By Rob Fortier – Images by NotStock Photography
This story begins some four decades ago when Tim Hampel was an 18-year-old living in Little Rock, Arkansas, and spotted this 1953 Chevy 3100 at a local junkyard. Though it was the owner’s personal truck, a deal was struck and with the help of his dad, Tim hauled the five-window home and so ensued a father-and-son project for the next several years—as well, Tim inherited a newfound love in hot rods.
However, as some stories go, by the 1990s, the Hampel Hauler project had stalled and eventually made its way into storage—where it would remain until 2012.
After years of dormancy, the dust was finally cleared and, in an attempt to spark his own son’s interest, the project was revived. Weekends were spent performing various modifications, much like Tim and his father had done many moons ago. But by 2018, the decision was made to enlist outside assistance to, once and for all, get the ’53 where it needed to be: on the road.
Enter Killer Hot Rods (KHR), a name most of you should be very familiar with from previous featured builds. Over the course of five years, Nick Ryan and his Killer Krew in Texas took what the Hampels had started and transformed the truck into the modern Pro Street 53 Chevy beauty you see here.
All three Hampel generations had a hand in the Chevy’s chassis reconstruction; KHR took the platform to the finish line: fully boxed ’rails with Mustang II front and ProStreet/four-link rear suspension with narrowed 9-inch using Strange 35-spline axles and 4.11 gears (each corner dampened by QA1 coilovers and equipped with Wilwood discs). The engine of choice? Of course a Dyers 8-71 blown 486ci big-block backed by a stout Turbo 400 trans! KHR added a variety of custom touches throughout the engine bay—from the valve covers to the cowl-induced air cleaner and all the sheetmetal surrounding—as well as feeding the fuel with a Holley Sniper system and building a custom Hedman/Flowmaster exhaust.
Next came the exterior, which hosts a boatload of mods: from the smoothed and tucked bumpers to the reshaped/radiused wheel openings, the custom-fabbed running boards and bed assembly to the articulating wood bed “cover,” that PPG Iridium Silver (with Olive Metalika accents) over KHR and Bruce Luna’s bodywork covers many alteration manhours. Giving the ’53 its modern Pro Street finishing touch are a set of 18x8 and 20×15 Schott billets wrapped in Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R rubber.
KHR’s custom metalwork also carried on into the interior: the dash is a metalwork of art, hand-fabricated with concealed compartments (the glovebox houses the A/C controls, radio, and Holley interface module), a trick lower valence with integrated A/C registers, and a stylish, molded-mount Ididit steering column topped with a Sparc Industries wheel—all perfectly colormatched in silver. The Classic Instruments All American Tradition truck package gauge set, as well as the Alpine-based sound system, Old Air Hurricane air conditioning, and everything else electrical-related, was wired using an American Autowire harness by Kevin Penhaker. Finally, using olive green Ultraleather and a TMI Products split bench seat, Delgado wrapped the remainder of the internal contents, including the custom door/kick panels, center console, and formed headliner.
The Hampel family Silver Ghost has been on the road for a couple of years now after making an impressive appearance at the inaugural Grand National Truck Show, where we first laid eyes on it, as well as earning a Great 8 finalist award at the Detroit Autorama and becoming a Goodguys Truck of the Year Early Finalist.
Check out this story in our digital edition here.
