A ’48 Pickup Built in Loving Memory

James Cockrum, with his dad James Sr., went to check out a ’48 GMC pickup sitting in his grandfather’s junkyard. They intended to build it together as a father-son project. But after looking at it, the truck seemed to be too far gone; it would be too much work to get it back to running condition. So, James Jr. passed on the info about the truck to his wife’s uncle Elec, and Elec bought the truck himself.

Not long after that, James Sr. passed away from cancer. Remembering their initial plan to build the truck as a father-son project, James told Elec that he’d like to have the truck and paid $550 for it.

Elec filed the title paperwork, and about a month later, he received the new title in the mail. He called James to let him know, but James told him to take his time; he was in no rush. Elec told him he would bring it over anyway, saying, “You never know what tomorrow holds.” Elec passed away in his sleep that night.

It goes without saying that the rusty old ’48 GMC pickup means a lot to James and his wife Kristy. He built it in memory of his dad James Sr. and his wife’s uncle Elec.

The shop James used for the build was his open air two-car carport. He al- ready had an ’87 Chevy S-10 that was ‘bagged. The S-10 frame was back- halved using 3 x 3-inch tubing. The rearend was suspended with a 2-link system and a pair of Air Lift 2600 pneumatic ‘bags. The front suspension uses a pair of Chassis Tech 2-inch dropped spindles sandwiched between the stock upper and lower control arms. It also uses Air Lift 2600 pneumatic ‘bags fed via a pair of Viair 444 compressors, 3/8 valves, DOT lines and a 4-gallon air tank. The truck stops with S-10 factory disc brakes up front and factory drum brakes in the rear. A pair of 15 x 7-inch (front) Corvette red rally wheels is encased in Ride Rite 195/65-15 tires. The rear 15 x 10-inch Corvette rallies were wrapped with Hancook 295/50-15 rubber.

James located an ‘80s GM 350-ci en- gine in his grandfather’s shop that he cleaned up a bit, and then he installed an Edelbrock aluminum intake manifold mated with an Edel- brock 600-cfm carburetor into it. A couple of finned aluminum valve cov- ers were swapped in for the stock valve covers. To improve the exhaust flow, James bolted a pair of Camaro ex- haust manifolds onto the cylinder heads. A 2 ½-inch-diameter exhaust flows into a pair of Flowmaster mufflers. A 700R-4 automatic trans- mission from a ’91 Chevy Blazer was installed and James added a B&M shifter for performance and style.

The interior’s creature comforts were improved with a pair of bucket seats from a ’96 Chevy Tahoe. Between the buckets is a vintage Dukes of Hazard lunch box used as a switch box for the airbag system. James cre- ated the unique chain steering wheel.

The exterior “rusty-crusty” paint scheme was all done by Mother Nature. James’ buddy, Boe Dahl, did the patina Junkman’s Salvage Co. lettering on the doors. James uses his ’48 GMC Trusty Rusty as a daily driver. I’m sure his dad and Kristy’s uncle are ridin’ with him every mile. ST

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JAMES COCKRUM
’48 GMC/’87 S-10
WALLS, MS
SOUTHAVEN SYNDICATE