rom early on my dad and I talked about things we would do to the truck when we were figuring out where we would go with things. We looked at a lot of photos of other trucks, and we both agreed that longbeds looked too long and shortbeds looked too short. So we decided that we wanted it to be in-between the two and we would position the rear wheels where we thought they would look best. One of the things I knew I wanted were big back tires because I have always liked that look since I was young. Once we mocked up a few tires we decided to run something bigger, which led to the Hoosiers.

Goals: Shorten bed and chassis to a total of 12 feet—6 inches longer than a standard shortbed to improve the proportions of the truck. This resulted in us removing 8 inches between the cab and rearend and 4 inches at the end of the framerails. Stock longbed is 8 feet; stock shortbed 6-1/2 feet … my bed is now 7-feet long. Additionally, longbeds have a larger wheelwell opening, which worked good for the big back tires.

n the past, I’ve done a few “resto” interior kits that entailed a new bench seat cover, pop-on repop door panels, and so on. But when it comes to a custom interior, I’ve typically shied away from those primarily due to the inability to afford a full custom trim job, even in the small confines of the average truck cab (hence why I relied on the resto-type kits in the past). But for the 1969 C10, I wanted to go the extra mile, and fortunately for both the wallet and time frame concerns, TMI Products came out with exactly what I was looking for: their online Custom Configurator where you and I and anyone with an Internet connection can click ’n’ choose a full custom interior package for your 1967-72 C10 (as well as many other makes/models), from the seat to the door panels, dash to the headliner, and carpet!

Toward the end of 2023, I approached my old friend Ross Berlanga at TMI (we’ve known and worked together since the ’90s!) about doing a seat and door panels for my ’69 project, and he asked if I were in a hurry because TMI had some new things brewing. Well, seeing as the truck wasn’t even running, of course I wasn’t in a hurry. That following SEMA show, TMI introduced some brand-new seating options as well as new detail stitching options, but also their new online design center (followed by their fantastic in-house design center in 2024, where customers can come in and “sample” seating and see color/material options in person!).