What started it all...?

[AceX]

Lately I've lost track of what goals I have for my truck and what kind of truck I was trying to build. I keep losing site of my ultimate goal which is to build a "factory custom."

I had to go back and think about what started this whole ordeal for me. It was a simple, orange truck from Texas with a stock body and interior, and a killer stance.

Cory Scott inspired me to take on my truck as a major project.





Post up pics and a short story of the truck that inspires you the most. I'm very interested to hear some of your stories...

[Rc 415]

That one was definitely one of the trucks that inspires me, I'm going similar color, stance, and rim size, just stepside.

[knightlife]

very beautiful truck...

[C10-Driver]

Wow... Killer truck. Whatever your original goal was... Who cares. Look at what you built .

[xtreme80]

To be honest, I don't have any pictures, but it was my dad's truck that inspired me!

Since i was a little kid I've always had great memories of driving around in my dad's black 81 shorty. It was completely stock, and by the time I was old enough to remember it, it was getting pretty beat up and needed an engine, but I always loved it. I loved the way it looked, the feel of it, and everything else.

When I first got in my truck, it actually had the same smell as my dad's old truck. It wasn't a bad smell, it was just a distinct old truck smell that I always remembered as a kid. Everything about it brought me back to those days as a kid. The look, the smell, the feel of the old truck with a small block. It was nostalgic for me.

Im building my truck because of that truck. Even though it was all stock, it's where I found my true love for the shorties, and I always knew I would have one one of these days.

[poolboy65-ls1]

It inspired me also!

[swb85]

This is the direction I'm headed eventually, but with more of a muscle truck look sporting a small cowl hood and riding on fat rally wheels. That's a ways in the future though.....might make a stop in satin black along the way.

[old Rusty C10]

im of the belief that trucks should be restored factory with mild custom. Im not a fan of lowering or anythng like that.. my trucks work but i want them to look decent.. eventually id love something like the 67-72s i see on the other threads in the 73-87 body style

[moneyeater]

My Father is an american man and when i visited america in 1987 he picked me up one day and drove around with me in his brandnew 87 K 20 truck.
At that point i didn´t know that he´s my father,just someone from the family that knows my mother and the other relevants i have in New York state!
I remember that truck so good that i allways wanted one.When i got to know the story around him and my mother i tried to contact him and found out much things!In 1993 i bought a ´81 GMC truck and the story goes on till today!I´d love to meet him again because he´s in the high 70´s and i don´t know how much chances there are to talk to him again.
The last 2 pics show my truck when i bought it in 1993.
My dad´s truck was sold in 2004 with 40000 miles!

[abebummy26]

My love for these trucks 4x4 any way started about six months ago at a family friend's gathering of car people. A few of the guys had on four wheel jamboree coats that said first place, so I had a feeling they built some bad @$$ stuff. Then their older brother shows up in an 84 Chevrolet K30 Custom deluxe it was a really nice shade of green with all the stock trim. So while he was pulling up I went out side and heard the big block roar. What really got my attention was this truck was sitting on 40"s with 10" of suspension and 3" inches of body. The guy just jumped out of it like it was nothing. His wife was pissed because she could not get out and she did not want to drive it in the first place. So after he gets out I ask how much lift is that a foot he said 13". After that everybody went inside. So every once and a while I would go to the door and look out the window at this truck. I guess the owners younger brother saw me gawking at it and asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. I was shocked of course I said yes. The truck has no steps so getting up into it is an adventure. I managed to get up into it though. We pulled out of the drive way and he hit the gas and it threw me back into my seat. So we go to the end of the street and you kind of bouncing around. I realize my door is not shut and it takes me two tries to get the door shut but I do get it. As soon as he got it on to the highway I was hooked. For the next week at school that was all I was talking about people started to get mad at me for not shutting up. I realized a few weeks later the only way for me to not dwell on that truck was to build my own. By Halloween I will have my own 83 k30.

[jkaylor68gmc]

That orange truck is awesome!!!

[Malo83]

I'll take the Blue one over the Orange one any day
love the sport mirrors and billet grill, she's just a lot cleaner looking.

