ICON TR (Thriftmaster) 14! 1954 RESTORED & MODIFIED Chevrolet Thriftmaster Pickup

well hello my friends and welcome back again today we're in something a little bit different from my lower volume not lowest that's fairly the derelicts and reformers but my relatively low volume department that produces the icon tr which is our version of the 1947 to 53 chevrolet pickup most of the time this time we did a 1954 with a couple tweaks but this vehicle was already owned by the client who commissioned the build and he has good amount of sentimental history with it so we were happy to use his truck it had wonderful integrity so it worked out really well and the 54 is the most obvious difference is the unique grill which was used in 5-4 only and for from what i understand about the first three months of 55 before they had the new body series ready i'd like to build one of those too but the client really liked the dash of pre-54 so we took a really crappy cabin that we had and stole its 50 dash and we laced it into the 54 dash so some of the 54 elements remain such as the chevrolet stamped script the more arched bow to the dash line the one piece curved windshield of course remains but then the two barnacles is that a word the two with circular form for the gauges are from the earlier version then we also ran the original icon musical thrift master articulating dash panels that integrate the ac as well as the glove box and the stereo head unit other details unique to 54 would be the bed which i really like it's subtle to really stop and look and think about it but the shaping of the bed side panels is unique the top lip and profile is unique and just a little bit more defined shall we say um so cosmetically i can picture johnny cash rocking this truck she is black on black on black it's a very deep and luxurious black finish paint pardon me but i'm going to be out of commission for a short bit i'm getting my uh right knee replaced uh later this week so i really wanted to make sure i had time to capture this truck so i am shooting it before ceramic and before color sanding and final pin correction so other than the front grille the front bumper and the rear bumper is also unique to 54. the rear bumper creates a stamped section in the middle that allows you to put the license plate somewhere proper other than the chintzy bracket sort of afterthought on the pre-54s the doors are the new school design that you're used to seeing by now with the cnc'd chrome armrest and handles and window regulator and of course as with all thrift masters that window regulator is what appears to be manual but it controls the power windows so you just nudge down for down you nudge up for up and then if you double nudge down all windows down double nudge up you guessed it all windows up but for the interior again johnny cash special black on black on black very nice very high in leather in a sort of matte satin uh black finish french double thread stitched we have the fold down center armrest with the map pocket integrated on the vertical plane at the center of the seat for the rugs we did my beloved german hot garden square beef very nice in you can you guess what color i'm not going to say black again i just did okay well let's do it again let's keep going black on black and black black alcantara headliner the icon new school sun the swords and black leather wrapped black steering wheel and the black against all the chrome highlights really pops nicely works out well and the front end we decided to ghost out the 54 style turn indicators because the bright orange just kind of just i don't know they were too bright so just smoked them so they'd be a bit more subtle because that's what's neat about this truck either people don't see it or they freak out it's literally one or the other but the just the very black and clean and simple and the wheels the hubcaps just just timeless just really dig the whole vibe this truck has for audio like all thrift masters of course we are running the pioneer nex head unit that has both tethered and non-tethered carplay reverse camera am fm cd hd yada yada yada we are running uh the focal audio speakers so beneath the articulating door in the center of the dash where the audio system is you have conventional switches for lights wipers fan vent and temp the ac of course comes from our lovely partners at vintage air and it just fills this cabin up with nice cool air pretty darn quickly and it's damn hot today and i'm not even breaking a sweat so there's some proof for you copious amounts of dynamat are featured throughout the cabin as well as between the layers of carpet and again within the removable upper floor mats we did black trim on the interior all volcanic black powder coated but on the exterior we did a couple more bling chrome highlights than you normally see us do on the new school old school generally has more bright work more traditional vibe but again with this truck the directive was more black on black on black a little bit of sinister but some contrast in there as well we have the icon sport pedals we have of course the icon fire extinguisher and uh outside of course we have the greening engineering machine tail lights with the reverse cut pyramid led tail light lenses they're so pretty we have our standard exterior rear view mirrors with the led indicators when you turn on your turn signals kind of groovy little subtle touch the reverse camera is built into the panel below the tailgate we also recently it's been on the last couple trucks but nice evolution subtle but impactful on the tailgate now there is an inside single actuator to release the tailgate catches and then of course we have the stainless steel hinges to get rid of the gacky chains that always did nothing but make a lot of