Greg Miller from Gulfport, Mississippi, is a guy who is surrounded by custom vehicles once a year. You may ask why would custom trucks come to this guy? What makes him special? The answer is: Besides being a gearhead through and through, Greg also puts on the Scrapin' the Coast show. That's right; the guy who built this sweet Midori Green '52 is also a show promoter. To say the bar was set pretty high for whatever he builds would be an understatement. If you're the guy putting on the show, your ride better be lower, cleaner, and down-right awesome, if you don't want to catch any flack from the guys who enter their trucks for judging. After two years of cutting, welding, and sanding, Greg's truck is a testament to the results you'll get with high standards and talented hands.
"At first, all I was going...
"At first, all I was going to do was clean it up and cruise. That snowballed into a full frame-off rebuild, and I'm glad it did."
Greg Miller
Rewind the clock two years, and this wouldn't be the truck in Greg's garage. You see, Greg had a custom dualie that was involved in a bad accident. The beefy sheetmetal of the truck did its job and saved the occupants inside. Unfortunately, the dualie was a different story; it was turned into a mangled mess of steel and plastic. Instead of moping around, Greg went on the hunt for something different.
Looking through his local paper, Greg found a few listings for early-'50s Chevy trucks, and that's what he decided to build. The first two he went to check out were rusty piles of crud that would require way too much work. He put in a call to the owner of the last truck on the list, and the owner spoke so poorly of the truck Greg almost didn't go look at it. As the saying goes, the third time's a charm, because the third truck was the perfect base for a resto. In fact, the truck was so nice that Greg thought he could just throw on some new wheels and give it a quickie paintjob. Once all of the paper work was done, Greg took the truck over to Kyle's Customs, owned by longtime friend Kyle Lifer, to start on the restoration. The floor pans of the truck were rusted away so bad that the two pulled the cab off of the frame to replace the sheetmetal right. This is where one thing led to another and a complete frame-off restoration began, which also included a fresh paintjob and a new ZZ4 crate motor.
Obviously, the truck is now finished, other than the audio system, and lays the running boards flat on the pavement, thanks to the 'bag setup. The plans for the audio system are on par with this frame-off, because Greg also runs a USACi competition at his shows. He's not going to put the truck in the DB Drags, but it will have a set of Focus subwoofers, an Alpine head unit, and a slew of Memphis Audio amps to power everything. Greg says, "The system won't blow out the windows, but it will have a high-end sound." Greg is proud to report that all of the sheetmetal on the truck is original, with the exception of the smooth running boards and floor pans-no fiberglass on this ride. Two years of work, a boat-load of restoration parts from Brothers Trucks, the help of some talented friends, and a great sense of style created the truck you see here.
THE 411
OWNER/HOMETOWN:
Greg Miller / Gulfport, Mississippi
YEAR/MAKE/MODEL:
'52 Chevrolet 3100
ENGINE/DRIVETRAIN:
350ci ZZ4 crate motor / custom fiberglass air cleaner / Holley 650-cfm carburetor / polished Edelbrock Performer intake / HEI distributor fitted with a Hypertech coil / Billet Specialties Tru Trac pulley system / Hooker shorty headers / MagnaFlow 2.5-inch stainless steel exhaust system / 700-R4 Overdrive transmission / 10-bolt differential with 3.73 / Interstate battery located under the cab floor
BY: Greg Miller
RIMS:
FRONT & REAR: 20x8.5-inch Eagle Alloy series 221
TIRES:
FRONT & REAR: P225/35R20 Nankang Ultra Sport II
SUSPENSION:
FRONT: Mustang II setup with 2-inch drop spindles and Slam Specialties 2500 air springs
REAR: Pete & Jake's four-link with 224C Firestone air springs
ACCESSORIES: 3/8-inch GC Valves / two Viair 380 compressors / 3/8-inch stainless steel air lines / 17-gallon stainless steel gas tank
CHASSIS: Step-notched and boxed factory frame with a Mustang II front crossmember
BY: Greg Miller / Big Dave at Myles Hydraulics
BODY MODS:
Shaved hood emblem, door handles, turn signals, taillights, tailgate chains, stake pockets, mirrors, radio, and gas filler / teardrop bedrail ends / frenched license plate box / roll pan with flush-mount LED taillights / smooth running boards / one-piece window conversion / wood bed floor raised 6 inches / smoothed firewall and fenderwells
BY: Greg Miller / James "Old Skool" Ford
CUSTOM PAINT:
Hot Hues' Midori Sour
BY: Kyle Lifer of Kyle's Customs
INTERIOR:
'00 Pontiac Grand Prix bucket seats / bone-colored leather and suede on the seats doors and headliner / RodDoors Quinn-series door panels / cut and sewn carpet kit / Dakota Digital gauges / Lokar shifter and door handles / ididit steering column / Phipps Timeless Oval pedals / BAD billet steering wheel
BY: Gulf Coast Trim and Upholstery
AUDIO/VIDEO:
The owner wrote "Yeah, right!" on the build sheet
BY: N/A
CLUB:
N/A
SPECIAL THANKS:
Kyle Lifer, James "Old Skool" Ford, Tom Roody, Myles Holcomb, Dave Clement, Terry Mathis, wife Tammy and daughter Lauren