My Teenage Obsession - The Fall Guy
They say never meet your heroes, but during a late evening rendezvous in Stoke-on-Trent, I did, and I haven’t stopped smiling!
You see, I can trace my 4x4 obsession back to the early 1980s, when I was around 13 years old. Back then I would spend my Saturday afternoons watching a TV show called The Fall Guy.
Yes, there is a film out currently starring Ryan Gosling (which by the way is exactly what it should be, a huge amount of fun) , but what I’m talking about, in case you’re too young to remember, is the TV series in which Lee Majors played Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stunt man who moonlights as a bounty hunter, and uses his physical skills and knowledge of stunt effects to capture wayward fugitives.
His steel steed?
A 1980 GMC K25 pickup, which is also featured in the latest film, alongside its new great grandkid the GMC Sierra 1500 AT4X.
If memory serves correctly, the original rode on a 6” lift kit, 35” Dick Cepek tyres, a winch and a chromed roll bar with Cibie spot lights. I’m pretty confident that, similarly to the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazard, the pickup spent most of its time in the air jumping over cars.
During the show they went through quite a number of pickups until they decided to have a fleet of special ‘jump-cars’. These had the engines moved to the middle of the vehicle for balance, and the front axles were removed and replaced with a cardboard cut-outs.
Like many famous TV and film vehicles, there are a lot of enthusiasts who build replicas, and this particular K25 belongs to Ian Rowley. This isn’t Ian’s first replica, he told me he has had an A-Team van and a couple of Smokey and the Bandit Pontiac Trans-Ams, but he currently also has one that is the real thing. Sitting alongside the K25 is a genuine General Lee that’s signed by the cast and crew of the Dukes of Hazzard.
Back to the GMC, at a number of shows recently I’ve found myself drooling over Ian’s K25, and after learning that it’s up for sale, I figured I’d better visit Ian sooner rather than later to take a look.
Arriving at Ian’s lock-up, the huge K25 was nestled between a Crown Vic police car and his General Lee, then after a quick chat Ian reversed the GMC out of his garage. It fired up with a mighty crack and gently settled into a rhythmic rumble, the sound you only get from huge American V8s.
Ian bought the K25 three years ago from a couple of lads in Hull, “It was tidy, rust free car and a good base to start the mods.”
The 18 month build started with a body off restoration, everything was undersealed, and the final paint job, that Ian did himself, cost £4k, and you can tell, it’s immaculate.
When Ian began the process of putting it back together the challenge was finding correct parts that were used during filming. Ian is quite proud of the fact that he managed to find an authentic side strip, and the identical wheels, that are on original pickup from series 1 and 2, here in the UK.
The roll bar on the other hand was bought second hand from America and imported to Blighty. Unable to find suitable brackets for the Cibie lights he fabricated his own. He also managed to find the same winch, then he built the bull bar from scratch, which incidentally looks amazing.
When it came to the suspension Ian decided on a 4” lift, imported from America, and Ian then commissioned a guy in Germany to create the ‘Fall Guy Association’ sticker, he actually took the design from a toy car and the result is, as you would expect from a build of this calibre, excellent.
Ian had the twin stainless steel exhausts manufactured, with each having a single silencer up front, 4½” tips, and they make the standard 6.6 litre V8 burble.
When Ian can’t obtain parts himself, like the new door mirrors, door handles and door seals, he’ll contact Oldcott Motors, they’ve been dealing with classic American vehicles since 1958, and know their stuff.
As this is a slightly updated version of an article that was originally in the magazine back in October ‘22, I guess by now Ian has sold this GMC to some lucky sod, but if I win the lottery I will be tracking that person down and be waving a big cheque if front of his or her face.