When asking Greg Schneider why he bought the C10, his answer was simple. "She made me buy it," Greg says, in reference to his wife, Pam. Greg recently sold their '55 four-door wagon that Pam really loved. So Pam said that Greg needed to invest in another hot rod, just like the '55. One day a '67 pickup was spotted on a used car lot in Bristol, Tennessee, with a new paintjob (the same paint you see in the photos). With Pam's go-ahead Greg made the purchase and began the eight-year transformation bit by bit. The C10 was originally a project that Greg and Pam could work on and play with-maybe even take a road trip or two.
A little history about Greg is that he has been around the scene a time or two, or should I say the autocross track. Greg works at RideTech in Jasper, Indiana, and he describes his title as a fixer of broken hot rods. He also helps develop new products by fabricating, installing, and driving the heck out of the test vehicles on the racetrack. Greg travels around to different events to show off the new RideTech products and takes willing participants around the track to show them how well the products handle. I think it's safe to say that he is a salesman of some sort too, because after watching the people get out of his C10 they all wanted to build their own truck. When I first meet Greg he was helping fellow coworker, John, install new RideTech ShockWaves on a F-100 for this issue's shock shootout. Greg and John were so kind to us editors that they even let us drive solo and beat up their pickups on the racetrack.
Enough about how nice the truck handles; let's get into why it handles so well. The frame is stock with only a C-notch modification and all bolt-on RideTech parts. The front suspension was nice for a driver when they first got the truck, but boy did those stock drum/drum brakes suck. So he installed the RideTech upper and lower strong arms with Firestone airbags and RideTech Master Series dual-adjustable shocks. He went with some small disc brakes in the front, but when he took it to the track, Greg realized they were not going to be enough. So he placed an order for a set of Baer cross-drilled and slotted 14-inch disc brakes with six-piston calipers up front.
The rearend has the stock trailing arms, but were modified to accept the RideTech airbags and Master Series dual-adjustable shocks (prototype). A RideTech RidePro E3 controller was used for the airbags' easy up and down movements and leveling. The rearend of choice was a GM 12-bolt with 3.73 gears and a limited slip to help handle the turns. Speaking of the turns, if you want to be competitive in autocross you need a good set of tires and wheels. Greg commissioned Budnik to build a custom set of their Gasser wheels, 18x7 front and 20x10 in the rear. BFG KDW tires wrapped the rims and hugged the ground. Greg runs 235/40R18 up front and 285/30R20 rears for now and is talking about rehooping the front wheels to except a bigger tire. Another cool mod on the truck was the use of a mid '80s Chevy Blazer gas tank mounted in the bed. No more gas smell inside the cab and the extra weight on the rear axle probably helps with traction. Greg also made a sweet bench seat out of a '89-97 Chevy pickup seat. The seat was covered with black cloth, and Greg bent some thick DOM steel over the top of the seat to fasten the RideTech five-point harness. Over the long haul Greg has had a blast building the C-10 and enjoyed the time with his wife, Pam, all while sitting in the passenger seat-she drives it, too.