Rustoration

RYAN WEHRLI’S 1970 CHEVROLET C/10 DURAMAX

- Chris Tobin

Ryan Wehrli has always been a truck guy with a great love of older iron, especially the 1967-72 C/10 Chevrolets. After a few years of driving his Cummins-powered 2006 Dodge and getting bored with it, he decided to start a new project: making an old truck new again. As the fabrication shop manager for Wehrli Custom

Fab in Sycamore, Illinois, he had the expertise and access to the tools and space needed to create his dream truck. He hoped to find a C/10 truck then put a Duramax drivetrain and chassis underneath it to make it the ultimate driver.

When a WCFab customer wanted to sell his 2006 2WD regular cab long bed truck, Wehrli knew he had found the foundation for his project and scooped it up. It was a nice truck and he was able to sell off most of the body parts for about half the purchase price, making the chassis and drivetrain a good bargain find for his project. The hunt for a good C/10 went on for about four months before he found the 1970 C/10 you see here, which came from North Carolina to Illinois via its previous owner, who intended to build it but ended up listing it online after owning it for about a year. Wehrli purchased it as soon as he saw it and began to tear down the pair of trucks almost immediately with plans on having it on the road in just a few months. But as the project escalated and shop obligations were put ahead of the project truck the time line inflated and it took nearly two years to complete.