While walking the Western Street Rod Nationals in Bakersfield, California, one particular hot rod stole our attention as it thumped by, ultra low to the ground dripping in gloss black paint. When owner Brett Carlson cut the engine, stepped out, and pushed a button on his key fob to bring the car down to earth, we knew we had spotted a vehicle worthy of the spotlight.

Brett’s ‘38 Chevy pickup truck is the result of three years of hard work that started with a truck too far gone for an all-original restoration, but perfect for a one-off custom. With a few projects already under his belt, Brett was itching to work on something truly unique, and used a rust stricken Craigslist find as an excuse to go all out.

Determined to build something completely different from the vehicles he had seen at local car shows, the main person Brett sought to impress when the tools hit the floor was the toughest critic of all, himself.

Visualizing The Beast

The planning portion of Brett’s build started in his garage, where hundreds of inspiration photos were plastered on his wall. Things he liked were circled in black felt tipped marker, while styling cues he didn’t were crossed out in red.

Once his wall of inspiration was full, he knew it was time to gather the parts and tools he needed to bring his vision to life. Literally starting from the ground up, the frame for the truck was custom designed in AutoCAD with the intention that when parked, the truck would kiss the asphalt.

Brett took to the internet for the design of his front suspension, basing it around a set of ready-to-purchase Mustang II blueprints. From there, he modified and redesigned those plans to better suit his quest for low ground clearance. Being resourceful, Brett used circle track control arms and Pro Comp shocks to give the front end a low ride height with predictable handling characteristics.

In the rear, a one off four-link with Panhard rod was used. To top things off, the entire air suspension system is plumbed with steel hard lines instead of the plastic lines you find on other builds.

The air management system is based around an AVS switch bank, and as previously mentioned, the system is wired into the trucks alarm via a few relays. While this all works quite well, Brett is already set to improve on this configuration with a home-built one-off management system similar to some of the other pressure based electric management systems on the market today.

After the chassis design and fabrication was complete, modifying the body was next on Brett’s ‘to-do’ list. The fact that the bottom six-inches of the body had already rusted away helped make his decision to chop the body down four-inches a whole lot easier.

After he set the cut off wheel down, Brett picked up the welder and fashioned new internal supports, and a new floor pan.

With four-inches removed from the top of the body, and the cab already tight on space to begin with, Brett had a hard time finding seats that wouldn’t look gigantic when installed. His solution to this problem was to design and build seats of his own.

Not a solution for the faint of heart, or one he plans on repeating any time soon, Brett got the seats 90 percent done before bringing them to a local upholstery shop to have them wrapped in black leather. The cab wasn’t the only thing rusted through as the bed was so rotten that it was a complete lost cause.

Piecing It All Together

Brett put his design skills to work, fabricating a custom truck bed that suited his modified cab. Once that was complete, he mounted the bed atop an air system that allows it to tilt back, revealing the truck’s beautiful suspension design.

Tilting back the bed also reveals a posi Ford 3.85 to 1 ratio nine-inch rearend that can be followed all the way up the drive shaft to a mated Turbo 350 transmission that Brett rebuilt himself.

DIY Inspired

You might be noticing a ‘do it yourself’ mantra in this feature, and that is because working in the garage figuring things out is Brett’s favorite part of any project. In fact, while Brett is proud of his completed truck, it’s actually his daughter that brings it to most of the events it attends.

The final product is a great accomplishment to him, but the challenge of constriction was always the driving force that kept the wrenches turning throughout the course of the build.

The Chevy 350ci small block that powers the truck came from a half price event at the local pick apart. Borrowed from a truck that met it’s end via a particularly immovable object, Brett promptly tore it down once he got home.

Almost immediately, the heads were removed and sent to a machine shop to be milled and ported. A cam, lifters, and rockers were then installed along with the reworked heads.

Intake wise an air gap manifold and Holly 750cfm double pumper carburetor were installed and the exhaust was kept nice and short, giving the truck a throaty sound that meshes well with the modern traditional look he was after.

The truck was then painted in the only color he thought suitable, black. For wheel selection, the age old keep it simple adage was adhered to, with steelies and moon caps affixed at all four corners in the classic big and little configuration.

High polished, chrome, and stainless pieces throughout the chassis and body complement the moon caps and contribute to the overall menacing, yet classy look that first drew us in for a closer look. 

While Brett didn’t mention any further builds on the horizon we’re willing to bet that inside his garage there’s a new wall of inspiration already covered in black circles and red X’s. If this truck is any indication of what he’s capable of, we can’t wait to see what’s next to roll out of Brett’s garage. Until then, we’ll just have to keep an eye out for this on the roads all over California as Brett tells us it has a serious trailer phobia.