“The most notable modification we offer is our extended foot-box package. Anyone who has ever owned or driven a first-series 3100 pickup will know the limited legroom available. It makes for a very uncomfortable driving position, especially for any time or distance. We solved that problem by physically pushing the foot-box out to allow approximately 4 inches of additional legroom. This roughly translates to the gas pedal being placed where the original toe kick would have been. Along with moving the floor out, we also moved the seat up and back as far we could to allow people who are over 6 feet tall to comfortably drive one of our trucks. Extending the sheetmetal is the easy part of this package; it’s the butterfly effect of everything else it changes that really makes this setup complicated. We have to redesign everything from the gas and brake pedal locations to physically moving the engine forward to clear the firewall so we can actually utilize the additional space gained.

“This truck had all of the cowl vents shaved and smoothed, the firewall was shaved and smoothed out, and we used Absolute Sheetmetal core support and an inner fender kit that we modified to fit our needs. All the gaps on the truck were cut, massaged, and welded back up. The hood is another big issue on these trucks. We added billet hood hinges as the foundation and then we go through and weld the two halves together to stiffen up the flex. From there we cut the back edge to fit correctly to the cowl and then we TIG weld round rod along the compete back edge to help stiffen up the edge and prevent hood flutter driving down the road. The Mar-K bed on the truck was modified with our radius bed corners on both the front and rear. Another notable modification on the back is what we call our picture frame mod: We add pieces to the sides of the tailgate that match the angle and bends of the upper and lower rolled portions on the tailgate, effectively making a picture frame look.

“Exterior mirrors are BBT Fabrications that had the mounts modified to fit the truck. The mirror housings were painted body color and the arms were chrome plated. The Apicella Designs side emblems are machined from billet aluminum and also chrome plated. The front end, bumper, and running boards were all wrapped in PPF or clear bra to protect from paint chips and people stepping on the running boards and scratching them. The front bumper had the original splash pan removed and we fabricated one that got welded to the top of the bumper and smoothed out. The mounts were modified to move the bumper lower and tuck it back in under the grille. The rear roll pan was extended down to allow additional clearance for our blade-style taillight bar and had a body line added around the license plate cutout. Finally, paint- and bodywork was done by Nostalgia Hot Rods out of Henderson, Nevada. Dustin hacker and his crew handled all the bodywork and prep to get this truck ready for its Ruby Red paint.

“Underneath all that is an Apicella Designs–spec TCI custom IFS chassis with Ridetech coilover shocks and TrueTrac Currie 9-inch nodular rearend. The crate engine is a 525hp hot cam LS3 with 4L75E transmission outfitted with Apicella Designs long tube Tri-Y headers, 23-gallon aluminum fuel tank with Holley in-tank fuel pump, and the factory engine cover was smoothed and painted body color along with the Holley hidden coil pack valve covers.