By Rob Fortier – Images by NotStock Photography
Just when I thought I’d seen everything that could be done to a 1947-53 Chevrolet Advance Design pickup, along comes Dennis Briggs’ 1953 five-window that completely restores my faith in design ingenuity! Like, here I am, mentally trying to picture what GM accessories look best with what without going too overboard with the gingerbread, and Dennis, along with SaltWorks’ Thom Speed, completely threw all that out the window when redesigning this road course–influenced AD!
According to Speed, “Dennis had originally started this build in his home garage, with a great foundation, new body panels, and such, and a killer chassis from No Limit Engineering. He then decided he wanted to take it to the next level, so he met with us and we discussed his outcome, and went above and beyond that … we did everything entirely in-house. We built the bed from scratch and did all the metalwork, wiring, plumbing, paint, and interior. Dennis currently uses the truck to drive around his hometown of Marco Island in South Florida, ripping it everywhere!”
OK, so let’s start with that bed Speed mentioned—more specifically, the tail section. Other than the angle/shape of the bed’s rails, literally nothing about is reminiscent of an Advance Design box—more like a Rolex 24 GTP race car if you ask me. And all of that, from the spoiler/air deflector to the intricately bead-rolled aluminum floor and wheelhouses, is as Speed said: all handmade in-house. Similar treatment can be found on the road’s leading edge of the frontend, with that scoop-enhanced blade bumper, though the satin-coated grille set below the sectioned stock hood is definitely ’47-53 Chevy material. More hand-built SaltWorks goodness can be found on the reshaped, de-beaded running boards, while those taillights, in case you were wondering, are repurposed Lexus and the mirrors/door handles are from Intek Otto. The majority of the abovementioned is now coated in candy Sid Red by SaltWorks’ Dean Van Der Walt and Aaron Muniz, with gold-accented 20-inch Billet Specialties B-Forged 20-inchers with 11-inch Wilwoods nestled behind.
The TCI chassis Dennis started out with features their proprietary tubular-armed IFS and four-link, Ridetech ShockWaves on all fours, and a Detroit Speed rack-and-pinion steering. For power, Dennis went with a pretty much crate-stock LT4 circa 2019, backed with an 8L90E and a Moser 3.73-geared 9-inch rearend.
Finally, before Dennis could commence with his tearing up of his local highways and byways, the SaltWorks crew whipped up a nice, contemporary interior using a mix of leather materials, late-model GM bucket seats, and a modified Camaro center console. Steering column is from Ididit, which uses a traditional perforated-leather MOMO three-spoke wheel (taking me back to my VW Golf days!), while the stock dash has been fitted with custom Dakota Digital RTX gauges. A Focal/JL Audio sound system and Vintage Air A/C were added for obvious reasons.
For those wondering where the title “Sid” came from, as Speed told us in closing, “… he’s the mean kid in Toy Story—Dennis wanted the truck to be vicious!”
Check out this story in our digital edition here.
