Domino: A Family Project Gone Wild

Back in 2008, Terry and Sara Rose (along with Sara’s dad) purchased a decent but well-worn ’68 Chevy C-10 as a family project and as a bit of a celebration for a few recent milestones. They had just moved back to Tennessee to be closer to family, their first son Tyler was turning one, and they were expecting the birth of their younger son, Colton, at any moment. Life was great, and what better way to celebrate than to spend some quality time together in the garage?

Well, as anyone with young kids can attest, they tend to take up a lot of time—in a good way, of course. Nevertheless, that C-10 ended up taking a back seat to a couple of baby seats, and although the truck got as far as getting stripped down for a redo, that’s where the story ended for a long while.

As fate would have it, Terry eventually was introduced to a very prominent member of the custom truck and car community, Tim Strange of Strange Motion, while Tim’s TV show “Search and Restore” was filming. Terry is the business manager for Red Kap, the clothing company that makes all of those awesome shop uniforms for us folks who get greasy for work and/or pleasure, so it was a friendship just waiting to happen.

Of course at some point the topic turned to the Rose family’s C-10 and how that poor ol’ truck had just been sitting for ages (going on six years, in fact). We all know that the only wasted truck is one that doesn’t get driven, so Terry started to realize that the truck wasn’t going to build itself. Sometimes decisions have to be made to ensure that a project doesn’t end up rotting behind a barn due to a case of good intentions but not enough time.

Some time in 2014, Terry finally delivered the truck to Strange Motion, where Tim began planning things out like a painter sizing up his next masterpiece. Terry and Tim both had plenty of ideas and now it was time to put those ideas together into the form of a truck. The original concept was to restore the truck, then go from there. The vast extent of this project, however, wouldn’t reveal itself until much later, when the truck eventually earned its nickname, Domino. You know, as in the “domino effect.”

After about a year, the truck’s progress was evaluated, and Tim put something on the table that would definitely speed things up and take things to another level: He wanted to debut the truck at SEMA. Furthermore, Tim wanted to go full-blown pro-touring on the truck, which meant it would need much more than a pretty face.

The evolution of this build is astounding, and suffice it to say that in the end the Roses’ Chevy went through much more than a simple restoration. In fact, to actually spell out everything that has been done to Terry’s truck would deprive you of any photos, because we just wouldn’t have room for any.

By the time the final design was laid out, there were just seven months left until SEMA, which meant thousands of hours in the shop and some help from some friends in the industry. The chassis was completely overhauled with the best suspension components Scott’s Hotrods had to offer, with splined sway bars and Ridetech coil-overs taking care of the handling. Of course, that’s the simple version of what was done, but in reality, Tim put tons more work into it with more than 100 feet of round tubing and additional stiffening. The result is nothing short of art. With the Wilwood brakes and Nutek forged wheels bolted on, the chassis was ready to touch pavement.

During this phase of the build, Terry was still trying to decide what he wanted under the hood, but with the clock ticking he decided on a GM LS3 from Pace Performance, which was good for 525-hp right out of the crate. You’d think that would be enough to satisfy anyone’s power cravings, but Terry decided that the top of the engine was too plain for his taste, so a Magnuson intercooled supercharger setup made quick work of that particular problem. As you can see, however, there is a lot more to the engine bay than a simple crate engine and blower, every single aspect of the engine bay was customized beyond belief. Exhaust duties were handled with the aid of a Flowmaster mandrel-bent tubing kit, which allowed Tim to create the perfect run of tubing out to the back with a pair of HP-2 mufflers.

The exterior was also sliced up in various ways, some obvious and others not so much. For instance, a keen eye might notice that the factory rain gutters were shaved and replaced with new versions fabbed from round rod, but how many of us would have noticed that the top was decrowned and chopped down ¾ inch? Well, just as the story goes with the rest of the truck, that was just the beginning of the mods list. The bumpers were cut and sectioned eight different ways, and toward the rear, the bed was widened in a wedge fashion to eliminate the factory wedge that ran the other direction. Every single body panel, whether it was new or original to the truck, was modified or hand-formed in some way to flow with one another, whether it was extending the lip below the grille or reshaping the front and rear glass areas in order to flush-mount everything, or tons of other stuff in between. When it was finally time for some color, Tim laid on a custom mix of Medium Blue Pearl Metallic from Axalta Refinish, while the bumpers were finished in a satin charcoal.

