1960 Chevy Truck - Just One Look

Sometimes you don't know what you're looking for until you find it -- or until it finds you. And once it's discovered, you wonder how you ever did without it!

Take Ted Lesher's story, for instance. The Iowa body shop owner was attending a show in Colorado with his '38 Chevy sedan when he came across this '60 Chevy pickup. Now Ted had never given much thought to building or owning a '60 Chevy, but something about this one just grabbed him. "I liked the look," Ted tells us, "low stance, big engine, 17-inch wheels." Simple as that, he was hooked! Before long he was talking to the truck's owner, Scott Cummings, about a trade. The two struck a deal and Ted found himself cruising back to Iowa in a bitchin' black Chevy pickup.

It's hard to argue with Ted's decision--we would've been hooked too (having something of value to trade would've been our shortcoming). As a bodyman, Ted obviously appreciated the truck's super-straight panels and the excellent black finish applied at Ozzie's Body (Loveland, Colorado). And like Scott, Ted appreciated the fact that early '60s Chevys--with their distinctive snout-nose hoods--are seldom seen as hot rods. Hard to say why when you consider how sharp this one looks with its clean, black Fleetside body complemented by a chrome grille and bumpers.

Another thing that Scott got right was the truck's stance, achieved using dropped spindles up front and custom springs in the rear. The Billet Specialties Vintec wheels and Nitto rubber look just right, too. And did we mention the big block? There's 468 inches of fat Rat under that hood, which was enough to scoot the Chevy down the Julesburg, Colorado, quarter-mile track in 13.5 seconds when Scott raced it there.

There's plenty of style on the inside to go along with the pickup's mechanical substance. Richard's Auto Upholstery covered the stock bench seat with gray UltraLeather, while the dash was outfitted with VDO instruments, a Blaupunkt stereo, Old Air climate control, and a Chevy van tilt column with a Billet Specialties wheel. A Painless Performance wiring panel delivers the juice.

One of the best things about buying a "finished" vehicle is that you don't have to wait to start enjoying it. Ted is doing just that, cruising in the pickup whenever possible and taking it to events like the Goodguys Mid-Western Nationals (where he picked up a Classic Trucks Top Ten Award). He may not have known that he wanted a '60 Chevy until he saw this one, but Ted sure knows what to do with it now that it's his.