[View with PicLens]

Wes Malmgren used bits and pieces of trucks he’d seen through the years to design and build his personal 2004 Peterbilt and its eye-catching paint job

by James Jaillet

It’s not so much the graphics that capture the attention as it is the color combo of Wes Malmgren’s Peterbilt 379. The black and lime green flattop, an in-house build done at the Malmgren family’s company headquarters in Aurora, Utah, is the rebel amongst a fleet of more refined workhorses.

Though Malmgren’s trucking roots only trace two generations, the steel hauler says it seems like his dad’s “driven a truck forever.” His dad, Bruce, actually started driving locally when he was 18 and moved into long-haul, over-the-road applications not too long after.

In 1983, Bruce “decided he’d driven a truck for so long, he wanted to do it for himself,” Wes says, and what started then as a one-truck operation then has since become a 32-truck flatbed fleet, hauling steel and other materials out of Salt Lake City and into southern California.

Malmgren, who was just a small child when the family’s Malmgren Trucking was born, had his career goal set already. “I pretty much always knew I wanted to help him out with it,” he says. “I went to college, got back and started helping out. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Malmgren’s long had another ambition as well. A long-time truck show visitor, Malmgren says he’s seen “bunches of different trucks,” and made mental notes of ones he liked and “things they’d done that I thought looked sharp,” and after he came across an ’04 Peterbilt in 2006 smashed up from an accident, he was able to put the notes to good use.

“I’ve basically always wanted to build one,” he says. “When we found that one that had crashed, I thought that was the right opportunity to build one for my own.”

During the next year, Malmgren, his dad and his brother stripped the truck down to the bare frame and built it anew, starting with cutting off the 70-in. sleeper and closing off the top with a 48-in. flattop.

“That was the first thing we had to do,” he says. “I love the way a flattop looks, especially the 48. I wanted a small flattop on my truck, and the high-roof sleeper had to go.”

After the bulk of the build had been done, including rebuilding the 525hp Caterpillar, Malmgren says he had to find a paint job that suited him. “I wanted something flashy, color-wise, something that people could see,” he says.

Malmgren says he worked with an artist three days straight, “figuring up designs, combining different things, trying to find something we thought would work.”

The result was the PPG green and black combination that Malmgren says is “probably my favorite part about the truck,” partly because he based the truck’s interior and engine paint job on what was drafted and executed on the exterior. “We wanted a mirrored look,” he says, “and the interior is an exact replica of the outside.”

Though a show competitor and custom-built rig, Malmgren says he runs the truck about 150,000 miles per year, which is something he says he kept in mind as much as its show appearance when building it.

“Our mindset with every piece of the truck was to just build it cool, but make it usable,” he says. “We kept looking at what we could take off to make it look cleaner and smoother and have it still be usable. I think we ended up with a good balance of both.”

The Interior Process

Malmgren, along with help from his brother and his dad, designed and built the interior of his 2004 Peterbilt 379 himself, including painting it to replicate the truck’s exterior paint job.

The dash was a small challenge in itself, Malmgren says, and he rebuilt and repainted it four times before settling on the current setup.

“We were having trouble getting it the way we wanted it,” he says. “So we kept saying ‘let’s try this instead,’ then it was ‘well, no, let’s try that, now.’ What we ended up with works well, though.”

Malmgren says he’s still not done tweaking the interior, and he has a few upgrades to “make it a little more livable,” he says, like adding a sound system, TV or video system in the sleeper and a refrigerator and microwave.

Specs:

Owner: Wes Malmgren, Aurora, Utah

Model: 2004 Peterbilt 379

Engine: 525hp Caterpillar

Wheelbase: 270 in.