[VTKidder]

Originally Posted by Malo83

I'll take the Blue one over the Orange one any day
love the sport mirrors and billet grill, she's just a lot cleaner looking.

Pretty hard words....guess you didn't notice the pair of shotguns in the back window, eh?

[Jonboy]

There are a lot of differnt things that have gravitated us here towards this body style of truck. Some of us of a certain age (I'm 32) remember them when they were new. My dad had an orange '74 when I was young, and my Grandfather had a blue '76. I remember riding in them when I was really young. I have always liked the body style since then.

[Pyrotechnic]

I'm 19. While I was growing up I had always seen these trucks around and thought they were cool. For the longest time my dad had been talking about and looking for one to fix up. I remember looking through Auto Trader with him and going to see different trucks. One memorable experience was riding in a factory 454 truck and thinking it was the coolest thing ever....just because it was a 454. Finally when I was about 10 or so, he settled on a 78 Silverado long bed with a 350.

The body was pretty straight, though it did have rust in the usual places. It looked good because it had an inexpensive dark blue paint job which was fairly recent so it looked pretty sharp. The drive train was very solid with a rebuilt motor and the A/C worked. Interior was pretty good, all it needed was a new seat.

My dad drove the truck for a long time, put over 100,000 miles on it and when I started high school he bought a brand new 2002 Silverado RCSB for his daily driver. Once I started learning to drive and got my lincense, the old 78 basically became mine and I drove it all through high school. I really loved the truck before I started driving it because I was always helping my dad work on it. Lots of good times driving it too. It had an Edelbrock carb and intake, dual exhaust with flowmasters, backed by a Turbo 350 with a shift kit and a 2500 stall converter so it was quite fun. Good enough to lay a hurt on all the ricers.

The summer after I graduated from high school, we put swapped in a 350 roller motor, probably about 400HP. About 300 miles into the break in, I got hit head on by an inattentive driver. The truck was totalled. We got insurance money back for it though. Not as much as we had hoped, but enough to get another truck. We took everything of value off the truck and it's been laid to rest out in the country next to a friends barn.

I hated knowing the truck would never roll again but considering the trucks condition, I believe it had AT LEAST 300,000 miles on it, and maybe more. It seemed to have had many owners and none of them were very easy on it, but somehow it had stayed decently maintained over the years and the interior was for the most part taken care of.

Anyways, here it is. This picture is from when I was in high school and the cheap paint job had become pretty worn and faded by then.

[killthewabbit]

I'm noticing a common theme here, and I'll just add to it.

We moved from San Diego, CA to BFE (bum f**k Egypt), Tennessee when I was 7 years old. I'd only been to Tennessee to visit once when I was pretty small, so it was a pretty big deal for me. My mom, my dad, my 2 year old sister and myself all rode across the country in a blue 78 Silverado 3/4 ton 2WD with a foam rubber mattress and a camper shell on the bed. I remember there was a PA speaker that was hooked up to the CB in the front in case they didn't want to open the sliding glass window and actually talk to us. That trip and that setup sounds horrible now, but this was back in the late 70s when kids rode on the package tray in cars if they wanted.

The truck was a 454 with a 4 speed granny low. A year after we got here it was the first thing I ever drove; with me basically steering and letting out the clutch so my dad could pick up square hay bales and stack them in the bed to be hauled to my grandmother's barn even further out in BFE. I remember the truck had a wicked shimmy from about 40-45 MPH that the old man blamed on tie rod ends. Makes me laugh now because the shaking was probably there because I doubt he ever rotated the tires.

Of course the truck got sold to buy something more practical and less memorable, the parental units got divorced, and my sister and I both grew up. My dad still lives at the same place where I drove that truck in the field when I was eight years old.

Honestly, I haven't thought about that truck in so long that I can't remember the last time I thought about it before just now. Sorry, but I don't have any pictures. The only pictures that exist are most likely buried in a bunch of junk at my dad's house somewhere.

This is a great topic. Sorry to write a book.

[killthewabbit]

Moneyeater, that's a great story.

