Jim Reid’s 1981 C10: Going From Workhorse To Trophy Winner

The square body C10 Chevrolet pick up is a true classic in the truck community. Our story behind this particular Canadian beauty began 8 years ago. Jim Reid was looking for a work truck when a friend told him about an old C10. Jim set up an appointment to see the truck, and as often times happens, it was “love at first sight”.

The truck came with a rebuilt engine and transmission, and Jim thought that it was in impeccable condition. It looked  straight as an arrow, and had a fresh dark blue and purple pearl paint job. Initially, it was his daily driver until he decided that he wanted to give it a different look. The decision was to made to reconfigure it to possess a short box. He contemplated cutting the frame, but one night while looking through the online classifieds, he came upon someone selling a complete short box chassis. He grabbed a trailer and drove for six hours, in a blizzard, to claim his prize.

Once the weather warmed and the snow melted, Jim and his daughter started the restoration of the C10. He began by tearing apart of the chassis, and giving it a couple coats of POR 15 Chassis Black. His intention was to unbolt the cab and other components from the old chassis, and just switch everything over onto the freshly painted short box chassis. He would then buy a replacement box, but when he saw how rusty the cab corners and rockers were, he decided to go in another direction. This new plan consisted of a complete restoration. All of the new body parts, brake and fuel lines, stainless steel exhaust, ceramic coated Hedman headers, and the rest of the engine goodies were ordered. While he was waiting for the parts to arrive, he worked on the cab repairs. All told, the rebuild only took him and his daughter 7 months to complete, and then it was time for paint! It took a couple more months to find a body shop, and as you can see, they did a show winning paint job.

By the time the truck was put back together, it was late October 2014, and snow covered the ground. Jim always wanted to enter the truck in the local car show which was in April, so he kept the truck in the garage and made sure everything was polished and ready. When it was finally show time, his truck took First Place in Street Truck category.

When it was over, he drove it home and has been driving it every day since. The truck will be part of Jim’s family for many years to come.