EARL | Candice Wheeler’s ’63 Chevy C10

The Family that Builds Together,  Stays Together

When Candice Wheeler first got behind the wheel of a ’63 Chevy C10, things didn’t go so well. It was actually her first time driving anything, and she drove right into a tree! Luckily, she wasn’t hurt, which was obviously a good thing. Oh yeah, and she was 8 years old!

Candice’s whole family has always been into cars. Her grandpa Earl, dad Jerry and brother Tyrel all shared her passion to get out and drive, and for that she’s forever grateful. And as a member of Severed Ties, she now has an extended family of enthusiasts that spans across the globe. She’s owned everything from a custom Honda Civic to a ’59 Edsel, but it was that first (if brief) drive in that ’63 Chevy that really did it for her. In 2010, she found another ’63 while out on a motorcycle ride with her dad. The project soon stalled, but Candice was determined to finish it … some day.

After almost eight years of slowly whittling away at the truck, Candice’s husband, Tony Moore, convinced her to pick up the pace.

“[Tony] decided it was time to go full force on my truck build,” she says. “We collected parts for a couple of years, along with a few more parts trucks.”

By February 2018, things ramped up and the truck was coming together fairly quickly. Candice even secured a spot at SEMA, and it seemed like the truck would be completed in time to hit up a couple of shows beforehand.

But, as Candice told us, it didn’t quite work out.

“We pushed really hard to make a couple of shows prior to SEMA, but as the build went on, we thought of bigger ideas and modifications to make my truck stand out,” she says. “As is normal with the ‘SEMA crunch,’ we ended up having to pull all-nighters up until the last few days before heading out for SEMA.”

It was at this point, though, that Candice had to make some decisions. After all, she knew that plans tend to fall apart without a solid vision.

“The color scheme first came about when I saw the Raceline Desperado wheels at SEMA 2012,” she says. “I knew the top color I wanted (Tiffany Blue), but then I started searching for the bottom color. By early 2013 I had chosen Platinum Dune Pearl and had my first rendering done.”

The body underwent some major surgery as part of the build process, including shaving the wipers, antenna, signals, tailgate and mirrors. Oh, and let’s not forget the custom roll-down back window, Trik’d Toys tubbed wheelwells and tilting wood bed floor.

Although we can’t imagine Candice’s C10 being any other color, she did admit that she initially met some resistance once the time came to apply the paint.

“When we first started mixing up paint, I told Michael [Johnson] the color I wanted, but he didn’t care for it,” she says. “He sprayed several other samples, but I didn’t give in.”

We’re glad she stuck to her guns, because the result is nothing short of amazing. Michael at Downtown Auto Body in Shawnee, Oklahoma, went the extra mile for Candice, even adding chocolate brown pinstriping to break up the two main colors.

Candice lucked out with some of the chassis work when a frame in California from fellow club member Jamie McBride came up for sale. It had been built by Kevin Currell at Sik Fabrications a few years prior, but life happened, and the truck never got finished. Through some serendipitous fortune, it would eventually end up in Candice’s hands.

“My buddy Carlos Herrera acquired the truck that had the custom chassis and brought it to me in Oklahoma all the way from California,” Candice says. “After about six parts trucks and a few key donated parts from Travis Burke, we finally had a good starting point for the build.”

And build they did. The front suspension uses ’05 Tahoe spindles and hubs, with one-off control arms to keep things in place. You’ve also no doubt noticed that the truck has a right-hand drive steering setup, courtesy of the chassis’ previous owner. The rear suspension setup consists of a wishbone three-link, which was color-matched to the body. Air Lift Dominator air bags and KYB shocks were installed all around, with Air Lift air management keeping plenty of PSI available at all times. Eventually, Candice was able to bolt on her dream wheels—22×9 and 22×12 Raceline Desperados tucked in 265/35R22 and 335/25R22 Pirelli Scorpion rubber.

Those 335mm-wide tires would be pretty ridiculous without something proper under the hood to back them up, so Zak Oldham dropped in a 2006 5.3L Chevy with some bolt-ons, including a polished Holley Sniper EFI setup that was tuned to put out 403-horsepower to the wheels. The detailed mill spins a 4L60E tranny that was built by Joel Leonor.

While much of the final assembly was taking place, David Adams and Pedro Gomez at Clever Crow Fab were working their magic with the interior. Custom brown nylon loop carpeting was used for the flooring, while brown leatherette was sewn over the modified ’91 Chevy bench. Metra billet LED buttons control the added electronic functions, such as the rear window, and Classic Instruments gauges sit neatly in the background of the Colorado Customs-built Severed Ties billet steering wheel.

Once the truck was actually done and the truck was on the ground for the last time before heading out to SEMA, the emotions took over.

“I was so overwhelmed to finally see my truck drive out of the shop—I was filled with tears,” Candice says. “I hugged my husband, my friends, my team who had all worked so hard. It was something that, after eight years, I never thought would become a reality.”

Candice wanted to be sure to thank her husband Tony, Michael Johnson, Jerry Jimenez, Justin Jordan, Stanley Nolen, Eren Pierce, Travis Burke, brother Tyrel Wheeler and Ralph Snider for their friendship and help in completing her dream truck.