Eric Heath’s 1953 GMC Truck
This sunny Sunday, a fairly unique rolled in to the Mercifuls’ weekly Hot Cakes and Hot Rods meet-up with a fairly unique 1953 GMC Truck. The pale yellow with green flames make a statement, which I haven’t seen before. I go up and introduce myself to Eric Heath. The truck has been somehow hidden from recent shows. He has been taking care of his ailing parents and hasn’t been able to get out to the shows in a while. We start to talk about the truck and there’s
quite the story.
Eric recalls riding along as a kid with his Uncle Scotty in the truck. Scotty ran a junk yard in Wilmington, CA. He’d go around and help him pick up and deliver parts in the summers. It was a lot of fun, especially when his uncle swapped out the stock
straight 6 for a ’69 Buick 350 engine and trans from a wrecked Grand Sport. Perfect little street racer with the stock low-geared rear end.
When Eric turned 15, his uncle decided to sell him the truck for $500.00, more money than Eric had, but he worked it off at the yard. This was in 1975 and he couldn’t drive it any farther than back and forth in the driveway for 4-5 months till he turned 16 and got his license. Then it was off to cruisin’ up and down Hermosa Beach, Van Nuys Blvd, and around the neighborhood. Occasionally he would run it at Lions or Terminal Island where it would beat most cars, although, there was one ’69 SS396 Camaro that would always take him. Sometimes he and his buddies in “Custom Truckers” club would take a break from High School and run to Harbor Blvd in San Pedro where they marked off ¼ mile and made about 4 passes before
the cops would show up.
Then marriage and family took over the fun he was having and decided to take the truck apart for a restoration. After many years of sitting as parts and moving from house to house he sold the truck (in parts) to a friend of his daughter for the
$500.00 he bought it for. Although, no more than two months later the friend came back saying he is getting married and sold it back to him for $500.00. It took another 5-10 years later to focus on bringing the truck back to the blacktop.
It was now 1999 and Eric met up with Richard Graves and his body guy Jeb. They did all the metal work while Eric worked on most of the mechanical issues. Shaving the turn signals, rear tail lights, all the emblems. They frenched in the head-lights, flush mounted all the other lights and prepped the body for paint by a friend in San Pedro, as Eric’s recollection is coming clearer. George “The Wild Brush” pinstriped and airbrushed the flames and licks.
Eric installed the ididit Universal 28” Tilt Column Shift with ignition. He then had the interior upholstered by one of Jesse James’ guys and built the overhead console. They installed the new ZZ4 engine with a 700R trans and mated it to a new Currie 9” rear end with 3:50 gears. After a dozen years Eric is back enjoying some fuel fed fun taking breaks from helping his family. All the dings and scratches on the truck are badges of honor for Eric as he takes his family on trips and cruises. There’s a lot of pride in those bumps.
Editor’s note: This article was written as part of Blacktop Media’s partnership with the I did it with ididit tour – Like us, ididit appreciates grassroots builders and the incredible cars they restore from their garage. For more information, go to
ididit’s web page. If you have a grassroots build you think should be featured as part of ididit’s tour, tag a photo and caption on social media with #ididitwithididit or email.
