The chassis from the first truck was stripped bare, with the 'rails boxed and then ultimately painted by BJ and his dad. Once ready, the pair then spent many hours setting up the frame and suspension using Air Ride Shockwaves front and rear and spindles from a retired Pinto to hang the front GM disc brake rotors. They robbed the rear drum brakes from a junked Mustang. The pair chose Classic Cragar Street Lite wheels to mount Cooper Cobra tires up front, with Hoosier Pro-Street radials providing bite in the rear.
To get power to the 3.55:1-geared Ford 9-inch rearend, narrowed 4 inches and packed with Moser 31-spline axles, BJ located a '70 Ford C6 trans he rebuilt and beefed up with a B&M tranny kit, then topped off with a Hurst quarter stick shifter.
Moving on to the '68's bodywork, BJ plunked down the cash to buy a used MIG welder, and after a few quick lessons from his friend Nathan Reffitt, he began the process of cutting out cardboard templates, transferring the needed shapes for body alterations to the sheetmetal, and then welding the pieces together to get the body lines just right. The '68's cab came from BJ's grandfather's old F-100, which had been resting in the corner of the garage. Steve Lowe chopped the top on Grandpa's cab by 4 inches. With that completed, BJ sectioned, widened, and smoothed the steps on the Flareside bed. He also shaved the door handles, cut out the cowl panel, shaved the stock holes and vents, and installed a one-off louvered panel he created. The finishing touch was to smooth and fill all the seams.
Inside the bed, BJ installed a Dan Carpenter kit with a pair of 3-inch widened BeBop fiberglass fenders on the outside. The tailgate is another of BJ's creations; he used '48 Ford taillights to french into the rear bumper. Before he installed the motor, BJ convinced his dad that a smoothed firewall would be really cool, so while BJ was off at the Kentucky Dept. of Justice Academy, his father kept the project rolling by creating the templates for the last-minute body mods.