Diesel Of The Week: Mickey Unverzagt’s Diesel-Powered ’52 Chevrolet

Finishing off our month at Diesel Army, we wanted to find something unique to share with you guys. In a recent post on our Facebook page, we saw quite a bit of traffic of people dropping pictures of their rides and we stumbled onto Mickey Unverzagt. Unverzagt is the Co-Owner of Dynamic Diesel in Iowa City, Iowa.

Owning your own diesel business is one thing but to market it is quite another. With what I can only assume is a marketing idea, a truck needed to be built and branded to their business. I mean, yeah they’re needing a truck that can be “The Dynamic Diesel Truck” but let’s be real, everyone wants a cool toy!

I can almost guarantee if someone just saw this truck sitting in the pits or in a parking lot, you would have no idea what was under the hood. These old tall hoods really disguise these monster Cummins engines, don’t they?

As you can see, it has been done. Unverzagt’s build is this sick 1952 Chevrolet truck. “I built this truck at my shop, Dynamic Diesel, with the help of my dad, Mike Unverzagt, and Charlie Morse, the other Co-Owner of Dynamic,” Unverzagt said. “We all had our hands in on this truck build and we have covered quite a bit of ground in only seven months.”

You read that right. Only seven months to get this. That is quite a bit of work in less than a year, but it sounds like they didn’t have much of a clean canvas when they started. “This truck was a seven month project. When I first got the truck, it was bone stock. It was completely original and the lower half was rusted off. There were about eight inches of missing paneling across the bottom so we had all new paneling to put on,” said Unverzagt.

On the outside, it looks like pretty blue but patinaed paint but on the inside, it looks strictly business. All of the roll cages support bars running everywhere, a removable steering wheel, and a quick-shiftable shifter ready to go.

The entire truck is a tube frame chassis and is made up of new steel panels minus the fiberglass fenders. All in all, ol’ blue here tips the scales at 3,400-pounds, which for the powerplant that’s tucked inside, isn’t really that bad. So, what is under the hood, you ask? This pretty blue engine a 6.7-Liter Cummins backed by a J.W. Performance Transmissions Powerglide transmission.

The 6.7-Liter engine features an S475 turbocharger, a BD Diesel Performance exhaust manifold, and custom tuning by Ryan Milliken. Being an all-out race only truck, the narrowed rear end and big tires in the back work alongside the Powerglide transmission and a custom converter to thunder down the track at much higher speeds than a 1952 chassis is supposed to.

If you had a 1952 Chevrolet pickup to do with as you please, what powerplant would you go with?

For something that came about in only a few months, the crew over at Dynamic Diesel knocked this one out of the park. For more information about this truck, be sure and check them out on Facebook. For more truck features, part installs, and event coverage, stay tuned here at Diesel Army. What do you think about this truck? Let us know in the comments below.

About the author

Artie Maupin

Artie Maupin is from Southeast Missouri and has an extreme passion for anything diesel. He loves drag racing of all kinds, as well as sled pulling competitions.
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