Ronnie King’s ’94 Pete looks like a ripe banana, but it’s no softy when it comes to getting the job done

by Todd Dills

Independent owner-operator Ronnie King, of Jamestown, Tenn., bought Ripe-N-Ready from a junkyard “about six years ago,” he says.

The 1994 Peterbilt 379’s currently pristine condition, netting him a couple 2010 truck show placing finishes, is the product of the resulting years’ worth of hard work, conducted piecemeal at his own shop in large part.

Owner-operator King, with his own authority hauling refrigerated and general freight South, tomatoes and other produce back north, has put all manner of mods into it, from changing out the 425-hp C model Caterpillar mechanical engine to its current 475-hp Cat 3406E, to outfitting the truck with a 13-speed Eaton Fuller two-stick tranny.

“I changed the suspension from air leaf, and put Talladega fiberglass fenders on it,” he says, “stripped the hood and bunk and replaced them, adding 30 inches all told to the frame.” The stand-up sleeper he fitted on he then cut to a flattop.

“It’s an ongoing project,” he says.

In October, he changed up the door design, going from vent-glass on the old doors to the one-piece window in the style of later-model Peterbilts, not reflected in these pictures from April. “I moved the windows from the doors to the cab, like in the 2005 model 379s.”

Ronnie King puts a shine on Ripe 'N' Ready's stainless trim.

When it was painted bright yellow years ago, he says, his wife gave him the impetus for the 1994 Peterbilt’s name. “She said it looked like a ripe banana, and I better be getting ready to work,” he says.

She was talking about a different kind of work, for sure, but King plans to keep making mods to the Pete going forward. “Once you get started on it, you want to just keep going,” he says.

More particulars

Rear end: 3:58 Rockwell

Tires: 24.5 low-profile

Interior mods:

• Hardwood floors
• stainless overhead console from RigSkirts
• custom wooden cabinets in the bunk
• various chrome accents

2010 Truck show performance

• 2nd, Show Class Tractor, Nashville Chrome and Class truck Show
• 1st, Working Bobtail, Custom Rigs Pride & Polish Wildwood, Fla.
• 3rd, Interior Cab Only, Custom Rigs Pride & Polish Wildwood, Fla.
• 2nd, Custom Paint Bobtail, Custom Rigs Pride & Polish Wildwood, Fla.
• 1st, Lights Bobtail, Custom Rigs Pride & Polish Wildwood, Fla.

By Todd Dills

(Photos by Bruce W. Smith)

When this 1959 Mack B61 was featured as Tractor of the Month in the October 1976 edition of Custom Rigs’ parent mag Overdrive, I was just shy of a month old.

The Mack, on the other hand, had already logged nearly two million miles hauling “chipboard…from the Hudson Bay to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia” and plywood and lumber back to Saskatchewan.

Some 30 years on, it was still going, if retired from the road along with its Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based owner, Andy Zary, who put nearly two decades and a whole lot of hands-on work into it to turn it into the showpiece it is today.

The B61 made a triumphant ride away from the Great West Truck Show in Las Vegas in 2009 with a Best of Show trophy in none other than the Limited Mileage Bobtail category.

Zary repeated the triumph at the Custom Rigs Pride & Polish event at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas in August, taking home Best of Show Limited Mileage in a more crowded and competitive field.

Andy Zary

Bought in 1968, Zary says, the Mack “started out originally as a single-axle daycab,” which he ran for a while before outfitting it with a 56-inch flattop bunk built by then Fahr Truck Body in Zary’s hometown. It was this sleeper the B61 sported in that 1976 article, but now it’s got a newer custom bunk.

Much of the rest of the truck is new or rebuilt, too, Zary says. “We spent $150,000,” Zary says.

“We remanned the engine, the whole powertrain. It was about 250 horsepower – now somewhere over 300. And whatever could come off was chromed.” And that’s interior and out. It’s outfitted with a one-of-a-kind stainless air cleaner canister made special by the Donaldson company.

At the Las Vegas show, Zary also bagged best Limted Mileage Interior and the Truk Rodz Best Theme award for the “Touch of Class” this 51-year-old brought to the show.

