Thread: My Little Red Muscle Truck

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With the Healey project pretty much winding down to the end, it’s time to start something new. This is going to be it:



It’s a 1985 Chevrolet square body, but all is not as it seems because it’s registered as a ‘76. I know this truck very well and I should because my dad and I built this thing several years ago with some help from my son. We did a frame-off build on it, and this was the last big project I worked on with my dad before he got sick. It is the only complete build I have ever done for someone else. For several reasons, it fell into the condition you see now.

It always bothered me to see the truck in this shape. It was nice enough at one time to win a couple of trophies at local shows. I tried over the years to get it, but the owner always said no. After the engine went south, it was parked in his yard until the city started hassling him about it and he was afraid they would tow it. I offered to move it to my house on the condition that it be repaired. That never happened and for quite some time I have been dragging it around my yard with my tractor to mow under it. Recently, the owner moved out of state. I had had a couple of serious offers and was constantly having people stop by to ask if it was for sale. I told the owner that he needed to move it, sell it or transfer it to me. I offered him the “right of first refusal” and he decided it needed to be with me.

As to the truck itself. The original frame was bent, and I just happened to have a junk ’76 stored away with a perfect frame. A frame swap was easier than getting the original frame straightened and that lead to a pretty good restomod build. The old ’76 frame was stripped, sand blasted and coated with industrial epoxy. All the brake lines were cleaned and painted. The front end was completely rebuilt with poly bushings and the truck got 2 ½” drop spindles. The ’76 brakes were much heavier than the ’85 pieces, so they were used on the front. The rear was dropped 4” with front and rear spring hangers and shackles.

I also installed a 1 ¼” front sway bar from a 1 ton truck and an 1 1/8” rear bar from Bell Tech (I think). Heavy duty shocks rounded out the suspension. It rolls on American Racing 15x8 rims and 275x60 tires front and rear.

The ’85 rearend was inspected and new axle bearings were installed. The rear brakes were rebuilt with stock parts. All brake hoses were replaced. The truck came from the factory with a 700R4 and that was the only thing that didn’t get torn down, since it worked fine. The only trans mod was to rewire it so that it locked the converter when it went into OD. The funny thing is that the rear has 3.08 gears and it came that way. The build sheet in the glove box confirmed it. I would have guessed 3.25’s or 3.42’s.

The engine was a warmed over 305, that was retained for fuel mileage. I pocket ported the 305 HO heads, installed flat top pistons and a mild truck cam. The manifold is a Performer RPM and the carb is an Edelbrock 600. The exhaust is Hedman long tube headers with 2 ¼” pipes all the way. Mufflers are Flowmaster clones. The little engine was stronger than you would think and was capable of 20-21 MPG when driven right. Wouldn’t have been my first choice for power, but it served well until the fuel pump failed, pumped the crankcase full of gas and ran like that for who knows how long. Number 7 cylinder started pumping lots of oil and the truck got parked.

The other big mod to the truck was moving the gas tank to the rear. We built a custom tank since I wasn’t aware then that the Suburban tanks can be made to work. I moved the fuel filler to about the same location on the rear quarter as a Blazer or Suburban, too.



The wheels on the front are pretty much roached by brake dust, but the rears are still ok. I got a price from a local wheel polisher to redo them all, but I could buy new wheels for a little more. I might look into having them powder coated.



I still have a few other things to do before I can start on this one, but I'm in the serious planning stages.