Cruising through a truck show on a Saturday or Sunday morning as the summer sun dances on various shades of color draped over smooth metal is an experience that is hard to beat. There is something about sipping a hot cup of coffee while leaving work, bills, and life's responsibilities in the dust and gazing at low-slung pavement-pounding pickups. The smell of waxes and polishes fill the air, and the sound of rumbling camshafts and cackling headers serve as morning alarm clocks to awaken participants and spectators. Walking through the endless rows of custom haulers is a dessert for the eyeballs, and there always seems to be one truck that spectators and other show participants cannot get enough of. This is a truck that has a crowd gathered around it all day and pulls looks from all different directions. Jay Sharpe of San Leandro, California, owns such a truck and never fails to draw a crowd with his ultra-clean '63 Chevy longbed. At first glance, many may think this truck is just another pretty face with a set of 17-inch Americans tucked under the fenders, but upon closer inspection, their initial reactions would be blown to bits. Jay's truck is not some flashy custom, built only to look great in photos, but rather a truck with exquisite detail lurking under the hood and between the doors that can stand up to the most critical truck show judge. In short, Jay definitely sweat the details when he was putting this amazing C10 together.
Jay's first order of custom business for the truck was to perform some suspension surgery and get the framerails down to an aesthetically acceptable altitude for cruising. The truck was rolled into Jay's home garage and the stock suspension was disassembled to make way for a complete Air Ride Technologies suspension system. Classic Performance Products drop spindles initiated the frontend descent, while Air Ride Technologies air springs allowed the nose of the '63 to close in on the ground below. Smoothing out the bumps in the road during Jay's extensive truck show journeys are Belltech Nitro-Drop shocks. Moving to the rear suspension, Jay C-notched the frame to give the rear axle excess clearance when he gets the sudden urge to hammer on the switches. Air Ride Technologies air springs provide the same switch-hitting suspension adjustability and low cruising altitude out back, further enhanced by Belltech Nitro-Drop shocks. To accent the fresh suspension slam and capture the classic hot-rod appearance Jay was going for, a set of 17x8-inch front and 17x10-inch rear American Racing Torq-Thrust II wheels were mounted on BFG rubber and tucked deep into the fenders. For that classic big and little look, P235/40ZR17 BFG rubber was mounted up front, while the back wears extra-wide P275/40ZR17 BFG meats. Not long after the suspension was put in custom check, Jay figured a more contemporary engine and drivetrain was needed to enable the classic longbox to lay down some black stripes with a tap of the throttle.