Forgotten Big 10

I am the second owner of this 1978 Chevy truck.

The original owner ordered this oddball in 1977. It is a Big 10 with dual tanks, but it’s a short bed with a 350 small block instead of a big block. It’s a Silverado, but instead of all the normal top-trim bells and whistles, he ordered it without a/c and with a Muncie SM465 4-speed (so no cruise control, either). He also got cheated by GM. He ordered it with a 12-bolt 4.11 posi (I have his order sheet and the equipment sticker), but I broke the factory diff seal on it and it is definitely not a posi.

He drove the truck from ‘77 to ‘85, at which time he bought a new Ford truck. He “gave” the Big 10 to his mother, although he maintained legal ownership. Between ‘85 and about ‘02, she put maybe 2000 miles on the thing before the clutch return spring broke and they parked it.

And there it sat, in their backyard, from 2002 until I purchased it in 2022, forgotten.

I caught him one day and asked if he was willing to sell it. We made a deal and he helped me get it home.

Despite not being started since the Bush administration, the engine rotated fine by hand with the plugs out, but I filled the cylinders with Marvel and put the plugs back in to let it soak. A few weekends later, I put a new battery in, pulled the old plugs, cranked the engine to blow out the remaining mystery oil, put in new plugs, dropped a fuel hose from the pump to a jerry can, and filled the carb bowls with 2-stroke fuel. When I turned the key, I kid you not, the old Chevy roared to life in 3 seconds flat. It started like it had been running the day before…