Mean Street

Feature

InTheGarageMedia.com

BY Scotty LachenauerPhotography By The Author

A

lready having a sweet 1955 Bel Air under wraps in his personal garage space, hot rodder Bob Garone of East Moriches, New York, was understandably stoked when he recently came upon a rust-free Chevy 3100 pickup of the same vintage. It seems like 55 is just this guy’s lucky number. It was also fortunate for him that this particular truck was under the care of his good friend Anthony Luca at Anthony’s Rod & Custom in Ridge, New York. “After seeing it in person I immediately knew that a custom ride, built from this body, would be a perfect addition to my Tri-Five Bel Air,” Bob says.

This Injected Big-Block Bruiser Rules the Blacktop

This Injected Big-Block Bruiser Rules the Blacktop

BY Scotty Lachenauer

Photography By The Author

A

lready having a sweet 1955 Bel Air under wraps in his personal garage space, hot rodder Bob Garone of East Moriches, New York, was understandably stoked when he recently came upon a rust-free Chevy 3100 pickup of the same vintage. It seems like 55 is just this guy’s lucky number. It was also fortunate for him that this particular truck was under the care of his good friend Anthony Luca at Anthony’s Rod & Custom in Ridge, New York. “After seeing it in person I immediately knew that a custom ride, built from this body, would be a perfect addition to my Tri-Five Bel Air,” Bob says.

It didn’t take long for Bob to conjure up a plan to possibly pry the Chevy from Luca’s torqued-up grip and then execute that plan with both extreme prejudice and precision. The transaction was aided by the fact that Bob would then hire Luca to build the needy Chevy truck into the pickup of the new owner’s wildest hot rod–driven dreams. A deal was struck between the two and a strategy was quickly set into motion. The goal: to build a one-of-a-kind custom-bedded hot rod, using some of Bob’s own home-brewed ideas of what a real cool Chevy truck should be. Game on!

Start!
“First off, I wanted to have a custom frame made to help get the body as low as possible to the blacktop. That was the look I was after. Next, we decided to do something unique and ditched the more common Stepside bed and located a 1958 Fleetside Apache parts truck in New Jersey. The overall proposal was to build a high-performance luxury Pro Touring pickup that can fit in the best of both worlds,” Bob says.

“After seeing it in person I immediately knew that a custom ride, built from this body, would be a perfect addition to my Tri-Five Bel Air.”

Once underway, Luca keyed on designing and fabricating the one-off frame for the Chevy. Like previously stated, the main objective was to get this Chevy to hover just over the asphalt for that magical “speeding while standing still” look. To kick off the build, a steel Art Morrison Enterprises (AME) GT Sport frame was purchased for the project to become the starting point for the bones of this truck. Next, Luca did his magic, heavily modifying both the ’rails and body to get the cab to sit just above the pavement. Once the elevation point was set, the suspension was custom fabricated to help make this truck handle like it was cruising on a polished-platinum railway.

Stocked!
From that point it was a rodder’s recipe of top-of-the-line parts to upgrade the chassis. Strange double-adjustable coilover shocks were placed up front along with an AME antisway to handle the front suspension duties. Out back, a four-link setup was custom fabricated around an AME narrowed 9-inch rear stuffed with a Strange Detroit locker differential and 3.55 gears. Strange double-adjustable coilovers make an appearance back here as well, along with another AME sway bar.

For stopping power, Luca went with HUGE Wilwood 15-inch rotors up front, pinched by six-piston calipers for mucho stopping power. Out back, 13-inch Wilwood rotors along with four-piston calipers do their duty and do it to perfection. Billet Wilwood spindles and hubs add to the high-end bling on this hot rod truck. To keep it all pointed in the right direction, a Flaming River rack-and-pinion was installed up front between the ’rails.

Once the chassis was set, Luca keyed on the 1955’s body. The main revision to this truck’s original layout was adding the 1958 Apache Fleetside bed—something the owner insisted on from the get-go. Luca painstakingly laid out the cab and bed on the new ’rails, making them work in harmony for a truly one-of-a-kind look. From there a set of custom roll pans were fabricated both fore and aft of the truck to give the Chevy an old-school hot rod look and feel. The mirrors were shaved for a cleaner canvas, and the front bumper was tucked and shaved for the same reason. Tubs were added out back for the massive rubber Luca was about to fit under this ride. To finish it off, a custom flat tailgate with hidden latches was fabricated in the rear, along with custom tonneau cab corners, which mimic the shape of the cab to bring the styling all together.

Sprayed!
Once the mods were finished, Luca basted the body in PPG black and topped it off with several coats of Spies Heckler clear. A custom oak bed was assembled out back, complete with stainless rails with hidden bolts. The stock front grille was rechromed and installed, along with flat-style hidden headlights and stock taillights outfitted with LED lights out back. Wheels are by Hot Rods by Boyd; 18×8 up front, 18x12s out back. They are shod with Nitto Nto055 235/35/18s and Mickey Thompson ET Street Drag Radials 345/35/20s, respectively.

Dashboard & Interior of a 1955 Chevy Cameo

When it came to the interior, Luca realized it was no time to let up. He sent the truck over to John at Miller Place Auto Upholstery for a complete cockpit makeover. There the crew covered the custom Glide seat and door panels with a matching treatment of Hydes Hans Reinke (HHR) leather. Next a custom Alcantara headliner was installed up top along with a new custom carpet on the floor. To match the rack up front, a Flaming River column with built-in shifter was added to the driver side; topped with a Budnick billet wheel which was half-wrapped in matching HHR leather. The custom dash was then filled with an array of Classic Instruments gauges to keep track of the vitals.

Stacked!
Though the truck’s design cues are out of this world, Luca really impressed with the powerplant in this hot rod, which was built at Shafiroff Racing in nearby Bohemia, New York. It all starts with a 615ci Dart big-block, possessing a healthy 4.600 bore. Next it was stuffed with a set of 10.9 Diamond pistons, which rotate on a crank pushing a 4.625 stroke. A set of fully ported Brodix BB3x 380cc heads top the cylinders and custom-made 2 1/4 headers while 4-inch collectors get rid of the spent gases. Up top, a Hillborn 3-inch bore EFI-R BBC injection system delivers this monster-mill the go-juice it needs. This recipe for power is finger-lickin’ good, as the big-block’s numbers came out quite tasty. On the shop dyno this combination was good for 1,000 hp at 6,500 and 879 lb-ft of torque at 5,400 rpm. Now that’s some sweet stuff right there!

Now that the truck is finished, needless to say Bob will be flogging it out on the straightaways of Eastern Long Island and beyond, pushing its 600 inches of GM muscle all over the sand-swept roads of his beachfront locale. With its clean, black silhouette and hefty punch underhood, this full-power street truck was made for bringing excitement back to the classic truck experience … igniting the senses while full throttle cruising out on the byways of America. No doubt about it, this guy can certainly drive 1955s!

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