After seeing Thomas Dickerson’s first build, a 1967 Mustang GT350 tribute that we featured both here and in our Big Book catalog back in 2023, it was fair to wonder if the SEMA Young Guns competitor could top it. Sure, he would hone his skills and develop new ones, but could he really take a big step beyond the ’Stang?
Well, with this 1967 Chevy C10 pickup, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” And, according to Thomas, the two aren’t even in the same league. “I was telling my dad before SEMA, the Mustang was great, but these two builds are completely polar opposites of one another. I mean, the Shelby was more of that restomod style and the truck is more of a true custom,” he explained.
Apparently, the judges—who are also top builders—agreed, with the spectacular C10 bringing home a 2025 SEMA Young Guns overall win.
More than just next-level execution, the truck was simply more difficult. “It’s because you had so many more moving pieces. You’ve got the bed assembly, then you’ve got the cab assembly, then you’ve got the front clip, and then you have a frame instead of it being unibody,” Thomas said.
The expression “moving pieces” applies to the young builder’s business, too. It would be an understatement to say Thomas has been busy. Around the time we featured his Mustang, he and his parents were signing the papers for a shop in Lexington, Georgia, near his home in Athens.
“We’ve been renovating it nonstop since then. We’re finally close to completing everything and I’ve already got a customer job in the shop. We’re just trying to get the paint booth up and then we’re basically done,” he explained.
That paint booth is a state-of-the-art, 30 ft. x 14 ft. Global Finishing Solutions system that Thomas, along with family and friends, were assembling themselves when we spoke with him in April of 2026. “I build cars, so it’s not super complicated for me,” he laughed.
A three-year, 9,000 sq. ft. shop buildout—by a crew primarily comprised of Thomas, his father Joe, and his mother Sharyn, who keeps an eye on the financial side of things—would be a daunting, exhausting task for almost anyone. But Thomas Performance Engineering exists to build world-class custom cars, and that work can’t grind to a halt for a construction project.
Judging by the show-winning C10, which was built at the same time as the new shop, it didn’t.
While the Chevy would’ve been an ambitious undertaking, even in good condition, the 300,000-mile pickup (purchased new by Thomas’ grandfather, Joe Bill Dickerson) had been off the road for years. Parked on a gravel lot by the family farmhouse outside of Lexington, Georgia, it was left to slowly decay and little of the original truck was salvageable. “The only thing original to the truck is the grille and the front bumper—even though I cut it up—plus the top of the cab, the A-pillars, and the back of the cab; that’s all original. The rest of it was completely shot—the rockers, floor, fenders were partially shot, the doors were completely done,” he recalled.
Having to build an entire truck from the ground up presented an opportunity to create a showpiece for his shop and bring a family heirloom back to life.
The body reconstruction began with Auto Metal Direct panels, which Thomas painstakingly worked to get all the gaps to exactly 3/16″. “Replacement body panels get you close, but then you gotta shrink and stretch them to get them where you want them to be when you’re aiming for perfection,” he said.
But before you notice the tight, uniform gaps, you can’t help but be impressed by just how straight the body is—critical on an early C10, with its huge expanses of smooth sheetmetal. “You gotta try to get out of your zone to make the truck look better. I mean, just getting all the panels to line up flat is probably about 90% of it. ’Cause if you look at a normal C10, the panels have a slight bow to them. So when you get that fixed, and get the panels flat, and then you get all the gaps taken care of, it dramatically improves the look of the vehicle,” Thomas said, matter-of-factly.
Helping Thomas take the truck to the next level was his friend Rockford Smith, owner of Rockford Custom Paint and Body. “He helped me with some of the body and paint. He’s another Young Gun and he’s the same age as me. We were both at SEMA this past year. His shop is about 45 minutes from mine, so we bounce a lot of stuff off each other,” he explained.
Custom-mixed medium blue paint finishes it. The color contrasts beautifully with the 20 inch Forgeline wheels, powdercoated to exactly match the chassis and wrapped in massive Michelin Pilot Super Sport rubber.
Of course, beyond the flawless bodywork are numerous trick details that set the C10 apart. A flush Fesler windshield and One Piece Products rear glass smooth the cab’s greenhouse and were unquestionably worth the huge time investment. “The windshield fit the OEM opening perfectly. The problem on those trucks was you had a step-down for that rubber (seal) to sit in. So if you took the rubber out and you just put the glass in there, you’re still left with that indentation. I didn’t want to leave it like that. So I ended up cutting out the entire windshield opening and remaking my own channel,” he explained.