[Duro5341]

It all started when I was 7, my uncle had a 83 K20, navy blue in colour. His wife/my aunt was my babysitter for many years. And I always loved this truck with it's dual exhaust out the sides behind the wheels, and just the BIG square look. I always said I was gunna get one eventually. I looked for years for a decent rust free 81-87 350, 4X4 truck...and I was 1 day away from buying a 93 1500 2WD. That night I stumbled across a 86 K10, 350, 3 speed in the autotrader....drove out, and baught it on the spot. It is still one of the only almost rust free all original trucks I know of.

Duro

[GMC69]

For me, it was more of getting a truck to one-up a friend of mine. You see, we both had cars back then, and we both got into car audio. I had the bigger better car audio of course. He then sold his car for a little s-10, so I, in return sold my car, and got a 94 Ranger 4x4, XLT, ext cab, 4.0L 5 speed.

Once I had that truck I was driving along one day and spotted a 69 GMC LWB for sale at a dealer. I got it for about 1,500$, kept it for probably 8-10 years and then got rid of it cause the cost of rebuilding it was way too high.

Then I went a few years without any truck, till just a couple months ago I got an 83 Chevy LWB for 600$, I hope to have it on the road in the next month. Doesn't need all that much work, just finding time to get it done is the problem.

Well a couple weeks after buying it I figured I would replace the frame since I seen a crack in it and it was getting thin in a couple spots. That has now turned out to being a ground up build of a Chevy/GMC lwb truck. I will keep the 83 nad hopefully drive it for a couple years, and this project is already running away on me. The frame is painted and I wanted to do the suspension next, 3 front 4 rear drop. But along the way I now have a 350$ for it that I paid 150$ and a 700r4 tranny that I got for 550$. Also I might be able to get a posi rear for nothing or very cheap. I still need to get the suspension done, then all new lines for fuel and brakes, then all new wiring. Once the frame is all complete, I will get a complete or as complete as possible, body from the southern US that is rust free.


So long story short, it was all because I was young and was trying to one up a friend and got bit by the bug.

[munroe]

we had an 80 3/4 ton gmc farm truck with a 350. after about 10 years of abusing it on the farm, dad gave it to me. being 17 i couldnt afford to drive it or do all the body work. but bein 17 i had big plans for it. until i saw a 70 olds 442 for sale. so i sold the truck and bout the 442. then i really couldnt afford to run the 442, so i sold it too and bought a vw. ever since i sold those two ive been kicking myself. after eight years my arse is pretty sore. so now im in the canaian army, i have some disposible income. i found an 87 lwb chev with a 350 and th400 so i bought it. canadian only wrangler option. whats inspiring me is, one, do all the things i wanted to do to my 80. good stereo, lowerd, nice exhaust. dukes of hazard air horns. seceond is the clasic trans am series.
wide steelies, and i want to make her handle, are the big things. im also going to paint the truck the same as the 80, dark blue with a white roof.

[moneyeater]

Originally Posted by killthewabbit

Moneyeater, that's a great story.

That´s how life goes sometimes! It is not a straight line but with all the curves it takes why not going thru it with a nice truck!
It took a long time to get here and the internet not only helped me with my truck it also brought the family nearer together!Everyone has his own familything going and i don´t want go into old wounds since everything seems ok so far.I just remember that truck and that proud man i was looking up to while driving around!

[BaddBusa2005]

I do not care what anyone says, the box style truck is the best looking truck made. The reason I have my truck is on account of my Dad, the reason I dig working on cars and trucks is from my Dad.

[Moostifer]

I"ve always loved the 80's SWB, but it was my friend's truck above that made me go pro street...

[68GMC454]

ive seen alot of trucks through the years,, while i have liked many of them,, i cant really say im inspired to b uild one,,i pretty much build what i want, if that makes sense.. and there are alot of really nice trucks out there....but i just build what i feel like building..

[Malo83]

Originally Posted by VTKidder

Pretty hard words....guess you didn't notice the pair of shotguns in the back window, eh?

Nah!!! wasn't dissing the orange truck as it is a beauty in itself I just know what I like and the blue truck just looks a lot tighter Shotguns don't do anything for me.