PRO DOZER

It’s true what they say about stray dogs following you home and staying forever. It’s human nature. As soon as they lock eyes with you, it’s game over. The same can be said of old, washed-up trucks. All it took was one look at the bare C20 cab that made its way from a Marketplace ad to our mist-shrouded, mountaintop corporate offices, and I knew we were destined for one another.

If you’ve been following this saga for the last 18 months or so, you’ll know that we literally started with a bare cab from an ‘86 C20 that we believe was a retired fire department truck from western Ohio. At some point, the truck was stripped of all of its low-mileage parts and put out to pasture. Seriously. The once mint cab had clearly been sitting on the ground for a few years, and the rockers and cab corners paid the price. After stripping the last few remaining pieces from the truck – the steering column and master cylinder – I got down to business on the minimal rust repair needed. The floors were as solid as could be, and the cab looked practically brand new inside. While I had the welder out, I did a light shave on the firewall, with the thought process of keeping its original looks. The new panels were epoxy primed and bodyworked before I shot color on those areas in my impromptu paint booth in my driveway. Like they say on Facebook, “It’s not stupid if it works.”

Attention then shifted to putting together the chassis. Along with the cab came a very clean early model short-bed 2WD frame that had been bagged and 4-linked at some point in its life. I made a call to Rob MacGregor at No Limit Engineering to discuss chassis options and in a matter of days, I was on the road to his shop in Dandridge, Tennessee, to pick up my new Wide Ride front and Fat Bar 4-link rear suspension systems. Together with their rack & pinion steering setup and robust 3-way adjustable coilovers from Viking, the entire package was a breeze to install on my otherwise stock frame rails. To fortify the chassis, Tin Works Fabrication supplied their frame stiffener, as well as front and rear frame supports.

For stopping power, Wilwood was my first choice. Their Forged Narrow Superlite 14” front and 12.88” rear brakes were installed along with their master cylinder and proportioning valve. I went with the smaller rear brakes in case I ever want to install 17” rear wheels with drag radials and hit the strip. The slotted rotors and red powder-coated 6-piston calipers certainly look the biz.

The go power is provided by a fresh 6.2L 495HP LS3 crate long block assembly I picked up from my buddy Jason Kretsch at Gandrud Chevrolet. Once it arrived, I got busy mounting the Holley front accessory drive, Ultra-Low Ram intake, and valve covers, after they received a splash of Cerakote. Slosh Tubz mild wheel tubs and fender and core support filler panels clean up the bay and frame the power plant perfectly.

A Chevrolet Performance bellhousing mates up to the Tremec T-56 Magnum 6-speed transmission with 2.66 first gear. The crew at Bowler Performance Transmissions was exceptional at answering a million questions and pointing me in the right direction. Same goes for the guys at Vengeance Clutch, who came in clutch with their dual-disc setup and billet flywheel. A billet yoke attaches to a beefy 4” driveshaft from Super Duty Driveline in Newark, Ohio, and sends power to the Winter’s Performance Champ quick-change rear end. My friend Curt Iseli at Winter’s helped get me everything I needed and even went out of his way to have the CK Truck Mag logo laser etched on the rear cover.

Behind that beautiful rear end is a great looking fuel tank from Boyd Welding. The 340LPH Aeromotive pump inside is plumbed throughout the chassis with a combination of hard and soft lines from Jason Berland and his top-notch team at Arizona High Test. A Chevrolet Performance flex fuel sensor is fitted into the system so I can run E85 in the tank and switch tunes in my Holley Terminator X Max EFI system at any time. Rounding out the chassis is a full 3” stainless steel exhaust system that I painstakingly crafted and tack-welded together. Mike Lane at Lane Motorsport Fabrication in Zanesville, Ohio, did all of the back purged TIG welding and the whole system looks like a million bucks. A crazy X-pipe and a pair of Magnaflow mufflers make everything sound just right.

At each corner, you’ll find bespoke BC Forged wheels custom-crafted to my exact specs. I wanted a period-correct look and chose their stepped lip MLE81 model for a retro feel. Wheels are 20×11 up front and 20×12 out back with 285/30ZR20 and 305/30ZR20 Continental tires, respectively.

Things start to get interesting as we move to the exterior of the truck. The OG paint fenders were found at the Ft Worth C10 Nationals swap meet, and the hood was located close to home on Marketplace. I handed over the fenders, new doors, and new Auto Metal Direct bed assembly (with their 4” wider tubs and matching bed floor) to the one and only Prince of Patina, Jerome Borris, and let him do his magic. What I got back from him was truly a work of art. The entire truck now has a convincing look of nearly 40 years of shelf wear with absolutely no fear of rock chips or door dings. At the truck’s debut at the C10 Nationals in Nashville, I had several folks ask me where I found such a clean original bed to put on the truck. New trim from Classic Parts of America, as well as fresh bumpers and grille from AMD, add a touch of class. Holley’s Retrobright LED high-and low-beam headlights provide modern light output with a retro look. I ordered the more “yellow” 3000K temperature units to keep that ‘80s feel, with no loss in power.

When I was cooking up the plan for the interior, I had a very distinct vision in my head. As with the rest of the truck, it needed to have nods toward the ‘80s but with modern amenities. I called my dude, Homer Bartram at Chubb’s Upholstery in Marengo, Ohio, and had him get to work on stitching things up. The Recaro seats are from an early 90’s VW Jetta and mounted to Corbeau brackets specifically designed for ‘73-87 trucks. After a call to Josh Laird at Relicate Leather, I decided to go with genuine Alcantara for the headliner and pillar trim as well as the inserts on the seats. Relicate Nappatek synthetic leather covers the remainder of the seats. The door panels and dash pad are from Classic Parts of America, and I dyed them to match the seats. ACC’s high-hump loop ‘73-74 style carpet was ordered to cover the AMD high hump needed to clear the big transmission. A killer set of seatbelts from Seatbelt Planet looks right at home. Holley’s 12.3” digital dash mounts perfectly to a Classic Dash bezel designed specifically for it. Vintage Air climate control keeps the cabin at just the right temp for the road trips we have planned.

In true pro touring fashion, we couldn’t leave out the tunes. There is no traditional head unit, but there is a single Bluetooth control knob in the center console. It receives a signal from my iPhone and sends it to a Clarion equalizer and into a 5-channel Pioneer amp mounted under the driver’s seat. Sounds come from Morel 6.5” front speakers and 6×9” rears along with a JL Audio 8” Microsub behind the driver’s seat.

Connecting everything together, American Autowire’s Classic Update harness was an awesome addition to this truck. From front to back, I can’t imagine a better product with better support.

Some of you may be asking yourselves where the name “Dozer” came from. In case you missed our initial installment of this build, I’ll give you the Cliffs Notes version. While I was initially assessing the condition of things, I reached into one of the cab corners to feel around for rust, and in the process found a well-used dog collar tucked down inside. When I looked at the tag still attached, it was engraved with the name “Dozer” and his former owner’s phone number and address. That bare cab was immediately christened on the spot with a bottle of diet Dr Pepper, and we never looked back. Now that he’s a pro touring wannabe, we might just stick with “Pro Dozer.” It kinda has a ring to it.