Custom chassis? Check. Blown LS-engine? Check. Wild body mods? Check. Creating the perfect five-tool custom truck is similar to building the ideal five-tool baseball player.
You want a solid defenseman, who has speed around the base paths, someone who can hit for a high average and can still hit bombs, oh, and a strong arm would complete the package. For a custom truck builder, the defense would be the foundation-suspension, and the speed, well that one is easy-engine, and for batting, a slugger has to have a well-built body and a custom truck needs one of those as well. This month, in our on-going buildup of project: The Show, a wild '67 Chevy C10, we'll team up with Chassis by Aaron Iha to see how they are going to knock one out of the park by creating a one-off bed. Great thing about this mod, if you can weld, take precise measurements, and you have some time, you too can make a custom bed for your truck. Read along as we ask Aaron Iha how he custom-built a bed from the outside in and made it look like it could have been created by Chevrolet's design studio.
1. Aaron, as we see you welding the bracing inside the bed, last month you told us that you removed 6 inches from the front of the bed to keep the truck’s proportions just right. What else did you do to the outside of the bed?
2. Wow, it looks like you only used the outside bedsides from the original bed.
3. Walk us through the way you made the bedsides work and what all of that bracing is there for.
4. Taking a look at the bracing's C-notch, you obviously had to take into account the suspension's cycling and the rear wheel/tire diameter and width to make sure the wheel tubs would fit perfectly.
5. Were there any other factors that you measured or had to take into account to make sure everything was spot-on?
6. Once you had everything welded in place and you were happy with the fitment?
We really only shaved the...
We really only shaved the rear marker lights, gas door, and installed a roll pan. We had ideas of changing the taillights or even slanting the rear of the bed forward, but the more I thought about it, a clean, classic look was the best way to go. The roof swap was so dramatic I did not want to modify the body too far from the original C10 look.
It was pretty tragic to take...
It was pretty tragic to take a perfectly good bed and only use the bedsides.
Prior to cutting the bedsides...
Prior to cutting the bedsides off, I took key measurements of the width and certain overall dimensions of the bed. From that, we created a frame for the bed by putting it on a jig on the bench to make sure it was square. We then attached the bedsides to the frame, double-checking our original measurements.
No you pretty much covered...
No you pretty much covered it.
We do however, have to have...
We do however, have to have the frame and suspension completely assembled to take precise measurements for clearance. If I'm off by 1/2-inch it could mean a day behind schedule or worse—burnt paint.
Once the bed was square, rigid...
Once the bed was square, rigid and clearanced properly it was time to have fun with sheetmetal.