Under the matte brown paintjob and old-school body of Jordan Wynne’s ’57 Chev pick-up lies an LSA-blown 6.0-litre

This article on Jordan’s Chev pick-up was originally published in issue 3 of the Street Machine LSX Tuner magazine

Buying a vehicle out of the USA can sometimes be fraught with danger. Although it might look OK on the outside, underneath things can get a little bit ugly. We’ve all heard those horror stories, but I’m glad to say, this isn’t going to be one of them. While the ’57 Chevy Apache pickup of Jordan Wynne’s was a pretty decent buy, it wasn’t exactly perfect: “It had a good body but a bad chassis and driveline, it was a good start but it needed a lot of work. It originally had a small-block Chev and a three-speed manual, it was deadly to drive and trying to find gears in that gearbox was near impossible. I think I nearly died twice on the way to the factory, so as soon as I got back I put a Turbo 400 and 9-inch in it. At least that made it driveable but about two weeks later the engine blew up!”

At that point Jordan decided to slot an LS1 into it and sort out the suspension: “It runs a Camaro front-end in it with a T-bird power rack and pinion, ladder bar suspension in the back and a notched chassis. It came with the original I-beam front-end: It didn’t stop, it didn’t go, it didn’t turn. The guys that drove them back in the day were pretty tough guys, because they drive shithouse!” With the mechanicals sorted, the last thing left to do was get rid o the gloss black and purple flames, so a coat of flat black went on, and that’s how Jordan drove it around for a few months.

But then one of his mates got in his ear. “Fonzy at Fonzy’s Customs said to me one afternoon: ‘Mate, I gotta paint this truck, it’s just too cool of a truck to leave flat black.’ Then Pete from Melomotive was looking for another car for this stand at MotorEx and that’s when it sort of went crazy and ended up whtat it is now,” Jordan says.

The paint is a custom mix matte brown paint, so it’s a not a clear-over-base without a clar or a flat clear sprayed over the top, it’s actually a flat apaint. The lighter cream colour through is a Valspar industrial polyurethane, the same type of paint that Jordan paints the truck bodies that he builds: “By the time I finish work I’m usually filthy dirty and that stuff is just so easy to keep clean. The interior of the bed was done in a tinted Raptor liner to match, but it’s a bit scratched up because I use it to deliver parts, that’s why there’s no photos of it,” Jordan laughs.

Jordan then got hold of a supercharge off a Cadillac CTS-V, you know, the kind that normally sits on top of an LSA. Although the LS1 made way for a 6-litre L98, it wasn’t a drop-on fit: “It took a bit of fabricating to get it on. Everything bolts on except for the supercharger pulley system. Now you can buy it all aftermarket, but I had to fabrciate and machine all the parts for the belt drive and change the balancer.” Sounds like a fair bit of stuffing around, but obviously Jordan doesn’t stuff around: “From when it went into Fonzy’s as a flat black car to what it is now was only a three month build, including building the engine. There were a few late nights!”

There’s some seriously cool stuff going on in the inside as well, with a hell of a lot of custom work going into the interior panels: “The panels were plasma cut [in-house and then joined with hand-drilled, countersunk, deburred and hand-peened copper rivets, which took hudnreds of hours. There;s about 2000 rivets int he whole car, :” Jordan syas. Because he drives it eery day with his work boots on, the interior has been designed so the carpet panels can be unsecrewed from teh bottom and the carpet replaced. That way he’s not replacing a fully carpet, just a small section.

Even the seat is has an interesting story. It’s an eBay find that was simnply listed as being from a Chrysler Imperial, Jordan’s not sure of the year, but what is useful about it is the fac that it tilts forward and inwards, so he’s guessing it’s from a coupe. Not only does it now hav a pair o cup hodlers – which he assures us get eused every day – the seat has been modified in shape as well: “Stitched Up Custom Trim designed it and then I modified the dframe and reshaped the top of it, then sent it back to Stitched Up to do the foam and leather work.”

The main reason I built the truck wa to advetise my business but still keeping it as a reliable daily driver that drives nice. It’s even got better fuel economyt han the V6 Rodeo I used to have. The Rodeo used to cost me about $200 a weke, this thibng ony costs me about $60!”

So, not only is it a rolling busines car, it gets better mileage than a late-model work ute and can still haul a load when it needs to – and it looks good doing it. Sounds like the perfect solution to an age old problem.

JORDAN WYNNE
1957 CHEVROLET PICKUP

DONK
Type: L98 6-litre
Blower: Cadillac CTS-V LSA
Cam: VCM7 supercharger grind
Exhaust: Twin 3in with high flow cats, custom side exit tips

SHIFT
Box: Custom 4L60E
Diff: 9-inch, TrueTrac, Strange 3.88 gears

BENEATH
Front end: Camaro front clip
Shocks: Pedders (f), coil-over (r)
Steering: T-bird rack and pinion
Brakes: Wilwood disc (f), VS Commodore disc (r)

ROLLING STOCK
Rims: Lexani LSS10 20×8 (f), 22×12 (r)
Rubber: 245/40/20 (f), 305/40/22 (r)