PENINSULA PUNISHER – JORDAN WYNNE 1957 CHEVY PICKUP
When automotive enthusiast Jordan Wynne set his sights on a shop truck for his metal fabrication business, no ordinary Asian import was going to cut the mustard. Armed with a fist full of trade qualifications in his chosen field and a wealth of modified vehicle knowledge, Jordan sourced an old school pickup as his project foundation.
“I’ve played with cars most of my life,” he explains. “My first car was a Ford XB ute that I built up into a GT replica with all the good bits.”
After the XB, Jordan turned his attention to rice burners, including a turbo equipped ZX coupe for spirited thrills, until a worked Nissan Patrol filled the garage space. When his everyday Rodeo gave up its bland existence, thankfully he turned back the pages to old school cool with a twist of modern muscle.
Establishing his business, Peninsula Plasma Cutters at Fountaindale (Near Gosford, NSW)just three years ago, he is now joined by three full time skilled employees and his wife Marissa on a casual basis to sort out the paperwork.
“The plasma cutting side of the business was born out of getting fed up with waiting for laser cutters to supply parts for the drilling rig company that I worked for,” he explains. “I eventually had enough of the down time and bought my own machine, cut the required pieces at night at home, and got paid to fabricate.”
When his employment was terminated due to the company losing their contract, Jordan rolled up his sleeves and opened his own doors and has never looked back. Holding trade certificates as a fitter machinist, boiler maker, sheet metal fabricator and carpenter, there’s not much this young tenacious talent won’t have a crack at! With his Holden deceased, he made a call to a nearby auto importer to see if he had anything that would suit as a replacement with yesteryear style.
“I pass this importer guy all the time and I would always check out what he had in,” he recalls. “So I call him up and he says that he has a 1957 Chevy pickup on its way. A week later it arrived and I went for a look. It was painted black with purple flames, the body was good but the running gear was atrocious… I almost died twice on the way back to the shed!” he laughs… now.
During the eventful post-purchase journey home, Jordan discovered that the Apache’s brakes were almost non-existent, the 350 Chev motor wasn’t happy and that any gear in the three speed box was a lucky dip. Once power was extracted and momentum achieved, the worn out rear end was flapping in the breeze due to an absence of any surviving suspension bushes.
Retaining the existing small block for power, Jordan exorcised the suspension demons with a Camaro front clip sporting Willwood 4-spot callipers peeking out of 20” rims, and fabricated ladder bars to locate a Strange equipped nine inch diff out back, notching the frame in the process. With air-bags installed under the nose, the ride height was set at awesome on the stance-o-metre. That was until a popped bag gave more grief than anticipated on the roadside and they were turfed as soon as it was hauled back to the shop.
With tubbed rear wheel wells tucked beneath the raised bed floor to accommodate the huge 22” diameter x 12” wide hoops, Jordan was enjoying his old school shop truck with fresh, owner applied satin black exterior until the small block exhaled its last gasp and was replaced with an LS1 heart transplant. Back on the road, all was cool as a yard full of cucumbers until he swung the left hook steering wheel into his friend’s paint shop; Fonzy’s Customs.
“My friend, Fonzy remarked that it needed a better paint job than this! That was about it. He had previously painted a custom in matt brown and thought that it would look good on the Apache. I agreed and just let him have a go at it.”
With the body separated from the chassis, Fonzy had his way with the vintage sheet metal while Jordan toyed with adding a supercharger to the modern powerplant. After researching the World Wide Web for inspiration and acquisition, he hit the buy-now button on a 2013 spec LSA Cadillac High-Tec blower with intentions of mating it to the LS1 mill.
Unfortunately excitement over its arrival soon dissolved at the sight of its rectangular fuel ports, knowing that they would never match the LS1 heads. Further internet based research pointed the fixing finger at acquiring a six litre GM L98 to consummate the marriage, so his sensors were on high alert for any offerings at the right price.
They say timing is everything, and not long after his intake issue discovery, he answered a knock on the factory door to a solution.
“It was a Saturday and I was working with the doors shut on my own stuff when a guy from the nearby tyre dealer knocks on my door.”
“’Hey I have this guy wanting to sell a 6 litre cheap,” he spills.
“So I walk back with him and talked to the guy and he said that it had a squeak in the block. Being me, I asked how much? He tells me that he just spent $500 on tyres for his ute! I offered to pick up the bill and he was sweet. Done deal!”
Once Jordan had the engine back in the shed he tore it down for a full inspection, uncovering pitting in the cam and that four of the lifter rollers were stuffed. A new VMC 7 supercharger cam was ordered and installed with fresh bearings and he ported the heads while he had the chance. Buttoned back together, the all alloy VZ Holden V8 was ready for a little huff and puff, as soon as Jordan configured all the necessary belt pulleys and wiring harness. No, there are no over the counter parts for this combo and while he was busy designing and machining the right stuff, Ultimate Conversion Wiring rejigged the factory harness for its new application.
Ready to plug and play, the creative amalgamation of today’s go-fast components fired to life! First hit of the switch too.
Thrilled with his success, Fonzy was next on his hit list for an update on the exterior.
Sprayed in muted brown like a tooth decaying treat that you just can’t resist, Fonzy wanted to add another colour element into the tasty mix.
“I picked the cream from a colour box and after a sample sprayout by Fonzy, he said that I had nailed it. I don’t even know what it was called.”
As the final finish of the company shop truck increased momentum like a snowball down a glazier, good friend Peter Lamb from Melomotive gave it one massive shove to how the pickup is featured here today. You see whilst eyeballing the progress, Pete suggested that the pickup would look grand alongside his trade stand at MotorEx. You beaut, I hear you say, but with a short window of completion time it was still being pieced together the night before the main event.
To be completely comfortable under the spotlight of thousands of show gawkers, Jordan raised the bar once again and fired up the plasma cutter to attack the interior. Diversions of trophy hunting were never going to get in his way of building a daily driver delivery truck, but he did want his rolling business card to epitomise what they do for a living. No high thread count, hand sewn tweed and Italian leather in this cab, just a highly modified covered Lincoln Continental bench seat and miles of hand fabbed alloy and copper rivets with a few squares of carpet. A unique approach to an equally individual hand crafted interior that can stand up to the rigors of company life and look killer while doing it.
Not to be content with just nailing the entire interior sans the seat and headliner, Jordan whittled his way into the engine bay, just because he could.
Now two tone and reattached to its modified frame, the piece de resistance (or duck’s nuts for those who can’t read French) was executed by a brush brother of Fonzy, operating under the calling card of “Shacko’s Custom Pinstriping.”
“Shako I met through Fonzy, who I asked to do a few sketches for me to see how the door art could look. Man, his rough sketches are worthy of framing. He nailed it and I just let him go and do his thing. You never tell an artist how to paint.”
While the old ’57 is still receiving tweaks and minor modifications throughout its day to day chores, Jordan reflects on its six month thrash from concept to completion.
“It was never supposed to be this nice,” he shrugs. “Just a pickup that I could throw stuff in the back and never worry about. It kinda got out of hand.”
Now if I had a dollar for every time that I’ve heard that! Well, you know the rest.
