Anytime we get the chance to follow the build-up of a truck from scratch, we are all over it. For the past couple of years, Eric Miller, of Iowa, has been building his dream truck. He has posted a few videos on Facebook and has a build thread on Cumminsforum.com. Well, we are happy to say that his Chevy crew cab is done (as much as any project will ever be), and here is his story!

“My goal throughout the build was to make a very strong, dependable, everyday work truck and weekend warrior,” stated Miller. “I wanted a new truck that didn’t have a computer, was easy to fix, cheap to license and insure, and there weren’t thousands of them on the road. On top of that, it had to have great styling that would turn heads and good fuel economy,” Miller continued.

Where The Chevy Crew Cab Started

Miller works on his family farm where they buy and sell salvage AG equipment (in addition to farming). Miller had his eye on a Case IH sprayer that was hit by a train traveling 55 mph. The driver didn’t make it, nor did the tractor, but the engine did. “The motor was fine, except for the oil pan, pickup tube, and injector lines. The intake and valve covers were in pretty bad shape from the accident, too, but I managed to revive them,” said Miller.

So, Miller sent the ’01 industrial 12-valve engine to Y-Diesel Performance in Spragueville, IA. They bored the engine 0.040-inch over and prepped the block for the rotating assembly. For the rotating assembly, they opted for Mahle pistons but opted to stay with the 12-valve rods and crank. Once the rotating assembly was bolted down with ARP studs, a girdle was installed and the stock camshaft went back in.

The heads were fire-ringed and 60-pound valve springs were installed along with titanium guides. For fuel, Miller picked up a built 12-mm P-7100 injection pump from a local puller who was upgrading. The fuel runs through a new set of 0.093-inch stainless lines and to the SAC 7×14 injectors.

On the exhaust side of things, a PDI three-piece exhaust manifold serves as the base for a BorgWarner S300 with a 62-mm high-pressure turbocharger, which is fed by a BorgWarner S400 with a 74-mm compressor wheel. “I opted for those chargers for everyday towing. I wanted a torque monster with a fast spool up,” smiled Miller.

To finish the engine off, Miller installed a South Bend twin-disk clutch. With everything together, Miller didn’t think it looked cool enough. So, he made a deal with a local chrome shop that if he prepped and got everything ready for plating, they would chrome everything for a screaming deal!

It is funny to think that this was an old SWAT truck. How the times have changed.

Something New On The Horizon

Miller had previously owned quite a few cars, but never a truck. When he started this Chevy crew cab, he had never owned a truck, nor had he ever driven a 12-valve! So, he spent quite a while looking for the right combination. Eventually, he ended up purchasing a 1984 Chevrolet Crew Cab Short Bed truck that had a 6-inch lift. “The truck had the front clip, dash, and doors (power everything) from a 1990 Suburban. Unfortunately, when we pulled the dash out, we realized there was no vin in the truck,” said Miller a little frustrated. “Luckily, I ended up finding a great 1989 Crew Cab out of Arizona that was an old SWAT truck.”

The first thing he did was strip the Chevy crew cab down to the frame. The 2WD frame would need to be shortened 14 inches and the entire front end redone. Miller wanted a 4WD truck, so he added a Dana 60 with 4:10 gears (to match the 14-bolt rearend) and built a custom mount for dual Fox Racing shocks. He braced the frame in several places (including a HUGE I-beam in front) and built a custom engine crossmember. The front end is capable of holding a 4,000-lb weight box before it bottoms out. Once all of the fabrication was complete, he moved the frame outside and sandblasted it. Then the bare metal frame was primed and painted gloss black.

With a sound foundation, Miller installed a 6-inch lift with Sulastic rubber shackles and Adco sway bars. He called the guys at Offroad Design and opted to use a chromoly kingpin, upgraded his tie rod ends, and all of the linkage. After a few iterations, Miller finally ended up with a high-output pump, hydraulic steering assist cylinder, and reservoir all from PSC. To keep the axle under the Chevy crew cab from wrapping around, a custom chromoly ladder bar kit was fabricated for the front.

In the back, the same 6-inch lift with Sulastic rubber shackles was installed as well as custom ladder bars made from chromoly. To give him the extra carrying capacity, Miller installed air bags between the frame and the axle and paired that with a B&W gooseneck hitch.

To make sure he was ready to have some fun, a custom adjustable pulling hitch was installed. The 14-bolt rearend received a spool to make sure both rear wheels are always turning. To ensure that the truck can also come to a stop, Miller converted the drum brakes to disk.

The Chevy crew cab has a great look about it due largely to the width of the tires. Miller opted for Mickey Thompson Baja MTZ 36×15.5R16. These tires stick out just enough to give the truck a really aggressive, “I mean business” look. They are mounted on some Mickey Thompson Classic Lock 16×12 wheels.

Once the rolling chassis was done, Miller installed the engine with an NV4500 five-speed with an upgraded 1-3/8-inch billet input shaft. To send power to the front and rear, an NP205 transfer case was used. It features extreme-duty bearings for a little extra insurance. Following that logic, just in case the truck ever does see the sled track, Miller installed front and rear driveshaft loops.

To keep the engine cool, Miller installed a Champion polished aluminum race series radiator and Flex-A-Light fan. To get the headlights and front grill to mount properly, Miller spent a lot of time cutting the core support and redesigning the mounts for a second-gen Dodge intercooler. There isn’t much space and most people who do a conversion just push the grill out or don’t run one at all. Miller knows the importance of an intercooler and appreciates the clean lines of the factory truck. So, he spent the time to really make everything fit in the tight space.

