by Michael GolubiewskiProduction Editor
Custom made
Joe Granteed from West Wyoming has transformed a 1979 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe pickup truck from something stock into something special. Chevy has been producing trucks since the 1920s and beginning in 1967, it added the name “Custom” to designate a middle-level truck with a package of options that placed it between the standard Chevy truck and the higher level “CST” line.
Granteed’s Custom Deluxe, which was bought by his father in 1990, features a short bed and 4-wheel drive, as well as a 350 cubic inch small block engine that he says has been “wildly worked.” When first purchased, the truck was completely stock and the body was starting to rust out. Since then, Granteed and his father did a little at a time to improve the truck. They first put on a little lift, got different wheels, new tires, and finally had the engine done over.
A few years ago, Granteed began the dramatic restoration that has the Custom Deluxe looking like it does today. While working in a body shop, Granteed brought the truck in and took it completely apart and did a frame-off restoration. He then repainted the exterior jet black because he “was going for a clean look and didn’t want anything too fancy.”
While the truck was apart for the restoration, Granteed added a bigger lift (an eight inch suspension) and a 3-inch body lift and bigger tires: 38-inch super swampers. He recently put a posi rear on the truck and a Detroit Locker, which provides more traction by restricting each of the two wheels on an axle to the same rotational speed.
Granteed used to take the Custom Deluxe four wheeling a lot, but now, though he is tempted, he says his truck’s off-roading is limited to car and truck shows. Granteed says that he and his girlfriend Kasey clean the truck every other day, and one day he may even teach her how to drive it.
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