There are a lot of things assumed or taken for granted these days—but trust isn’t one of them … at least not for most folks. We can have faith in pretty much anything, until we’re proven otherwise; but to truly be assured and confident requires nothing less than the highest level of trust. Many of us have had faith in a particular person or shop we’d enlisted to build or perform work on a vehicle, only to be let down for one reason or another. So suffice it to say, reputation is paramount when it comes to today’s hot rod builders maintaining a steady clientele.
For Danielle Locklin, a self-admitted “car girl since birth,” her trust with builder Jason Graham was established well before her 1934 Ford closed-cab was even shipped from where she resides in Pennsylvania to his shop in Tennessee. “I had seen several of Jason’s prior builds and loved the somewhat-traditional style of his hot rods—but mostly the twist he adds to that tradition,” she told us. The two met and discussed her project back in 2016, and despite Graham’s Ford Unibody beating out her husband Steve’s C10 for Goodguys Truck of the Year, Danielle was assured and confident he was the one to build her pickup. In fact, her trust in his ability to design and create just what she wanted was to the point where she only had two stipulations: that it be blue and have map pockets in the door panels for her to carry her cell phone in.
With a debut date set for the 2018 Detroit Autorama, Danielle’s closed-cab project was on its way to becoming that traditional hot rod with a twist. During the fabrication process (led by Justin Gannon), Graham would routinely send progress pics to keep her updated—but once the truck was completely mocked up, that all came to a halt. “No more pics till its debut” Danielle was told. Apparently, Graham was going for a bigger twist on this one, and it wasn’t until the final few weeks leading up to the Autorama that he actually revealed just how big. With the budget and timeframe allotting, he suggested they go for a Great 8 in the Ridler Award contention, and Danielle was not only all for it—she was more excited than ever to see the final results.
For the first time since shipping the hand-me-down pickup (that she’d received from her father-in-law) 10 months prior, Danielle finally laid eyes on Graham’s recreation as he unloaded it from the trailer outside Cobo Hall in preparation for its debut display. It was an unforgettable moment: “I was blown away … I even cried a little I was so happy,” she admits. And those tears of joy were compounded even more so shortly thereafter when the judges placed a Great 8 Finalist flag next to her truck. (Ironically, amongst all the accolades the pickup garnered, Danielle eventually went on to receive the 2018 Goodguys Truck of the Year award!)
As for all those unique twists Graham integrated into Danielle’s Ford, the most notable one has to be the exposed rear suspension that’s literally perched atop the bed floor. Using a Winters quick-change with Posies quarter-elliptic springs, Neely Precision machined the custom wishbone and trailing arms to locate it (they also whittled out the 18- and 20-inch wheels that wear Excelsior Stahl Sport radials). The frame is custom built, though there’s not a whole lot little showing due to the chopped and stretched cab being channeled down over the ’rails. Below the custom-made hood tucked nice and tight behind the Neely Precision one-off grille is an Inglese stack-injected 347 Ford small-block from BluePrint engines with a TREMEC five-speed transmission. The interior has been done in distressed brown leather by Gil Vigil and Speed and Design—with the requisite-woven panel door inserts as the owner requested. And speaking of requests, Graham finished off Danielle’s pickup appropriately in PPG Washington Blue.
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