ver the last three-plus decades I’ve met some amazing builders—many of whom have become close friends. One such individual is Ryan Reed (Reed’s Ride Designs), who I originally crossed paths with when I was thrown head-first into the world of Fat Jack Robinson back in the ’90s. Since then, we’ve both grown into fine, upstanding adults(!) and both have managed to raise equally admirable sons. Ryan’s boy, Carson, now a freshman in high school, is quickly following in his father’s footsteps—learning the ins and outs of building hot rods the right way: with as much attention to detail as humanly possible combined with top-notch craftsmanship. His first hands-on project, fittingly enough, is his own set of wheels … his very first set he’ll be driving to school once he obtains his learner’s permit (and Pop’s permission!).

“High School Hauler,” as we’ve appropriately dubbed the project (and ironically enough, a moniker given to Ryan’s ’67 Bug he built and drove when he was a teen back in school!), is Carson’s ’64 C10 that he’s currently spending many a night after school as well as weekends wrenching, cutting, and welding on. When I first learned of the father-and-son project, I wanted to involve CTP for obvious reasons—but there would be stipulations! One, Carson would have homework (he would be responsible for documenting the entire build for us); two, I get the second ride in the ’64 when it’s done! So, without further ado, let’s kick this series off with the young man himself!

“My name is Carson Reed. I am 15 years old and live in Corona, California. Since I was a young child, I have been around the hot rod community and have gone to most of the car shows in the Southern California area. It was natural for me to be drawn to cars because I have been working on projects, such as my bikes, scooters, and skateboards with my dad from a very young age. Working on stuff like that progressed into working with my dad on cars. From working with my dad I started to have a liking for the characteristics of hot rods. By the time I got old enough to start my own project I knew that my first truck would have to be like this.

“This project came to be because one of my dad’s friends, Brian Williams, was buying the truck for himself and soon decided that it would be a good first truck for me. So, he had it shipped to my dad and told him to give it to me. On my 9th birthday I was given the keys to the truck with certain guidelines. They told me that I would have to work in order to make the money it would take to build the truck. So, this started the process of me working on a regular basis.

“My dad and I are planning for my truck to sit just right … just like every car he builds. We wanted to raise the bed floor as little as possible to still achieve a low ride height and retain a functional bed. We intend to leave all the paint stock and the spots where we do work on the body will be painted to match.

“I anticipate learning how to weld better and learn more about chassis fabrication while working on the front and rear suspension. I also want to get better at building things from scratch because once I’m good at that it will carry on throughout my life. I will be able to fix anything I need and make anything I want after this truck. I hope to know how to do sheetmetal work exceptionally well, after I’m done with all of the work on the truck. The ultimate goal with the truck is for me to learn the process of putting mechanical things together, improve on my fabrication skills, and to have a good and reliable truck for me to drive daily to high school. I would also like to go to some of the truck events with it.”

Some of the areas we’ll be covering—I’m sorry, that Carson will be covering—as the year progresses are: the abovementioned bed shortening (in-between short and long wheelbase with some pretty trick methods of raising the Brothers’ bed floor and integrating their wheeltubs, not to mention the “unconventional” box shortening), installing a Scott’s Hotrods ’N Customs IFS (as low as possible, as Mr. Reed is not a believer in airbags) with Aldan coilovers and Wilwood brakes, facilitating a Silver Sport TREMEC five-speed kit with the 383 small-block patiently waiting in the corner, and upgrading the factory gauges with Classic Instruments’ new ’64-66 Truck Package. Hope you all are even remotely as eager as I am to see this build progress!