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I’m Trevor, lead wrench at the V8 Speed & Resto shop. Kevin and I have a lot of “pie in the sky” project ideas that we would love to do. I decided to take the plunge on one of them in my spare time: what if GM had made and SS pickup back in the 60s? Hopefully we will find that answer. The candidate for some major cosmetic surgery is a 1968 GMC C1500 long bed. I’ll get a few before pictures up to get the ball rolling…
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The first order of business is to make it a short bed, but I thought it needed something a little different. I decided to rake the tailgate 10 degrees to match the front fenders. I also thought it would make the most sense to keep the top of the bed the correct length of a short bed. The result is that the bottom of the bed is 4″ longer which makes the truck seem more proportionate and I think will make it look a little faster
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After the bed was shortened, I needed to shorten the frame too. I used a method called a step notch. This method is a strong way to weld a frame back together after 12″ has been take out of the middle. By cutting the notch 12″ long and rounding the corners keeps the stress to a minimum. By reinforcing the back of the weld, with another piece of 3/16″ plate, the area is stronger than it was before I cut it.
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Awesome! For those who don’t know, “V8 Speed & Bistro” is the handle of Trevor, the mechanic often found on V8TV videos. He’s been working on this truck for a while as a personal project. I’ve been leaning on him to start a thread to show how far this truck has come. It is looking great, it’s hard to believe the humble beginnings.
I started on the body work on the bed, but before I go too far, I needed some more fun. The first SS element: a spoiler! I am drawing most of my inspiration from a Camaro. I placed a 69 Camaro spoiler on the tailgate to get an idea of what direction to go. Obviously a glass spoiler wouldn’t just land on the tailgate properly, so I set out making a steel spoiler that had the same basic profile as the the Camaro piece. I used a piece of 1/4″ round bar to make the frame and formed sheetmetal to cover it.
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I also took some time to mini notch the frame in the back to allow a substantial drop. I’m planning on it coming down 6-7″ to make the wheels fill out the arches. I mocked the suspension up with some blocks to make sure everything was happy at my planned ride height.
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This is a tiny bit out of order, but for the story it makes the most sense to put this part here. I actually had the bed on and off about 15 times in this whole process, and I did some bodywork each time it was off. There isn’t a whole lot else to say other than it took a lot of time and sandpaper.
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After I was satisfied with the bodywork on the bed, I turned my attention to the rest of the sheetmetal. Obviously it in order for the SS theme to come together, the truck needed to go through a bit of a transformation. I bought a ’68 Chevy core support and grille. Then I hung the doors, fenders and grille. I then got the doors and fenders gapped to my satisfaction. I also cut the GMC letters out if the tailgate and welded in a flat panel. After that I body worked the seams in the spoiler and patch in place of the letters.
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It’s amazing how much different it looks at this point.
Kevin Oeste
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After I had the panels fitting, I blew the truck back apart to fix the minor rust in the floor, body mounts, and rockers. I also filled in the original heater openings and welded in the vintage air brackets. Lastly I blasted, painted and under coated the bottom of the cab.
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While I had the truck apart, I took the time to sandblast and paint the frame, and undercoat the bottom of the bed.
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