1968 Chevrolet C10 / CST (Custom Sport Truck)

My Diary

Page 1

It all started when my Dad had to sell his 1968 Chevrolet C10 because he couldn´t load as much as he wanted.
He sold the 68 C10 and a 1979 C20 took it´s place.
From then on I swore I would find the Truck and buy it back.
All of this happened in 1981. Never did find the pickup again though. :-(
Now the guys (V8 Brothers) I work with have 3 American Cars. I thought now would be a good time to find me a 68 C10.
I knew it was going to be hard to find one that was just like my Dads old one.
In August 2006 we flew to the States for 3 weeks to take part in my Dad´s Family reunion.

The first week we were there my mom told me I should look at a cool Pickup.
She said it has been standing at a dealership for a while and it looks cool.
So we took some time and went out there to look at it.
I think if I would have had $21,000 in my pocket, I would have bought it on the spot. But it was way over my Budget. :-(
It was a 1958 Chevrolet Pickup, Perfect! The other one that was there was from the guy that owned the dealership and it wasn´t for sale.
He put the bed together from parts from a 1957 Chevy Belair.

The last week of vacation I started looking in the paper and the internet. There wasn´t too many listed. I thought there would be more.

On the way back from the family reunion in California we stopped and looked at a green 1968 C20 that was sitting next to the freeway. It looked better from the freeway. What made the truck interesting was that it was a Longhorn version. I think if I was looking for a Longhorn, I would have never found one. Don´t see them too often. The guy in the shop there wanted $1200 for it. I wrote down his number and told him I would call if I didn´t find anything else. I think if I didn´t find the C10 I have now, this would have been my next choice. From all the pickups we looked at, this and the one I have now were the only ones with a wooden Bed.

The next one we looked at was a 1969 GMC that was sitting on the street with a for sale sign in it.
We called the owner and went out to look at it. This was the cleanest we seen. The only thing I didn´t like about it was that it was the bottom of the line. Manual transmission, no power steering, and no power brakes. Just about got sore muscles doing the testdrive.
He wanted $5000 for it. I think for the condition it was in, the price was right.

The next one we looked at was an orange 68 C10 but I didn´t waste any Pixels on it. It was standing in this guy´s back yard. The way it looked it was sitting there since 1974. Finally got the door open on the passenger side and as soon as I seen the earth through the floorboards I decided to stop looking at it. Need I say more?

I went to Craigslist.org on the internet and put a search ad in. I didn´t think anyone was going to call or even read it though. The next day the first Guy called up and said he has a 68 C20 that he wants to sell. We all hopped in the car and went out there. The motor was perfect because the owner spent alot of time on it. The body was half done and had all kinds of wierd holes all over it. He hurt his back at work and couldn´t work on it any more. Alot of Chrom was missing and the chrome strips aren´t cheap.

The same day the second guy called up and said he has a 68 C10 and he has to get rid of it.
We hopped in the car and went out there and checked the truck out.
He wants to buy a Nova or a Camaro but his wife told him he has to get rid of the C10 before he gets anything else.
As soon as I seen the wooden Bed I knew we had to drive this truck home.
We gave the guy his money and drove home on expired plates. Risky but it was the cheapest and quickest way to get it home.
I did get pictures before we drove it home.

The next day we went to all kinds of junkyards looking for steel rims. I want to get Historical license plates in Germany so I can´t keep the aluminum rims on it. The parts have to be original or must have been produced in 1968 or before.
I like the original wheels better anyways. I want to keep the truck original as much as I can.
Before we went out to look we had to measure the lugnut holes. We took the caps off and thought, that looks wierd, 6 lugnuts in the front and 5 in the back. Somebody traded the positive rearend for a normal one. Great I thought, we are never going to find matching rims.
We looked all day in different junkards for the rims and couldn´t find matching rims until we got to the last one. Should have went there first.
We told him we need two with 5 holes and two with 6 holes. He said no problem. 10 minutes! That´s all he needed to get the rims out of the pile. This guy knows his junkyard.
$10 a rim and $5 for each hubcap, an unbeatable price. I would have never got them so cheap in Germany. Just like all old parts, they didn´t look to good. He told us about a place not too far from there that does sandblasting. We left the rims there and picked them up the next day. It costed us $50 but they look like new now. We took them home and sprayed some primer on them.
After that we went and got the tires put on the new rims.

Before

After

They took the tires off the aluminum rims and asked me if I wanted the white letters on the inside or the outside. The tires were so dirty that I didn´t even see that there was white writing on the inside. They gave the tires a nice warm bath and the white writing was like new. I told them that they should turn the tires so the writing is on the outside. I asked them about beauty rings and he said I should look in the back at his collection. After about an hour of searching we found 4 matching rings and he gave them to us for nothing. Thanks Bob at O.K. Tires!

Back at home we got the tires back on and got the truck ready for the transport. We put the aluminum rims in the bed of the truck and screwed them down with a piece of wood and put some small parts under the seat.

Now I have 4 Quotes from different transport companies. I took the cheapest. In the quote requests I always requested RoRo (Roll on Roll off) because it is the cheapest. It surprised me when Able Cargo told me I get a half container for the price of RoRo. Thats the reason I was able to put the rims and the other parts in the truck. Normally for RoRo, the vehicle has to be completely empty. If I would have had more time, I would have put more parts in there. Thanks for the help and service Gary at Able Cargo!

Just like every vacation, it was time to fly back home. I got everything organized so my parents didn´t have to do too much more. A couple of days later my pickup got picked up for the trip to Los Angeles. I never seen a transporter like this one. Thanks for the pictures mom and dad and for taking care of the rest!

My Pickup finally got to Los Angeles and got put into a Container.
A couple of days later it got loaded on to the Ever Racer 0238 from Evergreen. Thanks for the Picture Stephan.

Click the Ship for a bigger Picture.

Los Angeles, Panama Kanal, Colon Container Terminal, Charlston, Norfolk, New York, Antwerp and then Bremerhaven.
After a long trip, my truck arrived in Bremerhaven, Germany.
Interglobal Shipping in Bremen took care of the rest in Bremerhaven, customs and the other stuff, and got the truck transported to me.
A week later I was surprised to find my truck out front. The transport company just unloaded it and left without saying a word. I wasn´t to happy with that. They told me that they would call 2 hours ahead of time. That wasn´t Interglobal shipping´s fault though. The transport company was just a subcontractor of Interglobal Shipping. I don´t really need it over here but somewhere along the way, my front license plate disapeared. The back one was still there though. I wanted to hang them up in our new shop.

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If you find any spelling mistakes, go ahead and keep them!

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