Moving to where Terry and Sara would eventually be spending the most time, Tim widened a 1955-59-era Chevy truck dash to fit between the A-pillars and wrapped its edges to blend into the doors, then extended it down 9 inches for a cleaner look and to make room for the Old Air Products AC controls and vents. Although Terry was pretty much open to anything Tim wanted to do, he did request that he stick with using the factory-option Buddy Bucket seats, which incorporate a jump seat between the two main buckets. Tim’s partner in crime and life, Carrie Strange, took care of upholstery duties, which also included covering the hand-formed door panels and headliner to perfectly complement the rest of the charcoal on the truck.

Chris Robinson then took the reigns for a bit in order to install a multitude of Kicker speakers in custom panels, as well as a Kicker audio controller and amplifiers, before handing it back to Strange Motion for final assembly and cleanup before packing the truck up for SEMA, where it was easily one of the most talked about vehicles of the show. Placed front and center in the Flowmaster Mufflers booth, it drew crowds all week long and even received Sony Grand Turismo’s award for Best Truck of SEMA. Shortly after, the truck also picked up the Builder’s Choice award at the Goodguys’ Columbus event.

We really weren’t surprised by these accolades since Tim is a Hot Rod Hall of Fame inductee, but we bet it sure is nice to be recognized. The other winners in this build are obviously Terry and Sara, who actually got to take this bad boy home. Not to shabby for a first-time, long-forgotten project.

[divider]Truck Specs[/divider]

Owner:

Terry and Sara Rose

Mt. Juliet, TN

1968 Chevy C-10

ENGINE:

• Work performed by Tim Strange at Strange Motion Rod & Custom
• Pace Performance Connect & Cruise LS3
• Magnuson LS3 supercharger
• Ron Francis wiring kit
• Concept One billet pulley kit
• Greening Auto Company LS valve covers
• Lokar dipsticks and gas pedal assembly
• Moosehead custom radiator and electric fans
• Flowmaster header and exhaust system with Jet Hot coating throughout
• Deeds Engineering billet exhaust hangers
• Bowler Transmission 4L60E
• B&M ratchet shifter and starter
• Dan’s Driveline driveshaft

CHASSIS & SUSPENSION:

• Work performed by Tim Strange at Strange Motion Rod & Custom
• Mitch Henderson Designs frame boxing kit
• Scott’s Hot Rods front cross member, IFS, 4-link, fuel cell and under-dash brake components
• Ridetech coil-overs
• Currie Enterprises narrowed and polished 9-inch rearend
• Eaton posi unit
• Wilwood 15-inch rotors and six and four-piston calipers in brushed nickel finish

WHEELS & TIRES: 

• 19×9 and 20×12 Nutek forged custom three-piece wheels
• 275/40ZR19 and 335/30ZR20 Michelin Pilot Sport performance tires

BODY & PAINT:

• Work performed by Tim Strange at Strange Motion Rod & Custom
• Body completely customized top to bottom
• Grant Kustoms tailgate skin with integrated spoiler
• Brothers Truck Parts body panels and glass
• Rigid Industries Trucklites LED headlights
• Kindig It Designs door and tailgate handles
• Ringbrothers gunmetal billet hood hinges, relocated for clearance
• Bed Wood and Parts custom wood bed kit
• Marquez Designs one-piece LED taillights
• Marquez Designs taillight housings used as exhaust tips in bed
• Clausen primer
• Axalta paint supplies and Medium Blue Pearl Metallic paint

INTERIOR & STEREO:

• Interior work performed by Carrie Strange and Tim Strange of Strange Motion Rod & Custom
• Stereo work performed by Chris Robinson
• DEI/Boom Mat sound-deadening kit
• Old Air Products air-conditioning kit
• Dakota Digital gauge cluster
• Crowe Enterprise five-point safety harnesses
• ididit tilt steering column
• Billet Specialties steering wheel
• Clayton Machine Works interior billet trim
• Kicker competition level stereo system
• Two Optima Yellow Top batteries

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