Doug Times Took This '68 Chevy C10 To Bare Bones Just Before Bringing It Back To Life
It could be said that the '67-'72 Chevy truck is one of the cleanest-designed trucks in GM's history. They're clearly a favorite among custom truck owners, and there are certainly plenty of them around in the scene. One of many people showing some love to these classic haulers is Doug Times. Doug's love for these trucks was inspired by his father. When he was a youngster, his dad had one, and from that point on he was a fan of them. Other than gaining the appreciation of trucks from his father, Doug also picked up the skill of welding by his father's side. Doug enjoyed welding so much that he furthered his fabrication knowledge by attending a trade school after graduation from high school.
He studied tool- and dye-making, and his new specialty gave him many opportunities for employment. While working for a machine shop, Doug was able to build a metal shop in his spare time. This worked out, since he got laid off from his job and was now able to establish the welding business with his father. Under the name Times Welding, the two of them now work on various projects for their customers. Since Doug was working on his own schedule, he decided that he had the time to work on his own projects, too.
That is when this '68 Chevy C10 longbed that he found on eBay came into the picture. Doug and the other bidders could not meet the reserve of the auction, so he made a deal to buy it for a lesser amount. The only issue was that the truck was in Oakland, California, and Doug's shop was in Ohio. However, that did not get in the way of his plans; instead, he and a friend flew out to drive the truck home. While picking up the truck, Doug noticed that the seller of the truck had a frame and a bed floor for a shortbed version of the truck. The other equipment would prove valuable for Doug's plan to make the truck into a shortbed, so they were also purchased. To get the extra pieces to Ohio, Doug bought a trailer and hauled the frame with the bed floor behind the '68.
All the way home, Doug had plenty of time to think about what he was going to do to his new truck. The first task was the swap of the cab and motor to the new frame, as well as resizing the bed. Doug used two new bed sides and the original shortbed floor. In doing so, he realized that the bed floor needed some serious reworking. His skills came in handy because he made special tools for his Pullmax sheetmetal machine to get the steel straight. Afterward, Doug repaired the rusted parts of the cab,such as the dash and the rocker panels.
Another thing Doug wanted to implement was a set of airbags to get the C10 lower than it had ever been.The rear uses the factory trailing arms with a reworked crossmember and mounting brackets to correct the lowered pinion angle. If you look closely at the photos, you can see that not only does the truck sit low, but it also has a full turning radius at that height. Shortening the upper control arms by 3/4 inch and the lowers by 1-1/2 inches made this all possible.
This '68 Chevy was built to have a factory appearance, but it also plays host to some custom touches. One of the changes involved ditching the factory powerplant for a stroker 383-cid small-block under the hood. Because of Doug's welding capabilities, he set out to make several performance parts for it. This included a handmade set of headers, valve covers, and an intake manifold. Doug also wanted this beast to run like a modern engine and made a fuelinjection system to feed it. With the powerplant bolted in, it was attached to a rebuilt 700-R4 transmission to transfer all of the power to the rear wheels.