MishMosh
Junior Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2022
- Posts
- 11
- Reaction score
- 31
- Location
- Rodeo, CA
- First Name
- Ben
- Truck Year
- 1983
- Truck Model
- C30
- Engine Size
- 454
Hello Everyone,
I'm Ben and I'm a truckaholic.
TLDR: This is the introduction section, right? This next bit is all about me and my non-GM trucks, so you may want to skip to the bottom
I've been a truck owner all of my life. In fact, I've only had two cars, a VW Scirocco (that was silly fun for awhile) and a Buick Skylark (don't ever do that.) I've owned Ford Rangers, Mazdas, Nissans, Toyotas (22R & Tacoma), Dodges (Dakota/Ram), etc. Most of them were small, 4 cylinder engines, but I started thinking bigger. My daily driver now is a 2001 Dodge Ram 5.9L V8 Magnum. I call her Silver. But I've never owned a Chevy!
Aside from the Tacoma (a certified pre-owned that collapsed upon itself in a 10mph accident), I've always had cheap vehicles. I never had any money when I was younger, so I'd find some deal on a beater truck and use the hell out of it until I managed to run it into the ground. My friends always worked on vehicles and they'd help me out and try to get me into it. I actually tried my hand with the 22R, but I couldn't get the damn thing working, so I decided it wasn't for me. (My friend swears all we had to do was buy "that one last part" and it would have been fixed! We'll never know, Stephen! lol) I've had a couple of trusted auto repair shops since then and taken all of my work there. They've always done me right so I could concentrate on work, alcohol production and other projects.
You know, now that I think about it, when I was growing up in the midwest, my first vehicle was actually a salvaged '94 GMC Sonoma (so basically an S10) that this kid and his dad restored back in '97. My father helped me purchase it so I'd stop using his Chevy 2500 (which he called "Red Dog") to run my mowing business. I want to say his 3/4 ton was a 1992. So I guess I started with GM vehicles after all, and now I'm jumping back in
I've resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 20 years and those trucks have really come in handy. When I started in the city I seemed to be the only person with a pickup, so I never was out of work. I've done side work most of my life, anyway, and helped move many, many friends. About 12 years ago, I quit my day job and started going into work on my own as an entrepreneur in the brewing industry. I brew beer and make other alcoholic products for work and play, but most of my valuable experience has been in business management & logistics, helping friends to establish and grow their small companies.
So I had one non-alcoholic business I started about 8 years ago, where I helped a friend of mine start a tree care company. The first vehicle we were using was a 1983 Chevy dump truck that he was leasing from his mentor. We also had an Isuzu, but we kept purchasing Dodge Rams whenever we needed a runner or a small dump truck. We wound up with a fleet of different shapes and sizes of 2nd Gen Rams. I won't gush over them on the gmsquarebody forums but let's just say that's where I got the bug for doing my own wrenching and how I got Silver. That larger truck with a gas-hog of an engine that was easy to work on, and somehow so familiar, changed my mind about maintaining my own vehicles.
Anyway, that old Chevy was purchased from the original owner but had been downgraded to a backup and eventually relegated to a dump runner. It just sat in the yard for 2-3 weeks at a time, and then someone would drive it to the dump a few miles away and back. The electrical equipment was always glitching and the wooden dump bed started degrading. A couple of years ago, I took an interest in fixing it up and slowly started learning more about it. I often broke more than I fixed, but no one cared if I worked on it a bit, and I slowly got most of the lights shining and did what I could to make it street-legal so we weren't risking tickets on our dump runs. I usually drove it, since most of our crew couldn't drive a manual transmission, and would use it sometimes to tow chippers out for repair. I found a lot of things wrong with it that my business partner said didn't need fixing, but I always enjoyed taking it out.
TLDR: Long story short, my friend has moved away, the business has now closed, and I decided to not sell the Chevy as-is, but instead keep it for myself and do a bit of restoration. I'm (mostly) unemployed at the moment. That won't last long, so I'm trying to get as much done now, while I have the time, as I can. I'm still very new to working on vehicles, but I don't shy away from anything these days. I always do a ton of research and get wildly obsessed with my projects. I'm already falling in love with this beast of a pickup and the square bodies I see in the streets. I've purchased parts, tore things out, and I have lots of plans. I look forward to sharing my project with y'all and I can't wait to get some feedback from you experienced GM nuts!
I'll actually save the spec details of this 1983 C30 dump truck and my plans for it for my next posting, which will be a project thread. There will also be many more pictures and slightly less words. Let's just say I got a lot of work ahead of me but it's going to be a whole lotta fun!
