Building the Goodguys OBS Giveaway ’88 Chevy Truck – Part 3
It’s bed time for the 2022/2023 Goodguys Grand Prize Giveaway truck!
If you’ve been following along in the past couple months, you know that Goodguys is flashing back a few decades with Roadster Shop as the team there builds a ’90s-style Chevy OBS truck to give away to some lucky Goodguys member next year. This ’88 Chevy Silverado is going to be one cool custom and as you’ll see in the following photos, it’s going to have a lot of fantastic fab work incorporated into its bed.
To maximize clearance for the massive 24×12-inch rear wheels and Vredestein Ultrac Vorti 355/25/R24, the original wheel tubs were cut out and the openings in the floor enlarged. This also involved removing the center brace on the bottom of the bed floor.
After designing the inner bed panels and new wheel tubs, the basic pieces were laser cut from steel. You can see the inner bed panel being trial fit in a photo below.
Each wheel tub started as two pieces of steel – the curved top hoop and a flat vertical panel. The vertical piece gained strength and style with a stepped inset bead rolled into it, and a 90-degree step at the bottom to create a wider base.
You can see how good the finished tub looks as it’s trial fit in the bed.
Let’s recap a little first, though. The Roadster Shop team got the most challenging part of the project done first – designing and engineering an all-new OBS Low-Pro chassis for 1988-98 Chevy and GMC pickups, as we showcased in the kickoff to this build series two months ago. The chassis will be fitted with a Chevrolet Performance E-Rod LS3 engine from Gandrud Chevrolet, a Bowler Transmissions 4L60E, and plenty of other cool aftermarket equipment from some of the top names in the automotive aftermarket.
The inner bed panels received attention next, with recessed upper inserts and stepped lower sections where enclosures were built to house four Kicker KM60 6.5-inch marine coaxial speakers.
Custom-cut speaker grilles will cover the speaker enclosures and add a little more retro style. That small black box in the upper left is the KRC55 Digital Remote Controller, a marine-style unit connecting the bed speakers to the stereo system and providing outside control to the tunes. Can you say tailgate party?
Before all of those mechanical pieces come together, there are a lot of subtle metal modifications Roadster Shop wants to perform on the body. Most of these are not mandatory to fit the body to the new chassis; they are simply some slick tricks that will make the build cooler and cleaner for the lucky winner. In part 2 of the build we showed you the construction of the custom front inner fenders and the firewall modifications that will clean up the engine compartment. This month, we’re focusing similar attention on the bed.
A new inner panel for the front of the bed and a smooth new inner tailgate skin were also fabricated by the Roadster Shop team.
Here’s a sneak peek at the fresh bed. Note the fuel filler on the lower left and the flat aluminum bed floor insert that will eventually receive a custom SeaDek-style bed material with a ’90s graphic flavor.
Of course, after all the panels are built and trial fit, there’s still a lot of finish welding to do.
To maximize clearance for the massive 24×12-inch Billet Specialties wheels, the Roadster Shop team fabricated taller and wider wheel tubs, putting in extra effort to give them a style and shape that looks like it belongs. They then took things a step further, designing stylish new inner bed panels that will incorporate bed-mounted speakers from Kicker Audio. How cool is that! When finished, this will be a great space for some serious tailgating! Online submissions for a chance to win this truck is now open, CLICK HERE to drop your name into the hat.
Want to see more of this OBS truck build? Check out the links below to see the 2022/2023 Goodguys Grand Prize Giveaway ’88 Chevy build from start to finish!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Sidebar – Exhausting Effort
Like any project, there were several things happening simultaneously during the fabrication stages of this ’88 Chevy truck build at Roadster Shop. One other task the team tackled at this time was building the custom stainless steel exhaust system. They used stainless tubing, mufflers, and other supplies from Borla to craft a custom system that flows well within the confines of the new chassis and stays tucked up tight to provide maximum ground clearance. Here’s a look at how it came together.
The foundation of the exhaust system was a pair of stainless steel headers from Ultimate Headers, plus a truckload of stainless steel tubing, headers, catalytic converters, and related components from Borla.
With the headers installed on a mock block in the chassis, the first step was fabricating lead pipes that flow into an X-pipe assembly behind the transmission.
The X-pipe section had to be updated once we decided to use an E-Rod LS3 engine for 50 state emission compliance in the truck. It now incorporates dual catalytic converters in each pipe.
The pipes were routed under the center of the IRS assembly before splitting to snake around the stainless frame-mounted fuel tank. The mufflers were mounted right at the rear, ahead of the exhaust tips.
Here’s a cool and subtle little trick. The rear bumper was notched to accommodate the stainless square exhaust tips, keeping them tucked up high while also adding a custom touch that looks like something the factory should have done. The whole truck will incorporate neat details like this.
Photos courtesy Roadster Shop
