Travis' Tribute Truck - 65 Chevy C-10 Camper Special

[scottofksu]

Figured I had better start a build thread to motivate me to keep progressing on the trucks frame-off restoration.

Truck History

Bought new in 65 by the doctor in the small town (Nortinville, Kansas) just up the road from my hometown (Valley Falls, Kansas). 15 years later my brother Travis was born. 16 years after that my dad stopped by the doctors house and asked if the black truck parked under the maple tree in his front yard was for sale. The old doctor said he'd been asked a million times if he'd sell the truck and he'd said no every time. However, just that day over breakfast he started considering selling it so he could park his boat there. My dad bought the truck for $1,500 and offered it to my brother for the same price, paid over time. My brother agreed and at 16 it became his first wheels. When I came home from work I was shown the truck by my estatic brother. I asked if I could take it for a ride (before I realized it was a stick shift) and he reluctantly agreed to let me drive it while he did his chores. I hopped in, realized it had a four speed, figured it shouldn't be to hard to figure out and took off for town. I went to a friends house to show the truck (this friend had a 66 C-10 with a 454) and how small the 230 looked compared to his big block. When I got out the truck smelled funny and I was embarrassed to be shown that I had driven 10 miles with the parking break on... None the worse for wear the truck carried me back home where I promptly offered my 86 Cutlass (my 1st car purchased the year before when I was 16) in trade for the truck. He declined.


In 1998 my brother parked the truck when he bought an 84 Monte Carlo. One year later, November 10, 1999, my brother was killed in an accident in that Monte when he was waived to turn onto the highway by a construction worker whose equipment was blocking the view at the intersection. The worker didn't see the F-350 with a full stock trailer of cows that the T-boned my brother at 60 mph. My brother and his best friend Doug were killed. Life goes on.

Fast forward to today. I'm a 33 year old graduate student working on my Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology while working full time for a local school district as a Program Evaluator. My wife is currently unemployed, so money is tight. However, I wanted to get the truck up to Omaha, where I now live, so I could focus on getting it restored rather than picking at it one day every couple months at my moms house where it had been sitting since my brother parked it.

The Truck Today

The truck was painted in the 80's so, other than being really dirty, it's not in horrible shape. There is rust in all the usual places: cab corners, rocker panels, fenders, tailgate, and the footwells within the cab. The passenger side door and rocker have a large dent also from where a friend backed into it at a party. The original engine was found to have a cracked block so I bought an 84 GMC for it's 350 and 4 speed. I swapped the engines while the truck was at my moms house and left the heads (882s) sitting open for the wasps for 4 years.

The Builder

Perhaps it's time for an admission. I really dont know what the hell I'm doing trying to do this by myself. I have a lot of tools but no experience in a restoration of this magnitude, but I am committed to get this done. I have worked on cars for years and managed a tire store for a couple years where I also installed tires and did minimal repairs. So I'm not completely lost...

The Dream

I want to build this truck to pass on to my son, Travis. I feel it's only appropriate and since I have 13 years until he can drive I figure I can figure this all out by then...

I want to build the car as a tribute to my brother and his friend Doug. My brother and I talked about how we'd restore the truck and I'll be honoring his opinion that the truck keep a bench seat (I wanted buckets). However, I plan on using one that has the center section that folds down for storage.

Otherwise, I plan on restoring the truck to the theme of a 60's era Trans-Am Series racer. High output 383 (shooting for 500/500), Richmond 600hp 5 speed, built 12 bolt, and modified suspension. I plan on using a Gaylords hard truck bed topper with a special period appropriate spoiler.

I have a ton of pictures that I'll scan over the holiday to let anyone who is interested see the truck and where I'm at.

I'm really looking forward to this restoration and getting to know this community!


Regards,


Scott
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