Chevy truck a lifelong pursuit for Malyon

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This article was published 21/10/2022 (1185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nine years of hard work paid off for Assiniboine Community College automotive instructor Mark Malyon this past summer, as he finally completed the restoration of his 1979 Chevrolet C10 truck.

While Malyon became the owner of this vehicle in 2013, his memories of this specific C10 reach all the way back to his childhood days growing up in Glenboro, when that step-side short-box design made a big impression on him.

“It spent its whole life in Glenboro, and I remember [the original owner] buying it brand-new in 1979,” the 54-year-old educator told the Sun Wednesday.

“It had changed hands a couple of times. It was a farm truck for a while, and the last owner that had it kind of literally drove it until it quit.”

By the time Malyon got his hands on the truck in the early 2010s, he said, the vehicle had been completely “driven into the ground,” with a rusted-out body that required a piece-by-piece rebuild from the frame up.

However, this arduous task didn’t spook the lifelong auto mechanic, who started tinkering with cars when he was 10 years old and began working in a Glenboro repair shop in high school.

From there, Malyon attended ACC in Brandon to study farm machinery mechanics, an experience that helped him secure a job as an auto technician for one of Murray Auto Group’s local dealerships.

Malyon eventually returned to ACC as an instructor in 2012, with this career pivot having brewed in the back of his mind for a long time.

“My uncle actually taught at Red River [College] for years, and I remember him taking me there as a young adult or teenager, and it really intrigued me. So it’s something I’ve always had an interest in,” he said.

“I stayed in touch with many of my instructors when I went through my college process, and it just led into this opportunity.”

With all this cumulative automotive repair experience in his back pocket, Malyon went to work bringing the C10 truck back to how he remembered it in his childhood, a process that required him to replace the engine, the suspension, the brakes and even rebuild part of the truck’s trademark step-side short box.

“That step-side box … it’s a little bit harder to find parts for,” he said. “And the very unique feature about it is it’s got the hardwood oak floor in it that me and a buddy built ourselves.”

When it came time to restore the truck’s body, Malyon said, he sought some outside help to complete the task, handing the vehicle off to the staff and students of Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School, and then Dave Shelvey of Viper Autobody and Glass.

However, Malyon managed to put some of the final touches on the truck himself, having spent a long time collecting the trim and badging that originally decorated this 1979 model back in the day.

“Even before I owned that truck, I knew I was going to restore one at some point,” he said. “So I’ve been collecting these parts for years and years.”

After nearly a decade of stops and starts, Malyon’s C10 restoration finally reached its conclusion in June, which gave the lifelong mechanic an opportunity to showcase all his hard work at this year’s Super Run in Brandon and a couple other local car shows.

While Malyon told the Sun this experience was extremely gratifying, he isn’t content with resting on his laurels and plans on making some additional upgrades to the Chevy alongside spearheading some other automotive projects with his children.

“They’re kind of following in my footsteps,” he said.

“My daughter is really, really interested in the autobody aspect of it. She’s taking autobody at Crocus Plains right now. And my son really likes the welding and the electronics part of it. So it all kind of fits.”

Speaking as an automotive instructor, Malyon believes his vintage C10 truck also serves as a good example of how to approach a restoration project of this magnitude.

Instead of rushing in and tackling everything at once, Malyon advises fellow gearheads to simply take their time and enjoy the entire process.

“There’s more to being a mechanic than just going to work and replacing parts for a shop,” he said. “There’s that passion of bringing a vehicle back to life.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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