Custom 1973 Chevrolet C-10 Victory Red Pickup Truck

1973 Chevrolet C-10 2 door short bed fleet side Description

If you’re looking for a Chevrolet C-10 square body classic truck that is smog exempt, encourage you to read about this beautiful 1973 Chevrolet Victory Red C-10 truck. The pictures and the details below will give you a view of just how well this car was built and the extensive work completed which makes it a quality investment for the next owner.

There is much to read here but you will find it very helpful.

Before I get into the build of this beautiful Chevrolet C-10 truck let me explain way the truck was built: There is an annual industry aftermarket parts and builder trade show, EMA, here hundreds of exhibiters display their products to the industry. Each year, elected manufacturers and designers collaborate on car and truck builds to demonstrate their products at the show. This truck was built by a private shop for SEMA 2013 with the primary sponsor being Belltech performance truck suspension who was displaying their latest suspension for these very popular trucks.

While Belltech was the primary sponsor. more than 2 dozen other companies also contributed their products and support to the build of this truck. Following the show Belltech featured this truck in 3 different truck magazines to advertise their suspension options for classic trucks. As you look over the pictures you will see why they chose this truck to represent their 30+ years of quality suspension products.

Starting with the outside of the car, he body is all steel and rust free, ainted eye catching Victory Red from PPG Paints. Fenders and doors are the original steel pieces and the fit is a clear “9.5” out of 10. Removing the stainless and chrome on the exterior except for the door handles and side mirrors gives the truck that arrow straight modern custom look. Even the front and rear bumpers have been painted to enhance that look of custom. The grille is a polished stainless frame with a polished billet insert capturing that clean look and complimenting the exterior body lines.

All window glass is brand new with the door window side vents removed to allow for one piece side glass. Check out the rear window in the pictures and you’ll see the new rubber-less glass found on all modern trucks. And yes, ll the glass at every window is flawless. One Piece Products USA did all the glass and it is beautiful. Finally, he bed is very straight and is arrow straight inside the bed.( Zero dents) it was then coated with LINE-X the same color of the truck with a custom “Bed Rug” added to the floor of the bed. The investment in just the exterior of this truck which includes body work, aint and glass exceeds $23,000.

The car sits on a full set of Budnik 20”x 10” up front & 20”x12” on the back with highly polished billet 5 spoke custom wheels with Falken Ziex S/TZ05 high performance tires. There are Wilwood disc brakes front and rear with red calipers to match the exterior paint. The brakes feature all new brake lines plus a power booster and black Wilwood master cylinder under the hood. When you look at the cost of the Budnik wheels, ilood disc brakes at all 4 corners plus the cost of the tires, he total exceeds $7,000.

The drive train is a new 350 motor with less than 400 miles on it. There are many upgrades to the engine to improve performance such as aluminum Edelbrock performance heads and a polished Edelbrock performer intake manifold with a Edelbrock 500 carburetor with electric choke, o the truck starts and runs without warm up. Several other key features to performance were the MSD full Ignition system that includes coil, istributor, nd A6 box. So the engine performs at a high level, pgrades include a set of coated headers and dual Magnaflow exhaust that runs clear to the back and drops out at each corner below the tailgate.

Finally, nder the hood there were many upgrades including: new Spectre 3” high Black air filter, complete serpentine system with polished A/C compressor, ower steering unit, one wire polished alternator, olished Edelbrock water pump, nd all polished serpentine brackets. Also new are the Chevrolet valve covers, SD red spark plug wires and 4 core – cross flow radiator and electric fan.

The last thing you want when you open the hood is to see the old stock hood hinges, o the old hinges were replaced by a set of Eddie Motor Sport polished billet hood hinges. They not only look very good, hey also make the hood operate more effectively.

To finish off the drive train a new turbo 350 transmission was built by B&M which was backed up by a new drive-shaft bolted to a 12 bolt Posi-traction rear-end with 411 gears. When you add up the costs of the new engine, ll the parts listed above, nd the new transmission, rive-shaft, 2 bolt rear-end and complete new Magnaflow exhaust we are talking about more than $11,800.

As the truck was built to be in the SEMA Show in Las Vegas at the Belltech booth celebrating their 30th anniversary of building performance suspension for Chevrolet trucks, his C-10 had to have the latest Belltech performance suspension installed to show that a truck from the 70’s can perform at a much higher level than those old stock suspension trucks with just drop spindles and lowering springs.

So Belltech furnished the following for the truck: Notched rear frame kit, owering springs for the front, ropped spindles for the front, et of leaf springs for the rear along with rear lowering blocks, treet performance shocks on all 4 corners, nd 1.5” sway bars both front & rear. Cost to update the suspension with Belltech was approximately $3,800.

Let’s spend some time describing the interior. The interior upholds the truck’s history and fine lines and at the same time gives the truck that more modern look with upgrades including a new custom built bench seat, ustom door panels, nd custom dash cover, ll done in tan leather. This entire tan interior around the Victory Red color of the Cab department makes this truck feel like it just came out of a new truck showroom. To finish off the interior new carpet was installed as well as Vintage air conditioning plus a Classic Auto sound audio system with Ipod & USB connections in the stored in the glove box. Delivering the sounds are 2 – 10” woofers and 2- 7” speakers in the kick panels. Custom interior door handles and rear-view mirror finish off the new modern look that has been the theme. One additional item finished off the interior to perfection is the Budnik polished billet & tan leather half-wrap steering wheel designed to match the Budnik wheels. Very cool!

So that everything electrical would work when needed and ensure that the system could handle all the upgrades to this beautiful C-10 truck, ll the old wiring was removed and a complete new Painless wiring harness was installed. A cut-off switch was installed next to the Optima battery under the hood. Finally, o keep the classic truck safe, n alarm system was installed which the owner can activate through a switch placed in the cab. When you cost out all interior upgrades described above it exceeds $14,000.

I have included the value estimate in each section in the description of this truck for one reason… I wanted to share with potential buyers what it actually cost to start from scratch and build a truck like this versus buying a truck like this one already done. When you add up the costs I’ve outlined you can see they exceed $66,000 plus you need to add the cost of the truck and you are well over $70,000 to build this truck. Think about it this way you are getting a truck with less than 400 miles since completed for $39,900—that’s amazing!

I’ve included the kind of detail I’d want to know in buying a classic truck like this. If you know anything about the cost to build a comparable truck you will know the details support the price.

Here’s a little about me, o help you as you consider this 1973 Chevrolet C-10 truck. I’m a lifelong classic car fan and reseller. I built a 1965 Ford pickup which won the West Coast F100 Nationals in 2010. (Yes, 1965 won Best in Show at a 53-56 Ford truck show. Never happened before.) It was the first 1965 Ford pickup that ever made the cover of Classic Truck magazine. The same pickup then won the North-South F100 Nationals the same year. I also built a 1967 Camaro that won the Chevy Muscle award at the GoodGuys 2014 West Coast meet.

I’ve sold approximately 35 classic and muscle cars and trucks in the last 5 years. I specialize in unique cars and trucks witch are great builds which frequently sell for $50-100,000+, nd my attention to detail brings me happy buyers. My point for sharing my car background is to show that while I do this as a hobby, know a great car versus a good car, nd this 1973 Chevrolet C-10 truck is a beautiful truck that for the asking price is a very good deal.

While this vehicle is sold “AS IS” with all the expense and work that has been invested in this truck that it’s not likely that you will be anything but delighted with the truck. Please contact me if you are interested as I will be happy to answer your questions or consider your offer. Thanks for taking the time to consider this beautiful 1973 Chevrolet C-10 truck.

Contact info: Glen 925-699-6854