We’ve all marveled over the truck builds unveiled by Premier Street Rod in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and that trend continues with the release of its latest 1957 Chevy pickup project. With other showstopping builds under their belts, Ross Logsdon and his talented team at Premier have proceeded to apply the same winning recipe to past Chevy 3100 legends, such as “Sonic,” “Patron,” “Sinister 56,” and “Snow White,” but introduced a secret ingredient to shake things up a bit with the creation of this ’57.
Premier’s customer Rob Chesson had just one request: to receive a Pro Touring–style Task Force pickup that was a little different than the rest. Aside from featuring the same insane level of badassery, each of the aforementioned 3100s built by Premier have all been outfitted with a Stepside bed. While the Stepside does provide a utilitarian aesthetic, Logsdon and team were looking to refine the silhouette of this 1957 Chevy with the use of an Apache-style Fleetside bed, which was just enough to energize Rob’s outlook for the project. While the changeup is an easy audible to call for Premier since it produces and sells Chevrolet truck bodies, the new direction in bed style made a world of difference in creating a much sleeker appearance overall.
To further push the boundaries of the truck’s exterior, Jason Deering of Premier subtly massaged the metal surfaces of the body panels to give the truck a streamlined look. From there, the team decided on a combination of satin and gloss black PPG paint finishes to make for a truly dark and devious façade. It was this paint selection that largely contributed to the naming of this work in progress “Evil Twin.”
To complement the chosen color palette are carbon-fiber accessories from Munssey Speed, including custom rear diffuser sections, covers for the Ringbrothers mirrors, a grille shell, and surrounds that complement the Lokar door handles and Nova-Lux LED headlights. The Hart Fab front steel inner fenders and carbon-fiber rear fenders help round out the truck’s subtle restyling. Fresh panes from Lucky’s Auto Glass were soon added to allow a clear view in every direction. Dek X marine flooring was then utilized for the custom raised bed floor that emits a truly unique look, as does the actuating center panel that lifts for direct access to the suspension system below.
Just in case you were wondering, an original 1957 chassis was not used for this project. Instead, the Premier Street Rod crew opted for something much grander for the truck—a full custom chassis system from GSI Machine and Fabrication. This new frame offers the 3100 a fresh breath of life and has been properly adorned with Ridetech ’bags at both ends plumbed to dual ViAir compressors that are controlled by an AccuAir management package. Upgraded Wilwood braking kits have also taken up residence on the GSI chassis, as has a staggered set of 20×8.5 and 22×12 Billet Specialties Prism wheels and 235/45ZR20 and 325/35ZR22 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S high-performance rubber.
Powering the 3100 is an impressive 427 LS from Borowski Race Engines, complete with a Whipple supercharger, 3-inch Ultimate Headers that expel spent fumes through a custom exhaust system and out the Borla ProXS mufflers. Of course, the entire bay was treated to a network of bead rolled and painted sheetmetal panels to neatly frame the LS powerhouse at the center. Backing the engine is a Hughes 4L80E transmission, QA1 carbon-fiber driveshaft, and Currie 9-inch rearend. Together, this symphony of pure performance cranks out a whopping 1,119 hp count with 1,007 lb-ft of torque. So far, Premier was right on track to creating yet another street machine worthy of its branding.
The next category that needed attention was the 3100’s interior space, which was already mapped out well in advance and was custom fabricated by Premier’s team. To kick off the in-cab construction, the expertise of Sew Cal Rods in Ontario, California, was sought out to upholster the pair of Sparco carbon-fiber race seats with custom leather hides. Matching door panels, center console, dashpad, and headliner were also stitched together to complete the look, which turned out to be a superbly modernized take on classic street rod cleanliness. A Holley EFI digital dash display was set into place to deliver an accurate in-depth peek at the truck’s vital signs. Keeping things cool (and warm when needed) is the ultra-compact Restomod Air Bantam-S climate-control kit, and conducting the tunes is a well-balanced collection of Rockford Fosgate hi-fi components. JT at Premier tackled the installation of American Autowire’s required harnesses to deliver the necessary juice throughout the 3100 from bumper to bumper.
While one would think it would be impossible to top the results of Premier Street Rods’ previous truck builds, it is so satisfying to be proven wrong by the team yet again. Relying on its own in-house talents, Premier handled a majority of the project, while outsourcing to only the finest shops and manufacturers to will Evil Twin into existence. Now that it’s here, let the debates begin about its rank among Premier’s groundbreaking trucks of the past.
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