SUNDAY CAR: SHOCK VALUE
STEVE KELLY BUILT HIS ’47 CHEV DAILY-DRIVER TO A SHOW-QUALITY LEVEL, BUT IT’S GOT A LITTLE MORE GOING ON THAN YOU MAY FIRST NOTICE
There is a degree of irony in just how many people flocked around Steve Kelly’s ’47 Chev 3100 at Repco Beach Hop 18, drawn in by its strikingly flawless paint and killer stance. Irony, because we can’t help but wonder how many of them would have been fawning over the thing if they actually knew what they were looking at. Strip away the vintage Chevrolet garments, and this truck is all Toyota, having been built on a 2010 Toyota Hilux base. Steve’s logic for the conversion is remarkably straightforward, as he explains, “I wanted a one-off daily-driver that was tough and practical, and the Chev cab was cheap on Trade Me. I purchased a 2010 Hilux double cab and sold the cab, fabricating stuff to fit the Chev cab to the Hilux chassis.” As a panel beater by trade, this sort of work was not foreign to Steve. The Hilux underpinnings were used because
of the lightweight and high-tensile chassis, with the added bonus of a 5x114.3 — aka Ford — stud pattern, allowing a wide range of aftermarket wheels. Riddled with rust, the cab needed a fair bit of work, and Steve spent 13 weeks cutting the cancer out and welding in fresh steel in its place. Once that had been done, he spent three days setting the tone for the rest of the build by fabricating an incredibly smooth custom sun visor. Engineering the visor to be fixed in with bolts through the A-pillars has resulted in no visible fasteners or brackets. With the cab looking as he wanted it to, Steve began the arduous process of mounting the thing.
The floor was cut out of the Chev cab and the body mounts removed from the Hilux. Once the body had been located, Steve fabricated a raised floor and transmission tunnel, adapting the Hilux mounts to the Chev body. The difference in proportions between new and old required Steve to mount the Hilux three-litre turbo-diesel mill 180mm further back, while the Hilux steering shaft had 125mm added to it to work with its power-steering rack. With the well-sorted suspension geometry already taken care of by Toyota, Steve’s next goal was to ensure a radical stance, and airbag suspension was the best way to address his goal of a usable dailydriver that looked truly one of a kind. Ridetech Shockwave air struts were installed at each corner, with the rear end retaining its leaf springs, albeit dropped with lowering blocks. A set of big Ridler wheels, measuring in at 20x9 inches up front and 20x12 inches at the rear, finished the stance side of the equation perfectly. By now, Steve was a long way towards what he wanted. The final piece of the aesthetic puzzle came with the rest of the exterior panels. A standard Chev tray was stretched by 125mm to account for the difference in wheelbase, and Steve did the same to the Chev’s running boards. He then widened the front and rear guards by 100mm to enclose the Hilux’s wider track. The rears were also mounted 50mm lower than stock for a lower-looking ride height. The subtlety of these exterior modifications is such that they’re almost impossible to notice, although the same can’t be said of Steve’s colour of choice — blazing-hot Tangerine Scream orange pearl, a colour made famous by the Ford Focus RS. Cameron at Prestige Auto Customs in Whangarei laid down the Spies Hecker pearl, although Steve did make sure that he had a perfect base on which to blast it — “I used 10 gallons of primer, and block-sanded about eight gallons of it off,” he mentions. “There’s two gallons of cavity wax sprayed into all pillars and hidden areas. Rust never sleeps! “The [Ford] Focus has no chrome, but the colour loves it!” Steve says.
The effect on the classic body is helped by a slick tailgate mural airbrushed on by Brad Walters. ‘Show quality’ may be the best way to describe the Chev’s exterior appearance, but Steve intended for it to be a workhorse first and foremost. For that, reliability and usability took precedence, so he modified the Hilux dash and crush tube that sits behind the dash, allowing the use of the Hilux amenities, including air-conditioning and the full Hilux audio system. A bit of steel work to the original Chev dash panel saw the mod cons, along with the standard Hilux gauge cluster, effortlessly integrated. And while the bench seat may look right at home, it’s another Hilux piece — a rear bench seat adapted to suit. The rear bench was chosen for its practicality, with both a fold-down backrest and under-seat storage. So, while Steve’s one-of-a-kind Chev may look as though it was trailered the 300-odd kilometres from Whangarei to Whangamata, that certainly wasn’t the case. Then again, looks can be deceiving, as this truck surely indicates.