Brad Swaney’s 1971 C10 - Shell to Masterpiece

What Brad started with versus what he has now.

Brad Swaney is a young builder in the car world who is in fact, only in his early 20s. But he has already proven himself as a top-tier builder. Brad grew up around cars helping his dad Mike do body work on projects long before he could even drive. The shared passion for cars brought him and his father close together, so close that they knew they wanted to build cars together full time. Just a few years ago, they followed this dream, and opened a successful hot rod shop known as Hayman Creations. Brad has now worked on many classic cars and trucks of all models doing all sorts of modifications but there is one extra special build to him and his career. The build in question is his 1971 Chevy C10, which he started on when he was only 14. The build quickly went from making it a reliable daily driver to an immaculate bumper to bumper custom build that any car lover would kill to own.

The 89’ Brad got from his grandpa.

Brad’s father had owned the truck since 1993, but had to many other projects on the go, so he gave the truck to Brad. Even at 14, Brad was not afraid to dive headfirst into the build. In the first few months, he already had the truck apart and was fixing, prepping, and painting various parts. This is the point when he knew this truck wasn’t just going to be another C10, it was going to be something special. Still wanting an older truck to daily drive, Brad ended up buying a 1989 Chevy off his grandfather. Even this truck had a cool backstory; his great grandfather bought it new in 89, then passed it down to his grandfather. Clearly, the Chevy bug runs deep in this family. If only vehicles could talk the stories and memories, they would keep any car guy entertained for years. After taking some time to fix up the 89’, Brad got back to work on the C10 starting with the frame.

The frame of the truck is highly modified and customized. All pitting and unnecessary holes were patched or filled. The rear was c-notched, and the front cross-member was narrowed 2 inches to make room for some gigantic 295/35r20 tires on a 20x10 wheels. Those are big tires even for the back of some peoples rides, but Brad thought he could fit 345/30r20 rear tires, and that is exactly what he did. To make those tires even more in your face, he wrapped them around 20x12 billet specialties turbine wheels. Ensuring his truck didn’t twist itself in half, he added a heavy-duty center frame stiffener he hand built out of roll ball tubing. The stiffener snakes its way under the cab, around the driveshaft, and then to the trailing arm cross-member. The truck has a classic performance products suspension setup with a 4.5” drop in the front, and a 7” in the back, giving it that aggressive and menacing stance. The amazing thing about this truck is that this isn’t even the first frame the truck was on. To appreciate the true magnitude of this build let's jump ahead in the story. “When my truck was getting closer to getting finished, I decided I wanted to take it to the world of wheels in Pittsburgh. So, for a few months before that, all I did was work on my truck. I didn’t work on customers cars at all, just my own. Leading up to the world of wheels, it was going to be close if I would get it done or not. I was up all night leading to the world of wheels working on it. I took it to the show without the bumper and set it up, then took the bumper down the morning before the show started and we put it on there. I wanted to get in the Steel City 6 which is the top 6 of the show and I fell short of that but ended up winning best truck overall out of all the trucks that were there. I got the judging sheet from them and there were very minor things they didn’t like, and one was my frame had an orange peal in it.” Says Brad. At this point is when Brad said to himself that he was going to remove the frame he started with and make the whole new one mentioned above to ensure he was satisfied with every tiny detail.

You need a lot of power to get big wheels like that spinning, so Brad went with a Chevy 454. Even with the power of a big block, he wanted to squeeze out all the horsepower he could get so he bored the engine 0.030 over. An engine like this needs to guzzle a lot of air as well as gas, so it has an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold topped with a 650cfm Holley Street Avenger carb. Hedman ceramic coated headers married to a custom 3” polished stainless-steel exhaust sing through a MagnaFlow exhaust to make sure the aggressive but beautiful sound of the truck matches everything else on it. All of this doesn’t matter in the end though if the truck doesn’t move, so Brad went with the strong and reliable GM TH-700-R4 transmission to get that power to the wheels. With all this power the truck needs some serious brakes to reign in the Chevy 454, so Brad went with Classic Performance Product 13” disc brakes all the way around.

