1967 Chevy Long Bed - That's More Like It

When Dave Reagan purchased this '67 Chevy longbed and became its third owner, he intended it to be just his daily driver. The body and interior were original, the engine had just been rebuilt, and it had been given a 700R4 transmission conversion. He wasn't looking for a show vehicle, just a nice solid truck that had little rust and would reliably take him back and forth to work. That is until he drove it home, parked it in his driveway, and showed it to his wife. She promptly looked at Dave's purchase and said that he was going to paint that ugly thing if he intended to park in front of their home.

So, even though Dave hadn't bought the truck intending for it to be a project, two months after purchasing it he was out in his garage tearing it down. For the next six months he worked on the Chevy, improving it and making it into something his wife would let him park in front of their home. He started Christmas weekend by pulling all the panels off, stripping them, and then seeing what he had to work with.

The body was the most important thing, as that was why the truck was apart in the first place. So the next five weekends were spent in his garage with a few of his friends prepping the body panels for the Glasurit Indigo Blue paint. As he was doing the prep work a few things were discovered that had to be replaced. One of those items was the header panel which had to go as it had seen years of abuse and was beyond repair. Dave also found out that the front fenders were from a '68 Chevy. Wanting a '67 truck, and not just pieces of one, Dave went out and purchased the correct fenders.

While the truck was apart Dave decided to upgrade a few things on the chassis. An Eaton Posi was installed in the rearend, along with five-lug axles. The suspension was lowered using custom springs from Classic Performance Products, with Doetch Tech shocks adding stability at all four corners. Also in all four corners 17x8-inch Boyd Coddington billet wrapped in Continental rubber were placed for something to roll on. To get the truck to stop once it was started Dave used the stock drum brakes in the rear but installed '72 Chevy disc brakes in front. He decided to upgrade the master cylinder to a Hydro Boost power and the steering column to a '72 GM tilt with a custom shifter.

Since the engine was rebuilt Dave went ahead and added a few things. From Edelbrock he purchased a camshaft, lifters, springs, intake manifold, 600cfm carburetor, and a fuel pump. He also added Taylor wires and billet valve covers. At the end of all this he had Flowtech headers, Flowmaster three-chamber Delta Flow mufflers, and 2.5-inch aluminized pipes.

Since Dave still planned to use this as his daily driver, once the truck was put back together the interior was not forgotten. Before anything was put in the whole cab was sound deadened using with Extreme Dynomat. Then came the new stereo so that all the wires could be hidden under the carpet. Dave chose to listen to his tunes in style with a Sony receiver and ten disc CD changer. He added to this a Rockford Fosgate amplifier under the seat, and four 10-inch kicker woofers behind the seat in a custom built speaker box. Bills Auto Upholstery covered the bench seat with black tweed while Dave handled the rest of the cab using black tweed with leather accents on the headliner and door panels. Black loop carpet was used on the floor.

So, six months later Dave has a truck he can park in his driveway with his wife's permission, and a driver he still plans to take wherever he wants to go. He also has a show truck-something he never expected when he bought it, but perhaps the truck was just destined not to stay ugly.