Exterior Mods: Custom paint job, shaved door handles, custom-painted engine, 48-in. flattop conversion from 70-in. sleeper, 12ga Customs visor, Fibertech front fenders

Interior Mods: Paint job mirroring exterior, custom hand-built and custom-painted dash, low-back seats

by Max Kvidera

Working show trucks run in the Eilen family DNA. Brothers Jonathan and Pat Eilen have both customized trucks and won several beauty show competitions. They followed in the footsteps of their older brother Jake who did the same before his untimely death. And they all recognized the trend set by their father, Tom, who owns and operates Eilen & Sons Trucking and “always has nice shiny rigs on the road,” Pat says.

Pat bought his 2010 Peterbilt 389 in January 2010 and immediately began tearing it apart and rebuilding it as a working show truck.. After the truck’s first show that spring, he and driver Mitch Larson shook things up again and made more modifications. They entered it in a Wisconsin truck show and the Pride & Polish competition at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas. They snagged  Best in Show at both.

Pat claims he doesn’t do much planning in creating a design. It starts with a few ideas and takes off from there. “You want to come to a show with something new and different,” he says. “You have something in the back of your mind, and as you go, you build. The first thing you build might not work so you throw it in a pile and start over.”

For the paint color choices, Pat wanted a lime green combination to imitate his other white and lime green show rig,  “Iron Outlaw.” He and Larson decided on black, which was one of Jake’s favorites, in addition to the green: Pat was born on St. Patrick’s Day.

Like the other Eilen show trucks, most of the fabrication was done in-house by the Eilen crew. The truck’s bodywas paint job was done byGraber Auto Body, and Top Gun Kustoms did the air brush painting. BT Design finished out the graphics work.

One of four in Pat’s fleet in the family business in Hampton, Minn., this truck boasts exterior style reflected in the interior. Much of it is black, with details such as green stitching in the upholstery.

Pat says it’s a balancing act between beauty and brawn. The truck is painted, polished and pampered for the show, but then goes back to work on Monday. “You leave a show standing tall and all the rock chips are sanded smooth and painted over and two weeks later, the fenders are peppered and beat up with rocks,” he says. “It’s your pride and joy going down the road.

“The truck has 175,000 miles on it. It’s not sitting in the shed looking cool and collecting dust.”

SPECS

Owner: Pat Eilen

Model: 2010 Peterbilt 389

Wheelbase: 250 in.

Engine: 485 hp Cummins ISX

Transmission: 18 speed Eaton Fuller

Exterior mods: Replaced Model 389 round headlights with retro Model 379 square lights; mounted, 20-in. boltless bumper; 12-gauge bowtie visor and cab panels; dummy exhaust stacks with donkey ear openings; window chops in side windows; black vinyl wraps on air cleaners; slip-on aluminum battery box covers painted black.

Interior mods: door panels, headliner, floor painted black with lime green flames; green stitch flame in black upholstery; Rockwood aluminum steering wheel; Rockwood stainless steel tube shifter with green and black shift knob.

[View with PicLens]

Scott Diller’s 1981 Kenworth W900A is vying for the inaugural Pride & Polish national championship. His truck qualified by winning Best of Show at the 75 Chrome Shop’s Pride & Polish event in Wildwood, Fla., in April.

The inaugural Custom Rigs Pride & Polish National Championship will be named Saturday at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas as 20 of the top rigs in the country compete for the title. The show is held Aug. 25-27 in Dallas at the Dallas Convention Center.

The contenders were chosen at four preliminary contests from different areas of the United States: the 2011 Great West Truck Show, the 2011 Wildwood 75 Chrome Shop show, the 2010 Truckin’ for Kids show and the 2010 Charlotte Diesel Super Show. The last preliminary, the Great America Trucking Show Pride & Polish, will take place at GATS this week, and its Best of Show winners will be entered into the National Championship judging round.

The Best of Show winners from the four Pride & Polish preliminaries will be showcased in a special viewing area during the show. The owners who win the top three spots in the National Championship contest will each receive a trophy and $1,500, $1,000 or $500 for first, second or third place. Robb Marianni, host of Speed network’s American Trucker will be on hand judging in both the preliminary round and the championship round.

