tires and stake bed sides?? LOL






A few years after the house was finished, probably around 1989-90, the truck was tired and worn for working for years and years….Doug decided to have the stock 283 engine rebuilt and a fresh coat of paint and start using it for hiking, fishing, and canoeing trips once again.

This picture was taken around 1990 after new paint and rebuilt engine.






Fast forward to
January 2004:

By this time in my life I was a self taught car nut !!
I had built quite a few race cars and also built show cars and trucks. I had owned over 30 vehicles of my own by now and had a little shop at home that I did all my own work in.

Doug came by one day to see what projects I was working on and then asked if there was a way that I could help with the steering on the 67 because it had a lot of play in it and was becoming more and more difficult to drive. I told him that he should let me do a power steering conversion and he would be much happier driving it. He agreed and I also talked him into letting me do the electronic conversion on the factory distributor that had also become troublesome to him.

Little did I realize how this conversation would lead to me teaching my step dad how to work on vehicles ……and would also be the beginning to us bonding and start a great friendship that we never had before now.