Buxtosaurus Rex

When the owner brought this truck to Buxton in late 04, it was an old farm truck with a straight-six engine, three on the tree and studded snow tires.

Buxton began by boxing the frame and adding an IFS unit. With Air Ride Technologies airbags and 2-inch dropped spindles, the front end of the Chevy was able to go very low. In the rear, a Currie Enterprises 9-inch rearend was suspended with ART airbags on a four-link system. Speaking of the rearend, it has been equipped with Strange Engineering 3.73 gears. As the Chevy would obviously come across a few bumps, aluminum QA1 adjustable shocks are used on all four corners. Speaking of the corners, a set of Wheelsmith smoothie wheels adorns this Chevy, giving it a very cool retro look.

Decidedly not retro but very cool just the same, a ZZ430 crate engine sits between the Chevy’s framerails. Buxton used a thinner head gasket to raise the compression ratio to an estimated 10.2:1. Equipped with a Holley 4150 780cfm, the carb was built by Sean Murphy of SMI Fuel Systems of Huntington Beach, California. It sits upon a show chromed Street & Performance aluminum high-rise intake manifold, while Bitchin Products valve covers and air cleaner housing were also used. A Vintage Air front-runner accessory drive system show chromed, of course was added. A set of Sanderson full-length headers gets the burnt fuel to the TTI stainless steel tips via mandrel-bent, ceramic-coated tubes.

A 4L60 trans with upgraded internals to handle the 430 hp the engine produces gets the power to the rearend with a little help from the B&M trans cooler. A custom driveshaft by Drivelines Inc., of Lake Forrest, California, puts a nice spin on things.

With the frame, suspension and powertrain finished, Buxton turned his attention to the body. As stated, the truck had spent its time on the farm and was in pretty rough shape. Buxton and his crew hand formed a majority of the body pieces they needed. Items such as the floor and tunnel are handmade, and Buxton said that there were over 50 holes in the firewall that needed to be welded. The bed is new, but the rear fenders are the real thing according to Buxton, though he did have to search a little for good ones one of them actually came from Canada. He did, however, modify the bed so that the fenders are now in line, heightwise, with the front units. Buxton says that while he and his crew did most of the work, he did have metalwork specialists GMT in Huntington Beach do some of the mods. Other tricks include using 43 Ford taillights that feature custom billet brackets to fit the Chevy bed.