Operation Muscle Truck
 

Anybody been following the build-up of Operation Muscle Truck in Street Trucks Magazine? It's a '95 Chevy shortbed on Air ride Tech susp. 20-inch bonspeed wheels, Baer brakes, 383 small-block, retro muscle car paint scheme and houndstooth interior.

Yes I have been Travis and its badass too. Love it. :thumbsup:

Ahhh, I've been waiting for this thread to start...

Love it Travis, but I gotta ask.

1. Why did you put black handles on it? The white handles are MUCH nicer.

2. Why did you paint it w/ the old white handles in?

Two words

SEMA RUSH

Black handles tie in with the black stripes, black mirrors etc.

Should have it turned and running solid in the next week and start driving it

Please tell me we're gonna see a nice, smokey burnout vid by this weekend? Please, Travis?! This truck is definitely inspiring my GMC...

Still battling computer issues. Should have it dialed soon and doing smoky burnouts.

Gotta love the gremlins!

This truck looked great at sema. The wheels/tire and stance look sweet :thumbsup:

Thanks all for the kind words. I've had a lot of fun building this truck and can't wait to drive it and enjoy it.

What kind of seats do you have in the truck?

Seats are buckets out of a '91 Chevy 1500 pickup

:ttiwop:

I aggree on the lack of pics. I don't know how to post them or i would put them up. Who can post them for me?

PM sent...

Here is a link to the website.

http://www.streettrucksmag.com/tech/...e-truck-part-5

Cool project. Thanks for the link its a good looking truck

Thanks Guys. It was a fun project to build and I still have a few more plans for it. What I like about it the most is that we built it almost entirely out of my two car garage and driveway with basic tools from my craftsman tool box just the way most of my readers would do it. The 88-98's are pretty affordable to build and you can have a lot of fun in one for a fraction of the price of doing an old muscle car. Of course being the Editor of a Muscle Car mag as well I am partial to muscle cars as well. This is my 5th '88-98 Chevy C/K pickup. I've had 2 standard cabs, an extended cab 1500, a crew cab 3/4-ton 2500 8-lugger, and a 1-ton crew cab dually. Op. Muscle Truck is my daily driver now. I am hoping to pound on it on the Autocross this season at Goodguys events.

Travis

So where are all the pictures? I love this truck, I'm building a similar 91 Sport. I have been following the magazine articles and there is not near enough pictures. I would love to see more.

I need to take a few hours and compile everything. We shot thousands of pictures while building it and will shoot more once we run it through the cones and test the grip of the rear tires. Got to make a few deadlines and I'll work on getting the pics up here. Glad the project is striking a chord with alot of you. These trucks are a great platform for performance and there are lots of parts for them.

Post some pics of your '91 and others that are working on them

Here's the thread with pics of my '95 GMC, if you want to see what I'm starting off with:cheers:

https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=19690

Very cool Jeff. What are your plans for it?

Plans are to clean it up and make it a dependable driver that will handle being thrown around on twisty roads and road courses. Hopefully I'll be able to order some 20's for it soon, and eventually I want to put ShockWaves at all 4 corners. Oh yeah, I heard there's this magazine giving away an LS3, so I've been entering my name for that since I'd love to have an LS motor under the hood... LOL!

Here's a link to the thread.
https://lateral-g.net/forums/show...676#post271676

Cool projects everybody. These truck are so cool-timeless body style.

Thanks for the compliments. Truck was a ton of fun to buld. Updating computer right now for more fuel. Should have her back at the end of next week and ready to shred some rubber and rip though the cones.

Cleaned the dash and interior plastics with PST cleaner which comes in a small cardboard box. It's a powder. Mixed that in with warm water (I believe there was a ratio) and scrubbed all plastics with a soft sponge. You want to get out all the oils and such out of the plastic from years of hands touching, various vinyl cleaners used etc. car wash shine oils etc. Once you have a good cleaning and rinse done with water we used SEM gloss black to dye everything. I got the SEM paint from Coast Airbrush in Anaheim, CA. They carry and can order a variety of vinyl dye paints from SEM. It's holding up pretty good so far and is easy enough to touch up.

I need to get all build pics up here. Need some education on how to load 'em

Use the manage attachment link under the attach files. Let me know if you need any help.

This truck is what has brought me back into the sport/muscle truck world. After reading part 5 on operation muscle truck truck i said enough. I put the old vw on hold status and bought a solid 97 c-truck short box reg cab. Just wanted to say thanks for the much needed inspiration. Just a couple questions PWR what would you say was the real amount you lowered the truck if it were to equal a static drop, 6/8 maybe? And did you leave the roof liner grey or was that recovered?

Gasoline- Thanks for the kind words on the project. On the drop I would say 6/8 to 7/9 but I wouldn't recommend hammering one that low without air. A 5/7 is perfect on these without air. The headliner was recovered in black vinyl. I'm glad the project inspired you-that was the goal.

Travis, the whole idea behind this truck, and the truck itself, is just double-throwdown badass!!! I hope it inspires more performance oriented builds in the sport truck scene, it'd be pretty cool to start seeing autocross courses popping up at truck shows.

Thanks for the compliments. Truck is a lot of fun and was a blast to build. I'd like to see this build get the Autocross thing going strong for trucks. should have the computer upgraded next week and driving shortly.

Trav,

A few questions.

1) as being a owner of several of these trucks and learning them. I noticed you said you have been running into tuning issues. I know when you installed the 383 you added the bigger throttle body,but did not go into any details about the computer. I know from experience the factory throttle body trucks dont take well to any engine mods. I was a little worried that you wouldnt touch on this topic in the mag.

2) I have on my engine stand a 355" with vortec heads and the same GM vortec TBI intake and would like to know also how you did the EGR tube? When you installed the Gibson headers did you use the 96-99 truck headers that had the bung for the EGR tube or did you fab one up.

I am building a 90' model truck that will mimic your build. Im painting mine white also but Im going to run the "Sport" stripes on the bottom of my truck. I will paint the stripes on instead of the rubber trim. Mine is dropped 5/7. Wheels are still undecided.

Several years ago at the local speed shop a guy came cruising in,in a lowered white 90 "sport" and it had a whine to it. I asked him if he would mind spec'n his truck. It had a 350 out of a vette with a vortec super charger,17x11 boyd wheels with a 315/35 bfg comp t/a, a flip kit with Competion Engineering housing floaters and ladder bars. He offered to take me a ride. That was the most fun and most memoriable time I ever had in a truck. Its his truck that has enfluence my build until I saw your project. Now mine is a taste of both trucks.

Thanks Trav for a cool project and a cool mag.

Greg

Im doin one rite now. A 88 year model.
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I wanna do an LS3 in mine, but it's last on a long list of things of mods I want to do right now.