Touch of Class

Owner: Andy Zary, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada

Model: 1959 Mack B61

Engine: 300-hp Mack, with all removable parts chromed and compartment painted

Transmission: Two-stick Mack 5 & 4

Wheelbase: Stretched to 235” on chassis modified to tandem from a single-axle straight dump

Interior mods: Custom cherry cabinetry and sleeper floor, Naugahyde/velour upholstery by Ralph Weflen of Chilliwack British on air ride seats, chromed dash with engraving-labeled gauges and dials, refrigerator, microwave, sink with running water, wood steering wheel

Exterior mods: Sleeper custom-built by Northwest Fabricating, stretched frame, twin chrome exterior spot lights, all stainless trim parts are custom one-off

Paint: Endura polyurethane purple, white, burgundy and mauve by Cliff Johnson of 5 Star Truck Collision

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When Winning Isn’t Everything 

Owner-operator Voris Steward of Houston-based V.E.S. Transportation views his participation in Pride & Polish differently than many fellow competitors

by Bruce W. Smith

The black heavy-haul Kenworth daycab  is a bit of the odd truck out among dozens of brightly painted and bejeweled Peterbilt bobtails and combos parked around the floor of Dallas Convention Center. There’s neither  fancy signage in front detailing all the sponsors nor a small posse of helpers standing by to wipe away any specks of dust or fingerprints from admiring hands.

Instead, there’s one guy standing off at a distance leaning against the wall, relaxed with arms crossed, taking in the surroundings as the crowd mills among the custom rigs on display at Custom Rigs Pride & Polish contest.

Voris Steward is at peace. He doesn’t care whether or not he wins anything. Just being a participant at the Great American Trucking Show (GATS) in one of the premier truck beauty shows in the nation is enough for him.

“I’ve been a spectator at GATS for four of the last five years, and now I’m not” says the Houston owner-operator who holds the keys to the black ’94 KW W900 on display a few yards away. “This year the dream of having my truck in this show became real.”

But don’t think for a moment Steward doesn’t care how his truck looks. Quite the contrary; he’s proud of what his hands have created with a lot of hard work, perseverance, and the smallest of budgets.

The price is right

“I fell in love with Kenworths when I first started driving,” Steward says. “And I always wanted one of my own that I could fix up. Four years ago my dream came true when a friend told me about this one. It was a repo that went to auction in Houston. The price was so low I thought there had to be something wrong with it. But I put in a bid just the same. A few days later I got a call. The truck was mine.”

Steward says when he was shocked when he turned the key and the 60-Series Detroit fired right up. He slipped it into gear and drove down the road for a few hundred yards and hit the Jake.

“The truck had been sitting so long the tires were flat-spotted and when I hit the Jake to see if it worked, all I could see were bird’s nests flying out of the stacks,” he says. “But the 15-speed and four-speed auxiliary box worked fine. I was in shock that I’d been given such a great opportunity.”

During the next 3-1/2 years  Steward, a devout Christian and family man,  spent a good amount of his free time working on his truck named Redeemer.

Voris Steward's '94 KW W900

His passion for trucks, and wrenching in general, helped smooth the long process of turning a sanctuary for nesting birds into a reliable and nicely customized working rig for his one-truck transportation company.

Steward did everything from rebuild the engine and drivetrain to doing the fabrication and custom bodywork.

Among the many custom touches: a one-piece door glass and reskinned doors;  a quick-change four-bolt fender mounting system; custom stainless rear bumper; split passenger’s-side fuel tank to house hydraulic fluid.

Steward also extended the 5th wheel slide by merging two into one; two sets of air/hydraulic fittings, one in front of the 5th wheel, the other in the bumper; and  his own drop-air front suspension.

He also customized the front fenders so he could utilize the single headlights out of a T-800. And he installed a real granite floor using small tiles laid over top of hardboard with Dynamat underneath that so the tiles wouldn’t flex or crack.

“I don’t have the deep pockets or a big company behind me. So if I want something custom done on my truck  it comes from my hands,” says Steward. “And I’m proud of that in itself. There’s a certain sense of gratification that comes from knowing you did it on your own.”

