Many things are said to haunt the forests of Western Washington. If you are near the village of Olalla, you might hear the victims of Starvation Heights on a chilly night. If you hang around the Hoh rainforest area, you might run into Mick Dodge, the “Barefoot Sensei”, a man who abandoned the modern world for forest living. Sasquatch is still rumored to be in the woods…not last seen in Kentucky, according to the Internet. And if you are anywhere near Snohomish, Washington be warned…in the woods, tucked in at the bottom of a steep slope, is a mad scientist who spends his days in a garage. Legends have it that Buicks go in and sometimes come out, and that in the corner is a scared little Fiat Spyder that has had unspeakable things done to it. I’ve been in the garage and have lived to tell the tale, and trust me, readers…it isn’t as bad as it sounds.
“SuperBuickGuy”, also known as Aaron and SBG around these parts, is a restless wrench. He doesn’t like to sit idly by and remain satisfied with what he has. While he has a wealth of projects to work on, if something just happens to fall into his lap that catches his fancy, chances are good that the wrenches will be broken out. Enter a rough but complete 1972 Chevrolet two-wheel-drive longbed. At $550 bucks for a purchase price, you can’t knock him for picking it up…even if it was beyond saving, salvaging good parts should pay that back in spades. But the Chevy is complete, and other than looking like it escaped a dairy farm after forty-something years of driving between the house and the barn, all seemed well. Okay, except for the transmission, which was relegated to the bed and wrapped in plastic once the torque converter kicked the bucket.
It is early on in the build process, but already things are looking interesting. The 350 small block lives and even cleaned up a bit. The tires are so old and dead that they were bleeding white…not from the lettering, from the whole tire! The floors look pretty decent, and he has been asking for build ideas from the community. Whether he cleans it up pretty or listens to the “advice” from forum members (AMC inline six with a turbo? Mopar big block? All Ford suspension?) is yet to be seen, but trust us: SBG’s work is worth watching. So is the commentary from the peanut gallery.
Forum Link: SBG’s “Orangutruck”
As can clearly be seen by the last photo, a Buick is traumatized.
hmmmm—i think,rather than chopping it into a shortbed,i get a decent smallblock with auto in there,repair/replace what’s bad on the body,get a nice driver-quality paint job,a little lowering,rhino coat the bed and actually USE the darn thing as a truck!–something you could haul a motor in,or take a load of crap to the dump,or help a buddy clean out his garage,etc… got a friend who has one of these(orange/white just like this one,optioned,super nice) that you really can’t use,because it’s too pretty—
leave the body as is and build a wicked stroker for it and run it . no stupid ls please