Wild and Crazy Times: Week to Wicked Saturday Morning Wrap Up.
There’s an old saying that goes, “There’s no rest for the wicked and the righteous don’t require it. And we believe that old saying because Classic Trucks’ Week to Wicked crew blazed at full throttle every day until they met their Day Five deadline to have the LS3 in Speedway Motors 1952 Chevy pickup burning its first gulps of gasoline on Facebook Live.
The clock struck ten and the Week to Wicked crew had done it again; another wild and crazy scramble to completely revamp a stock vehicle into a wicked street fighter ended in success. Saturday morning rolled around and the mood was casual we all felt like we had gone to war and brought home the enemy’s flag without a casualty.
The heavy rainstorms had stopped for the first time in a week, the sun was out and Classic Trucks editor Ryan Manson rolled up in his 1955 Chevy Bel Air two-door hardtop, and TEN’s tech center manager Jason Scudellari putted up on his 2006 Harley-Davidson Dyna Glide. The fact that everyone involved felt relaxed enough to arrive around mid-morning sans a daily-driver indicated a level of confidence the worst part was over. Now all that remained was to inspect fluid levels were up to operating capacity and align the frontend good enough to drive the truck to an alignment shop on Monday.
That said there was still one unknown and that was when the ‘52’s Lokar shifter was put into Drive would the truck move forward? The stress level heightened because we all knew the video crew wouldn’t be able to film Speedway Motors ’52 Chevy driving down the road or do a series of celebratory smoky burnouts if something in the driveline failed. The Chevrolet Performance LS3 lit right up and sounded healthy, but as soon as Jason slipped it into Drive the truck emitted a terrible mechanical grinding scream like someone had dropped a rhinoceros into a giant Waring blender.
Week To Wicked streams programs on Facebook Live where there’s no hiding a problem like reality shows on TV where the illusion of a weeklong build can be created with three weeks of takes edited into a Hollywood week. Failure loomed, back on the two-post lift and into the air went the ’52 Chevy where Jason, Christian and Ryan diagnosed the rear axles weren’t engaging the differential gears. A scramble around the tech center located a new 31-spline axle to be robbed from another project and the day was saved.
The crew of Week to Wicked would like to thank all the viewers that watched the build come together in real time on Facebook Live and follow the day’s results in articles enhanced with video episodes posted at HotRod.com. Also Speedway Motors employees Damon, Tom and Joe coming out from Lincoln, Nebraska to help, and of course Speedway Motors for commissioning the build of its 1952 Chevrolet pickup to celebrate Speedway Motors 65th Anniversary.
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