The garage · 1963
1963 Chevrolet C30, the workshop journal
An old blue-and-sand American truck, restored, and made better. A cabin of wood and velvet, a V8 breathing again, then the road: two journeys to Iceland, the Pyrenees and Spain.
- Model
- Chevrolet C30 · 1963
- Engine
- Small-block V8
- Back on the road
- Spring 2020
- Journeys
- Iceland 2021 and 2025 · Pyrenees and Spain 2023
Winter 2019-2020
Restored, and made better
At Christmas, the little presents do not fit under the tree: a V8 block repainted red, an intake manifold, a chrome timing cover stamped with the Chevrolet bowtie. The first new turns of the wheels are planned for spring.
Winter is spent on the lift, under a big star-spangled flag. Bonnet up, engine out, flywheel on the bench. By February the '63 Chevy is almost like new. Better, in fact.
The cabin
Wood, velvet and period lights
At the back, a closed cabin lined with dark wood panelling and blue velvet, like a small rolling lounge. Up front, the original bench seat, the slim steering wheel and the 1963 dashboard, with a modern radio slipped discreetly into it.
Preparing for a good season comes down to these details: a tail light in its place, a door that closes just right, paint that catches the light.
Autumn 2021
Six weeks in Iceland
The first big test: the Icelandic tracks. Kverkfjöll, the highlands, the fords, the black-sand plains where the blue truck becomes a dot. It stretched its wheels there for six weeks, with Emmanuelle.
The images come from the trip's videos: a ridge above a waterfall, bright moss, and a flow of molten lava, since that year Iceland also had a volcano erupting.
It went back in the summer of 2025, from the Westfjords to the highland fog. Each journey has its own journal.
The journalIceland 2021, six weeks in a Chevrolet C30Abroad · By 4×4 · August and September 2021Read the journal →
The journalIceland 2025, the C30 and the LaugavegurAbroad · By 4×4 · August and September 2025Read the journal →
The journalSpain 2023, the C30 to GranadaAbroad · By 4×4 · Autumn 2023Read the journal →
Autumn 2023
Pyrenees, Bardenas and Spain
Two years after Iceland, heading south. The C30 rolls through the Pyrenees, then onto the pale dirt tracks of the Bardenas, among badlands, canyons and red buttes.
Then old Spain: a tall ochre house, the Lovers of Teruel frozen in bronze, the source of the Río Mundo bursting from the cliff, a turquoise pool deep in a cave, tufa waterfalls. In the evening, camp at the foot of a cliff pitted with hollows. A wonderful experience, shared with Emmanuelle.
