My great grandfather bought this 1972 C10 Custom longbed back in 1974. When he died, great grandpa left the truck to my dad. In turn, Dad gave it to me for a first project, and it has been a continuously evolving project truck! I've got to tell you, my dad, brother, and I used to hang out together watching Trucks, and, later, Gearz. I remember seeing Copperhead as a little kid and having my mind blown dreaming about what I could one day do with my truck. My dad and brother helped me get the stock 350 running using a new carburetor, distributor, and gas can, which we ratchet strapped into the bed. Later, I cut off the exhaust, clamped on a cheap knock-off Flowmaster with turndowns, and, in the same fashion as before, ratchet strapped a fuel cell in the bed to replace the gas can. At 17, I just wanted to do loud burnouts! Fast forward a couple of years and my shenanigans managed to flatten the cam and bend a bunch of pushrods.
While stockpiling parts, my family and I came across a donor chassis, also having a blown engine. As I was now older and more mature, I thought the new chassis would allow me to go a different direction with the truck. So, my girlfriend at the time (now wife) helped me pull the engine. I completely tore down both small blocks and combined the usable portions into a new to me engine. I installed a COMP THUMPR cam in it with long tube headers, hydroboost brakes, and a four-speed manual transmission. Also, for added effect, we put it on a cab-chassis frame with an 18-foot car hauler bed! At the time of creating this custom masterpiece, I was big into offroad racing and wanted something that could both pull my camper and have my race truck on the bed.
My wife and I love going on adventures and dragging old cars and trucks out of the weeds, so this became another new goal for the truck. Around the same time, problems began presenting themselves with the truck. I decided I was finally going to get married to the lovely woman who helped me pull the original engine. The problem with getting married was I was moving two hours away and our new house DID NOT have room for this almost school bus-length truck! Well, we got married anyways, duh, and I moved away. I would come visit my family on random weekends and we would work on the truck, which by now was mostly body work and wiring. However, we noticed a glaring problem because the truck sounded amazing and ran great but was a bit underpowered and REALLY heavy for that mostly stock small block. Luckily, my brother calls me up one day and says "Hey, I found a dirt cheap, running and driving, 2007 Silverado 2500HD with a 6.0 LY6 engine and a 6L90 6 speed transmission! Happy birthday!" Side story, the day we went to part out the Silverado, we had to make sure it would do a burnout, so my brother hops in and destroys the right rear with a 3rd gear power brake! Afterwards, we went into the shop, started gathering tools, came back out, and the tire was literally on fire!
Now, after years of fabrication and tinkering on random weekends, the old truck is running and driving with modern 6.0 Vortec power and I'm back onto working on the body. This truck is so incredibly special to me for more reasons than I can list off. Not only has it been in my family since it was basically new, but it has been my biggest teacher when it comes to automotive. This truck taught me how to just make something run and then how to build an engine and do wiring, bodywork, and fabrication. Most importantly, this truck is something my whole family has worked on together and it's used as an excuse for me to make the drive as often as possible. It really helps keep us all close. I can't thank my dad, brother, mom, and wife enough for all the work and support over the years. I still have everything to bring it back to just a stock longbed, but as of right now, the plan is to make it an adventure/rescue rig.
