Rich Floyd of Long Beach, California, never had a choice. He was born into the custom car life-style. Long before Rich was even born, his father was creating custom vehicles with some of the most legendary car builders of alltime. The younger Floyd picked up the family tradition at age 14, and has worked his way through an impressive list of vehicles. That list includes a ’50 Chevy, a ’64 Impala, a ’64 Caddy, an ’85 El Camino SS, and most recently, a clean custom ’92 Chevy Fullsize Extended Cab.
For the past few years the center of Rich’s custom world has been his ’55 Pontiac Safari Wagon, a beautiful ’50s-style custom that has given him little time for any other projects. When Rich decided he wanted a cool new daily driver and realized he didn’t have time to build one, he started looking for a clean early pickup. When he came across a ’71 Chevy Cheyenne, he knew he had found “the one.” The pickup that had been meticulously restored by its previous owner, Phil West, a couple years before was exactly what Rich was looking for…a drop-dead gorgeous hauler loaded with goodies like a big-block, A/C, tach, and tilt, and it just happened to have been built the same year he was born.