Over 25 Years Later, Finally My 71 C-10 Truck Build

[hgs_notes]

Gonna get started with an update from the road trip. We loaded up and left the morning of 6/7.


We turned south and took mainly 2 lane highways across Iowa. Some of this route (most actually) I have been on several times in the past few weeks for work. We stopped in Estherville at a hot rod shop for a photo op.


I can't remember what town we saw this in...




We stopped at a drive inn place in Carroll for lunch...


And as we were turned south again we went over a big overpass for a set of train tracks. Down the hill I saw a body shop with a bunch of old iron around it so we turned around and found the road that led to it. A place called Total Performance (totalperformancerestorations.com) and the owner (Benton Warnke) was more than happy to let us rummage around. He showed us several of the projects he currently has going. He does mostly mopar stuff, but I don't think he turns any work down. There was plenty of GM and Ford products around also. If you're in the area around Des Moines to Omaha and need to get work done on a classic ride this guy can do it.
















We only had 1 break down with the truck this trip. We were pulling into a gas station in SW Iowa for a break, and we heard something that wasn't right. Took a look underneath and saw this...


Across the road was a Cenex that looked like more than a gas station. It had service bays, and looked like they did some agricultural business, but it was closed for the weekend. I walked over to look around cuz I saw a bunch of old junk/machinery around the site. I figured there was a chance they had a bolt I could scrounge off something. By a couple of the doors I found wet boxes of old junk parts, coffee cans with bolts and other mechanical bits in them. I found a few possibilities so I took them back to the truck. Between the assortment I found I had a perfect replacement shock bolt with lock washer included. A few minutes later we were heading south again. My son was amazed. I'm just used to finding solutions to problems and this was an easy one to fix.


While my son and I were driving due south, my oldest girl was heading down I-35 from St Paul and meeting us in Independence, MO. She beat us there by about 20 minutes. We found her and headed to Chips (low elco) place a mile or so away. Me and the kids...


We visited with Chip, had a beer, looked at his projects, then went to a hot rod BBQ place in the area. I'm gonna stop here for a bit. I have some work I need to get to but will get back on this later. Lots more pics and I'm not even done with the 1st day.