Up front, the modified original grill accommodates Jeep® Gladiator LED headlamps; probably Thomas’s favorite part of the whole truck. “I think you can make or break a car really easily by not using a good-looking headlight,” he said. While they look fairly conventional, there’s literally much more to them than meets the eye. Behind the 9-inch lens is a massive housing. Thomas had to design and 3D print his own housings to mount them in the truck. Unsurprisingly, he gets a ton of questions about them. “I’ve had people message me like, ‘Hey, can I put these in my truck?’ I’m like, ‘You can, but it’s not gonna be a bolt-in thing,” Thomas recalled, with a slight grin.
Whether it’s 3D printing or CNC machining, Thomas has gotten used to creating his own parts. The motorsports-inspired tailgate spoiler is Thomas’s design, as well as the exhaust tips framed in the custom-fabricated roll pan. “I had to 3D print those to see if they would fit the way I wanted, then I machined them out of aluminum…I have a guy who has a machine shop, so I’ll write the program and do all the design CAD work and then send him the file and he’ll machine it. I have a manual mill here at my shop, but anything large I’ll typically send to my buddy.”
Visible through the power-actuated door in the Brazilian ironwood bed floor is the Art Morrison GT Sport chassis that underpins the whole works. While it’d be difficult to find fault with the frame’s factory welds, Thomas knows painstaking attention to detail makes all the difference when building at this level. He went over them with his TIG welder and further smoothed them. Then the chassis was finished in striking Burnt Bronze CERAKOTE®. The resulting perfectly smooth, radiused joints are reminiscent of a high-end fillet brazed bicycle frame.
The chassis features the top-quality components necessary to put big power to the ground, provide modern handling, and bring it all to a stop. That includes tubular control arms and a rack-and-pinion up front, a triangulated 4-link and Moser 9-inch out back, Strange Engineering coilovers, and a Wilwood Aero6/Aero4 brake combo. Of course, it’s the little things that make a build, so the chassis is loaded with top-of-the-line ARP stainless steel hardware.
Under the hood, the 650 horsepower Chevrolet Performance LT4 is surrounded by Thomas’ metalwork, creating one of the cleanest engine compartments you’ll ever see. It’s just another testament to Thomas pushing himself and expanding his skillset.
“The Mustang kind of got my foot in the door. Once I started on the truck, I wanted to do a lot more of the custom work on it. That allowed me to push myself out of my comfort zone and do more of the custom metalwork, like in the engine bay. That’s all hand-fabricated.” he said.
The supercharged LT4 inhales through a one-off airbox with a “massive” filter, as Thomas describes it. Spent gases make their way to the rear of the truck via a set of Ultimate Headers, Borla S-Type mufflers, and TIG-welded, polished 3-inch Borla stainless steel tubing.
The engine is backed up by a 10-speed SuperMatic™ transmission, and Chevrolet Performance’s Connect & Cruise ECM and harness, a system Thomas describes as “extremely straightforward and easy,” controls the powertrain.
Inside, what came from the factory as the most utilitarian interior Thomas’s grandfather could get in 1967 has been replaced by Italian leather, microsuede, and plenty of custom machined aluminum and 3D printed high-density polymer trim. The seats and door panels are TMI pieces, reupholstered, and Thomas handled all the upholstery that “didn’t physically have a stitch on it,” as he put it. The result combines the comfort and finish of a high-end luxury car with style that looks right at home in this cutting-edge custom interpretation of a classic pickup.
Naturally, Thomas didn’t skimp on the niceties. Dakota Digital supplied the instruments and power locks, Nu-Relics power windows replaced hand cranks, and tunes are provided by Pioneer and JBL. Vintage Air Gen IV air conditioning keeps everything cool and comfy.
So, the C10 is ready to cruise or carve up some curvy backroads—all the hardware is there. However, it currently exists as a rolling business card for Thomas Performance Engineering and has a full slate of shows scheduled, so even the smallest stone chip would be a big problem. “I think right now we have a couple of shows planned into 2028 with it, and then it just kind of depends what pops up. My plan is to use it more as a marketing piece for the business, and so we’re going to try to keep it in the best condition we can,” he said.
