Roddy is the son of a gearhead, dyed-in-the-wool, as they say. His dad always had some sort of hot rod that he drove, worked on, and even drag raced at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This nurtured Roddy's fixation for things that go fast. When he was 15, Roddy's parents gave him a '70 Nova SS that his dad owned since it was new, and with this car, Roddy began honing his hands-on mechanical adventures that have yet to cease.
In the fall of 2005, Roddy Grimes had just finished building a new workshop at his house and figured he needed to fill it with a project to really break it in, you know, just for the winter.
Well, Roddy is an adult now as well as a dad himself, so he should've known better that "winter projects" usually last a few extra seasons. Nevertheless, Roddy bought a '68 C-10 from a friend for his "winter project" that would entail a quick restoration to be sold in the spring when it was done. Well, 18 months later Roddy finished the C-10 with no plans to sell it. The truck turned into a ground-up build that would consume more of his mind and wallet than he anticipated, but Roddy shows no builder's remorse.
A simple C-notch in the rear started Roddy's off-track adventure. Pretty soon, he had all kinds of suspension pieces on order as well as Baer Brake's 13-inch discs for each wheel. Once the dust cleared in the rear, he settled on 6-inch dropped coils from McGaughy's, 1 1/2-inch blocks from Woodall Industries, and CPP's robust, tubular trailing arms. Roddy had his good friend Billy Russell go through the stock 12-bolt rearend and stuff it with a new Auburn Posi. In the front, McGaughy's 2 1/2-inch dropped spindles and 2-inch lower coils brought the nose down right where it was supposed to be once the as-cast 18- and 20-inch American Racing Torq-Thurstn IIs were mounted.
Roddy wanted the suspension to emulate Pro Touring musclecars, and he figured he'd better have some horsepower to back everything up, so again he called up Billy, and soon Roddy had himself a 468ci Rat motor to stuff under the Goodmark cowl-induction hood. Billy had Pro Machine bore out the four-bolt main 454 block 0.060-over before he filled it with a steel crank, GM 7/16-inch high-performance Dimple rods, forged SRP pistons, and a COMP Cams Extreme hydraulic roller cam. Edelbrock's aluminum Performer heads, an Air Gap intake, and a Holley 850-cfm carb cap off the big-block. Walt's Transmission built Roddy a stout 700-R4 to withstand all the abuse 500 horsepower can dish.
Every piece of the C-10 has been blasted and restored or replaced, and Roddy made more than a few orders, calls, and trips to David Woodall at Southern kentucky Classics for his expertise and parts. All along Roddy had planned on silver paint and a red interior for the '68, but after he was unable to find a shade of silver that he liked, Roddy told the painter, Rollo, to just go ahead and paint it black. So the guys at Rollo's Auto Restoration got to work meticulously prepping the Chevy to spray the truck in PPG black followed by numerous coats of clear. Jeff Smith of Smith Brite was handed all the trim, which he polished to the highest luster. Once mounted on the arrow-straight truck, the trim popped against the black.