This is not the story of a kid who fouled up one too many times and his parents banished him to his room indefinitely. Quite the opposite. As many of us can relate, Matt Krawchyk was bitten by the automotive bug through having family members with a passion for cars. Those hours spent at home being around big brother's Vette, tinkering on dad's '63 Impala SS, and learning how to weld gave Matt the inspiration he needed to pursue his own ground-scraping projects.
Although he developed his automotive inclination around musclecars, Matt was more turned on by custom trucks. His previous endeavor in this realm was, among other things, an S-10 to which he made numerous modifications. Still, Matt would be the first to admit that it didn't fit his vision of the ideal custom. It wasn't until he passed by a '78 C-10 for sale out in front of a farm that his imagination began to run wild. After securing the truck for $300 and a couple month's spent getting parts from LMC Truck and Napa, he was off and running.
The first thing Matt did was find the wheels he wanted to build the platform around: a set of Player 712s. He then Z'd the frame 4 inches and built his own front suspension. Matt cut the spring pockets off the frame and made his own, which now serve as the top bag bracket. The lower control arms are stock for the bags to sit on, while the uppers are from Air Ride. The front frame horns got dropped 31/2 inches and were moved closer to the billet grille by 3/4 inch. This brought the bumper closer to the body, which was OK by Matt, as he wanted to decrease the many body gaps that are inherent to these types of trucks. The motor mounts were also brought down 2 inches and moved forward 1 inch.
Needless to say, there's not much stock in the rear either. The rear has been C-notched and features a triangulated four-link. Matt wanted to do a Cantrell-levered suspension and put his own personal touch on it. The two crossbars go to the middle of the rear axle and overlap each other; this turns quite a few heads at shows. Matt added the spikes to give it a bit of personality rather than just leave it bare.