Kris Kurzweg owns Fleetwood Auto Service, located in the cozy town of Fleetwood on the eastern side of Pennsylvania.
Kris inherited the ownership from his father, and the shop has been around since the 1960s—suffice it to say, Kris knows an awful lot about cars.
And while Fleetwood Auto Service does the bulk of its work on typical daily drivers, Kris and his team have plenty of experience with more…ahem…special projects.
Like this 1980 Chevy Squarebody.
“It was originally purchased by my Grandfather, from the dealer, new in 1979,” Kris smiles. “My sister, cousin, and I grew up riding around in the back of this truck.”
In Grandpa’s care, the trusty Chevy C-10 pulled regular workhorse duty for the next two decades, before Kris inherited the truck in 2000.
“At that time, the original 4.1L inline six engine had 115,000 miles on it,” Kris explains. “It went into storage in the basement at my family-owned garage.”
The truck slumbered peacefully in the shop basement for years—but eventually one of Kris’ employees, Sean Meikle, encouraged him to dig out the old Squarebody and give it some well-deserved attention.
Sensing a fun project, plans were drawn up, and Kris pulled the truck out from under his garage. Aside from being a bit dusty, the venerable Chevy was as solid as ever.
Pretty soon after that, Kris made a phone call to Sloppy Mechanics.
“We obtained a 5.3 liter LS from Matt Happel,” Kris explains.
“It is a stock aluminum 5.3 block, with a Summit Racing Pro Ls 4.0″ stroke rotating assembly in it and CNC ported cathedral port LS3 style heads. It was assembled by Matt Miller at Miller Engines,” Kris tells us.
…Oh, and if all this sounds eerily familiar, we first met this engine block during Matt’s eight-second SN95 Mustang build. You can read all about Project 8F8 here.
From there Kris and his team installed a BTR stage 3 turbo cam along with a Holley Hi-Ram intake. It uses Snake Eater Pro Series 1,500cc injectors and all the plumbing is from Monkey Fab Garage, with an aftermarket LS throttle body and flex fuel sensor mount.
Forced induction comes via a VS Racing 88/103 T6 flanged turbo, with all the hot and cold side fabrication performed by Tom Weeks of Nonfiction Fabrication Company. (Tom also came up with a clever removable intermediate pipe that allows a dump to be run for on-track applications.)
The transmission is a Reid Racing-cased 4L80E automatic with a Jake’s Performance Stage 4 rebuild kit, D3 pro trans brake, C2 Competition Converters single disc lock up converter, and all assembly work was done by Cameron Powers of A&H Transmission.
Power is sent to the 12-bolt rear through a 3.5 inch driveshaft from Levan Machine.
The rear differential, assembled by another Fleetwood employee Jim Kopfer, uses 3.73 gears attached to a Trutrac differential and split monoleaf springs, traction bars, and front and rear shocks from Calvert Racing.
The rear is lowered an additional 2 inches and the front is even lower, thanks to 3 inch lowering springs—all obtained from Summit Racing.
Sean Meikle—yup, the same guy who urged Kris to start this project in the first place—did all the wiring, plumbing, and component mounting for the Holley Terminator X engine management system, including the 7 inch Holley Digital Dash.
Aside from the modern display, the rest of the truck’s interior maintains its delightfully vintage aesthetic.
And to get an idea of how meticulously the Fleetwood folks put this truck together, just take a gander at this electrical fuse and bus panel:
That immaculate fuse panel uses power strips and relay boards from Leash Electronics.
The truck keeps its cool thanks to a Cold Case radiator and fan combo, along with a rear mounted Derale transmission cooler to ensure the 4L80E stays happy.
Helping to fuel the LS is a stock fuel tank enhanced with a 450 lift pump, as well as a Radium surge tank that houses a 450 and a 525 pump.
After its long career of hauling duty, Grandpa’s old truck needed some body work and a few very minor structural repairs, all expertly handled by Jesse Christman of Christman Autobody.
The wheels are from The Wheelsmith, and are 17 x 8 inch fronts and 15 x 10 inch rears with 295/65-15 Mickey Thompson ET Street R tires—those factory Bowtie hubcaps are just icing on the cake.
And we’d be remiss for not mentioning the care and attention given to preserving the vintage truck cap over the bed.
When it was finished, the truck was tuned by none other than Matt Happel from Sloppy Mechanics.
Run on the dyno, it made a jaw-dropping 1,024 HP at 26 PSI of boost.
“The truck can be dialed all the way down to 506 HP at 4 PSI of boost for mild street driving though,” Kris explains—a feat made possible by Matt’s Dial-a-Boost setup and the use of a CO2 kit with a Low Doller dome sensor.
And Kris brings the receipts too:
“It’s honestly a pleasure to drive, though being lowered on Pennsylvania roads makes it a bit bouncy at times,” Kris laughs. “But for the most part it’s great—my wife, son, and daughter all love it!”
He tells us that with the dial turned all the way down to around 500 horses, it’s very mild mannered.
“You can tell it’s heavy (4,235 pounds, without driver) and with the the tall tire and 3.73 gears, she likes to hook up,” Kris admits. “I find myself with the dial about half way (850hp-ish) and it makes it a bit of a handful, as you can feel the tires start to chatter at times—60 to 120 happens really fast!”
But all told, Kris says it’s definitely better than he ever expected.
“I have a high 8 second drag car,” he chuckles. “This is just in a different league.”
Once he gets the truck fitted with some requisite safety measures, Kris plans on making a few passes. “We live 15 minutes from Maple Grove,” Kris grins. “So I’m sure I can make that happen soon.”
Now that it’s done, Kris says he plans on keeping it—and the rest of his family is totally on board with that sentiment.
Kris says he might…might…consider selling the truck if the right offer came along.
“But it would have to be a really high number,” he jokes. “I definitely plan on keeping it in the family.”
And we know somewhere, Grandpa is happy about that.
***
The story is just as impressive as the build!
(Having my grandmother’s Pontiac, the memories are as enjoyable as the acceleration. )