Supercharged 1941 GMC Hot Rod Truck Goes the Ford Way When Playing Off-Road

What we have here is a “little badass” vehicle – as Shawn, the host of AutotopiaLA likes to describe it – that was originally a yellow 1941 GMC truck snatched off Craigslist by the owner. Apparently, the previous master wasn’t able to sell it dressed up in the glaring shade, so the little truck was spray-painted black, and that’s how the “dude dropped it off in my front yard.”

From there on, according to the story, it became a “budget rat rod build that turned into not so budget,” even though the vast majority of modifications were performed in DIY fashion inside the owner’s garage. Now, there’s about an arm’s length of stock frame left under the cab of the ‘41 - everything else has been boxed, tubed, and roll-caged.

Naturally, Shawn loves to first check what’s under the hood, so the owner hurls it out of the way at the 1:40 mark for us to see the “little” 350ci (5.7-liter) V8 that’s “still carbureted” even though it now sports things like a 1.44 supercharger for 10 PSI of boost, or a water/ meth injection.

The owner isn’t exactly sure of the current horsepower rating, it could be slightly above the 400-hp threshold now that it “runs properly” with the ten pounds of boost, but it doesn’t even matter because we’re about over with the rat rod part of the presentation and it’s time to focus on the obvious off-roading qualities.

Those mostly come from the “outrageous” suspension setup – the one part (from 2:30) that wasn’t built by the owner himself inside the family garage. Instead, it now uses a 1998 Ford Ranger suspension kit and steering rack alongside a host of bespoke modifications that make it a joy when playing in the sand and for dune-jumping.

By the way, the truck and owner were back from spending a week of fun during the recent 2021 King of the Hammers. Therefore, it’s understandable why the recently installed line lock wasn’t even used beyond the fitment trial (you can check a seemingly never-ending burnout from the 10:10 mark).

Back to the build, we find out from the 3:40 mark a little something about the custom DIY exhaust setup that makes use of Magnaflow elements and a hidden side exhaust (under the cab) to blow a loud voice right in the window of other traffic participants. And that probably happens a lot, since the owner also tells Shawn during the drive part (starting at 7:25) that he’s very much using it as a daily driver when he’s not having a very busy day.

One last thing before we let you enjoy the patina sight; by the way, he painted the truck green, didn’t like it, took the grinder to it alongside his little kid that “helped” with the screwdriver. This is a 2WD truck and also comes with a Ford nine-inch rear to further establish the Blue Oval connection, while friends lending a helping hand led to the existence of those purple bucket seats we see fitted inside the cabin.