BLUE RIPPIN’

We’ve all heard of barn finds, but we think driveway finds don’t get enough attention considering it’s probably where most of us come across old trucks. Let’s take Kevin Bapst’s ‘68 Chevy C-10, for example. As a high school senior, Kevin went to visit family in Mississippi. Being a truck enthusiast, he was always on the lookout for a potential project. And this trip was no exception. 

Kevin shared what went down on that fateful trip: “My mom and I were out driving around the back roads of the little town of Okolona, looking for an old C10 we saw earlier in the week. A couple of miles down the road from my great uncle June’s house, Mom says, ‘There’s one!’ So, we pulled into the driveway, and I go knock on the door. The owner came to the door, and we start talking about the old C10. He tells me the engine was good, but the transmission or rear end was out. I asked him if he would sell it and he said he would need to have ‘6’ out of it. Instantly, I thought $6,000. He said, ‘No, $600.’ I told him I would take it, and we would call him to arrange for us to come pick it up.” 

The only problem was, the truck was in Mississippi, but Kevin lived in Ohio. Once back home, he told his dad the good/bad news about how he had bought a truck three and a half states away and needed him to help bring the truck back. Being the good-natured father that he was, good ol’ Dad was down for a 28-hour round-trip adventure.  

“We load the truck and trailer and start the long journey. Finally, we pull into the driveway and Dad sees the truck for the first time and says, ‘What in the hell have you gotten me into?’ The tires were flat with what looked like a tree growing up though the cowl, but thankfully it was only a huge weed. We did what we needed to get the truck loaded, we paid the man, and started the long journey back to Ohio.”  

While Dad may have been a bit overwhelmed at the sight of the truck, Kevin wasn’t deterred one bit. As he explained, “When we got home, I tore the truck apart by myself.” But, of course, being a young dude, Kevin eventually got distracted and moved onto other exciting stuff, like racing! So, the truck sat in pieces for about six years until he quit racing dirt late model cars. When he first built the C10, it was quite different than how you see it today. 

“The first build of the truck had air ride, 22-inch Intro Twisted Vista II wheels and it laid frame. We used a lot of old and new racecar parts on the build because that’s all we knew. I cut down two aluminum race seats to make them look like old bomber seat – it was a mix of race and rat rod.”

But Kevin wasn’t quite happy with the way it turned out, wanting something a bit more “serious” since he was used to more power, speed, and handling. Well, you know how things go – it’s tough to make decisions, so sometimes you must “try things on,” so to speak, to see if they work. One thing was for sure, though – the truck’s patina had to stay. As far as those updates, once again Kevin explained it best, “The old truck has been through many changes in its life with me. It went from laying rocker to a somewhat autocross truck, to now a real corner carving beast. We are currently on the fourth set of wheels, third set of bags or shocks, and many other suspension and frame mods.”

At this point, the C10 sports a custom caged chassis built by Kevin and his brother Aaron, JRI racing shocks with Hyperco coil springs, 18×12-inch Forgeline wheels with fat n’ sticky BF Goodrich Rival S tires, Wilwood 13-inch brakes, and a built GM LS6 mated to a TREMEC T-56 six-speed transmission. Of course, that’s the short list of current mods, and by the time you read this it could be completely different since that’s how Kevin rolls. He’s still fine-tuning everything as he goes, with the intent of making the truck as quick as possible on whatever course it happens to be on.