Feature
InTheGarageMedia.com
Mr. Simpson typography
Jason Fonte’s 1973 Chevy C10
BY Rob Fortier & Jason FonteImages BY Tim Sutton
A

fter three decades of being a photojournalist, one of my favorite parts of the job is the writing aspect. That said, after three decades of writing hundreds of features, I am never opposed to allowing others to add their 2 cents—or in this case, a few quarters! After Tim Sutton spent the day in Los Angeles shooting Jason Fonte’s Chevy—and subsequently sharing some fine barbecue when I was busy doing something else (I rarely turn down barbecue, let alone food, period!)—I decided to let Jason jot down some words about himself, his prior builds, and, of course, “Mr. Simpson,” his beloved 1973 C10!

1973 Chevy C10 air ride suspension deep dish wheels
“I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, the city of Granada Hills, [California]. I moved to Santa Barbara to go to beauty school where I honed in on barbering, became a master barber, and eventually moved back to L.A. to pursue precision cutting at Vidal Sassoon. I eventually sold my barber shop and found this dope artsy salon on Abbot Kinney in Venice Beach where I fell in love with the hot tattooed manager and stylist who became my wife of the last 14 years. As if deciding to have a kid wasn’t enough on our plate, we then decided to build L.A.’s baddest hair salon, The Compound. Ten years have passed since we built our salon and all’s rocking!

“As a wee lass I was obsessed with Hot Wheels, like on a bizarre level. I was content sitting in the dirt making racetracks for my toys for hours on end. I guess as a Gen Xer we had to use our imagination to have fun! The only difference between being a kid and now is that I have life-sized Hot Wheels that are way more fun to play with. I’m still immature.

1973 Chevy C10 side profile lowered classic truck
Low stance front view 1973 Chevrolet C10 slammed truck
Patina truck bed 1973 Chevrolet C10 classic pickup
Bagged 1973 Chevrolet C10 rear view patina bed
Low stance 1973 Chevrolet C10 classic truck street build
“Every year I try to design a ride that hasn’t been done over and over. The way I like to approach my designs is simply “what do I want to drive for the next year or so”! I know myself and I have no attachment to the toys; I have fun with them but know I will always move it down the road to another person. Have I had a few toys that maybe I should have held onto a bit longer, totally! But money talks and, well, I love money. They always say that money can’t buy you happiness, well that’s total BS!
Custom 1973 Chevy C10 interior brown leather bench seat
Digital gauge cluster Vintage Air controls 1973 Chevy C10
1973 Chevrolet C10 center console Kenwood touchscreen stereo
Custom speaker system behind seat 1973 Chevy C10 interior
“Some of my previous builds that were in a lot of magazines were my 2000 Toyota Tacoma ‘Xtreme Taco;’ the OG ‘CEOSLED,’, my 1959 Cadillac Coupe De Ville that laid frame on custom billet 20s; and ‘Project Fired,’ a true one-of-one build. The provenance of my 1959 Apache was sadly that it was destroyed in 2018’s NorCal Camp Fire, soon to be known as the Paradise Fire. An amazing truck with unbeatable patina. Then I did the OG, ‘Project BLKDOUT,’ which was a frame-laying, full blacked-out 2000 OBS Chevy dualie rocking satin black 24s on all corners; loved this one for sure. The design process is always fun; hell, I wish I could do all the things that I have Tony at PrrDiem and Willie at Creep Works build for me, but I know my lane.
1973 Chevrolet C10 engine bay GM V8 Wilwood brakes
1973 Chevy C10 slammed on chrome wheels lowrider stance
“Mr. Simpson. First off, my dude Eddie Franco told me that our buddy, that sexy ginger Derek Schaefer, actually started this build back in 2016 but he got busy so on a shelf it went at his shop in San Luis Obispo. After years of collecting dust and a few years of me trying to get it, I was finally able to pry it from his hands. Never had a Squarebody and honestly didn’t realize the love the Squares seem to bring. It’s a killer one-year-only color, the first year of the Squarebody, and the only year of no factory driprails … pretty cool, I think. If I recall correctly, [Schaefer] named it Mr. Simpson because it’s orange, like orange juice and, well, O.J. Simpson. So, a few cocktails and some mash-up of whatever and there you have it: Mr. Simpson. Oh yeah, did I mention the OE patina on it? Sheesh!”

Beneath that OE patina is pretty much everything BUT OE: For starters, the frame has been front- and back-halved with Chopping Block suspensions, both controlled by AccuAir e-Level ride height management. A quartet of 14-inch Wilwood Aero disc brakes now mount 22-inch Raceline Billet Nitro wheels wrapped in Toyo Proxes. Beneath the hood—and now surrounded by Hart Fab sheetmetal inner fenders—is a rather lumpy 383 stroker SBC backed by a 700-R4 overdrive. Inside that one-year-only cab, Jason utilized a Snowden custom bench seat and replacement upper door panels. Though original, the gauge bezel now complements Dakota Digital’s VHX instruments, while a shortened Ididit/Squarebody Syndicate column does the same with the original steering wheel and the Vintage Air controls are discretely housed in the stock location. Audio Concepts wrapped up the interior, literally, with custom enclosures, lower door/kick panels, center console, and so on—all strategically and very tastefully housing a complement of JL Audio/Focal/Rockford Fosgate systems based off a Kenwood head unit producing a “modest” 1,800 watts with a mere 11 speakers!

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