TBT…

Since it seems that a lot of guys have 60s C10s as grail trucks, may I present…

The 1967 C-10 brochure! 🙂

It ran a few more pages, but this is gist of it… Hope you enjoyed the trip back in time. The ONE thing I remember about them, is they didn’t stop worth a damn… And under hard braking, the rear end got really squirrelly, because the rears locked up in a half a heartbeat…

Comments

TBT… — 13 Comments

  1. A fellow I knew a dozen years ago restored a ’69 C10. He gave it to his son for graduation. It lasted less than an hour.

    Running down a dirt road, hammered the brakes, locked up the rear end and rolled it through the ditch…. It was mangled beyond repair after that.

    The cars of our youth were heavy machinery. You had to know their weaknesses. There weren’t automatic safety devices. Check the the 7 fluids, every time you drive it. Warm up the brakes before you need them. Nothing says “Hey! What are you doing?” like locking up 4 tires on pavement!

    I always used a seat belt, after going thru the front glass of a 64 F100, and finishing a donut from the passenger seat on a 73 LTD…. Live and learn, or die trying.

  2. I bought a 1970 C10, long bed stepside, 250 CI straight 6,the heavy duty spring option, brand new. I still have it and love it — my daughter took it to work today. Quite right about the brakes — you do have to think about what you are doing (but maybe that’s not such a bad thing?). And it can be a bit squirrely on wet pavement, or unloaded… but they run forever, and are easy to maintain.

    • And I had a hard time getting out of the parking lot at the end of the day, all the guys were looking at it!

  3. My granddaughter & her dad rebuilt an ol ’72 Chev pickup as a father daughter project when she started high school. She still has it, and drives it. (WSF: they did relocate the gas tank.)

  4. Had a ’67 C10 (283 4-speed) as my fishin’ truck. Built like a tank (except for the aforementioned gas tank). I liked that truck, got me into and out of places that on reflection I probably shouldn’t have gotten into in the first place. However, I wouldn’t call it a “Grail” truck, it was just a fishin’ truck. I do miss it a bit though.

  5. What I remember about these. Ran like a scared cat. Stopped like a parachute. Got about 6-8 miles per gallon.

  6. Thanks for posting the brochure. Reminds my of when I’d peruse back issues of National Geographic and see the old car ads. Up until we donated it to the local school library a decade or so ago, we had a complete collection dating from 1967 to the early 2000s. It’s kinda neat to look back and see how styles and advertising have changed.

    As to the quirks, every vehicle used to have them. I think we’ve gotten complacent with today’s homogeneous vehicles that are bubble wrapped with safety features. One of the first cars I drove was a 70ish Plymouth Fury III. Just tapping the brakes would have you locked up in a cloud of blue smoke. My first car was a ’73 T-Bird with a huge 460 V8 that had a 4bbl carb funneling gas from the tank fast enough to watch the needle move under heavy acceleration. That beast would swap ends in a heartbeat on wet curvy roads unless you treated the accelerator very tenderly.

    Second car was a 1970 Datsun 240Z. Great car. Terrific to work on. The side draft carbs were garbage. Leaked horribly and dropped gas right onto the exhaust header. Nothing wakes you up like a fireball exiting your front end at speed on a dark, rural highway at night. Still want that car back.

  7. When I got married in ’95, my uncle gave me Granddad’s (his father’s) ’72 Cheyenne. Just over 100k on it, 307, 3-on-the-tree, 4.10:1 rear, no PS–but it did have power brakes. First time I hit the pedal, it darted for the ditch. I discovered one pad on the LF caliper was (eventually) stopping the whole truck.
    Fixed it up, not fancy, just dependable. 2 years ago I handed it over to my cousin, the same uncle’s boy. He’s a young Army Reservist with a good head on his shoulders, & will enjoy it more than I.
    That’s the deal–it goes to a male relative in each generation.

  8. Belay my last, in part: I meant that to read “right front caliper”.

  9. Belated thanks for the host for the pictures of what ‘Real Trucks’ used to be. Utility vehicles, not not like the luxuriated fluff we drive today.

    Vinyl seats that melted skin on a hot day like swiss cheese on a grill – CHECK! Bench seats you could lay down on or move over to other side – CHECK!

    And I’ll be the fuse box was easy to access and check, versus the positions they are found in today.

    Yep – old trucks.

  10. Hey Old NFO;

    My dad had one, I learned to drive “3 on the tree” on that one…the 4 barrel carburetor ran fuel like it was nothing there. He changed it to a 2 barrel to give it some better gas mileage.