In 1984, my late grandfather, J.H. Broughton, purchased a new Chevrolet Silverado K10 pickup from Lawson Chevrolet in Jasper, GA. It was top of the line in its time with four-wheel drive, power windows, power locks, auto-locking hubs, etc. That was a big deal in 1984! Growing up an hour or so away from my grandparents, I recall my grandad driving it with my grandmother to visit my mom, sister and me in Cartersville, GA. He would sneak my sister and me out before dinner and take us to get ice cream at an old parlor, Kay’s Kastle, that was in town when I was a kid. Any chance I could get, I wanted to ride with him. I grew up loving that truck and so did my sister, my mom, and my cousins.

My grandfather passed away in 1996, and my grandmother kept the truck as she was not ready to part ways with it as a keepsake. It was often used by my mother when she had car troubles or was without a vehicle of her own which seemed often back then. That truck never sat too idle as there was always a need for it in the family. When I was in college at the University of Georgia, that truck was my primary vehicle, on loan from my grandmother, until the motor finally died. My beloved grandmother replaced it with a used engine because she wanted me to focus on school and not worry about transportation much less try to work more to pay for the repairs. I would get a wise crack every now and then about the truck, but it never bothered me. I loved that truck and aspired to be like the man who drove it for so many years – still do. It was there that the ’84 Silverado picked up the name the “Road Warrior”. It helped me move as a student in college. After I graduated college with my undergraduate degree in 2002, the truck sat for a number of years undriven and outdoors for the most part wearing away from not being cranked or driven, because my grandmother could not drive it any longer and it sat at her house.

In 2007, after saving some money, I approached my grandmother and asked if she would be willing to sell the truck. She knew how much I loved it, and I told her that I wanted to keep it and restore it. She sold it to me, and I had some initial tune up work done on it and it fired right up. You just could not keep the Road Warrior down. Shortly thereafter, my career took us to the Midwest and other regions where I had to leave the truck behind in storage where it sat idle for a number of years with project restoration Road Warrior on hold.

Fast forward again to summer of 2018 when my wife and kids moved back to GA, the first thing I did the weekend we moved back was go check on the truck. I went to the hangar where it was stored and just sat in it. The battery was dead, but I put the key in the ignition anyway and just sat thinking about it. It still smelled the same as it did when I was with my grandad as a kid. All those that have driven an old square body truck, know the smell. It is nothing short of iconic. I found a private mechanic and he and I worked on it together to replace the carburetor, ignition module, timing chain, water pump, fuel pump, fuel filter, alternator, etc. And, like true Road Warrior fashion, it runs again. Like I said, you cannot keep it down. In fact, this truck has outlasted my 2007 Silverado. Like any old truck, it is a project and in 2022, I had the exterior restored to the original factory paint scheme. The Road Warrior is a 4th generation Chevy to my 11 year old son who now rides in the cab.

Thanks to LMC, I am able to buy parts, work on the truck with my son, and keep the Road Warrior spirit alive.