About the only thing Steward doesn’t feel comfortable doing is paint. For that he turned to Big Truck Body & Paint in Houston for the Redeemer’s slick ’40s hot-rod look, which he favors over the modern styling.

Houston owner-operator Voris Steward at 2010 GATS Pride & Polish

As for his hopes of winning one of the Pride & Polish awards, Steward says, “I didn’t enter this show to compete. I’m here because I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to be able to let people see the truck and appreciate what’s been done to it.

“When someone notices something that’s been changed and they make a comment, that’s my reward.”

The Pride & Polish judges were among those that did notice the first-time participant’s handiwork. Steward took Third in the First Show category, which honors first-time competitors.

“Being here is a stepping stone of sorts for me,” says Steward who works his truck five days a week. “I’ll be back next year with a few more things done on the truck. I’m going to spend some time fixing up the interior over the winter — and I’ve got a few ideas from what I’ve seen here.”

BIG RED

Frame-up resto takes this 28-year-old Pete from an oil-field workhorse to Build-Off champion

By Bruce W. Smith

Jerry Diemoz is like a teenager being handed the keys to a dream car. Diemoz, the owner of J&R Trucking, an oil-field operations company out of Rock Springs, Wyoming, is all giggly and barely able to take his eyes off Big Red, an ’81 Peterbilt he’s owned from day one. It’s one of the three custom rigs entered in the Big-Rig Build-Off.

Diemoz has logged more than 1.6 million miles in its cab, most of those miles plying the nasty roads and drilling sites of Wyoming’s oil and gas fields hauling rigging and equipment.

But what he sees before him isn’t the old workhorse anymore. It’s a full-on custom show truck.

“I’m amazed, I’m amazed!” he says looking inside the cab. “It’s great!” He’d not seen it finished until the day he came to the Louisville event and walked into the Build-Off display area where Jim Raines, S&J Truck Sales’ president, handed him the keys. His excitement mirrored the thoughts of the three judges for the Industry’s Choice award.

Big Red originally went into the S&J shop in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to have the renowned repair center (and winner of the Build-Off in 2007) give the 28-year-old truck a working rig’s facelift.

The Cat 3408 was already out and awaiting overhaul.  “But when I found out about Jim and the work they do,” Diemoz says, “everything changed. Jim started on it and everything changed again, because he’d been invited to enter a truck in the Big-Rig Build-Off – and we decided it’d be Big Red.”

“As the rebuild progressed,” says Raines, “we tore it down and began with new double-frame rails custom-built by P.G. Adams in South Burlington, Vermont. From there we rebuilt the truck from ground up.

“We replaced all the sheet metal in the hood, cab and sleeper, converted the front axle over to hub pilot-style, and put in the custom stainless boxes.”

Diemoz requested spreading the rebuilt locking drivers from 46 to 60 inches to “make it ride better over those washboard roads we have in the oil and gas fields.”

S&J fabbed new fenders to cover the new Bridgestone drivers wrapped around sparkling Alcoas and built the custom stainless deck plate and frame covers.

Alum-I-Tanks provided 185-gallon saddle tanks to replace the original 135s, Valley Chrome the front bumper, and Roadworks the rest of the chrome trim as well as the custom firewall and engine air intake.

While all that was going on, sound-deadening material and custom speaker enclosures were installed. The Pioneer sound system, rear camera, DVD player and police scanner were wired and mounted.

Then Ft. Wayne’s Marquart’s Custom Creations refurbished the interior in leather, including re-covering the new Comfort Ride seats. Meanwhile Rockwood Products handled the hard interior panels.

Hundreds of miles away in Elco, Nevada, at Elite Motor Works, Big Red’s tired 450-hp V8 received its own special service. Elite’s experts did a block-out rebuild, popping in bigger injectors, oversizing the bore and upsizing the turbo. The result: a 1,000-hp Cat.

When it came back to S&J they fabricated a new air-intake box and redid all the electrical and plumbing to accommodate the bigger stable of ponies.

After all the wrenching and fab work was done, Big Red made a trip across town to Hoosier Trailer & Truck Equipment, where they deftly applied the finishing touches using Dupont Imron 6000 Polyurethane Autumn Leaf and black as the primary colors to make Big Red shine.

