Work Truck – Andrew’s Dumped ’72 Chevy C-10

Posted by Kevin Whipps on Jun 7, 2010 in Muscle & Style | 3 comments

It’s funny how trucks work. No matter how many stories are written about trucks and their experiences, they all seem to have a common thread: Guy buys a ride with the pure intention of just doing a few things here or there to make it a little bit better, and next thing you know, the truck is getting painted, the suspension is rebuilt and it becomes as far away from stock as normal.

This story is no different.

Andrew Moreno, of Tucson, Arizona, bought this ’72 Chevy truck in 2004 with the intention of fixing it up a bit. His brother was about to turn 16, so Andrew and his father figured that they’d rebuild the motor, give the truck a blue paintjob and some chrome wheels and it’d be a perfect driver for his little brother. Andrew and his dad tore into the truck, taking out the drivetrain in the process, and they discovered that the suspension all needed to be rebuilt. Plus it really needed a quality restoration if they wanted it to be safe. No reason why not, right?

A decision was made: Take the truck and use it as a showcase for Andrew’s company, Discount Grilles, but also make it reliable and a good cruiser for daily driving. That’s when the fun began.

With the motor out of the way, they decided to go with a little bit of old school and new school technology under the hood. They took the original ’72 long block and had it blueprinted and fully rebuilt with quality components, then mated a TPI system from a Corvette to the block, giving it the reliability of a fuel injected system. After the block was assembled, they mounted an old school v-belt system to the front end, chromed the whole thing out and bolted it to a rebuilt 700R4. Now the truck was reliable and usable with the overdrive tranny and fuel injected motor, so it seemed like it was ready to be given to his little brother.

The suspension was pretty trashed though, so there was no way he was going to give it to his bro that way. They needed to step it up a notch and rebuild everything. Every bushing and bolt was cleaned up or replaced with something better and put back together. At first the truck was just lowered, but that wasn’t going to last long. Andrew decided to bag the truck using tubular a-arms, viair compressors and Firestone bags, setting it so that the frame just kissed the concrete. Now the truck was laying out and looking slick.

Except for the paint.

Now it was the rough exterior that was nagging at him, so Andrew had to get that going. The truck was blocked out to perfection, and then Jim Geare at ACE Customs in Tucson, Arizona went to town on the paint. Originally, they wanted to paint the truck a solid blue color, but after more discussion they decided to lay out some green flames for effect. Inside the flames are little details like skulls and other airbrushed accents that set off the paint job that much more. The truck was assembled with other details in tow like a phantom billet grill and clear taillights, and for good measure some 20” and 22” Centerline’s were mounted to Nitto NT-555’s, completing the exterior of the truck, and making it finally worthy of passing on to his little brother.

Crap. There’s the interior too.

Well it had been three years as it was, so Andrew decided to go for broke and wrap the truck up by wrapping the interior in suede. It was a simple plan: wrap it or paint it — just make it look awesome. The stock bench was tossed out, and a set of junkyard bucket seats were reupholstered in gray suede. The stock wheel went too, and was replaced with a Billet Specialties wheel, then the door panels were all custom built from fiberglass and MDF. For the stereo, they wanted it custom but not too ridiculous, so a clean setup with JL subs and Diamond Audio mids and tweets really made it all perfect. The crossovers were hidden in the headliner, the console was all custom built in fiberglass and they even put some monitors in the doors for good measure.

Ok so it took three years, but the truck finally got done and was perfect. It was reliable, drivable, and a perfect advertisement for Discount Grilles. Andrew learned a lot along the way, and it even spawned a new business, ACE Customs, specializing in building killer rides just like this one. The truck has also seen time at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, and California Truck Jamboree, making it well traveled as well as perfectly built. Nowadays it’s not hauling wood to and from work, it’s hauling home trophies.