Too often, people find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time-or is that the other way around? In a perfect world, we'd all like to be in the right place at the right time, but in the meantime, we keep our fingers crossed that we end up in the latter rather than the former. Whether it be crossing an intersection seconds before a speeding car plows through a red light or being summoned for jury duty the day before your relaxing vacation, everything is meant to be for some reason or another. Call it fate, karma, or destiny-things happen because they were meant to be. At least that's the way it seems, huh?
For Danny Auman, whether he knew it or not, this '66 Chevy C-10 was meant to be-his, that is. For days, he'd drive by the local auto parts store in his hometown of High Point, North Carolina, eyeballing the short-wide always parked out front. The drive-by dreaming all came to an end one fateful morn when Danny spied the owner placing a For Sale sign on the windshield. As any red-blooded gearhead would do, he almost ran over three cars in his impromptu change of direction. It goes without saying: The sign in the window wasn't there for long.
Danny's new acquisition not only served as a daily driver for many years, it also served as the family utilitarian vehicle, hauling everything from furniture to mulch. Danny eventually put an end to his truck's laborious career by opting to give it a whole new outlook on life-a hot rod look.
The truck was already solid and rust-free, so Danny's transformation was more about redoing rather than repairing. Starting with the chassis, Arthur Bryant narrowed a Ford 9-inch and mounted it between the 'rails with a custom ladder bar setup complete with Koni/HAL coilovers. The front suspension was updated with BellTech dropped spindles, Early Classic lowered coils, and Doetsch Tech shocks. The whole kit and caboodle was powdercoated black and gray by Unique Coatings with a set of Coddington Smoothie IIs wrapped in M/T Sportsman radials at each corner. Next, the old workhorse 327 was swapped out for a slightly more potent mill, a GM Performance Parts ZZ502 big-block, stout inside and svelte outside, with a custom stainless battery shroud and battery box, Street & Performance pulleys, and chrome galore. And as for the Saginaw three-speed, it too got the axe, replaced with a '70s Turbo 400 with a shift kit and a 2,800-stall converter.