Cheers!
-Ben
I'm Ben and I'm a truckaholic.
TLDR: This is the introduction section, right? This next bit is all about me and my non-GM trucks, so you may want to skip to the bottom
I've been a truck owner all of my life. In fact, I've only had two cars, a VW Scirocco (that was silly fun for awhile) and a Buick Skylark (don't ever do that.) I've owned Ford Rangers, Mazdas, Nissans, Toyotas (22R & Tacoma), Dodges (Dakota/Ram), etc. Most of them were small, 4 cylinder engines, but I started thinking bigger. My daily driver now is a 2001 Dodge Ram 5.9L V8 Magnum. I call her Silver. But I've never owned a Chevy!
Aside from the Tacoma (a certified pre-owned that collapsed upon itself in a 10mph accident), I've always had cheap vehicles. I never had any money when I was younger, so I'd find some deal on a beater truck and use the hell out of it until I managed to run it into the ground. My friends always worked on vehicles and they'd help me out and try to get me into it. I actually tried my hand with the 22R, but I couldn't get the damn thing working, so I decided it wasn't for me. (My friend swears all we had to do was buy "that one last part" and it would have been fixed! We'll never know, Stephen! lol) I've had a couple of trusted auto repair shops since then and taken all of my work there. They've always done me right so I could concentrate on work, alcohol production and other projects.
You know, now that I think about it, when I was growing up in the midwest, my first vehicle was actually a salvaged '94 GMC Sonoma (so basically an S10) that this kid and his dad restored back in '97. My father helped me purchase it so I'd stop using his Chevy 2500 (which he called "Red Dog") to run my mowing business. I want to say his 3/4 ton was a 1992. So I guess I started with GM vehicles after all, and now I'm jumping back in
I've resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 20 years and those trucks have really come in handy. When I started in the city I seemed to be the only person with a pickup, so I never was out of work. I've done side work most of my life, anyway, and helped move many, many friends. About 12 years ago, I quit my day job and started going into work on my own as an entrepreneur in the brewing industry. I brew beer and make other alcoholic products for work and play, but most of my valuable experience has been in business management & logistics, helping friends to establish and grow their small companies.
So I had one non-alcoholic business I started about 8 years ago, where I helped a friend of mine start a tree care company. The first vehicle we were using was a 1983 Chevy dump truck that he was leasing from his mentor. We also had an Isuzu, but we kept purchasing Dodge Rams whenever we needed a runner or a small dump truck. We wound up with a fleet of different shapes and sizes of 2nd Gen Rams. I won't gush over them on the gmsquarebody forums
but let's just say that's where I got the bug for doing my own wrenching and how I got Silver. That larger truck with a gas-hog of an engine that was easy to work on, and somehow so familiar, changed my mind about maintaining my own vehicles.Anyway, that old Chevy was purchased from the original owner but had been downgraded to a backup and eventually relegated to a dump runner. It just sat in the yard for 2-3 weeks at a time, and then someone would drive it to the dump a few miles away and back. The electrical equipment was always glitching and the wooden dump bed started degrading. A couple of years ago, I took an interest in fixing it up and slowly started learning more about it. I often broke more than I fixed, but no one cared if I worked on it a bit, and I slowly got most of the lights shining and did what I could to make it street-legal so we weren't risking tickets on our dump runs. I usually drove it, since most of our crew couldn't drive a manual transmission, and would use it sometimes to tow chippers out for repair. I found a lot of things wrong with it that my business partner said didn't need fixing, but I always enjoyed taking it out.
TLDR: Long story short, my friend has moved away, the business has now closed, and I decided to not sell the Chevy as-is, but instead keep it for myself and do a bit of restoration. I'm (mostly) unemployed at the moment. That won't last long, so I'm trying to get as much done now, while I have the time, as I can. I'm still very new to working on vehicles, but I don't shy away from anything these days. I always do a ton of research and get wildly obsessed with my projects. I'm already falling in love with this beast of a pickup and the square bodies I see in the streets. I've purchased parts, tore things out, and I have lots of plans. I look forward to sharing my project with y'all and I can't wait to get some feedback from you experienced GM nuts!
I'll actually save the spec details of this 1983 C30 dump truck and my plans for it for my next posting, which will be a project thread. There will also be many more pictures and slightly less words. Let's just say I got a lot of work ahead of me but it's going to be a whole lotta fun!
Cheers!
-Ben