Also at the show, singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson will perform a free concert, sponsored by Mobil Delvac, on Friday at 5:30 p.m. Tickets will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis at 9 a.m. Friday under the Mobil Delvac’s tent in the GATS main registration lobby.

Armando Burguan's 2009 Peterbilt 389

The Pride & Polish National Championship field just got a little larger, as the four Best of Show winners from the Great West Truck Show Pride & Polish events were announced at the show in early June. Here’s the entire list of winners from the show:

BEST OF SHOW LIMITED MILEAGE COMBO: John Silva, Chowchilla, Calif. – 2000 Red Peterbilt 379/1975 Utility Double Flatbed

BEST OF SHOW WORKING COMBO: Jerry Kissinger, Stoughton, Wis. – 1991 Burnt Orange Mack Superliner/2006 Great Dane Reefer

BEST OF SHOW WORKING BOBTAIL: Armando Burguan/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, CA – 2009 Black Cherry Peterbilt 389

John Silva's 2000 Peterbilt 379

WORKING COMBO – FIRST SHOW

1^st Place – Ronald Perry, Oxnard, Calif. – 1999 Red & White Peterbilt 379/2011 Western Flatbed

2^nd Place – Tommy Larsen/Ryan Hooten – 2008 White & Red Peterbilt 379/2012 Western Drop Deck

3^rd Place – Bobby Turley/Tradewinds Transport, Grants Pass, Oreg. – 1997 Red Freightliner COE/2012 East Curtaintop

1^st Place – Juan Henriquez/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2010 Black Cherry Peterbilt 388/2002 Hyundai Container

2^nd Place – Stephen Ashburn, Sanger, Calif. – 2005 Peterbilt 379/2006 Boydstun Car Carrier

Bill Sandvik's 1992 Burgundy Peterbilt 379

WORKING COMBO – 2000 & OLDER

1^st Place – Jerry Kissinger, Stoughton, Wis. – 1991 Burnt Orange Mack Superliner/2006 Great Dane Reefer

2^nd Place – Ryan Hooten, Santa Ynez, Calif. – 1995 Black Cherry Peterbilt 379/1994 Double Flatbed

3^rd Place Tie – Ray Rodriguez Jr/Lil Rays Transport, Salinas, Calif. – 1988 Purple Peterbilt 379/2003 Fontaine Flatbed

3^rd Place Tie — Ray Rodriguez Jr/Lil Ray’s Transport, Salinas, Calif. – 2000 Purple Peterbilt 379/2006 Transcraft Flatbed

1^st Place – Cory Radtke/Vinnie Diorio, Richfield, Wis. – 2007 Black & Orange Peterbilt 379/2007 Mac Tarpside Trailer

2^nd Place – Charlie Sarver/Tradewinds Transport, Grants Pass, Oreg. – 2005 Red Peterbilt 379/2008 Black Wilson Curtainvan

3^rd Place – Tony Lewis/Golden State Foods, Las Vegas, Nev. – 2010 International ProStar/2010 Utility

Jerry Kissinger's 1991 Mack Superliner

WORKING BOBTAIL – COMPANY TRUCK

1^st Place – Randy Reza/Golden State Foods, Upland, Calif. – 2011 White Peterbilt 386

2^nd Place – Tuffy Yeary/KRY Trucking, Weatherford, Texas – 2001 Blue Kenworth W900L

WORKING BOBTAIL –

1^st Place Tie – Ken Drake, Fortuna, CA – 2003 Green Peterbilt 379

1^st Place Tie – Chuck Prigge/Sandvik Trucking, Valley Center, Calif. – 2005 Red & Brown Peterbilt 379

2^nd Place – Armando Burguan/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2009 Black Cherry Peterbilt 389

3^rd Place – Theresa DeSantis, Apache Jct., Ariz. – 1985 Red & Orange Peterbilt 359

