Merle Haggard had it right when he said it was time to "Sing a little bit of these workin' man blues." As a lot of the trucks that grace the pages of CCT are ex-work trucks, that lyric couldn't explain those trucks' state of mind-before their transformations-better. The same thing goes for Brian Baker and his '84 Chevy.
Brian bought this Chevy clear back in the mid-'90s from a magazine auction house. Although he always had plans to fix up the '84, it first had to serve a few terms of duty as his everyday work truck. As the years passed and the Chevy was released from its contractual obligation, it was time for Brian to turn the Chevy into the hot rod it was destined to be.
Being that the truck was driven everyday, there wasn't a whole lot that Brian needed to do in terms of the drivetrain and chassis. All he really had to do was get the truck to sit right and ditch the slow-and-steady mentality. To bring the '84 down from the cheap seats, first he threw on a set of Bell Tech 2-inch drop spindles. From there a set of new Bell Tech lowering springs were added to the front for that extra drop. In the rear, things were brought down via a set of lowering blocks. Although the truck was reliable, and could be driven daily, it didn't exactly have that hot-rod feel Brian was after. For that reason, a '77 350 was rounded up and thrown in the mix. For starters, the motor was torn down and bored 0.030 over by Smith Machine. The heads of the motor were then taken down to Skip Thompson to get ported and polished. Once the machine work was done, Brian began assembling the mouse motor. To complete the bottom end he threw in a new set of 10:1 pistons, a Crane Saturday Night Special camshaft, and a geardrive built by Pete Jackson. The top end was rounded out with an Edelbrock RPM Airgap manifold and Edelbrock 750 carburetor. The slow-and-steady work mentality of the '84 was completely ditched when the new 375hp, hot-rodded 350 was dropped in. Behind the new motor sits a 700-R4 built with a B&M 2,500-stall converter by Tom Vickers.
Unlike the underpinnings of the Chevy, Brian had his work cut out for him to bring the exterior up to par. For the most part the truck was pretty straight, yet it just wasn't what Brian wanted. Automasters was called in to give Brian the smooth and sleek appearance he was after, which meant the first order of business was to ditch any trim on the truck and fill the holes. That still wasn't enough, therefore the truck was streamlined even more by removing the door handles, mirrors, and driprail. To match the sleek style of the sides, the stock grille was tossed for a new phantom grille, while the stock hood was replaced with a 2-inch cowl hood. The rear of the truck was toned down by shaving the tailgate, adding a new roll pan, and installing a tonneau cover. Bringing it all together is a new Sherwin Williams Midnight Blue paint job, laid down by Jay Cheever at Automasters. To complement the new blue persona is a set of American Racing Torque Thrust II rims. Wanting to keep some rubber between the streets and the Chevy, Brian opted for 15x8 rims in the rear and 15x7 rims in the front.
The inside of the truck was kept in a stock state of mind, only refined around the edges. For starters, the seat, door panels, and dash were re-covered in light blue tweed. The blue-tweed theme was also carried out in the bed. Next, all of the stock trim pieces were replaced with polished aluminum pieces, and the stock gauges were tossed in favor of new Auto Meter gauges. This truck's workin' man blues are out the door for sure.