FINE ART

You know how there are some people who kind of just have stuff work out for them all the time, even when they don’t even think it’s going to work out? That was kind of Art Gallegos’ life when he decided to build his latest project, this 1962 C10 named Forrest Gump ‘62. In fact, the name came about while chatting with Ronnie Wetch on his C10 Talk podcast and they both realized how every aspect of the truck sort of fell into place, with no real obstacles to speak of – just like the box of chocolates guy in the movie. 

After Art found and bought the truck off Craigslist and got it back to his shop (he owns a dealership), the first thing he did was clean out the multiple layers of shag carpet (gasp!) and cobwebs that had totally destroyed the interior. Well, actually they just made it look like some haunted ‘70s living room, but that alone must have taken half an afternoon! Terrible, right? 

And then there was tearing the truck apart to get it down to the bare frame. From what we heard, he barely had to use any WD-40 to break all of the bolts loose before sending everything out for media blasting. Of course, there was the usual replacement of the floor pans, rockers, and cab corners, and some other random dings, but that’s almost mandatory these days. Alright, so that probably took a while, but in the end, it went off without a hitch. Which, when you think about it, makes sense – that would be a weird place for a hitch. Which, hitch, which, hitch… Anyway, let’s move on. 

Right around that time, a couple of pallets of ‘60-62 air ride suspension stuff from Porterbuilt showed up since, well, it was the perfect time for them to show up. Neither Art nor his buddy Jack Johnson had ever ‘bagged a truck before, but since it’s Porterbuilt and because everything Art was touching was turning into friggin’ gold, everything went together perfectly, and the chassis was done in no time at all.

Speaking of gold, Art had to pick a color for the truck, and as it happens, he was walking through the paint department at Lowe’s one day while looking for something else, an ochre-ish color sample caught his attention, and he immediately decided, “Yup, that’s the color.” No digging through countless paint chip books or scouring the Internet for hours on end – just that one color sample (with a slight final tweak) turned out to be perfect.  

Painting the truck was pretty much a backyard operation, with some plastic sheets thrown up to create a makeshift paint booth. Art’s friend Juan busted out the spray guns and laid down the final two-tone scheme, after which Art painted the dash and prepped engine. They were hoping for “decent” considering the circumstances, but of course the paint turned out perfect. 

And you can guess how the rest of the build went – just fine with thanks to the additional help and moral support of Art’s wife, Terri. Other than the final crunch a couple of years ago, Art’s truck went together as smoothly as anyone could hope for when starting with vintage iron, and he’s already knee-deep in his next project, which is – surprise – going great. Forrest Friggin’ Gump!