Old custom classic trucks have soul. Their dashboards aren't plastic, and they've survived both the best and worst of what the 20th century had to offer. For the owners of these trucks, it's often the same story. Through both good and bad times they persevered, until one day they could turn the key and roll up in a customized truck everyone with good taste would admire.
For Steve Martinez of San Jose, California, building his '62 Chevy shortbed Fleetside pickup consumed 10 years. During that time two good friends who contributed greatly to the project passed away. Originally from Santa Maria, California, Steve enjoys building custom cars and trucks with an emphasis on older Chevy trucks. When he decided to move to San Jose to make a new life for himself, he sold off his customs to finance the move and weather out the changes. As soon as things settled down, Steve sought another truck to build. He ran across this '62 Chevy in the early '90s for $250, and the game was on.
Steve said the best advice he could offer anyone seriously interested in building a truck is to "plan it out on paper and get the truck magazines for good ideas." It never hurts to have a stroke of good luck, either. Steve's lucky break was when he spotted a dead-sharp '64 Chevy pickup parked in front of his local 7-Eleven. Ron Harper, who owns the truck, is also the proprietor of King's Body Shop in Mountain View, California.
After talking to Ron about his '64 Chevy hauler, Steve learned Ron had a '62 project pickup for sale. Steve bought the '62 and not long after took it all apart, starting with the frame and suspension. After a thorough cleaning and consideration of what his options were for the chassis, Steve located a front clip from a '78 Chevy half-ton pickup and proceeded to switch it over to his chassis. Utilizing the '78 crossmember provided power steering and disc brakes for the '62. Steve tossed the stock Chevy spindles in favor of a forged set of Belltech 2-inch drop spindles, then bought a complete air suspension system from Air Ride Technologies of Jasper, Indiana. To accommodate the air-ride's 5-gallon air pressure tank and 12-volt compressor, custom brackets were fabricated to tuck it all tight against the framerails beneath the cab. At the '62's rear, the frame was C-notched to allow the truck to drop as low as possible when Steve laid it down. Since he wanted to hide the air-ride and maintain the bed floor's flat lines, great pains were taken to set up the rear suspension. Once they were satisfied with the results, a custom 20-gallon stainless steel fuel tank was mounted aft of the '68 Chevelle Posi-traction rearend.
With the bulk of the chassis work out of the way, the second phase was for Ron Harper to work his magic on the '62's body. The cab, hood, front fenders, and bed were hauled to Accessories Plus in Belmont, California, to be media-blasted down to the bare metal. Once the bare metal body parts were returned to the fabricating area of King's Body Shop, the raw steel was treated to surface preparation using Metal-Ready from POR-15 Inc. Knowing the drip-rails on this truck model are extremely prone to rust problems, Rob paid special attention to them.
The doors needed extensive rust repair, requiring sheetmetal replacement all along the bottoms. In comparison, shaving the door handles with sheetmetal inserts required minimal work. Most of the time spent working on the '62 took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. First on the scene early in the morning firing up the coffee pot and lining things out was Ron Harper's friend and employee Jim Pratalli. Jim is an electrician by trade. But when it came to building a customized truck, there was nothing he couldn't do--and super clean to boot. Ron shot Steve's '62 in DuPont Bahaman blue. Ron then buried it in DuPont clear urethane, polishing it off with a color-sand and rub. Reassembling the truck is where Steve elected to make a few trim changes to set his '62 apart from the average truck on the street. He found the '60 Chevy Apache grille at his local self-serve wrecking yard. For the '62's sidelines, Accessories Plus polished the original Fleetside moldings before refitting them with front spears on the rear instead of the stock U-shaped piece.
Even the truck's interior upholstery was done within the walls of King's Body Shop. Luckily, Steve was able to have Neives Anriques from Upholstery By Neives in Santa Maria, California, swing by King's while Neives visited relatives in San Jose. Neives used a combination of gray leather and tweed to cover the Ford pickup bench seat with a drop-down center rest, along with the door panels and headliner.
Unfortunately, two of the people who played a key role in helping Steve realize his dream truck did not live to see its debut in Custom Classic Trucks. His cousin Ken Miller provided his mechanical skills from the bare chassis right up to helping to install the drivetrain. It wasn't all that many Tuesdays and Thursdays before Jim Pratalli became one of the people Steve considered a good friend. He wishes Jim was around as well.
Steve thanks friend "Ron Harper for teaching me how to do things right, and my parents for not letting me give up on my dream."
The low stance is thanks to Air Ride Technologies' air suspension with Belltech two-inch drop spindles. |
Built by George Navaro, the '85 Clay Smith-cammed 350-inch Vortec motor in Steve's '62 is carbureted with an Edelbrock AFB and intake manifold. Sanderson Shorties dump into an exhaust system fabricated by Craig's Muffler in San Jose. |
A US Radiator Desert Cooler combined with a Zirgo electric fan thermostatically switched with a Painless relay from RB's Obsolete handles the California heat with ease. The Mallory coil could be mistaken for a 12-volt motorcycle battery. |
Locked at 9 o'clock is a leather-wrapped LeCarra steering wheel on a GM tilt steering column. The dash gauges and shaved door poppers are from Roy Brizio Street Rods of south San Francisco. When it came time to source top-quality or hard-to-find hardware, Steve said Roy Brizio always had what he needed right in stock. Steve's future plans include installing air-conditioning and hanging a pine tree air-freshener from his column shifter. |
The weld-in steel roll pan is from Sir Michaels of Huntington Beach, California. Shaving the stock tailgate provides a customized look without the associated discomfort or embarrassment of owning an inferior imported brand. |
Leather and tweed by Upholstery By Neives of Santa Maria, California, covers everything from the custom headliner and door panels to the Ford truck bench seat with a pull-down center armrest. Seat and shoulder belts are from Juliano's Interior Parts in Vernon, Connecticut. |
By adding a front spear to the rear, a clean trick Steve used to complement his '60 grille was to eliminate the U-turn at the rear of the Fleetside stainless steel side molding. At the recent 26th Annual GMC Truck Nationals, where Steve's '62 took first place in its class, someone informed Steve that his side moldings were not original. Where do guys like that come from? |
Steve's blue Chevrolet rises up out of the asphalt like a pagan god. |
A pretty '60 chromed Chevy grille with its stock horizontal bars is one of the tastiest treatments to the nose we've seen in a long time. With its motif extending onto the dashboard, Steve retained the stock '62 hood in favor of the '60 Chevy's bulbous dual pod hood. |
Lokar door pulls provide function as well as detail to custom molded-in armrests. The black color identifies Unkl Al's E-Z Latches from the guys in Bullhead City, Arizona, who can't spell real well. |
Steve said he saved on shipping his Mar-K oak bed wood from Oklahoma by ordering it from Brothers in Corona, California. Deep coats of DuPont clear showcase the genuine oak floor's natural beauty. Note the super-clean tailgate cables. |
Steve shopped at Orchard Supply Hardware in San Jose for the piano hinges and latches he used to make his super-sanitary bed floor fuel filler door. Beneath it is a custom-made 20-gallon stainless steel fuel tank. |
Nittos on 17-inch American Racing wheels bring up the front; ditto for the rear. Disc brakes are donors from a wrecked '78 Chevy pickup. We hope it wasn't because they didn't work. |
Blue dots mark all four corners. |
Better than new describes the tailgate and inside bed walls. |