1966 Chevy C10-Jason C.

In the summer of 1994 I was “hired” by my uncle to help him salvage a large number of cast iron bathtubs from an old hotel in Downtown Sioux Falls. Over the course of a few weeks, we moved dozens of the old tubs using a forklift and my uncle’s beat-up 1966 Chevy C10. The truck was dirty, rusty, and smelly, but I fell in love. At the end of the job, my uncle offered to pay me or give me the truck. As a 16-year-old in need of a set of wheels, I snagged the keys to my very first vehicle.

When I took possession of the old truck, she was a bone stock, 1966 Chevy C10 Fleetside, longbed with a “High Torque” 283 and a “granny geared” Muncie four-speed transmission. She had wooden sideboards tucked into the bed pockets and some white, five-spoke fifteen-inch rims. Judging from the hole in the roof over the driver’s visor and the spotlight mounted on the passenger side, I assumed the truck had spent time either in law enforcement or working for the forestry service.

The first thing I did was clean out all the junk accumulated while in my uncle’s possession. Then I quickly went to work hotrodding the truck until the poor old 283 started shooting oil out of the breather. Out went the 283, and in came a mildly build 383 stroker motor from a wrecked 1970 Chevy project truck of a friend. That same year, my parents surprised me with an epic graduation present. While I was off at work, they dropped my truck off at a local autobody shop for some “minor repairs.” A month later, she came back, beautiful and green.

College was hard on my old truck. My daily driver gave up the ghost, and I had to use my ‘66 for everyday use. She performed admirably until one day I came out of the grocery store after making the weekly milk run. The owner of a late ‘80’s Honda had failed to navigate a turn in the parking lot and used the rear end of my truck to halt their forward progress. The damage was catastrophic. I towed my wounded C10 home where it sat in my garage for more than ten years.

My ‘66 C10 sat in the garage collecting dust until an old friend introduced me to another C10 junkie. We pulled her out of mothballs, hauled her to my friend’s shop, and commenced Phase 1, a complete mechanical rebuild and refresh. A new disc brake conversion kit, LMC suspension leveling kit, 5 lug axle conversion, fuel tank and battery relocation, and rewiring of the entire truck highlighted stage one. In addition we refreshed the 383 with a new intake and Holley carburetor. Add on some classic MB 20” rims and tires, and the truck looked like new.

Finally able to drive my baby, I spent the next summer cruising car shows, visiting dyno competitions, and generally keeping up with all that I had missed in 10 years of storing my truck. At the of the summer, another friend of mine posed an interesting question. He asked if I had any use of a low mileage Chevy LQ4 6.0 litre motor. And with that Phase 2 commenced.

In November we tore down the 6.0 for a complete overhaul and upgrade. The motor went in for a good soak and some polishing. We reassembled the 6.0 with all ARP fasteners, 5.3 Flex-Fuel injectors (the truck runs on e85), and an “aggressive” camshaft. We kept the fuel injection system and flashed a new tune on the stock GM computer. We then backed up the modern motor with a more modern transmission. I picked up a shiny new Tremec TKO600 five-speed to bridge the gap between the new motor and the Auburn 3.73 limited slip differential in the 12-bolt rearend. New gauges filled in the dash, and a power steering conversion kit was installed to help aim all the newfound horsepower.

Since the completion of “Phase 2,” I’ve logged more than 1500 miles (in three months) cruising to local burger joints, fetching groceries, and driving to work and back. She’s a blast to drive with almost 500 rear-wheel horsepower, but I’m far from done. While the truck is almost completely new mechanically, the past 20 years have not been kind to the body. “Phase 3” will include pulling the cab off of the truck and replacing all the rotted, rusted, and crushed body panels and re-spraying the current paint scheme. Then comes “Phase 4.” More turbocharged horsepower!

P.S. The 383 that came out of my 1966 made 300 horsepower and almost 400 pound-feet of torque, and found its way into my brother’s gorgeous 1970 Chevrolet project C10.