Pick Ups

I forgot to add, any frontend tricks you can throw at one of those Monte Carlo SS bricks will work on the S-10, maybe even better (lighter vehicle).

O.K., I'm biased as well, I vote yes as long as it's a shortwheel base. Where I live, trucks are the coming thing- it's hard to find a suitable car thanks to some of the T.V shows and auctions. Everyone thinks their old car is worth big $$.  

I don't really care for trucks.  I think CAR craft should stick to CARS.  The only trucks I would care to see are El Caminos and Rancheros. 

If the magazine has to do a truck, make it a compact truck that the average reader could buy for around $2000, perhaps an S10, Ranger, or Dakota 2WD.  Something remotely interesting would be using junk yard parts to convert one of these trucks to a v8 on the cheap.

Please do not build a 1/2 ton or larger truck.  I hated the slammed Chevy / GMC 1/2 ton craze in the early-mid 90s.  Those TBI trucks just don't do it for me.

Instead of a truck, build a budget v8 compact car.  How about swapping an LT1 from a junked cop car into a GM H-body such as a Monza, Sunbird, Firenza, etc.  Could even be smog legal.  For Ford, why not do a 5.0 HO into a Pinto.  Mopar might be harder since they did not really make a comparable RWD car.  Maybe do a Volare / Aspen project car.

Just my opinions.

Tom

I've been interested in the Volare/Aspen for a while...  Had a cop Diplomat for a while.  Got deceptively large engine bays.  Those things swallow a 440 like a Coronet.

Has anybody here ever driven one of those late 70's "Road Runner"'s?  Were they any good with the 318?

And didn't CC build a 400 horse 318 a while back using a 273 crank and 360 heads?  That'd work out nice in an early '80's Gran Fury.

trucks are great! A needs one to haul transmissions and engines, might as well make it fast!

Remember when every block had a backyard with a dead Vega in it?  The junkyards had one H-body for every one of any other kind of car.  I miss those days 'cause they really made great little street machines for a  $100 starting price.  Seems they all are scrapped now, the only ones people saved are Cosworths and the occaisional V8 Monza and E-bay is the only place to find one, at least around here.

Lots of people saved old trucks which makes them plentiful and an interesting target for a hot rod build.  Man they sure are big though.  Without really trying I seem to have accumulated half-a-backyard full of old pickup trucks including a '49 Stude which I am currently building NOT in the style of Rod $ Custom or the Truckin' magazines.  Why wouldn't that make a good Car Craft project?  Yeah I know it's too old and CC doesn't seem to want to do any fabricating (Car "Craft"?...) but I currently have about five-hundred bucks into it and a lot of inventing and it's possibly more fun than my last couple of car projects (and theoretically a cheap basic build leaves more money for spending on advertisers products later).  I could probably handle seeing something like that or a 350 S-10 in Car Craft.  They would really need to do it in a Car Craft style though, like the way Glad is doing the Rambler, and the silver '90's half-ton that they hauled around to various shops to have things like exhaust pipes (and poor bodywork) put on was not it.  That was not interesting.  Trucks can be in CC if they do it right.

wasnt there a s10 in car craft awhile ago, or maybe it was chevy hi. it had a tube chassis with a 383 in. not a bad little set up there.  

Almost bought an '80 Volare Road Runner a few years ago.  Had a 360 and a 727.  Neat ride.  A friend had a '79 Volare RR with a 225/4speed setup in it.  So it was basically a sticker package by then.

Well since You asked, I´d have to say a definite "no" to this one. IMO, trucks are way overrated and too bulky, heavy, boxy and ugly to my tastes. Besides, there already are magazines out there from the same publisher no less,  specific to trucks as it is. Overall, I think the whole american "old" -car magazine -scene is way too focused on the "what kind of gadget from one of our advertisers to bolt on Your late-model XXXX You just bought new last week". How about something to the group of us who have neither the interest or the finances for late-models...?  

the '87 S10 is my newest vehicle, and I bought it as a total for $150.  Spent $350 replacing the doghouse, and I've been driving the piss out of it since.  Just picked up a 350/350 combo for $250, and since the 2.5 has been knocking for 2 months now, it's going in real soon (the Caddy engine was a bad idea, it'll go in my '84 DeVille).  So for $750 so far, and under $1000 when it's ready to rock, it's a nearly 20 year old little truck with an attitude I like.

Compare that to the $6000+ 383 my service manager has in his $25,000 '67 Camaro.  Sure it's faster, but I can drive mine anytime.

ha, you should be able to take on that camaro with a few mods to the 350.  

i think yes and no instead of a truck they should do a chevy blazer from the early to late 70s or a mid to late 70s ford bronco (much prefured) but piz not a jeep or a ramcharger do a bronco my dad had a kick ass 79 bronco that he traded for a COUGAR yes he got a cougar for it it wasint 1 of the best ones it had the parkbench sized front bumper but enough bs im pleading with you a mid to late 70s bronco there still relatively cheap and easy to get

i am defintely interested in a pickup build. i am too poor to pay out close to ten grand for a rotted out classic musle car . so i picked up a short -bed 1979 ford f-100 thats getting a hot 351w, borg-warner t5, and a traclock 9".  i have yet to find any magazines building up any of these trucks and they are so plentiful. i picked mine up for $500 with no rust and new interior. i am getting so sick of v8 s-10's and 67-72 chevy trucks.   

Easy on the bulky trucks! My truck weighs 2500lbs,pulls the left front for the first ten feet, and runs in the elevens (so far). I got a wealth of info from CC mag to make it run that hard. I don't need a truck specific mag.   General go fast rules apply to all of us no matter what we drive or chose to play with. I chose this platform for the full frame and rigid chasis. Its all about havin fun anyway right? A wise man once told me, "you can make a car fast or, you can make a fast car".  Car Crafting is all about making unique choices so build what ya want, and run what ya brung!!