It's Alive!

FIRST STARTUP OF PROJECT STELLA’S BLUE PRINT 383

- CHRIS HAMILTON

WHEN WE LAST LEFT STELLA, SHE WAS UNDER THE KNIFE AT OVERPOWER CUSTOMS GETTING A NEW HEARTBEAT THANKS TO BLUEPRINT ENGINES. The surgery was scary for everyone involved but success was achieved, and she is back in business. New organs and some fresh blood will give our ’95 Chevy C1500 a new start in life, while offering us a fun new truck to drive around dependably and daily. We can’t wait to drive it!

Naturally with most projects, the devil’s in the details so instead of rushing to the road, we gave Trey at Overpower all the time he needed to make our girl perfect and proper. A new cooling system from Mishimoto had to be installed and the Dakota Digital gauges needed testing, but once the last bolt was turned and the Red Line engine fluid was poured, it was time to turn the key. The tension in the room was thick, but Trey was cool as ice. The key turned and the engine cranked, just as he expected. A deep rumble from the Dynomax exhaust filled the bays and smiles were on every single face in the room. Only thing left to do was take it for a spin and listen for any weird noises—oh, and burnouts. We’ve just gotta do some burnouts!

As we complete the testing and tuning on our new Blueprint 383 combined with our 5-speed American Powertrain transmission, we will be swapping out the hood for an Autometal Direct cowl hood and adding a new roll pan from AVS on the web. We will be painting these pieces ourselves using Automotive Touchup RTS paint and lining the bed with a DIY bedliner from KBS Coatings. Stay tuned for that in the next issue, but until then, let’s check out the current state of this smooth OBS.