If the New Jersey-based tree service company who originally owned Cliff Carroll’s 1968 Chevy could see it now, they likely wouldn’t believe it was the same truck.Photo: Cliff Carroll
Working in his family’s appliance service business in the early 2000s, Cliff Carroll of Fairfield, Conn., wanted a novel truck to use to drive around in and do service calls. Looking at a dent-riddled 1968 Chevy that had previously been used as service truck for a New Jersey-based tree service company, he could see great potential. At $700, the price was certainly right!
But it would take 14 years of on-and-off work to transform the beaten down old six-cylinder economy vehicle into the hotrod truck of his dreams.
“Between mortgages and raising kids, it was a very slow project,” Carroll says. “But I knew eventually I would get it done. I really wanted the resto-mod type of thing where you take an old body and put all new things in it. This has got a late model Corvette motor and transmission with computers and an air ride system. It’s essentially a brand new vehicle with a ’68 Chevy body on it. It’s got rack and pinion steering and all the creature comforts of a new vehicle — air conditioning, electric windows.”
Over the years, Carroll installed a 1959 Chevy Impala dashboard, a new steering column, cut the front and rear bumpers, widened the rear wheel wells and moved the gas tank from the cab to the rear of the truck with access to the tank through the tail light.
The truck isn’t just for display. Since completing work on it in August last year, he’s put 6,000 miles on it.
“It’s a proven truck,” says Carroll. “Obviously, I don’t drive it in crummy weather, but I’ve gone to shows in New York and New Jersey. I’m not afraid to hop in it and go two hours without a problem.”
Carroll figures that the people who used the truck for their tree service company wouldn’t believe that it was actually the same truck that they sold riddled with dents from falling tree limbs and workers climbing on it to reach trees. So Service Truck Magazine readers should take a long look at their trucks, because someday someone like Carroll might transform them into something they would never expect.
“Who knows what the future holds for their trucks?” Carroll says.
— Matt Jones
Matt Jones is a freelance writer based in Fredericton, New Brunswick.