Over the Top ’66 C10
There's nothing more spectacular than seeing a polished 8-71 roots blower sticking through the hood of a hot rod or truck. It can make nearly any truck cooler.
Luckily, this isn't just any truck. Micheal Shugart built his '66 C10 short bed with a friend. He did the wiring, plumbing, and brakes, and leaned on a good local friend to help with the fabrication. "We then unbolted everything, powder coated it, and put it all back together."
A man in Southern Maryland bought the truck new, and Micheal bought it from his son—a one-family-owned survivor truck with a six-cylinder, 3-on-the-tree.
The body is original, other than added trim, and has a different year of rear bumper. Underneath is a different story.
They rebuilt the frame with a custom four-link rear suspension and added a Porterbuilt front clip with two-inch dropped spindles. They built the kit using a combination of RideTech "pancake" front bags and Shock Wave rear bags. It lays frame, with the rear tires sticking above the bed, like an old hot rod cartoon.
A 472ci (60-over 454ci) is replacing the straight-six, built by Big Al's Toy Box, topped with an 871 BDS blower and two Holley carburetors. Behind that is a Turbo 400 and Strange 9in narrowed rear end with 4:11 rear gears to spin massive 33 tall, 22-wide tires. The mild, pump-gas tune made over 800 whp, with only 6 lbs of boost.
"It'll spin the tires at 40 mph, no problem," said Micheal. "It's really just set up for street driving. It handles like a dream, one hand on the wheels, cruise at 55-60mph."
He built the dash and gauges to his liking, using a tilt steering column and u-links sourced from Speedway Motors.
Micheal has had many trucks and hot rods over the years. Before this, it was a '34 Ford, but that was a two-seater. He built this truck to bring his new baby, "I wanted something we can all three ride in together," said Micheal. "He loves it; he's been riding in the truck since he was 6 months old."
Future plans are to finish the bed without hiding too much of their quality fabrication work. "I've always been into trucks; I'm not a car guy," I've had something since I was 16 years old, and my wife grew up going car shows, so I'm very fortunate that she's all about it. She doesn't fight me when I say I want to put a big motor in it."