The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network - View Single Post - A daily driver, fixer-upper thread

Lugnut64052 · 02-09-2009, 01:25 AM

I have a cousin who has a pretty decent plain-jane '68 C10, which he bought in about 1980. One of those ubiquitous light green ones, and was his daily driver for 20 years. It started out life as a 6 cylinder, 3 speed. About 15 years ago we happened onto a '69 $200 donor truck and turned it into a smallblock 4-speed over a Thanksgiving weekend. The engine was pretty well worn out, but he drove it that way anyway until it got to smoking so bad it looked like a mosquito fogger going down the road. Right about then we happened onto a 1990 $700 TBI donor truck. I got about half-way into swapping the TBI into it and got stalled. Bunch of life, etc, started happening, plus I had some installation issues I hadn't worked through yet. So my cousin's truck has been sitting in my garage for nearly 10 years. Last summer I was cleaning shop and sweeping around it as usual, and thought, "I gotta either get this thing done or haul it to the scrapper, one or the other."

So, I went in the house, fired up Google and started hunting for some information. Came upon this truck forum, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sat up probably half the night reading. And reading. And reading some more. Got stoked about finishing up the '68. What I didn't count on was getting all fangled fired up about getting one for myself. My dad had one of those ubiquitous light green '69s when I was a kid. I had always liked them and finally got to thinking, "well, why the heck not." So I started surfing the local Craigslist.

About a month later I bought a '72 C20 Custom Camper for pretty cheap. It had been a very nice truck, but the previous owner . . . in fact probably several previous owners had run it down so far it was finally dumped. Lots of broken, rigged, missing, wrong and abused parts and systems throughout the whole truck. It started and drove . . . sort of. I did make it home with it . . . barely. Figured it'd be a lot of fun to fix it up and so far it has been.

Here it is the day I got it home. That green truck is my cousin's C10.

02-09-2009, 01:25 AM	#1
Lugnut64052 Middle-aged Curmudgeon Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Independence, MO Posts: 753	A daily driver, fixer-upper thread I have a cousin who has a pretty decent plain-jane '68 C10, which he bought in about 1980. One of those ubiquitous light green ones, and was his daily driver for 20 years. It started out life as a 6 cylinder, 3 speed. About 15 years ago we happened onto a '69 $200 donor truck and turned it into a smallblock 4-speed over a Thanksgiving weekend. The engine was pretty well worn out, but he drove it that way anyway until it got to smoking so bad it looked like a mosquito fogger going down the road. Right about then we happened onto a 1990 $700 TBI donor truck. I got about half-way into swapping the TBI into it and got stalled. Bunch of life, etc, started happening, plus I had some installation issues I hadn't worked through yet. So my cousin's truck has been sitting in my garage for nearly 10 years. Last summer I was cleaning shop and sweeping around it as usual, and thought, "I gotta either get this thing done or haul it to the scrapper, one or the other." So, I went in the house, fired up Google and started hunting for some information. Came upon this truck forum, and the rest, as they say, is history. Sat up probably half the night reading. And reading. And reading some more. Got stoked about finishing up the '68. What I didn't count on was getting all fangled fired up about getting one for myself. My dad had one of those ubiquitous light green '69s when I was a kid. I had always liked them and finally got to thinking, "well, why the heck not." So I started surfing the local Craigslist. About a month later I bought a '72 C20 Custom Camper for pretty cheap. It had been a very nice truck, but the previous owner . . . in fact probably several previous owners had run it down so far it was finally dumped. Lots of broken, rigged, missing, wrong and abused parts and systems throughout the whole truck. It started and drove . . . sort of. I did make it home with it . . . barely. Figured it'd be a lot of fun to fix it up and so far it has been. Here it is the day I got it home. That green truck is my cousin's C10. Attached Images __________________ Bret Check out the site's Truck Tech FAQ. Be a site supporter. My more-or-less pathetic build thread. Board members I've met: ------------------------------ Longhorn Man Dieselwrencher jholley big mike71 Last edited by Lugnut64052; 02-15-2009 at 10:39 PM.