A Shop Truck That Scoots!

Shop trucks can be a slippery slope for automotive-related business owners. On the one hand, they only need to be able to haul parts around, so just about anything with a decent amount of cargo space will do. Oftentimes, the cheapest running truck you can find makes the most sense.

These days, though, you can kind of have it all. Take Noah Alexander’s ’86 Chevy Silverado, for instance. It may look like a stocker with a basic drop and wheels, but it’s actually so much more than that. In fact, it’s basically a new truck underneath!

CLEAN AND SIMPLE WAS THE NAME OF THE GAME WITH THE INTERIOR. RECARO SEATS, CLEANED UP DOOR PANELS, AND A CUSTOM ROLL BAR ARE ALL MINIMALIST CHANGES, AND COMPLETELY ADD USEFULNESS WITHOUT CLUTTER

On the other end of the spectrum, some folks opt to buy a new truck for maximum comfort and reliability. Traveling around town to pick up parts can mean lots of wear and tear, which makes a factory warranty an attractive option! Add to that the plethora of aftermarket parts available for most popular new trucks these days, and you can have a sweet-looking parts-getter in a short amount of time while enjoying some peace of mind.

“Sure, the exterior could keep its patina since it’s still what all the cool kids are doing these days, but the rest of the truck would be a showcase of everything Noah’s crew at Classic Car Studio is capable of.

As owner of Classic Car Studio in St. Louis, which builds and sells vintage steel, Noah has a certain image to uphold, so keeping things basic just wasn’t an option when it came time to build his shop truck. Sure, the exterior could keep its patina since it’s still what all the cool kids are doing these days, but the rest of the truck would be a showcase of everything Noah’s crew at Classic Car Studio is capable of.

One of the first things to go was the tired 305 small block and 700R4 transmission. It’s not that they couldn’t be rebuilt and reused, but they definitely weren’t the most exciting options on the table. After some consideration, Noah came up with a combination that would guarantee that his square body would end up at the top of the shop truck heap — a brand new supercharged GM LT4 mated to a T-56 Super Magnum six-speed gearbox with an S1 sequential shifter. In stock form, the engine puts out an effortless 640-horsepower and 630 ft-lbs of torque, which may qualify Noah’s Silverado as one of the quickest shop trucks around!

“…Noah is logging plenty of miles on it. In fact, he brought it all the way from St. Louis to Los Angeles to get it in front of our cameras. How’s that for a well-built shop truck?”

But all that speed wasn’t going to do Noah any good if the truck couldn’t stick to the ground or stop at a millisecond’s notice. To give the truck a proper foundation on which to build a proper suspension, a GSI chassis brace was welded in between the framerails to stiffen everything up. A complete RideTech coilover system, which included a 4-link, tubular control arms, sway bars, and drop spindles was also installed to dramatically improve the truck’s handling characteristics and stance, with gargantuan Wilwood brakes at every corner for massive stopping power.  To top it off, the entire chassis was freshly painted to eliminate any notion that this was just some basic “stop, drop, and roll” build. And speaking of “roll,” the C-10 now wears 20×10 and 20×12 inch HRE wheels with 275/35 and 315/35ZR20 Continental rubber for maximum grip.

A 640-HORSE DIRECT-INJECTED LT4 WET-SUMP ENGINE IS A GREAT WAY TO GET INTO TROUBLE IF YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE A HEAVY RIGHT FOOT. AND EVEN IF YOU DON’T, YOU SOON WILL WITH THAT MUCH POWER ON TAP!

20-INCH HRES ARE THE PERFECT WAY TO SHOWCASE THE MASSIVE WILWOOD BRAKES, AND THE CONTINENTAL TIRES PROVIDE PLENTY OF TRACTION WHEN NEEDED, WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH ALL THE DANG TIME.

Since Noah planned on spending a bunch of time behind the wheel, a pair of leather and suede Recaro buckets was installed for comfort, Dakota Digital gauges were placed in the instrument cluster for up-to-the-second updates and a Kicker sound system was dropped in for maximum smiles per mile. Noah also wanted to keep himself and any passengers safe, so a roll bar was also fabricated and installed.

A FUEL SAFE BLADDER FUEL CELL TAKES CARE OF IMPROVING SAFETY AND FUEL DELIVERY NEEDS, AND LOOKS PRETTY TRICK TO BOOT!

And you wanna know the craziest part about this shop truck build? It only took a month! Granted, lots of early mornings and late nights were involved, but that’s an amazing timeline for the amount of work that went into this thing! Now that the truck is done — yes, the original paint and body were just too rad to touch — Noah is logging plenty of miles on it. In fact, he brought it all the way from St. Louis to Los Angeles to get it in front of our cameras. How’s that for a well-built shop truck?

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