Slammed ’54 Chevy 3100 Pickup Is Back From The Dead

Few love affairs last over 40 years. Something always gets in the way, especially when it comes to vehicles. This ’54 Chevy 3100 pickup is an exception to that rule.

Dennis Rogers has owned this unusual ’54 Chevy 3100 pickup for 42 years (and counting) — and nothing can come between him and this magnificent beast. Even a distracted driver who attempted to kill “Old Betsey” was a mere interruption in their four-decades-long love affair.

Thanks to a ton of hard work, it looks like a show winner. But don’t be fooled. This pick-em-up gets driven everywhere — and fast — thanks to a built 408 small-block Chevy and a TREMEC T-56 six-speed. Rogers did most of the work himself. He’s the owner of R&R Fab Life in Zephyrhills, Florida, a fabrication shop that specializes in street and race cars.

A ’54 Chevy 3100 Pickup Love Story

“I was working at a body shop and a guy named Sam Bissell, who has passed away. He had purchased the truck over in St. Pete [Florida], and I rode with him. He paid $350 for it,” recalled Rogers. “And then it sat at the body shop for about a year, and he wasn’t going to do anything with it. And so I showed interest in it. At the end of the day after I worked my shift, I’d go over and work on it. “

The truck was an absolute mess. It was extremely rusty, the bed was shot, and in the owner’s words, it had about seven paint jobs on it. It was brown and still had its original six-cylinder engine and three-speed manual gearbox.

Rogers took it all apart, cleaned it up, and started doing bodywork. Fast forward a couple of years and he ended up owning the truck.

“I didn’t have a shop at the time, so I ended up renting a padlock mini storage, and put my truck in there, and was working on it,” Rogers said. “Anyway, I painted that white lacquer and, of course, I was only, like, 18. Then I kind of got impatient and didn’t clearcoat it, and I started driving it. So, the funny thing is, I didn’t have a title. Sam had the title, but then I couldn’t locate him. So I drove the truck for 15 years without a title. No insurance. No windows in it, and fast forward, Sam passed away. I went to Florida Fast Title, and gave them my VIN. Anyway, I got a title.”

Then, a few years later, he wanted a little wider tire, so he took the rear end out, narrowed it, and put mini tubs in it. It had steel Drag Stars on it for wheels.

“I rode around a little bit with that, and then I wanted bigger tires, so a few years later [2015], I was working at a shop with a buddy of mine, and I cut the whole back half off, round-tube chromoly in the back and bought the Coys 20-inch tall, 15-inch wide wheels” said Rogers.

Thanks to a lack of clearcoat, the white paint was taking on the kind of patina everyone seemed to be shooting for at the time.

“Everyone told me to leave it like that, but I wanted to paint it. I rode around like that for a few years. Then coming back from the Snowbird Nationals, a girl pulled out in front of me and KO’d the whole front end on the driver’s side,” Rogers said. “That forced me to paint it like I always wanted to from the beginning.”

There are deviations to this truck, either borne out of necessity or desire, that few other ’54s have (if any). The passenger side fender cowl was OK, but since the driver’s side was toast, he took the liberty of adding a cowl vent to that area of the truck.

“Now I have vents on both sides,” Rogers boasted.

Because that’s not always enough during those hot Florida summers, he added electric air conditioning to the ’54 (located behind the rear).

A Bed(time) Story

The bed is a story in and of itself. When he started building the truck, he worked at a place called Sunshine Stainless, which built transport tankers for milk, chocolate, and stuff like that.

“They had a big, big, big outfit, and they had these big, giant presses. The bed was so far gone on the truck that I ended up getting some 16-gauge stainless from there, and I built and bent the bed up. So the bed of the truck I made,” Rogers explained (not including the tailgate).

Eventually, he got all the bodywork done. He started sending pieces to his friend Shawn for blocking, sanding and painting. After it was all blocked and sealed, he would put the base white on, the brightest white, then after that he’d put the pearl on, then the clear, then wet sand, clear, etc..

There was just one problem: He could not find a new hood for Old Betsey. No one made a ’54 hood anymore and he couldn’t put his hands on an original, so he got a ’53 hood, cut it, welded it, then used ratchet straps to bend it to the shape of the original!

The chassis was sandblasted and powder coated, and everything started to come together. It took a month for Rogers to wire it up, but Old Betsey was on the road back … to being on the road.

The stance of this truck screams, “AIR BAGS,” but that would be a lie. The front suspension started life under a 1984 GMC S-15 (same as a Chevy S-10) front frame clip, UPR upper and lower control arms and QA1 shocks. The pockets for the factory springs on that frame bulge out and back in to accommodate heavy-duty springs, according to the owner, but he had other ideas.

“I went on the outside bulge part of that and cut that out and back cut it and plated it so I could run an adjustable coilover over shock with adjustable tabs on it,” said Rogers.

The rear is a four-link with a Strange Fab 9 housing, 4.10 gears, 35-spline axles, and a spool that Rogers assembled himself. Strange double adjustable shocks are used. Stopping power comes from 12.5-inch Wilwood disc brakes at all four corners.

Power To The Owner

The 408 with hypereutectic pistons, 11.25:1 compression and Dart 210cc cylinder heads. A solid COMP cam with .610- and .580-inch lift (intake/exhaust) and Zorian shaft rockers work the valves. A Victor Junior intake sits up top and holds a 750 cfm Holley Dominator (back when such a thing was still offered) that Robbie De Vane Carburetors put together. It’s been on the truck for over a quarter of a century. Electric power steering off a 2004 Toyota MR2 ensures the front wheels are easy to turn, but don’t eat up any horsepower.

As noted earlier, a T-56 gearbox with a Ram clutch is behind the stroker small-block. With the 29-inch tall Mickey Thompson tires (which are 18-inches wide) and two overdrives, cruising is rather pleasant, despite the 4-series gears. It only spins 1,800 rpm at 70 mph.

The interior was done in Plant City, Florida, at O’Neil & Sons. He was referred to them by a friend. And Rogers got in just in time before the owner retired. His truck was the last interior the shop did before closing its doors. The interior is alligator and for all its detail, it’s never had a radio. That will probably be the next upgrade. Rogers made the steering shaft himself.

His favorite parts of the truck are the way the engine bay turned out and the way the rear was fabricated. He’s never taken down the drag strip, despite his love of the sport and how he makes a living. Rogers simply loves driving it everywhere, including the Turkey Rod Run in Daytona Beach.

Perhaps the biggest honor was having the truck invited to display inside the Coys booth at the Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, after Rogers showed a picture of the custom beadlocks to the owner of Coys at a chance meeting at a show in Daytona Beach.

It’s been quite a journey for Dennis Rogers and Old Betsey, his ’54 Chevy 3100 pickup, and it’s far from over!