SNOW STORM

If you live somewhere hot like in the Southwest, you find the traffic getting a lot worse in the winter because the snowbirds have come down from up north to rest their bones and drive their Buicks very, very, slowly. For everyone else, that means their streets are a little bit clearer and they have time to work on that project they’ve had for the past few months. Which is more or less where we start with Chad Myers from Hamilton, Indiana. 

Chad works in construction, and for him, that means the winter months are when he can start tearing away on whatever cool thing he wants to build. A year or two ago, right around the time when the leaves started falling off the trees, he knew it was time to purchase his next project. He had his eye on this sweet ‘60-‘66 C10 down in Florida, which was a little odd for him. See, Chad is a ‘67-‘72 C10 guy, but that Florida truck, it was alright. It was kind of ugly and boxy, but it sure would look good with a big motor while sitting on the ground. A deal was made, and this is where one imagines Chad loading up a trailer and heading south, dodging Buicks going 45 mph on the freeway the whole time. But that’s not what happened. 

The owner of that ’60-’66? He decided not to sell the truck right before Chad left, which meant he had to go looking again. After a few hours on Facebook Marketplace, he found a beauty: A ‘65 C10 with a fairly straight body and, even better, it was just two hours away in Michigan. Off he went, and once he got back, he took his wife for a drive around the block, and then tore it apart before the sun went down. 

Now he’s had a bunch of projects before — he’s built around tri-five Chevys, and knows what he likes. This he wanted to do a little something with a little bit of old and new flavors blended together. He loved the chassis under one of his previous builds, and he had a buddy who stocked Roadster Shop products, so that was going to be the starting point. While Chad and his father loved running LS engines and small blocks, this time he wanted to do a Gen V LT1, just to add a dash of something special. Now he had a plan and it was time to execute.

The build began in earnest then, with Chad chipping away at the project in his home workshop. The chassis was one of the Slam specs, which meant it came with airbags and could tuck a pretty big wheel and tire combo. That required some beefy rims, so he ordered a set of 20- and 22-inch 3030 Autosport Series X3 X3100 forged wheels, with an aggressive six inches of backspacing in the rear. When paired up with the Ford 9-inch rear end, he was going to be in a very good place. 

Of course, he didn’t skimp on that motor. He went with a 6.2l Gen V LT1, which pushes out 460 horses and 465 ft/lbs of torque. That was mated up with a Tremec TKX transmission, which definitely has the power to those meaty tires out back. It’s pretty cool to see a truck laying body or smoking the tires, and Chad’s ’65 can do both. That’s a winning combo right there. 

The inside is also just as important as everything else, and he certainly paid attention to those details. Take the dash, for example. He’s got a custom pivoting setup for his Alpine double-din stereo, which allows him to hide it out of view whenever he likes. That dash is painted 2018 Mercedes Benz Dolomite Brown Metallic (paint code 526/8526, if you’re interested) with a matte clear, and boy does that look clean. It works well against the chocolate-colored leather and Akzo Nobel Glacier White paint in the jams and on the exterior. 

Speaking of, the outside of the truck is also something special, but one of the best details is in the bed. That wood floor? It’s actually Zebrawood, and to make those planks look and fit right was quite the feat because he also had to lift the floor to clear the chassis in the process. Chad said he must have taken that bed apart five or six times just to get everything sorted just right, but now that it’s done it looks pretty amazing. 

While it took more than the winter to get done, it was only 18 months from the day he took the truck home to the moment it was complete. The results speak for themselves. It’s a super clean truck that may not have been that cool in the beginning, but now it looks simply amazing. Now he just needs a new project for next winter.