A tradition that used to be so common in the car community but has seemed to fade away with the modern era, is a young person getting an old beat up vehicle and restoring it to a head turning, show stopper. Well Colby Chambers is keeping the tradition alive with his 1972 Chevy K10, or as his friends and family refer to it, Clifford The Big Red Truck. Colby has grown up in a family full of gear heads, from trucks to farm equipment and old school hot rods, he has been fully submerged into the gear head lifestyle for as long as he can remember. So natrually Colby’s first vehicle was one that he built with his family, in his fathers shop.

When Colby was about thirteen years old, he remembers seeing this K10 sitting in the same spot every day as his family would drive past it. The truck was in poor shape being previously built for rock crawling. It was obvious that it had been beaten on and then parked for a long period of time, regardless of this Colby still wanted this K10, dreaming of the potential it had. Then one day Colby’s parents told him to go out back, and lo and behold there was that same truck Colby had been dreaming of. With the help of his father, grandfather and cousin, Colby began the restoration process.

This restoration started out being a modest build, with Colby and his family just fixing up the drivetrain, body panels and paint. But then one day as Colby’s father was gone, his grandfather and himself decided that it was time to take the body off the frame and do this restoration right. By the time that Colby’s father returned, the body was already separated from the frame and his father decided to just go with it. The drivetrain did not need much work as Colby states it had been previously rebuilt, so all they did to it was a refresh. The engine is a Chevy 350 with a mild cam and a Edelbrock dress up kit. The engine was kept mostly stock because Colby knew that if he would have built it to have crazy power then he would have gotten in a lot more trouble compared to it being stock.

With this truck not being their first go around at a project, Colby and his family built it in just about a years time. Which is a almost unheard of for any restoration that turns out even half as good as this one. Inside and out this truck is up to the quality that usually only show cars have. The interior was completely stripped out and painted the same color as the rest of the body. Colby also installed Dakota gauges, and seats out of an 03 Chevy pickup because he wanted to have a center armrest. Also he relocated the fuel tank from just behind the driver, to under the bed where the spare tire would usually go. The only real issue that they had with this build was getting the body panels to fit correctly, due to it being an ex rock crawler.

After finishing the build Colby has driven this truck as much as he can. Taking it to school, work and everywhere in between. Colby hasn’t had any real issues with it either, other than the rear blowing out his junior year of high school when he decided to show off when leaving a coffee shop. But Colby took this chance to upgrade the diff to a posi rear end like the gear head that he is.

Now days Colby doesn’t drive his truck on a daily basis like he used to, but he still makes it a point to drive it every weekend at the very least. The last thing that he wants for this truck is for it to sit, or only be driven when it is being taken to a show. Colby intends on keeping his K10 indefinitely, and is even considering doing an LS swap later on. But Colby also has other projects that he works on with his family, to keep the tradition alive. One such project is a set of antique tractors Colby has, that he and his grandfather are restoring together. As Colby puts it he will work on anything with an engine but his truck is what is truly special to him. Not only is this K10 Colby’s first truck, but it also has the sentimental value of being built with his family. Something that no one could ever put a price on and is something that makes Clifford The Big Red Truck a permanent member of his family and their lifelong traditions.