Street Feature: Utility Meets Hotrod With This 1962 C10 Pickup

The build on this ’62 C10 truck started five years ago, and pretty much the only thing that hasn’t changed since then is the paint. Nick Palermo of Tacoma, Washington, is the owner and he did all of the work inside and out. The only thing he hasn’t changed, which is on his to do list, is the paint.

This truck just looked so good, we couldn't look away!

“I’ve done a lot of work to this truck,” Nick told us. The truck came with a torsion bar style front end, but Nick swapped that out and went to front end. He also lowered it 6-inches in the front and 5-inches in the rear to give it the stance that he wanted.

He updated the drivetrain and it’s now a 350 cubic-inch engine fueled by a 750 cfm Holley carburetor that’s mounted to an Edelbrock intake. The engine is paired to a 4-speed manual transmission. “It’s a built motor out of a 1969 Camaro,” Nick explained. “It’s got a nice cam and headers.”

The air cleaner and valve cover combo was very well done here.

The truck also features GM disc brakes and a 3.73:1 geared 12-bolt positraction rearend. It’s built with just a little more power than stock, but in the end it’s really just a great cruising, good looking truck. One that we’d love to take for a spin given the chance.

The aluminum grill was completely hand restored for this truck. Nick had it bent and massaged back to new. It's a cool feature on this truck.

Nick has also updated the interior with seats out of a ‘90s Chevy pickup, a custom steering wheel, and a Hurst shifter. He didn’t go crazy-custom on the interior, but rather put together a modest look that works well with the aesthetics of the rest of the pickup. It’s great because it’s a comfortable, good looking cruiser, but in style and practice it still retains some of the utilitarian heritage that it was built with—and we love that.

The red seats and custom wheel look nice, but they are also part of what make this such a great cruiser.

The bed is one aspect of this truck that caught our attention right away, rather than going with the smooth finished oak like most do on a truck like this, Nick used fir from salvaged beams and only lightly sanded them, then added seven-coats of urethane. “The color is just the natural distressed look of the wood, there is no stain in it,” Nick explained. “It’s just lightly sanded with seven coats of urethane.” You can also see that he has had the bed sprayed with bed liner. It’s a cool look for the bed and works very well with the fir.

The distressed, stained fir looks great in the bed. It's also a nice change from the oak that everyone uses. He also has the tailgate for the truck, it's just in the process of being restored.

We love Nick’s truck, and we’d love to see what you’re driving out there. If you love it, odds are good that we will too, so shoot us an email with a couple pictures and a little information on your ride, you might just see it here as one of our Street Features. Still a work in progress? Now worries, we’d always like to see a project for our What Are You Working On series.