My interest in cars started when I was a kid working at my dad’s body shop, along with my older brother. I started sweeping the floors and washing customer’s cars after school each day. It didn’t take long for me to learn the trade and start working on customers vehicles doing body work and paint. At 16 I found a girl, Debbie, that liked cars and trucks as much as I did so I ended up marrying her and we have enjoyed life together for 42 years so far.

Several years ago my daughter Brittney and I started talking about how much we both liked the 1966 Chevy C-10 body style and thinking about getting one and how we would build it, the color, the stance, the interior, etc. We started looking and soon found one in Oklahoma. The man that owned it didn’t really think that it should be painted and modified, he liked the patina of the faded original paint. For 3 days he tried to find another truck for me to buy so this one could be left original. He couldn’t find one and he’d already agreed to sell this one to me, so he told me to come get it. My wife Debbie and I drove to Oklahoma that weekend to pick it up.

After we bought it we went straight to Dallas to the Good Guys show and met the guys from The Roadster Shop and decided to purchase their Revo IFS suspension system. Along with the suspension package, I began collecting all of the other components I would need such as a Currie Ford 9” rear end with Ridetech HQ Series coil-overs. I added Budnik E85 wheels, 20x10 in the front and 22x12 in the rear with Pirelli PZero tires. The engine we chose is a big block ZZ427, which I smoothed and painted to match the wheel color, and topped with Holley Sniper EFI fuel injection. The transmission is a 4L80E from Performance Automatic Transmission, and to stop we added 6-piston Wilwood brakes on the front and 4-piston Wilwood brakes on the rear.

We discussed the color for a while and finally decided on a 1961 GM color called Tropical Turquoise (Brittney fought for this color), the brand of paint is Spies Hecker. The interior was done by Ed Shreck from Shreck’s Rod & Custom Upholstery in DeLand, Florida. I added power windows, Vintage Air, a Dakota Digital dash, an Ididit steering column, Budnik Shotgun steering wheel, and for great sound we added a Kicker 5 channel amp with KS speakers and a CS12 sub with a RetroSound radio. The maple wood bed was made by our friend Rick Klimek.

Several body modifications were made such as widened rear wheel wells, smoothed front wheel wells, smoothed bumpers, and a smoothed firewall. I converted the truck from a small window to a big window by using a rear window section from a salvage truck. I have built several cars myself, one with my son TJ who also works with me at our body shop. The 1966 was a labor of love and took 5 years to complete. During the build there were a lot of life events happening such as Brittney and her husband Roger having our grandson Nelson, and our son TJ and his wife Brittany having our granddaughter Ellias. That’s why my license plate reads “PAPAS 66”. CN