Some people build classic cars and trucks to make ends meet, while others build them in their spare time out of pure enjoyment, which just as often puts a strain on keeping those ends together month after month. Above and beyond making a living or even making that living more enjoyable, there are those who do this crazy thing we do to help benefit others, people like Johnny and Frances Edmundson. While the couple's side project, rods & Originals in sweetwater, Tennessee, is a money-making venture, its numberone goal was purely selfless: to raise funds for juvenile diabetes (100 percent of the proceeds generated from an annual car show are donated to the Juvenile Diabetes research Foundation). It's nice to see nobility still alive in our hobby, isn't it?
It's through rod & Originals that the Edmundsons not only get to enjoy beautiful creations such as this '54 Chevy 3100, but they also get to offer them to others as well. Though their main modus operandi is in the housing manufacturing industry, the couple devotes much of their spare time (and assumably spare income to boot) to orchestrating the construction of some fine vintage tin, most notably the "masked" truck they refer to as shooter. This isn't their first truck to be featured on the pages of this magazine, as some may recall a nice little nostalgia number called Orange Destiny we ran not too many moons ago. This one, however, is quite the opposite, with its obvious lean toward a modern-influenced build style.
Shooter started in pieces back in the summer of 2005. The Edmundson's first major decision was opting to go with an earlier front end, as they preferred the more deco-like look of the '48-53 grille over the '54's factory-equipped version (an opinion it seems is shared by others, too). The sheetmetal work was performed at Craig's Hot rod shop in knoxville, Tennessee; the bodywork and paint were handled by Cumming's Custom Classics in Marysville, Tennessee. Along with a tasteful choice of chromed 16-inch American five-spokes, the choice of color (PPG stone silver) is a perfect complement for the subtly modified exterior. On the inside, however, things are a bit brighter thanks to Pro Auto Interior in knoxville, who plastered the guts of the cab with Lipstick red leather, the ideal hot rod contrast for the truck.