Back in 2002, I found myself getting involved in a large number of projects (much as I still do today), most of the time involving skills which I did not yet possess. One of these skills was in the area of automotive bodywork. In my typical fashion, I figured that the best way to learn a new skill was to dive into it head-first.

So, anyway, at the time one of my projects was a 1983 Chevy S-10 pickup truck. Since my opinion of 2-wheel drive trucks is rather low (real trucks should have 4WD), I decided that this truck needed some purpose other than "capable utility vehicle" and "winter vehicle", neither of which purpose it met well in current form.

So, I pulled the stock 2.8 liter V6 engine and Turbo-Hydramatic 200 automatic transmission out. In its place, I made some custom modifications and dropped in a built 5.9 liter (overbored 5.7 liter) small-block V8 (I had originally built it for another project) and a heavy-duty built Turbo-Hydramatic 400 automatic transmission with a slap-stick shifter.

The truck was ridiculously fast.

The engine blew its rear main seal. Oops. So, I pulled out the drivetrain so that I could fix that, and hatched some additional plans including a better rear axle, a roots-style supercharger, and some body work.

Oh, the body work. Well, that is what this Hub is really about. I am not an expert in bodywork.

Well, I knew that I would need additional clearance in the hood for the planned blower, so I purchased an A&A Specialties fiberglass hood scoop from Summit Racing. Using a Dremel (yeah, a dremel... I didn't have air tools back then), I cut out the hole in the hood. The cut stiffening braces in the underside of the hood were then tack-welded in place. I cut the horizontal mounting lip off of the hood scoop so that I could sink the scoop into the hood as deep as possible, and then pop-riveted the scoop to vertical tabs I had bent from the original hood sheet metal. It was mounted very firmly. To fill the gap and smooth the transition from stock metal hood to custom fiberglass scoop, I used resin and strips of fiberglass cloth. Over that, I applied a very thin layer of bodyfiller (Bondo). Sanded and primed, it looked like one piece.

Below are the photos from a low-resolution camera I had at the time.

Then I moved on to do some work to the tailgate. It seemed that all of the custom trucks at that time had shaved taillights, so I set about doing the same to my truck.

Out came the stock taillights. I measured and cut some sheet metal from an old refrigerator door, which was the same gauge as the sheet metal of the truck bed. I bent this to the contour of the bed corner and tack-welded it in place. Over this, I applied fiberglass cloth and resin, followed by a thin layer of body filler.

I wanted my taillights in the tailgate (why, I have no idea). Using more of the refrigerator sheet metal, I welded in pieces to transition the deep area of the tailgate up to the level of the molded corners (kinda' tough to see in the photos). I then cut holes in each side of the tailgate and sunk in single round light cups, like the ones mounted on semi trailers. These were molded in with more fiberglass and body filler.

This ended up being one of those projects that never got finished... but I had fun learning while I worked on it.