Thomas’s grandfather was a simple man. While he’d certainly be proud of his grandson’s accomplishments and craftsmanship, would he understand his six-cylinder, three-on-the-tree pickup’s transformation into a show-winning custom? “He’d have a lot of questions about why we put a V8 in it, but I think he would’ve slowly understood…I think he’d say 650 horsepower is a bit much, though,” Thomas said, smiling.
Photography By: NotStock Photography, Haigwood Studios, and Thomas Dickerson
Art Direction By: Casey Richards
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1967 Chevy C10 Video Feature
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1967 Chevy C10 Fast Specs
Owner: Thomas Dickerson – Athens, GA
Engine
- Chevrolet Performance 6.2L LT4 (650 hp/650 ft.-lbs.)
Induction & Fuel
- K&N air filter in custom cold air intake
- Camaro ZL1 in-tank fuel pump
- Custom-fabricated 22-gallon stainless steel tank
- Shop 48 Vapor Trapper™ charcoal canister
Ignition & Electrical
- Chevrolet Performance Connect & Cruise ECM and wiring harness
- Powermaster starter and alternator
- Optima YELLOWTOP™ batteries (2)
- American Autowire body wiring harness
Exhaust
- Ultimate Headers with 3″ collectors
- TIG welded and polished Borla 3″ stainless steel tubing and S-Type mufflers
- Custom-machined center-exit exhaust tips
Cooling
- Custom radiator
- SPAL cooling fans
- Smoothed OE water pump
- Camaro ZL1 oil cooler
Drivetrain
- Chevrolet Performance 10L90-E SuperMatic™ transmission
- Derale transmission cooler
- Camaro ZL1 shifter (redesigned)
- Performance Driveline aluminum driveshaft
- Moser Engineering 9-inch housing with 35-spline axles, 3.00:1 ring and pinion, and Eaton Detroit Truetrac differential
Chassis
- Art Morrison GT Sport, smoothed and finished with CERAKOTE® Burnt Bronze
Suspension & Steering
- Tubular front control arms with 1″ sway bar and Wilwood forged aluminum spindles
- Rack and pinion steering with ididit 28″ column
- Triangulated 4-link rear with 3/4″ sway bar
- Strange Engineering single-adjustable coilovers (front/rear)
Brakes
- Wilwood AERO6 6-piston (front), AERO4 4-piston with electric parking brake (rear), and 14″ rotors (front/rear)
- Wilwood compact tandem master cylinder
Wheels & Tires
- Forgeline GA3C 20″ x 10″ (front)/20″ x 12″ (rear)
- Michelin Pilot Super Sport 285/30ZR20 (front)/335/30ZR20 (rear)
Body & Paint
- Auto Metal Direct panels
- Custom-mixed BASF Glasurit medium blue
- Original grille, re-plated
- Original front bumper, modified
- Jeep® Gladiator LED headlamps in custom housings
- Ringbrothers billet aluminum hood hinges
- Fesler flush-mount windshield and One Piece Products door glass and flush rear glass
- Brazilian ironwood bed floor with machined aluminum runners and electrically actuated access panel
- Alumicraft taillamps
- Custom-machined rear spoiler
- Paint and bodywork by Thomas Performance Engineering, mentored by Rockford Smith of Rockford Custom Paint and Body, Lexington, GA
Interior
- Custom-machined panels and 3D-printed trim
- Apex Leather upholstery and carpet
- TMI Pro-Classic seats, reupholstered
- Custom door panels with TMI frames
- Dakota Digital HDX instruments and PDR-1 power locks
- Nu-Relics power windows
- Sparc Industries Truss steering wheel
- Vintage Air Gen IV air conditioning
- Seatbelt Planet 3-point belts
- Pioneer touchscreen head unit and JBL speakers
- Upholstered by Thomas Performance Engineering and Built by Ricky in Kellyton, Alabama
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Special thanks to: My parents Sharyn and Joe Dickerson; industry mentors Will Posey, Jonathan Goolsby, and Crystal and Kurt Lawrence; Toni Holliman, Gabriel’s Engines, and Greg Thomas; and Athens Technical College President Dr. Andrea Daniel for their support, guidance, and faithfulness
