My Little Red Truck

Gary Donegan, TN

For ten years I drove a 1971 Chevy step-side which I had painted blue Imron. A little rust began to show up and about that time a friend made me an offer to purchase the truck. I had to make a decision to sell it or to restore it. I decided to sell. What a mistake! Shortly after selling the truck I began to look for another one in good shape. It took me three years to find one. In December of 1991 1 purchased my 1970 Chevy step-side. My plan at that time was to build it as a daily driver. In the spring of 1992 I disassembled the truck down to the frame which I cleaned and painted chassis black. I removed the small block engine and the standard transmission .and replaced it with a completely rebuilt 454 (.060 over) and added many dress-up and performance parts including a cool custom built brake vacuum chamber made by my brother Glenn and a rebuilt turbo 400.

By this time the project had evolved from a daily driver into a show truck. I removed all the paint to bare metal and primed it with self-etching primer. I located a 9" Lincoln rear-end (with disc brakes) which I had narrowed . I purchased a set of Centerline Champion 500 wheels and a set of Mickey Thompson 33 x 195 rear tires. I narrowed the frame and installed a coil-over shock rear suspension. For the front end, I installed a complete 1976 Chevy pickup front cross-member which I dropped with a combination of 3" drop Belltech spindles and 1-3/4" dropped springs. For the interior I located a very low mile1986 Cadillac with black leather interior. I purchased the seats and cut the front seats down to buckets and used the leather from the back seat to cover the door panels and to make a headliner. Between the buckets I installed a new Ford van console which I fixed by adding a new Chevy bowtie emblem.

I wanted all the modern conveniences so I added air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, tilt steering, factory tach, Custom Autosound stereo, power door locks and powered all the windows except the windshield. For the bed I located some black walnut and purchased polished stainless steel strips and hardware.The tailgate was customized to a side swing with hidden hinges and hidden power activated latch. I also added many other custom features such as a forward opening hood, a power activated hidden gas door (behind the rear side marker light) and a frenched power antenna.

For five of the 7-1/2 years it took to build the truck, I had planned to paint it blue. One day while driving down the highway I saw a new Mustang with factory 3-stage laser red metallic paint. Now keep in mind I am a Chevy man, not a Ford man, but when the Mustang went by and my head could turn no further I realized I had found the color I wanted . My nephew Tracy did the paint and body work for me. In 1999 I started showing the truck and drove it 3000 miles to all the shows and cruise-ins . During the winter I purchased a trailer and dually and for the next three years I trailered my truck .I soon realized that trailering was work and driving was fun so I sold the trailer and dually and used the money to make my pickup more road-ready. I installed a Dakota Digital cruise control, an SSB electric vacuum pump , and a set of Flowmaster super 40 mufflers. For reducing the crusing rpm's by 700, a Gear Vendors under/overdrive (which also gives me the option of splitting the gears) turning my factory three-speed into a cool six-speed. I enjoy driving and showing my truck and look forward to cruising to many events around the nation with my beautiful wife Vandean!