We’re sure everyone at some point has seen the sci-fi movie “Mad Max,” much like us, admiring all of the wild nitro-blown vehicles that blast around throughout the entire movie. What we didn’t know is that one day we would come into contact with a real life 590 hp fire-breathing replica of one of those vehicles. Now, it’s not a genuine replica of any particular vehicle in the movie, but it sure could fill in as a thrill ride double.
The proud owner and creative mind behind this wild ride prefers to go simply by the name “JD.” He told us that he was tired of going to countless car shows and seeing the same type cars at every show. So on a dark stormy night … OK maybe it wasn’t a dark stormy night, it probably was a bright sunny day in California, but it sounds better if it was dark and stormy when you’re creating a monster rat rod.
As the story goes, JD’s friends were sitting around and the conversation turned into a discussion about rat rods and the ingenuity that goes into building a wild rod. So began the Frankenstein attitude of building a custom truck from old and discarded parts.
We’re not kidding when we say he started to Frankenstein this truck, either. Starting with a 1953 GMC truck cab and bed, he then found a heavy-duty frame from a 1958 one-ton Chevrolet. In order to get the late model Stroker motor to fit, he turned the frame backward. Yes, you read that correctly, he made the back into the front and the front into the back.
The truck’s steering box came from a 1955 GMC and steers the ginormous (yes, that is a scientific expression) 18-lug wheels that used to be GM dually wheels. He had the wheels cut in half and re-welded, then mounted Cooper 255/70R22.5 truck tires. The madness didn’t stop there, either, as J.D. had his friend George chop the roof of the old GMC about four inches, then re-welded a 1957 Chevy Bel Air hood backward to complete the rooftop.
While the truck may be listed as a 1953 GMC, it is actually made up of many different parts from several different years, hence the Frankenstein reference we’ve been talking about. In addition to the chopped cab that was fitted with a custom windshield and windows, the headlights came from a 1923 Studebaker and the front leaf springs were grave-robbed from a 1929 model A Ford. To stop this rolling behemoth he transplanted brakes from a 1958 GMC truck and surprisingly, these vintage brakes work pretty good.
You can’t have a rat rod without a wild engine with insane horsepower, so that’s exactly what JD did. A 383 stroker motor is always a good start and topped with a mind-blowing B&M 6-71 blower with two Holley double pumper carbs it screams horsepower. Because the GMC didn’t originally have a stroker motor, the headers are custom made to let this monster breathe, and they look pretty cool, too. JD then coupled all that horsepower to a five-speed TKO tranny that gives this GMC the ability to ride low and slow or freeway fast.
When you walk around this intricate machine you start to notice all the small details that make up this rolling piece of art. Details like the Abercrombie and Fitch belt that holds the radiator hose in position and a front license plate frame made with rusty end wrenches … what car guy wouldn’t like that? We’re not sure when the first sunroof came out but we do know they didn’t come out in 1953, and if they did, it wasn’t framed with a chain.
To make everything fit nice and cozy JD shortened the bed to fit the frame. Unfortunately, you can’t haul a lot of stuff in a bed that short but you can haul ass in it! Our apologies, the pun was there and we took it. If you look at the rear of the bed under the taillights you’ll see some freaky chrome skulls that aren’t just for show folks. JD made them his turn signals, which is pretty badass, right?
If we can take a moment to talk about the interior, we reiterate what was said before, this is not your granddaddy’s work truck. The seats are from a late 1980’s Suburban covered in new red vinyl. The door panels and headliner received the same treatment, and if you look on the dash you can see these wild sinister in-your-face gauges that keep tabs on the blown Chevy motor, which are functional and definitely easy to read.
JD shifts this GMC via a custom made shifter, which looks like it could double as a weapon in case the villagers attacked. We all know that those villagers are always up to something! As most truck aficionados know, the gas tank in these old trucks were mounted inside the cab behind the seat. This leaves us to wonder, what the hell were they thinking? Back in those days’ people smoked all the time. Cigarettes, pipes, cigars, and whatever else … and you know matches were fired up in there, so there was probably an open flame every time someone got behind the wheel. We don’t have any statistics on how many drivers blew themselves up back in those days, but we know JD took care of that problem by installing a 10-gallon fuel cell in the bed.
Backtracking to the dash for a minute, if you notice there isn’t a gas gauge. How does JD know how much gas is in the truck? Well, you can’t get anymore old school than a two-foot wooden stick that says “gas gauge” with a “full” line written with a black Sharpie – or for you real old school dudes, a black magic marker – that tells JD about how much gas he has in the tank and how far he can go. JD never told us what the gas mileage was for this family truckster, but he probably doesn’t care as long as he can go fast and make lots of noise.
We asked how long it took to build this monster, and how many graveyards did he scour in the middle of the night? He responded that most nights there was a full moon, so he could find the parts pretty easy. Actually it took three hard, tedious years of cutting, sanding, welding, and wrenching to build this very cool GMC truck.
So there you have it folks. Who would have thought that a Mad Max-type truck was lurking in and around the hills of Murrieta scaring children and small woodland creatures as it drove by? Just kidding, great job JD. Kudos to you and your crew for making a very cool truck that definitely stands out.
On an added note, we heard that JD was being stopped by the local police because of excessive noise violations, but was only given a warning in exchange for his autograph, which he signed as Mel Gibson. Just kidding folks. Don’t hate, appreciate!