You are at: Home> Gallery Cool Old Truck

John Ross' 1965 Chevrolet C10 Stepside

22 August  03

From John 

This is a 65 Chevy C10 long bed stepside. It has the 230 6 cylinder engine (which was rebuilt at 20,000 miles due to an oil ring going soft) and 3 speed manual on the column. The only options it had were a radio, deluxe seat and rear step bumper. It was bought new by my Dad and used to drive to work (1 mile each way) and around the farm to pull his horse trailer until his death in 1975.

The truck sat for about 6 months and my mother gave it to my sister for my brother-in-law to use. He drove it very little for about 2 years. My sister loaned it to her son to use to get to work in the panhandle of Oklahoma. He drove it about a year and moved to Oklahoma City. His wife parked it at one of her friends house planning to go back and get it. My nephew died in 1989 and the truck was still at the friends house in a field.

We tried for 3 years to locate the truck as my nephews widow denied knowing where it was. When we finally threatened to have her arrested for theft, she told us where it was and the phone number of the people who had it. We contacted them and drove 10 hours to retrieve it. It was in remarkable shape to have set in a field for close to 10 years. There was no rust, the bed wood was still in good shape and was the original wood and the tires aired up and held. We used 2 come-alongs to pull it up on the trailer. It only had a little over 62,000 original miles on it. After getting it back to eastern Oklahoma at my sister's, we put gas in the tank, new battery, pulled the top off the carburetor and cleaned it out, filled it with gasoline, pulled the spark plugs and shot oil into the cylinders. Turned the engine over by hand while the plugs were out, put the plugs in and it started on the second turn, ran good and didn't smoke. After getting it back to our home in Arkansas, we cleaned it up, put new tires on it, licensed it and drove it a few times before disassembly and restoration which took us until Christmas 2000. 

The big push bars on the front were installed by my Dad after he tried to push start a car and it slipped over the bumper and knocked out a headlight and bent the grille. 
I have pictures of it as we found it and during the restoration process, but will have to scan them to put them on the computer. The following is after it was completed.


John Ross
Jacksonville, AR 72076

Last modified: July 26, 2022.