1982 Chevy C10 – Shaun S

Throughout high school my friends and I worked for the town we lived in during the summer. Over time, we became friends with the Fire Chief and would spend time at the Fire Dept training center after work. It was such a cool place where cars would be donated for training. They’d be lit on fire and extinguished or cut apart with the jaws of life. Pretty amazing to see when you’re a young man. 

One summer night in 1999 we came across Eustice. He was a freshly donated old red Chevy step side with a white cap on the bed and a rod knock in the old straight 6. There was something about that truck that made me feel like I was already looking at an old friend. Now I grew up in the automotive industry, my family business was a transmission repair shop in Stratford CT so I wasn’t scared of the old truck needing some work. I couldn’t believe they were going to burn it or worse, cut it up with the jaws of life.

After much persuasion and approval from my Grandma to swap the car she gave me, the chief agreed to take my old Chrysler in exchange for Eustice and man, I was so proud of my truck. It was a C10 custom with dual tanks, a tow package and a few other options. It was clear this was not an ordinary truck that was sitting on a new car lot, but it was custom ordered. Whoever originally built him had great pride in this truck and now, so did I. 

Eustice has been with me ever since. Through friendships that faded to the background, losses and successes Eustice was always the constant. He went with me to college and was my ride the night I met my wife. Everyone that ever mattered to me has been in that truck. That old sagging bench seat has carried me up and down the coast more times than I can count. From Maine to Florida Eustice was old reliable. 

Now life has afforded me the opportunity to pay Eustice back and preserve him for my daughters. I pulled him apart in the fall of 2023 and installed a new 383 stroker from Blueprint engines, a rebuilt TH-350 from Jegs and some nice highway gears for the rear.

He’s fitted with long tube hooker headers, dual exhaust with an X-pipe that’s lowing through some Flowmaster Super 44s.  Lowered 3″ in the front and 5″ in the rear. New suspension all around and a shiny new aluminum fuel tank from Boyd welding in Ocala has Eustice rumbling down the highway without breaking a sweat. He may be new under the hood but the old sagging bench seat, 80s GM red paint that comes off on the rag when you wash him, and all the memories of every dent and ding he has are still there. 

He’s a wonderful piece of my life. We’re both old now and not as pretty as we used to be. We both need some bodywork and our paints a little faded but reliability and memories can’t be bought. Now I find myself smiling as my girls ride in the bed to the pool and I find myself smiling as the old man getting toots from passers by and thumbs up for my old truck. I always get a kick out of hearing a dad tell his son that he used to have one too. 

Somewhere along the way, an old red C10 that was donated for scrap has become a classic. His faded paint is now called Patina and in a world of electric nonsense he rumbles echoing a more masculine time. I know he’ll be here long after I’m gone. I’m just happy I was able to be a part of his story and I’m happier still that my girls know it and his story will continue on down the road.