The factory dual saddle bag fuel tanks were installed and Miller wanted to make sure that fuel would never be an issue moving forward. So, he installed a 1.5-inch steel braided hose from the tank to a FASS 220 lift pump. From the pump, he custom-made a dual feed setup with oversized steel braided lines to feed the P-pump.

Miller got pretty clever on the fuel plate of the P-pump. The fuel plate adjuster is run directly into the cab and spinner level so he can adjust it as he drives. “I can manually crank up and down the injection pump on the fly from inside the cab. It goes from no smoke at all and 20-plus fuel economy to multi-lane blackout,” smiled Miller.

Due to the unusual combination of parts, Miller had to custom-make his exhaust. He started with 4-inch tubing from the low-pressure turbo and eventually snaked it back into the bed, where 5-inch Silverline stacks are mounted. Once everything fit, he used some high-temperature paint and wrapped the exhaust to reduce the radiant heat.

When we meet up with Miller at the Scheid Diesel Extravaganza, we also met his good friend and painter, Mike Corbin. Corbin did the majority of the paint and body for Miller. Miller had taken most of the loose parts (including the cab) over to Corbin’s single-car (very narrow) garage. They laughed and joked that there was only about a foot on each side of the cab in his garage for Corbin to work.

The front clip of this Chevy crew cab is from a ’91 Suburban. “I called Eric up one night and asked him if I could fill the holes in the fender panel,” said Corbin. “The passenger’s side fender only had a few holes and I figured it wouldn’t take too long. It wasn’t until I saw the driver’s side, that I realized I shouldn’t have filled the panels. Man was that a lot of work,” exclaimed Corbin.

Not only did Corbin fill all of the holes on the fenders, but he did the firewall, removed and filled all of the holes from the badges, and completely smoothed the tailgate. Then Corbin shaved the marker lights, shaved the antenna, and filled the original mirror holes.

Miller opted to run mirrors off of a 2012 Chevrolet truck. Not only are these larger, but they are also adjustable. Once everything was filled, sanded, and prepped, Corbin took everything up to his work (he works at an auto body shop) and painted the truck a custom pearl white with Dupont’s new water-based paints.

After everything was dry and ready, they were installed on the truck in Miller’s shop/barn. Everything looked great, but it wasn’t until the truck was running that the pearl popped!

Not wanting to leave anything to chance (remember how Miller ended up with the engine), he custom fabricated a 2.5-inch full roll cage to protect occupants of the Chevy crew cab in case things turned ugly. “I’ve seen these old trucks rolled and they crush like tin cans,” explained Miller.

Once the cage was installed, Miller went to work with Dynamat. He installed two layers on the firewall, one layer on the floor pan, rear of the cab, inside, and outside of the doors and then he filled the inside of the roof with foam.

Then he focused on finishing the Chevy crew cab doors with all new motors and seals. Once that was done, he fabricated mounts for the 6×9 five-way Pioneer speakers powered by a JL Audio XD700 five channel amp. Next, he installed the dash, which is factory. He painted it and filled it with lots of goodies. To keep an eye on everything, Miller opted for Auto Meter’s Ultra-Lite series gauges and added custom overlays to the factory speedo and fuel gauge (painted to match, of course).

In addition to all the new gauges, the truck would be awful to ride in during the summer if it didn’t have some ice-cold air. A Vintage Air AC and heat unit was installed under the dash. For tunes, a JVC head unit was installed.

During this whole process, Miller ended up getting married. The steering wheel was a gift from his wife!

Miller opted to use a set of heated and powered King Ranch seats out of a Ford F-150 for the interior. These are very rugged seats that can handle a lot of abuse. After mounting the rear bench, Miller managed to squeeze a 10-inch JL subwoofer behind the bench.

To bring a little more color and texture into the Chevy crew cab, Miller opted to upgrade his steering wheel to a Mohagany and chrome steering.

With everything just about finished, it was time for the nightmare — wiring. Miller tried to keep the truck as clean as he could. So, he relocated a lot of things out of the engine compartment and under the dash. He ended up moving the factory fuse panel under the dash, but needed to add a second Painless Performance fuse panel and a bunch of their wiring kits to finish wiring everything up. “It may be an old truck but it still has a lot wiring with all the newer technology,” Miller said.

“I really couldn’t have done this without my cousin, Matt McLees’ help! It took years of hard work and dedication, but it feels good to have a new truck exactly the way I want it — and for less money than a new 1/2 ton. From the very beginning, I knew the look I wanted. There were thousands of different ways I could have gone and it was very difficult to stick to an overall theme that would have good results in the end. I know everyone has different tastes, the vehicle you drive is an expression of your personality and nobody is the same. When I step back and look at my truck, I nailed it!” exclaims Miller.

We couldn’t agree more. This Chevy crew cab has an extremely aggressive look, but was built to handle almost everything. One of the best features about the truck (other than it was built from the ground up) is the fact it will be used! If the results from the first show are any indications, Miller’s Chevy appeals to a lot of us. He ended up winning “Best Custom Diesel” at the 2014 Scheid Diesel Extravaganza (the debut of the truck.)

Miller has already been spotted driving the truck around with a camper in tow and around town. So, there is no doubt that this truck will be seen and the owner is truly appreciating his hard work and dedication.