1986 Chevy C10 – Mark R.
Got my ’86 C10 4yrs ago after doing an even trade for my K20 4×4 longbed. Truck was in pretty good shape but I had plans to make it a mean daily driver. After driving the truck for a few weeks one south Texas afternoon out of nowhere a white tail buck decided he was gonna end his life and became suicidal and went head on with my C10. The pure Texas 8 point buck did pretty good damage to the whole front end and passenger fender pushing the door hinges back wedging the passenger door tight where it can no longer open. After getting it towed, the next few hours were spent online searching for replacement parts an repair advise I was going to face getting my baby back on the road.
Everything was getting frustrating with all parts I needed were “no longer available” or “out of stock” things weren’t looking too good for ol blue but then I came across LMCTRUCK.COM and problem solved! Found everything I needed and more. Within hours of searching all over the web and finding 1 site that had it all I was soon $3,500 in the hole Lol. After ordering new radiator front support frame and passenger fender with fender well, passenger door an brackets, new door an body shims, 4 new led headlights with heavy duty wiring kits, head light adj. springs, new 4 row aluminum radiator with electric fan, billet aluminum phantom grill with trim kit, new chrome bumper with fog lights Everything was going smooth finding all the parts I needed to the point I started finding parts I didn’t need but got greedy so I continued online shopping with LMC and ordered chrome engine dress up kit, chrome gilmer belt drive, chrome radiator Reservoir, chrome led dome light, blue led dash/gauge lights, billet aluminum cluster kit with A\C dash billet as well, and the led tail lights.
After 2 days of ordering parts Friday came along and it was tear down time. By Sunday afternoon the complete front end was torn down and the waiting game for new parts begin. The next 5 days were the worst days of my life checking my emails every 5 minutes on tracking numbers lol finally on the 6th day while watching street outlaws my phone beeped and it was on! Parts were starting to be shipped out!! I got my first item 7 days after ordering and they kept coming in for the next 6 days. It was early Xmas for me in sept 2016. Luckily the first parts that came in were engine dress kit and gilmer belt drive parts. After 3 days of installing the new engine parts first since the whole front end was still out it was much easier installing. Next came front radiator support then fender well followed by fender. Once that was aligned with shims next came the new door, she’s was starting to come back to life. After 2 weeks installing new parts and waiting for other to arrive she was ready to fire up! After installing the last and final part (up graded optimum batt.) for more cranking power and to help run the extra heavy duty relays for the new lights an bumper fog/spot lights. I sit in the passenger seat, turn the ignition to on. And I can hear the electric fuel pump kick in rumbling then.. Ah…the 383 Stroker fires up on first turn and the cams rumbling against each other and the air being sucked in by the demon carb was the next best thing from hearing my kids first cry in the delivery room. An all I could do at that moment was thank LMC and the staff that made shopping easy an most importantly fast an accurate parts with no returns, everything fit like is should an to get my baby back on the road.
Ps. This was all done under a big shade tree! No lifts, no shop, no garage just basic tools, basic mechanic knowledge and plenty of cold beer.
