1966 Chevy C-10 Shortbed Stepside

"The Green Machine" Owned by Drew Waller "66stepside" Bolter # 9250 Salisbury, North Carolina

From Drew :

           Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I first sent in pictures of my truck and it looks about the same as it did before. [ pix ] I'm a sophomore in Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State University now and for the past two years, the work on the truck has been stop and go, limited to weekends and breaks.

           When I graduated from high school in the Spring of '06, my Grandparents wanted to get me something special besides the usual dorm stuff or cash. They had my seat [ seat pix ] and both sun-visors re-upholstered in brown vinyl [ driver's visor pix ] that is much sturdier than the fuzzy brown cloth that was in there when we bought the truck.

           My little brother turned 16 last September and he got a 1998 Dodge 1500 4 x 4 [ my 'Bolt next to his Goat ] for his birthday. After driving for about two months, he came flying in the driveway one afternoon and went to pull around my truck to go out to the back yard. Despite what my Grandpaw Tom, Dad and myself had all told him about using his mirrors (from our experience driving big rigs -- Paw-paw Tom: concrete mixers, dump trucks and a '48 spread axle flatbed; Dad: concrete mixers, various sorts of dump trucks, and '48 reefers for Food Lion (then it was Food Town) for 6 years; and now occasionally I drive a 17' scissor-dump flatbed International Harvester 10-speed for a local building supply company during the summers), he didn't look before continuing around my truck.

           His truck clipped the driver's rear corner of my truck, destroying the tail light [ pix ], putting a nice tire print on my bumper, and flaring the curl on the bed rail [ pix ].

           That was the damage to The Green Machine, but the Goat faired much worse. He had a gouged-out dent that ran down his rear passenger door [ pix ], and continued down the bed side, a scratch that ran the same route as the dent, just a foot lower.

           He called me scared out of his mind that I would be furious at him for hitting my truck. All I could do, when he described the damage was start laughing. I told him that's what he gets for not buying a REAL truck. He cheered up until he got some estimates to fix his truck.

           A local guy did it for him, the same person I think I will have paint my truck when the time comes, for $800. It would have been more, but Austin volunteered to help him so that he could see how to do bodywork. My damage cost: $7 for a tail light from Wal-Mart that fits a trailer. That's what the destroyed tail light ended up being when I looked at it. It had the little clear window in the bottom of the housing. It works for now, but I'll replace it with an OEM tail light housing when the time comes.

           The current plans for the truck are to pull the engine and transmission this summer for a complete rebuild. I've talked to my parents and they said that I can do as I please with it as long as I can afford it in cash. I'm going to have a local shop rebuild the 250 for me. It's going to be bored .030 over with 307 pistons, 390 cfm Holley 4 barrel on either an Offy 4x1 intake or a Clifford hot water 4x1 intake, Pertronix distributor and 40,000V coil, and plenty of polished aluminum bits with fins to make it look as good as it will run.

           I'm also going to have a new exhaust made that will include a Patriot glass-pack. I bought a Borg-Warner 3 speed w/ OD [ pix ] that came out of a 1962 Impala that is going to replace the current 3 speed. Hopefully it will cruise better than it does now and get a little better gas mileage.

           The truck has been running great. Here's a YouTube Video to see / hear. It's working like they were meant to be. It gets all of the general hauling jobs since it's easier to load and unload compared to Austin's truck.

           There are even more pictures in my Webshots.

           Thanks for all of the info and help you guys have given Dad and myself over the past four years! Thanks for doing such a great job! I don't know where I'd be without this site.

           Happy driving and remember to keep the wheel side down

-Drew W. [an error occurred while processing this directive]

15 May 2006
# 1525

From Drew :

           Hello! This is my 1966 C-10 Shortbed Stepside. [ pix ] I got it as a 16th birthday present two and a half years ago. All of the truck is stock except for the fake fur looking seat that the previous owner had re-upholstered. It has a 250, 3-spd Saginaw, and a 3.73 rear.

           It has proven itself to be a challenge to work on but as time progresses, the mechanic skills of me and my Dad have improved and we are getting fairly good at working on it.

           My friends at school dubbed it the "Green Machine" the first week I had my driver's licence. For graduating high school, it is going to receive a complete restoration and maybe a few upgrades if my budget allows.

           This web site has been a big help in solving some of the problems that we've had that aren't well covered in the shop manuals. Thanks!

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