Well I guess I will throw my hat in the ring! My C/10 is one that we spent quite a bit of time looking for. I ended up driving about 5hrs to NC to get it from a man who had owned it for 27 years. I really thought he was going to cry when he was handing me the keys. Here is what it looked like when I brought it home.
I had to start un-grandpa-ing it as soon as I got it home. I painted the rallys silver and removed the bedrails. I then had a spray-in bedliner installed so I could use it for light hauling. Of course the windows had to be blacked out for that stealth effect. The interior was nice but I went ahead and installed a new dash pad and seat cover along with covering up the carpet with a rubber mat. The dash was uncut and still had the AM radio with an FM converter below the dash. I removed the converter and installed a CD player in the glovebox. Although the motor was fresh it was all stock except for having been bored .030 . I went in and installed HEI an edelbrock intake, comp cams roller tip rockers and March performance underdrive pulleys. I wanted to free up some more drag so I tossed the engine driven fan and now it has an electric unit. I converted the alternator to a 108 amp internaly regulated Corvette unit along with adding a Vintage Air surefit system. There were also suspension issues that needed addressed. A front sway bar from a 3/4 ton was installed along with an ECE quick ratio steering box. Height was adjusted using all ECE components. It was dropped with a 2.5" spindle along with a 1" coil in the front. The rear was done with a 6" coil. I also used the super track bar kit along with the extreme drop crossmember. All the suspension mods required new exhaust. I got on the phone and talked Butch Bryan (former owner of Butch's muffler in Rome GA) into running my pipes. Butch has 30+ years of experience and has always been the go to guy for custom work. Butch's health has all but forced him to stop work but he was willing to run my pipes for me. The pipe is all aluminumized. He ran my pipes over the trans xmember and through the trailing arm crossmember. When he went over the rearend I had him stay outside the framerails on out the back in case I go back later with a rear mounted tank of some sort. Butch also welded in an H pipe. All of the exhaust is between the framerails, nothing is hanging below the frame.
The new stance also required a new attitude so new wheels and tires were in order. After literaly spending months looking at wheels and changing my mind a half dozen times I kept coming back to the Cruzer. So what I got is the Wheel Vintiques Billet Cruzer. The rears are 17x9.5 with 4.75" BS with 275/50 tires. Up front are 17x8 with 4" BS and 255/50 tires.
The old truck is far from perfect and there is tons that I would still like to see happen to it. My wife drives it to work and school about twice a week and she really enjoys it. This is my only vehicle aside from my K/10 so yes it is a daily driver. It gets a mid to high 14mpg while in the left lane driving it like I stole it! Hell, If you read this far, Thanks! Keep your eyes open for us out there.
