The Green Giant: Rebuilding a Family Legacy from Rendering to Reality

The Final Reveal of a Re-Fabbed Family Heirloom

As a high school kid, I imagined what this truck could be and spent hours poring over the LMC Truck catalog earmarking pages, highlighting parts, and thinking about everything I wanted to do. Now, I’m watching this truck go from rendering to reality—and it has truly been a dream come true.

If you have been following this build’s journey from the beginning, you know the Green Giant has been a member of the family since it was new. I was talking with my dad a little about the truck’s history, and it came up that not only did I spend a ton of time in the truck as a kid, but I also actually came home from the hospital in it. I know this is more on the personal side, but I think the story behind builds is a big part of what makes them so cool.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

The last time we gave you an update on the truck, we were just out of paint jail and getting the bed set in place on the truck. We still had a number of things that needed to be buttoned up to get to where it is now.

First thing we had to address was the ride height. With the 37×12.50 R20s and factory ride height, the tires would rub the fenders while turning, which wasn’t going to work long term. So, we pulled into my buddy Shane Wootan’s shop and got it to work installing the 4-inch lift from Skyjacker. Not only did we accomplish getting the lift installed, but I got to do it with three of my friends, Shane, Trent, and Preston. The memories of us hanging in the shop together on a Friday afternoon giving one another a hard time and working on the project is now a part of the story that goes along with the truck.

With the lift done, we hauled the truck back to the house so I could get it over to Pristine Detailing and get to work on the color sanding and buffing on the paint. I wanted to get this done before final assembly so we had fewer things to work around during the process. Preston and I spent 20 hours sanding and polishing to get the paint looking right.

Preston and I pulled it out of his shop and went to work getting all the small pieces and parts dialed in on the truck. New steering wheel, seal trim, door panels, marker lights and taillights, mirrors, etc… all installed so the truck was ready to hit the road. This part of the process went together super quick which was nice. We did run into one hiccup—the mounting brackets for the new rear bumper wouldn’t allow us to connect it to the frame on the highboy (so yes, it is currently not on the truck but will be shortly with some custom ones).

Now that the truck is complete, I want to go back through and highlight the parts we used to get the truck to this point in case you are working on a similar project. Let’s start from the ground up.

I would like to give a big thank you to LMC Truck, Toyo Tires, Detroit Steel, SkyJacker Suspension, KC HiLites, Auto Metal Direct, TMI, and RetroSound for being a part of bring this family heirloom back to life. Also, I would like to say thank you to Shane Wootan, Preston Hawkins, and Trent Gasser for sharing your time with me to get this project finished.

Now, it’s time to hop in the truck and make some amazing memories with my family. Thank you all for being a part of the journey, and I can’t wait to start the next one.