Iconic Hot Rod Builder Richard Graves’ Shop Truck
Photos/Story: T-Bone
Richard is building a truck. It’s not his first and most likely not his last truck. This truck is not a hot rodded classic truck from Ford, Chevy or Dodge. Although it may appear to look like a 1957 Chevy LCF (Low Cab Forward) and it sports a Chevrolet V-8 Vortec motor, the chassis is from a 2001 Isuzu NPR Krispy Kreme Donut truck.
His other trucks may attract the Cops with the hot rod stance and go. This truck will attract them with a subtle reminder of what it once was.
Looking around the garage you will see that Richard has great taste. That is not just another pun on the donut truck. He has a Cobra powered 1909 Ford Tin Lizzie, an really sweet black 57 Ford F-100 and others under wraps.
So why and how?
Billy had to ask why would he put a 57 Chevy LCF cab on an Isuzu chassis. Richard explains, that it really isn’t anything new. Other people have done something similar. He happened to have the body in the corner of the shop for quite some time and new he wanted to do something with it eventually. Then a chassis from a crashed Krispy Kreme truck came up.
Now the how: Starting from the front, he cut the frame back 6” to keep the bumpers tucked in. On the lathe, Richard spun a couple of custom billet hub spacers to bring the front wheels out 2” to fill the wheel wells better and align with the rear tires. Then with the help of some friends, he literally slid the drivetrain (Engine and Trans) forward 14 inches! The Isuzu chassis is perforated with holes throughout and it was quite incredible to find cross member and motor-mount position holes available. There were some adjustments to the steering box and shaft angle.
In the rear of the truck they made a custom stake-bed and while we were there, they were rounding the corners of the bed rails and finishing up the front wall. The tool boxes below had to be notched on the inside to accommodate the shocks. They will be radius cutting the bed rail above the rear wheels to make room for compression of the shocks. For the bed floor and rails, he is using Apitong a Phillipine Mahogany. The 8 foot bed and cab forward body makes this truck about the same length as our Blacktop Bruiser Hemi Ram standard cab truck.
We will be following the build of this cool looking truck and sharing it with you. Stay tuned!