Matt's 972 C10 known as LowLion is the truck that started Carolina Truck Shop.
When Matt & Missy met, Matt was driving a custom 1989 S10 that he build in Highschool. When they got married, matt sold the S10 with the plan to someday build a 67-72 C10 when their lives settled down.
Eventually, Matt & Missy moved to Lyman, South Carolina where they finally had a garage that could support a project and soon Matt was on the hunt for a C10. He settled on this 1972 short bed C10.
The truck was powered by the original small block Chevy 350 and TH350 transmission, but that was all going to change.
Soon the suspension was blown apart and Porterbuilt components were installed to give it an air suspension.
Later the tired 350 was replaced with a 5.3l LS and 4l60e out of a 2004 Avalanche.
While the engine was out, Matt's good friend Mark Colins painted the firewall, inner fenders and other engine pay components.
The front clip was swapped with a slant nosed 1968 clip.
At this point, Matt's C10 consisted of multi-colored body panels, rally wheels with white letter tires, bagged suspension powered by a cam'd 5.3l LS engine. It's multi-colored look earned it the nickname Circus Lion - a nod to Jim Aust's C10 called Circus Wagon which graced the cover and pages of Sport Truck Magazine when Matt was growing up.
After enjoying the Circus Lion for a year or so, Matt and Missy decided to pull the trigger and have the Lion finally painted. They reached out to good friends Timmy and Rhonda Morris, who along with their daughter Emma, body worked, primed and painted the truck in their backyard body shop. After a few months at paint, LowLion finally emerged complete with BMW Deep Sea Metallic paint and a Yenko inspired stripe.
The truck was brought back to Matt's house, where finally assembly took place.
In September 2020, Logan Wade photographed LowLion for a feature in an upcoming C10 Builders Guide. We didn't know it would take more than 2 years for it to show up in print, but it finally did, allowing Matt to achieve a longtime goal of building a magazine worthy ride!
