The cab was chopped 4 inches and extended 6 inches for added legroom-then lowered as far as possible over the framerails. The framerails were boxed and the rear of the frame was Z'd. Then a homemade K-member (crossmember) was fabricated. A Fatman Fabrications Mustang II front crossmember and steering was installed in the front of the framerails. Afterward, a Maverick 8-inch rearend was mounted in the rear. All four fenders were raised on the sides of the cab and bed to compensate for the deep channel of the cabfloor.
The tailgate was molded to the siderails, and a cowl vent motor raises and lowers the license plate into the tailgate. A tall '99 Grand Am spoiler makes more than a head-turning fashion statement in the rear of the bed. If this is beginning to sound like a project gone beyond the normal restoration and rodification of a vintage truck, you're absolutely correct. This one is decidedly different!
A youthful Bill Beatty of Weirton, West Virginia, began studying car magazines when he was deprived of the chance to play organized sports, the result of an auto accident that put him in a body cast for 11 months. Like many young men, he was interested in cars almost from the time he could read and write. The interest grew to become Bill's passion-a passion that spawned dreams of custom cars and hot rods to be built in his home garage.
Over the following decades there were plenty of Corvettes rebuilt and hot rods created. Several even made the pages of Bill's favorite car magazines. One day, as he and his wife were searching a local salvage yard for parts, Bill's wife Susan began to holler for him to hurry over to where she was. Fearing she was in trouble of some kind, Bill hustled to her side. Susan was not in trouble-however, she had spotted a '40 Dodge pickup with a mere 17,000 miles on the odometer. "Bill, I want you to buy this truck!" And so he did!
 |  A '70 Dodge 318ci V-8 engine...  A '70 Dodge 318ci V-8 engine has received a total beauty treatment including a custom air cleaner created from a pair of '66 Chevy Caprice taillights that does double duty as under-hood strobe lights. A Be Cool radiator supplies coolant to the engine. |  Looking a little like a model...  Looking a little like a model car, the Dodge hovers mere fractions of an inch above the pavement, thanks to an Air Ride Technologies suspension system. |
 Under the 'glass tonneau cover...  Under the 'glass tonneau cover is a custom-fabricated bed floor of mirror-finish (both sides) stainless steel. |  A wrecked Pontiac Sunfire...  A wrecked Pontiac Sunfire donated its bucket seats to the Dodge pickup. The seats and all interior panels were recovered in gray Naugahyde by Portage Trim in Ravenna, Ohio. |  Dakota Digital gauges are...  Dakota Digital gauges are mounted in a custom billet dash panel behind a Billet Specialties steering wheel. Air Ride suspension controls are frenched into the center of the dash below the Panasonic amp. A Lokar Performance shifter is mounted center cab floor. Note the custom Hot Rod Air A/C and outlets at the ends of the dash panel. |