Family Bonding – Three Generations Created This Garage-Built 1979 Chevy C10
With a truck as nice as this 1979 Chevy C10 you’d think the reward after years of hard work would be the finished product. But for Wayne Collard, the truck was a just byproduct of the real gift – bonding with his son and father-in-law over the four years they spent together in the garage.
Wayne admits he learned a lot during the four-year build process. But starting with a solid foundation was a key factor on how the project progressed. The truck was a clean one-owner vehicle that had never left Yuma, Arizona before Wayne purchased it from the family of a coworker.
After hauling the truck for the first time across the Yuma city lines to their home in Surprise, Wayne and his teenage son Nate quickly got to work unbolting parts and pieces to begin the frame-off build. Wayne and Nate ground and smoothed the frame and installed a TCI C-notch in the rear before coating it with POR-15. They then got to work bolting in the CPP tubular upper and lower control arms and coil-over shocks, as well as adding a CPP quick-ratio steering box. In the back they installed a TCI four-link coil-over system suspending a 12-bolt rearend stuffed with a 3.73:1 gearset with positraction Four-wheel disc brakes were added behind the stylish 20×8- and 20×10-inch U.S. Mags C-Ten wheels wrapped with Nitto tires.
For power, the family decided to forego the common LS swap and use a conventional 350c.i. small-block Chevy fitted with double hump heads topped with Billet Specialties valve covers. An Edelbrock Pro-Flo 4 EFI system delivers the fuel and is paired with Edelbrock’s Max-Fire ignition system for a steady burn. An All-American Billet serpentine drive system hangs off the front while a Champion radiator keeps the engine running cool. Expelling the exhaust gasses are Headman headers paired with Flowmaster mufflers.
Nate handled the bulk of the fabrication work, including various sheet metal alterations such as the smoothed firewall, filled cowl, shaved front marker lamps, deleted emblems, filled stake bed pockets, and shaved cab seams and drip rails. Wayne stepped in to assist with the final bodywork and paint prep before his father-in-law, Randy Warriner with The Nitro Garage, laid down the eye-catching House of Kolor Honey Gold paint.
Out of the paint booth and ready for final assembly, Wayne and Nate tackled the interior needs using Classic Instruments in the stock dash, a Flaming River column topped with a Budnik wheel, a Snowden custom bench seat wrapped with black leather, and an American Autowire harness to tie everything together.
Wayne and Nate are both diehard Chevy truck guys and this is their second father/son build – the first being Nate’s 1969 Chevy C10 that they started when Nate was just 12 years old and finished by the time he got his driver’s license. There’s a good chance if you see Wayne’s 1979 Chevy C10 at an event, Nate’s ’69 will be sitting alongside it. Now the duo is looking to build something for mom, and she’s got her eye on a late-’60s Suburban. We expect it will be an attention-grabber, as well!
Photos by John Jackson
