ultimate utility

Some magazines out there feature a section called letter of the month. If LOWTECH had a section like that, this would have been the letter of the month. I received it this morning via my facebook account and besides of the written words it contained a couple of images. At the first sight I thought, oh what a bitchin' photoshop of my Chevy Coupe. But then I realized something the australians among our readers already might know: Damn this is a 1950 Ute. And not just that: Damn, this is a kustom 1950 Ute in beautiful Oxford Maroon with a lot of subtle, traditional, well-thought-out mods. And this is only the beginning. Because this fabulous kustom Chevy utility was built by Joshua Jardine, a talented young guy from downunder, with the help of his father. But let's tell him the story in his own words.

"This bodystyle was only manufactured in Australia and many people have always disregarded them as they are not as nice looking as coupes, fastbacks etc."

"I have done a lot of little custom mods on it to make it look a lot better but still appear as though it could almost have been stock this way."

"The Chevy has been channeled 4 inches, and a heaps of chassis work. The grill has had the indicators removed and smoothed, I also took the Chevrolet lettering out of the top grill bar and re-chromed the lot. The hood has been welded into a one piece, peaked and radiused corners. However I left the headlights un-frenched to keep people guessing if it's stock."

"The front guards have been molded to the cowl and lower sill. The sill is also 2 inches thinner than stock to give it a slightly slimmer profile. Doors have been shaved, radiused corners, hand made fender skirts. It has a custom roll pan and I made the taillights out of ?? Can you guess. Homemade lenses took a lot more time than I thought. The drip rails on the roof have been shortened and smoothed (snowed)."

"No one realizes how much work has been put into this car yet it doesn't look radical. Only the keen eye can appreciate the work My Dad and I have done."

"I think this is the way Chevrolet should have done the Ute."

"I wanted to show it to you as your Chevy and many other cars from your blog have been a big inspiration during the build of my Chev. I finished it just in time for my 18th birthday this year. Hope you enjoy the photos."

Josh Jardine (words & photos)