A Love of Mopars and Pickups were the Insipration for this Build

Seven years ago, Jody Holdren had a pretty crazy Mopar street machine that graced our April 2010 print issue. That 1970 Barracuda (read about it here) cemented his love for all things Mopar. He owned it for 32 years, and it evolved into a 10-second street car during that time. However, there was another vehicle near and dear to his heart that also played an important role in his formative years- the half-ton GMC pickup he owned at the ripe old age of 17. It was only natural he’d want another one, so the search was on.

A Craigslist ad sent Jody driving to the central coast of California to scope out a pickup for sale. It was in such bad shape, he barely needed to get out of his car to see it was a bigger mess than he wanted to deal with. Undaunted, Jody began driving around the area in the chance he’d run into a more worthy candidate. “It’s a rural area, I figured there had to be other trucks for sale there,” he mused.

Persistence paid off, and Jody found a decent-looking pickup sitting outside a repair shop. The shop owner said it belonged to a customer of his and that it was, in fact, for sale. With a quick call to the owner, the deal was done. Jody scored this short-bed GMC for a mere $1,000. The owner also included an extra cab, doors and a windshield.

Jody says, “The previous owner had bought the truck from a friend of his. He owned it for seven years, but never worked on it. He had a bunch of parts for it though. He meant to turn it into a Chevy, but I’m happy he never got around to it. How many short-bed GMC’s do you ever see?”

Jody got the original inline-six running when he got home, explaining it needed a tune-up, new carburetor, and a thorough flushing of the gas tank. It had no springs or shocks, so Jody grabbed a set, lowering the ride height in the process. He drove it for nearly a year-and-a-half like this, rowing away on the column-shifted three-speed manual transmission. “It never got very good gas mileage. I guess because you always had to be on the throttle. That six cylinder didn’t make much power,” Jody added. He soon replaced it with a healthier 350 small-block and TH700-R4 overdrive automatic and set the truck on the ground with a set of airbags from Slam Specialties. However, the real wrench in the works came when he decided on an entirely unique drivetrain combination.

A friend was selling the drivetrain from a wrecked 2011 Challenger SRT8, and it got Jody thinking. A Hemi swap would definitely make the truck stand out. Determined to make the engine fit, he bought the wrecked car, sold off what he didn’t need, and set about making the mighty Hemi fit where a small block Chevy had been.

“It was easier than I thought,” Jody says. He and a friend dropped the Hemi in the engine compartment on some shot bags and made cardboard templates of motor mounts, which his friend transferred to sheet metal cut from his plasma table. The transmission is a 545RFE five-speed automatic normally found in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Everything runs in harmony on the donor Challenger’s ECM and a custom wiring harness from Hotwire Auto, a company that specializes in modern engine swap components. Hotwire also reflashed the Challenger’s ECM to eliminate all the unnecessary functions not needed in Jody’s application.

In all, Jody is thrilled with his driveline transplant. Rather than doing the now-ubiquitous LS swap, Jody retained to his still-strong interest in the Mopar side of our hobby by infusing the GMC with a full late-model Dodge SRT 6.4-liter Hemi swap.

“I really loved my ’Cuda,” Jody told us. “But it had gotten to the point where it wasn’t very streetable anymore, so when I found this truck, I decided to take the road less traveled with its late-model Hemi swap. I sold the ’Cuda to finance the GMC build and though I had owned the ’Cuda a long time, I really enjoy the truck now and its ability to be driven anywhere, anytime and for any distance; something that could no longer be done with the ’Cuda.”

Tech Notes

Who: Jody Holdren

What: 1969 GMC ½-ton short bed pickup

Where: Simi Valley, CA

Engine: It’s a stock 2011 Dodge SRT 6.4-liter (392) late-model Hemi from an SRT8 Challenger. Jody got it all wired up and working with a harness from Hotwire Auto. Exhaust includes SRT8 Jeep manifolds and a 2 ½-inch system with Flowmaster mufflers.

Transmission: Jody installed a 545RFE five-speed automatic transmission from a Jeep Cherokee behind the Hemi in his pickup, making a transmission hump in his floor to fit.

Rearend: It’s a Currie 9-inch with 35-spline axles and 3.70 gears.

Suspension: The front has Porterbuilt tubular upper and lower A-arms,, a 1 3/4-inch sway bar and Viking double-adjustable shocks. The stock trailing arms are out back, also sporting a pair of Viking double adjustable shocks., A C-notched frame allows additional suspension travel, and Jody made a set of widened wheel tubs for the huge rear wheels and tires. The pickup rides on airbags from Slam Specialties

Brakes: Wilwood discs are all around, with 14-inch rotors in front and 12.5-inch rotors in back. The front calipers are six-piston units, with four-piston calipers out back.

Wheels/Tires: The front HRE three-piece wheels are a 20×9.5-inch size with Nitto Invo 295/35ZR20 tires. The rear HREs are 20x13s and are fitted with Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R 29×15-20 tires.

Paint/Body: The truck’s body is all stock except for a 1968 hood. The paint finish is flat black.

Interior: Jody installed a set of custom seats from TMI Products, a Momo steering wheel, and Dakota Digital Gauges.

Let's block ads! (Why?)