As many car guys can relate, Brad knew exactly how he wanted things and was not going to comprise until it was perfect. He took his time to add his unique touch to countless aspects of the build. Starting at the front, Brad masterfully smoothed out the entire engine compartment including the wheel wells and the entire firewall. Filler panels were even made between the grille and core support so there were no odd gaps. To ensure this look wasn’t interrupted by wiring and other lines, Brad routed them out of sight. However, he left his hand built polished custom A/C and heater lines in view, which complement all the other polished aluminum parts, such as his billet aluminum hood hinges from Eddie Motorsports. This ultra sleek look continues throughout the entire body. The washer openings in the cowl were removed and reworked to match the ribs in the rest of the cowl. The interior features Relicate leather seats and other leather accents. The gauge cluster was hand built by Brad to house his custom Auto Meter Shop gauges. The truck has all the creature comforts, vintage air, power seats, heat, and so on. Of course, the center console had to be custom to match the aesthetic, and keep the sleek theme going. With the ignition switch, wiper switch, headlight switch, and the USB port for the radio hidden inside the console.

Now to the cab, the drip rails were removed from the roof and the front of the roof was modified to better match up with the windshield. The rear roof seam was removed to continue that magnificently clean look. The door jambs were welded solid so there are no visible seams anywhere near the doors. Matter of fact, any seam, bump, or hole on the truck that could be filled was filled. The side markers were flush mounted, stake pockets smoothed over, fuel filler cap relocated to the bed. The rear wheel wells were widened by 3 inches and ribs were added to make sure they matched perfectly with the bed floor. Speaking of the bed floor, it is a handcrafted work of art. The bed floor is built like a fine China cabinet. With Brad saying “I wanted something different in the bed floor than just typical oak or something. I really liked black walnut and couldn’t find a kit that I really liked. So, my father and I went to the sawmill and bought rough cut black walnut boards, a plainer, and decided to make it ourselves. I get asked all the time if it’s actually real wood. I put two coats of clear on then sanded them to keep filling the grain in until it was filled in. Some boards have six coats, and some have eight coats of clear. Then it was sanded smooth and buffed”. Brad had a color in his head he knew he wanted, but he couldn’t find it in any chip books or anywhere. So of course, using his ingenuity he turns to a die cast Willys he had that was the perfect color. With the Willy’s in hand, Brad went to a paint store where they scanned the paint and kept mixing colors until it was the perfect color. Now with paint in hand, Brad and his father got to work on painting. The painting took them two days, turning out great, but Brad wanted it perfect, so they spent the next three weeks buffing it until it was mirror quality.

There is no doubt that with all this time, energy, and passion that this truck and Brad were going places, and that’s just what they did. After wining Best Truck at the 2018 Pittsburgh World of Wheels show, Brad wanted to get the truck to SEMA and compete for the battle of the builders. At the start he was having a hard time seeing how he would get there, but as his truck gained much-deserved attention, he was featured on the cover of a Summit Racing catalog. With this new relationship, he was able to get a spot in the Summit booth at SEMA. Can you guess what happened at SEMA? Brad and his masterpiece of a C10 ended up winning the Young Guns Battle Of The Builders, and got top four in the Battle Of The Builders. Since then, Brad and his C10 have been featured in countless magazines, and won countless other awards, most recently receiving a Goodguys truck of the year late finalist for 2021 in York, Pa. This goes to show that age does not matter. If you have the heart, and the passion, you can achieve success at a young age. It further shows that you don’t have to be a big shop to build great rides. A father and son turned their passion into their business, and it may not be the most known shop, or the largest, but it can compete with any shop out there.

Thank you Brad for giving me the opportunity to do this article about your stunning C10. Great down to earth guy, check him out on Instagram @brad.swaney