By Todd West – Images by Chadly Johnson
I first got interested in the concept of restomods when I saw the third-generation Challenger. I thought it was such a cool concept to have an old-school body on top of a modern chassis and interior. When I was finally in a place in my life to afford buying such a car, I bought a first-generation Camaro that was basically retromodded. I drove the car for the first year then quickly realized it needed to have a better chassis/frame under it because it had too much horsepower for the Hotchkis suspension that it had. I began the search for something better, which led me to MetalWorks and the Art Morrison (AME) chassis. At this point I had very little mechanical skills, so with the help of a good friend we tore out the old chassis and frame from underneath the Camaro and installed the AME frame and suspension.
A year and a half later, with the new chassis and paintjob, “Delilah” was born (the Camaro) … and so was my passion for building cars. I was so incredibly impressed with the guys at MetalWorks and the HUGE improvement of the ride and handling of the Camaro that I knew my next build would be with the help of MetalWorks and an AME frame as its foundation.
Knowing my next build was going to start with the aforementioned AME chassis, I also knew I wanted it to have a supercharged LT5 as the powerplant, so what better to put that in than a truck—a 1967-1972 C10 was hands-down my choice for this build. An AME chassis and GM Connect-and-Cruise LT5 mated with an eight-speed automatic transmission was sure to be the foundation of a killer build.
The next step was to talk with the guys at MetalWorks to get the plan in motion. During our discussion about ordering the chassis/engine combination, one of the choices was to get the IRS put in the frame (I had considered this option for the Camaro as well), so I was like “hell yeah, l want the IRS!” At the time that decision was made I hadn’t realized that the IRS for the 1967-1972 C10 was a brand-new release and that this truck would be the very first C10 with the IRS (debuted in CTP, of course! –Editor), that’s when I knew this was going to be a special build, having the first IRS and powered by the rare LT5 engine. Once the order was placed, I then focused on finding a C10 for the project … I eventually found a truck online that was in Georgia; it didn’t have a motor or tranny with it, pretty much just a cab and frame and body panels, which was perfect for this project.
In the spring of 2021 I got the truck home in Maine and began tearing it down. One of the first things I did was research the SPID info, which revealed that the truck was a “highlander,” a rare trim package offered in 1972s, thus I named this truck “HYLNDR,” but I had to change the spelling to get a license plate.
In the summer of 2021, I had the truck media-blasted to reveal the original metal, and although the truck came from Georgia it still had issues—door bottoms, cab corners, and even the floor had some rust through. In the fall of 2021, the cab and panels were brought to Paul, my buddy and owner of Image Auto Body, where he replaced all the bad areas with new metal and shaved off the driprails. In the winter of 2022 I began soundproofing and wiring the cab while awaiting the arrival of the AME chassis from MetalWorks. Being the first IRS chassis, MetalWorks and AME had a few things to figure out together while assembling the chassis, so there was some delay in receiving the chassis. In September 2022 the chassis finally arrived at my home; later that month the cab was mounted on the chassis, loaded on the trailer, and brought back to the body shop.
Over the next few months, Paul at Image Auto Body worked on all the metalwork and bodywork, and by the end of February 2023, the truck was back in my garage. It was now my turn. Through the winter of 2023 I completed the wiring and plumbing of the truck. This process, like all the metalwork, was a challenge, trying to hide all the wires and plumbing that comes with installing an LT5. Again, I am new at this stuff so at times I had to turn to some vendors for questions. MetalWorks took the brunt of those questions. I can’t say enough good things about the staff there and all that they do for their customers. In April 2023 the engine was fired for the first time, in June 2023 the truck hit the road for a few hundred miles before heading back to the body shop for paint. In September 2023 the truck was painted and back to my garage for final assembly. By mid October, the upholstery was finished. Over the next couple weeks, I finished up with the final detailing.
In November 2023, we headed to Goodguys Southwest Nats and the Wilwood booth in Scottsdale, Arizona, to debut the finished product!
Check out this story in our digital edition here.