And shine it does. The list of modifications reads more like a parts inventory for a custom truck fabrication and repair shop.

But it’s the one item listed at the end in bold type that says it all: 2009 Big-Rig Build-Off Industry Award.

“I spec all my company’s trucks for the work we do so they are ‘custom’ in that respect,” says Diemoz, running his hand along the stainless deck plate.

“But nothing on this level. This is my first custom rig. The thing I like most about it is the detail that Jim did on it. He’s very, very proud of his work and he has reason to be.”

When Diemoz was asked if Big Red was headed back to the muddy oil fields, he said, “No way. We are literally building a showroom for this truck. After all, as my wife says, ‘Our home is one Peter built.’ Now it’s time for it to retire.”

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A perfect name for Brian O’Leary’s tribute to the truck drivers of America

By Todd Dills

Owner-operator Brian O’Leary has accomplished more than most in his 37-year trucking career: in addition to nearly 4 million safe miles completed, he was named the Truckload Carriers Association’s 2004 Company Equipment Driver of the Year and the Colorado Motor Carriers Association’s 2007 Driver of the Year.

But for him, it’s his latest accomplishment as an owner-operator – a custom build-out of a 1999 Peterbilt 379 stretched to 300 inches – that makes it all worthwhile.

He’s crafted the Pete as a tribute to those he most respects in trucking, his fellow drivers and owner-operators.

“It was a wrecked truck” when he found it, he says of Working Man’s PhD, which comes complete with Aaron Tippin’s signature on the back of the sleeper – the truck is named after a famous Tippin song.

O’Leary located it five years ago at the repair and restoration shop of some friends and colleagues in Utah. He was still driving for Western Distributing then, though, and it was tough to find the time to really put the work that was needed into the truck.

About “two years ago,” he says, all that changed. “I decided I needed to get serious and get this truck built.”

The pictures tell most of the story, but dovetailing neatly with the 2005 story on O’Leary that appeared in Custom Rigs‘ sister magazine Truckers News upon his winning the TCA award is the fact that he’s gone back to his trucking roots, heavy-hauling with Hersch Trucking, to free up time to complete the build.

It made its show debut as part of the Mid-America Trucking Show, and you can catch it on the road in the near future: Other than memorializing the many men and women who’ve worked as drivers over the years, says O’Leary, “my intent has always been to work the truck in my own trucking company hauling enclosed classic cars, which I have previously done.”

Give the horn a pull next time you see him.

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By Lanier Norville

“Hot rodding has no limits.” This, the motto of Flaming River hot-rod shop, is epitomized in its latest revival: the transformation of this 1987 Pete 379 Flattop into the smokin’ hot gangsta rig known as Blackbird.

Flaming River of Berea, Ohio, frequents hot-rod trade shows, showcasing its products and custom work, which is catered to early models of hot rod cars.

“We had a smaller truck, a GMC top kick,” to haul products from show to show, says Brett Domin, sales manager at Flaming River who oversaw Blackbird’s custom makeover. “The GMC really wasn’t meeting our needs. The Pete seemed to be a better fit.”

The hot-rod shop gave the old Pete a second chance at rollin’ in style by modeling it after the Lockheed SR-71 Mach-3 spy plane, which was used by the U.S. Air Force until 1998. The boys in the shop at Flaming River drew inspiration from the jet’s sleek, low profile minimalism – a look that translates well to big rigs — and named it Blackbird.

The redesigned Pete boasts custom machining, hot rod stainless pipes, a new interior and unique graphics that showcase the shop’s finest work.

On the outside, the frame, tranny, and final drive were soda blasted and painted to match the body. No, they didn’t shake up cans of soda and spray down the parts, though the process is not far off from that.

Soda blasting is a cleaning method that can remove dirt and rust without damaging metal or glass. The process involves shooting baking soda through a tube at high speed using compressed air. Know how baking soda shines up teeth? It works on trucks, too.

Once clean and rust-free, the frame, transmission and final drive received a matte black paint job at Priebie’s Collision Center to match the body.

