1971 Chevrolet C10 Super Cheyenne

The Hayes’ 1971 Nardo Super Cheyenne

One of the most common threads between custom enthusiasts and their trucks is usually some type of past memory that gave them a fondness for the vehicle or platform they built. Doug Hayes of Wichita, Kansas, is no different. When Doug was just 11 years old, his father had a 1971 C10, so the love of the truck and the passion were sparked early on and always within him. When Doug was coming out of the Air Force in late 1993, he bought his first C10. As time passed, then a few more, a few more, and so on; you could say it got pretty serious by this point in life. With the Bow Ties running through his veins for years as he was working and raising a family, progress slowed down a little on doing the high-quality build that he was always chasing.

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“I always had a good one (truck wise) but not a full-blown show truck,” Doug shared. That said, Doug purchased the truck that started the project you see before you from a farmer out of Nebraska as a daily driver, and then things…well, let’s just say they definitely escalated from there.

While the truck he bought had good bones, it was not without its issues and needs. As the slow transformation began with the old Chevrolet, Doug had taken several visits to Stewart Customs and Restorations for rust repairs and adjustments. Colton Stewart and Doug talked many times and were soon on a mission to build the best truck possible (within budget of course).

That started by taking off all the truck’s body parts and sending them to Stewart Customs. As they got to work on those, he then began to to remove all the old suspension from the chassis so that it could be blasted and then prepped for paint. Upon finishing that, the frame was painted, and he began installing all the new CPP suspension parts onto their fresh new home.

From that point on, the work began to revamp and fit the motor and transmission with all their new parts to their corresponding places.

With all those things on and ready to go, Doug brought the chassis to the body shop and they placed the panels on and aligned them up perfectly; after all, there are few things more enjoyable than perfect body gaps. After picking the truck back up, he took to it to the exhaust shop, and then back to his own shop to finish some last details and part installs, then finally knock out the interior to fully balance the truck as a whole.

Many people know and use the phrase “measure twice, cut once,” but how many people know the phrase plan twice, budget once? Let us just tell you now, Doug really wishes he had the foresight to do that; maybe even plan three or four times in advance, and then budget once? Hopefully this is not news to his wife when she reads this, but one of the biggest regrets Doug has about this build was not planning it out and spending more accordingly as the truck progressed. This is not to say he ever cut corners. There were multiple things he spoke about re-doing after having already done them as the build progressed.

Family truly is everything, and the Hayes family bond only grows through this dual generation father/son build.

“I started this as a budget build and in some cases have spent twice the amount needed if I had just planned ahead,” Doug says. “I like to share lessons learned from the build with those who ask.”

The other advice he has is to plan ahead when doing paint and body work. In those categories especially, any changes you make can get expensive. If a builder can mock everything up before-hand, you will see any hole, line, or change you want welded up before everything is sealed and polished.