Ricky Jackson’s 1973 C10 Side Project Earns a Dakota Digital Truck Late Finalist Position
We’ve all heard of project vehicles getting held up in “paint jail” for a while, so what’s a car guy to do when his project is out of his hands and on hold? Ricky Jackson figured he would put that time to good use building something else! With several buddies into trucks, he found a solid 1973 C10 with a ’91 front clip and decent paint for a driver and figured he’d drop it, add wheels, a cheap stereo, and cruise.
As you can see, things spiraled a bit, specifically after attending his first C10 Intervention show, where he and his buddy Jason Chastain of JLC Performance talked about getting the truck lower. They ended up grafting in a Porterbuilt Level 3 Dropmember up front and fabricating a custom back-half setup, all finished in gloss black. He and Jason also raised the bed floor to obtain the right clearance for the 22- and 24-inch U.S. Mags wheels.
Ricky was enjoying the truck and cruised it down to the C10 SLO Down where all was great until a car clipped the driver’s side taillight area, wrinkling the metal and messing up the paint. With an older two-tone paint job, he knew it was just never going to be the same, so he decided it was time to make a few small changes.
As you can surmise, those small changes snowballed to include custom inner fenders and a radiator cover by his pal Dave May at Genesis Fab to surround a new LS3/4L80E drivetrain after trying three other budget-friendly engines. “Buy once, cry once,” Ricky said about trying to save a few bucks on engines. “Lesson learned.”
He also enlisted Main Street Autobody to rework the damaged bed area and work in a few subtle mods before spraying the entire truck a custom “Construction Cone Orange” hue, as Ricky calls it. The entire truck was rewired with an American Autowire harness, and the interior received a makeover with Dakota Digital gauges, Vintage Air, a Kev’s Classics column, and Forever Sharp steering wheel. Dave Fonts of Fonts Designs built the door and kick panels then wrapped them to match the comfy Snowden custom seat.
Since that unlucky quarter panel crunch, Ricky’s squarebody has been reincarnated into a high-level, low-slung cruiser. The rebuild process turned out to provide great memories and good times with buddies and now he and his girlfriend Tori get to spend time together prepping the truck for the next show. It’s all part of the fun that comes with owning a bitchin’ truck.
As for the Impala project that was stuck in paint, we’re not sure if it ever got finished, and Ricky seems much less worried about it now.
Photos: Brett Macadam & Terry Lysak