noise and chip your paint nobody misses those now the bed one on this one is super groovy you guys remember the truck we did the sugiban finish on the wood we did that on this now that is a japanese traditional finish pioneered by seaside living fishermen apparently because a species of wood they could get was quite limited and not very durable what they would do is oil and set fire to and then rub down that wood which would create that black kind of char finish but it wasn't a cosmetic decision it was done because the anti-microbial and bacterial properties and the surface longevity and the resistance to the salt air made it a much longer lasting finish now i like those values but honestly i did it because it's you guessed it black and we did it on a species that it wasn't intended to be done on client didn't really care and i'm a personal huge fan of quarter-sawn white oak so you got a little bit of vintage americana and a little bit edge a little bit edge of japanese vintage such a mouth pile today i can't get my words out but anyway bed looks damn cool stainless runners of course as you're used to seeing from us now mechanically we are running the beloved general motors ls3 a 6.2 emissions certified aluminum fuel-injected v8 just the perfect motor for this truck and i tell you the last couple i sold people are like i want more power how do i get more power and i'm like honestly we've done that and any more power it's not going to stick the cool thing with the ls3 is you can pretty much drive it with wild abandon and it's gonna connect it's gonna hook up especially if you stepped up to our four-wheel independent suspension sport chassis like this truck has the ride quality of this chassis i cannot rave enough about you can google it and see the reviews for various platforms that art morrison and craig's team have earned for this chassis it is honestly revolutionary now no one ever complained about the four bar rear an independent front that we did before but the second this came out almost everyone's gone for the four-wheel independent because it's just phenomenal we have rack and pinion power steering we have the icon sport brakes by brembo on all four corners they are hydro boost assisted and this thrift master is running the 4l85e four-speed automatic with overdrive controlled by hgm controls uh wiring harness is proprietary in-house engineered by icon using all triple seal connectors crosslink wire um bustman fuse panels just super super high quality should never have to worry about it headlights we did old school glass lens but led this time we finally found one that married that vintage look with the modern lighting tech and we're happy with that we looked for a long time to find the right solution what else what else what else sway bars front and rear tunable e-stop electric parking brake with an audible warning so you cannot be an idiot and leave it on uh i guess unless you left your hearing aid off or your earpods in but otherwise it gives you fair warning that it is actuated um stance wise this is sort of our medium to taller stance we allow each client to pick their stance from three ride height positions depending on just sort of the general vibe and utility they're expecting out of the truck all the column hardware is unique to icon and i designed that to flow with the armrest the dash knobs the cowl vent knob all those goodies i just did my geek for that kind of continuity i don't know if i mentioned this before in these videos but i'm a huge fan of raymond loewy and although we had nothing to do with this chevy design i thought it would be fun when i was starting the project i kind of put myself in the theoretical shoes of raymond loewy and asked myself if loewy had been on the design team for this truck what things would he have elevated and how would he have done that so i certainly do not claim to be remotely close to his genius but i leaned on him for a little shall we say perspective inspiration we do not do our high tech inside rear view mirror we do an old school stainless steel polish reproduction with a very simple day night clicker flipper because the modern one with the electronic one although the functionality is killer it just looks horrible on a tr so we just couldn't stand for that could we what else oh smoked glass ah whatever that's enough probably boarding me by now i appreciate your time as always i appreciate the support feedback comments and questions try and stay real responsive and keep up with your cats on that so that's all i got until the next time be kind be good to others be conscious take care of yourselves see you just for fun i'm gonna do a wee bit of an obnoxious take off here so that's pedal to the metal no liftoff minor chirp from first to second if i was on the freeway or in controlled road conditions with a professional driver i would have shown you a chirp two three and even three four in wide open throttle but again traction maintained it does not get nutty or squirrely with the manual you might be able to get yourself in a little bit more trouble also if i two pedaled it probably be a little bit rowdier on takeoff well gosh i shouldn't just tell you this i really need in the interest of education i should show you how that works so here we go so again i could have been dumber and done that longer and throttled up i could have bumped it into first and held it there but i'm not here to burn my clients brand new tires i'm just here to show you it has copious amounts of power but with respectable traction and really good road manners

Channel: Jonathan Ward

Views: 10,133

Rating: 4.9909196 out of 5

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Id: kb6topBet4Q

Length: 14min 21sec (861 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021