In 2003, Brian Wellman of Southern Indiana saw a '70 Dodge Crew Cab for sale online and knew it had to be his. He envisioned a red truck pulling his red '70 Plymouth 440 GTX to car shows around the United States.
So Brian made arrangements to have the truck hauled to Indiana from its Burbank, California, home—and over the next decade, he tinkered with the truck until it was completed in 2012.
At some point in the Dodge's life, it belonged to the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department in California. When the truck was purchased, it had a Sheriff's Department sticker on the windshield and a unit number painted on top. And Brian found a receipt for a glovebox liner that was originally shipped to someone at Edward's Air Force Base in California.
He contacted both the Sheriff's Department and a few people at Edward's AFB but was unable to narrow down a complete life history for the truck. Its previous life remains a mystery—but it is believed to have been a military service vehicle.
In 2005, after selling the GTX, Brian's plans and strategy for the truck began to change. Since he no longer had a car to haul, he concentrated on making the Dodge show worthy. “I wanted to preserve the Dodge heritage of the truck by keeping it as original as possible yet having the power a Cummins diesel could offer," Brian says.
