- February 10, 2012
California all-star customizer Jeff Botelho’s show truck and working rig , 5150, inspired by grief of father’s passing
by Todd Dills
“Up until recently,” says Jeff Botelho, customizing trucks was more a highly advanced hobby than anything else for himself and crew at the Botelho’s Custom Trucks shop in Los Banos, Calif.
He runs his family’s Botelho Bros. Trucking business and custom shop out of the same facility, from which the shop’s unofficial name, Tin Can Customs, comes.
“My shop’s kind of like a ...
- February 10, 2012
Easy rear window installation in your sleeper brings multiple benefits
By Roland Mendez, Triple R Diesel
Improving rear visibility is high on many of our readers’ wish lists of custom upgrades, as is having more light in the sleeper. Both items can be accomplished with one simple upgrade: adding a rear window.
“You don’t realize just how nice it is to have a rear window in a flattop sleeper until it’s there,” says owner-operator Scott Brown of Devine, Texas-based Scott Brown & ...
- February 08, 2012
A game of one-inch-upsmanship between two longtime friends results in one rocking work-in-progress
By Todd Dills
Truck names come from a host of different origins – the occupation of the owner-operator, remembrance of a loved one, a favorite color, a movie hero or any number of other reasons. Two very custom rigs on the circuit take a different tack, getting their moniker from the wheelbase: Project 350 and Project 351. The latter takes its name from something of a challenge.
After Richie Acosta ...
- February 07, 2012
Fibertech’s fiberglass fenders have been extended for a super-low look and are 1.5-inches narrower than the standard rear-axle fenders for a perfect fit on any suspension. Fenders come in gray primer gel coat ready to sand and paint.
FIBERTECH, fibertech1.com
- February 06, 2012
Randy Humphrey’s Legacy Class Pete carries a lot more than livestock.
By Bruce W. Smith
Randy “Hump” Humphrey’s distinctive Legacy Class Peterbilt 379 is a familiar sight along the interstates between Florida, the southern states and all the way to Colorado. The Cool Blue Pete with the “Missouri Outlaw” band running from hood to sleeper and bright cattle trailer is always on the move, just like its current owner and operator.
But there’s more to the story behind this Custom Rigs Pride ...
- February 06, 2012
Turning scrap steel into a custom touch fit for the working class.
By Bruce W. Smith
How many times have you walked past that pile of rusted steel pipe and remnants of plate sitting by the back door of your shop and wondered if it’s about time to take it to the scrap yard? Here’s a tip: Forget the cash. Take a few hours and turn that steel scrap into a cool custom rear bumper.
We watched a couple of ...
- February 06, 2012
Travis Lyon’s 1987 Kenworth K100E brings the demented Decepticon Motormaster from comic book ink to real-world form.
by James Jaillet
By his own admission, Travis Lyon was “a man in need of a project,” and on a long drive down Tennessee highways “to just get out and clear my head,” he stumbled upon an old junkyard ’87 model Kenworth K100E Aerodyne that, several years before, he wanted to buy and turn into an actuality based on comics and cartoons he revered as ...
- February 03, 2012
By Todd Dills
“We’re not 100 percent done with it,” says Bryan Martin, Joplin, Mo.-based Chrome Shop Mafia boss and perhaps the most well-known personality these days in the truck customizing world. He’s talking about the 1966 needle-nose Peterbilt 351 whose custom grille is staring you down in the picture above.
Some talk about the truck as Martin’s own personal project, and he admits that, “when we take it to shows or do a local parade with it, typically I’m the one ...
- February 03, 2012
One of the most wicked ash haulers on the road is a rare 2005 Peterbilt 379X called Haulin’ Ash, owned by Burningham Enterprises of American Fork, Utah, located about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City.
- February 02, 2012
Talladega fiberglass kit makes it easy to turn an Ultracab into a flat-top as the boys at Triple R Diesel show during a custom conversion....
