MONICA! 1975 GMC short/wide bed 4×4

Grant Cox . December 07, 2023 . C10 Builders Guide

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She’s Not Perfect, but She’ll Do Anything

LIKE MOST OF US, JACK MARTIN HAS HAD A LOVE FOR TRUCKS AS FAR BACK AS HE CAN REMEMBER. While growing up in Colorado, he played for countless hours with his brightly colored Hot Wheels on the floor at his parent’s house. One thing led to another, and that fascination grew into an obsession with truck magazines he found at the local newsstands. In junior high school, Jack would cut out his favorite truck pictures from his vast magazine collection and paste them all over his walls until they were completely covered. Sound familiar?

While in high school, Jack saved his money for his first vehicle. When he got his driver’s license, he went out and bought a 1975 GMC short/wide bed 4×4 that he and his dad found one day after school. With a few updates and repairs, the team was able to build a suitable truck for him to drive on a daily basis.

Keeping his newly acquired ride in factory spec, however, did not last long. For the first few months, Jack planned how to customize it to his own personal style. Those long and tedious years of collecting truck magazines and daydreaming about what he would build his truck into finally paid off. With a plan in place, Jack and his dad slowly started to gather and upgrade various parts on his 4×4 during their free time.

Soon, Jack’s truck ended up being transformed from a boring stock 4×4 pickup to a lifted, fully customized street machine. In fact, it was so nice that Jack didn’t want to risk something happening to it while in the parking lot at his school, so he had to get another vehicle. This moment in Jack’s life is when he really got sucked into the 4×4 truck scene. Eventually, he was buying and selling trucks that were going out of style—anything from a full-sized 1982 Blazer with a 14-inch lift on 44-inch Super Swampers to a 9-inch lifted 1993 Chevy CK.

After high school, Jack moved out of the cold-weather Colorado climate and headed down to a much warmer spot in Georgia. Once there, the need for a big lifted 4×4 truck to navigate the snow was unnecessary. By that time, the sport truck scene was going full bore, and Jack was finding himself making plans to trade his 4×4 for something fast and low.

Just like his time buying and building customized 4×4 trucks, Jack followed the same trend with lowered styles of trucks, too—everything from bagged 1967 Chevy C10s to newer Dodge crew cab trucks riding on air. His custom truck obsession had become a lifestyle that had been a part of him since the day he purchased his first vehicle.

In 2007, Jack and his wife decided to move to Oklahoma for a more laid-back lifestyle. He worked for a custom cabinet shop in Tulsa for several years and ended up buying the shop so he and his wife could run it together. While in Tulsa, Jack met Ryan Albers and Jack Wallace who were in the truck scene. They became instant friends, and this is when Jack became really involved with customizing trucks. Jack had the idea for a 4×4 Crew Cab square body truck with a short bed on 1-ton axles and a four-link coilover suspension. An opportunity came along to buy a good, solid truck that had a shortened frame already, so he jumped at it. After getting it home and fully inspecting it, he realized the truck ended up being perfect to make bigger and better.

IT TURNED OUT TO BE THE DREAM TRUCK HE HAD WHEN HE FIRST STARTED HANGING TRUCK ARTICLES UP ON HIS BEDROOM WALLS YEARS AGO.

YEARS OF COLLECTING TRUCK MAGAZINES AND DAYDREAMING ABOUT WHAT HE WOULD BUILD HIS TRUCK INTO FINALLY PAID OFF.

JACK’S TRUCK ENDED UP BEING TRANSFORMED FROM A BORING STOCK 4X4 PICKUP TO A LIFTED, FULLY CUSTOMIZED STREET MACHINE.

After about 18 months of dedication, Jack managed to transform the originally stock truck into the 4×4 he had envisioned. It turned out to be the dream truck he had when he first started hanging truck articles up on his bedroom walls years ago.

Jack is a square body truck guy to the core. These are his favorite style of trucks, and as long as he is capable, he will keep building more and more of them.

“It has always been a dream of mine to have something I built featured in a magazine article,” says Jack.

He is the kind of guy who will go the extra mile with details and good parts like custom badges, crazy one-off parts and unique paint details. Check them out for yourself.

TRUCK SPECS

OWNER
Jack Martin
1975 GMC
Short/Wide Bed 4×4
Tulsa, OK

EXTERIOR UPGRADES

GSI Machine door handles
Paint match OEM side view mirrors and trim
Black Max tonneau cover
N-Fab step bars
Billet aluminum grille

WHEELS AND TIRES

22-inch Moto Metal wheels
40×15.50×22 Nitto Terra Grapplers
Suspension – 10-inch Lift
Front Off Road Designs parallel four-link with 2 ½-inch king coilover shocks and track bar
Rear Off Road Designs triangulated fourlink with 2 ½-inch king coilover shocks
Front Axle – 1989 Dana60 with 4:10 gear ratio
Rear – 1989 Dana GM Corporate 14-bolt

STEERING AND BRAKES