The color, Jet Black, is a Dupont Finishes Hot Hue. The Flaming River team removed the fuel tanks; steps; trim molding; mirrors and brackets, cleaned them, and had Creative Powder Coating of Elyria, Ohio, give them a black powder finish.

The original aluminum wheels got a custom treatment with bead blasting, black powder coat and new chrome hub center covers and lug caps. The original 8-inch visor was replaced with a 14-inch black powder coated visor.

“The truck just looks so aggressive rolling up from behind,” Domin says.

New black bucket-style halogen headlights from Southern Rods and Parts contrast nicely with the classic long-nose design, while integral top mounted turn signals add extra custom flair. The exhaust system tubes received chrome plating and a new direction, rerouted to the side dump Lakester-style, a popular ‘50s style. “We wanted to give it that hot-rod look,” Domin says.

The Flaming River team removed the original Peterbilt logos, replacing them with billet aluminum ovals engraved with “Pete 379” and backlit by LED lights.

The custom integrated fuel tank and exhaust brackets also shine with billet aluminum and polished stainless steel. The custom bumper, made by 32 Chrome Shop of Pulaski, Wisc., is 22” deep and ridin’ low, at 4” below stock.

They left one vestige of the old truck intact: the bird-shaped hood ornament that the last owner had added. “We had changed so much on the truck that we just decided to leave that on there,” Domin says.

The team stripped and refurbished the cab and sleeper, including the upholstery. They installed four new Air Ride seats, a Flaming River steering column and steering wheel, a new headliner, interior door panels, and side/rear interior treatment in the sleeper. They even added a new dash cover and new wood cabinetry to give it a high-class look.

But Blackbird doesn’t just have looks to die for, it’s got the entertainment to match. The audio system includes Sirius satellite radio, CD and cassette players, MP3 player compatibility and new speakers.

Then there’s the Magellan GPS navi system, flat screen TV, DVD player and Playstation 3 that the team picked up from Best Buy.

To ensure a clear sound, Design Engineering Corporation of Avon Lake, Ohio, installed sound deadening insulation in the sleeper and the cab.

Though the truck hasn’t been seen on the big-rig show circuit yet, it’s something Domin sees in its future.

West Coast Chop-Top  One  Slick Creation

Nothing gets Mike Salinas’s adrenaline pumping faster than seeing a green-light flash on a Christmas tree and feeling 540 cubic-inches of blown Chevrolet, sitting inches ahead of his toes, punch him into the seat while it lifts the wheels of his 7.0 Pro nostalgia dragster skyward. The thrill of that seven-second quarter-mile, 200-mph blast is hard to beat.

It’s also hard to beat his tow vehicle: a 1997 Peterbilt 379 extended hood that reflects both the colors and style of this Gilroy, California, National Hot Rod Association Hot Rod Heritage drag racer. Salinas’ hot-rod-style hauler, dubbed Slippery Pete, is an odds-on favorite to win every time it rolls into a racetrack or a truck show, as was proven at Overdrive’s Pride & Polish competition at Truck Show Latino in Pomona, California.

Jeff Davidson of John’s Truck Repair, in nearby Cotati, entered Salinas’ Pete in the Limited Mileage Show Truck class and walked away with Best Limited Mileage Bobtail and Best Pride & Polish Limited Mileage Paint among some stiff competition.

Richly deserved, too. The paint and bodywork on the chop-top Pete are works of art, thanks to the fabrication and attention to details the JTR crew put in.

“The project started out small,” says Davidson. “We were planning on chopping the cab top, building smooth deckplates, making custom rear fenders and tailplates, and painting the truck orange and black with blue flames to match Mike’s trailer [and dragster] we’d finished six months earlier.”

“But every time we got together with him to discuss the specifics, we all had ideas on how to alter this or that on the truck. When it was decided to yank the motor and transmission to dress them up a bit, the small project instantly turned into a huge one. Eighteen months and 4,000 man-hours later, this is the result.”

So the next time you are at a nostalgia drag race and see Salinas’ #7211, or one of his four daughters racing their Jr. Dragsters, sneak a closer look at the Peterbilt hooked to their car hauler/race shop. It’s as impressive as Salinas’ burnouts. — Bruce W. Smith

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