ANTIQUE BOBTAIL -

1^st Place – Kenny Yeary/KRY Trucking, Weatherford, Texas – 1978 Red & Brown Kenworth W900L

INTERIOR – CAB ONLY

1^st Place – Armando Burguan/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2009 Black Cherry Peterbilt 389

2^nd Place – Stephen Ashburn, Sanger, Calif. – 2005 Peterbilt 379/2006 Boydstun Car Carrier

3^rd Place – Juan Henriquez/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2010 Black Cherry Peterbilt 388/2002 Hyundai Container

INTERIOR – OEM SLEEPER

1st Place – Ryan Hooten, Santa Ynez, Calif. – 1995 Black Cherry Peterbilt 379/1994 Double Flatbed

2^nd Place – Cory Radtke/Vinnie Diorio, Richfield, Wis. – 2007 Black & Orange Peterbilt 379/2007 Mac Tarpside Trailer

3^rd Place – Tuffy Yeary/KRY Trucking, Weatherford, Texas – 2001 Blue Kenworth W900L

INTERIOR – AFTERMARKET  SLEEPER

1^st Place – Jerry Kissinger, Stoughton, Wis. – 1991 Burnt Orange Mack Superliner/2006 Great Dane Reefer

BEST INTERIOR – LIMITED MILEAGE

Isaac Aguilar/Sandvik Trucking, Valley Center, Calif. – 1992 Burgundy Peterbilt 379

ENGINE –WORKING TRUCK

1^st Place – Juan Henriquez/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2010 Black Cherry Peterbilt 388/2002 Hyundai Container

2^nd Place – Jerry Kissinger, Stoughton, Wis. – 1991 Burnt Orange Mack Superliner/2006 Great Dane Reefer

3^rd Place – Armando Burguan/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2009 Black Cherry Peterbilt 389

BEST ENGINE – LIMITED MILEAGE

Bill Sandvik, Valley Center, Calif. – 1998 White, Blue & Green Peterbilt 379/2000 Wildside Transporter

CUSTOM PAINT – COMBO

1^st Place Tie – Juan Henriquez/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2010 Black Cherry Peterbilt 388/2002 Hyundai Container

1^st Place Tie– Cory Radtke/Vinnie Diorio, Richfield, Wis. – 2007 Black & Orange Peterbilt 379/2007 Mac Tarpside Trailer

2^nd Place– Ray Rodriguez Jr/Lil Rays Transport, Salinas, Calif. – 1988 Peterbilt 379/2003 Fontaine Flatbed

3^rd Place – Stephen Ashburn, Sanger, Calif. – 2005 Peterbilt 379/2006 Boydstun Car Carrier

BEST  PAINT – LIMITED MILEAGE COMBO

John Silva, Chowchilla, Calif. – 2000 Red Peterbilt 379/1975 Utility Double Flatbed

CUSTOM PAINT – BOBTAIL

1^st Place – Armando Burguan/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2009 Black Cherry Peterbilt 389

2^nd Place  – Theresa DeSantis, Apache Junction, Ariz.  – 1985 Red & Orange Peterbilt 359

3^rd Place – Tuffy Yeary/KRY Trucking, Weatherford, Texas – 2001 Blue Kenworth W900L

BEST PAINT – LIMITED MILEAGE BOBTAIL

Scott Diller, Bethel, Pa. – 1981 Red & Black Kenworth W900A

LIMITED MILEAGE COMBO

3^rd Place – Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Ignacio, Colo. – 2002 Black & Gray Sterling 9500/2011 New Horizon Trailer

2^nd Place – Bill Sandvik, Valley Center, Calif. – 1998 White, Blue & Green Peterbilt 379/2000 Wildside Transporter

LIMITED MILEAGE BOBTAIL

2^nd Place – Scott Diller, Bethel, Pa. – 1981 Red & Black Kenworth W900A

3^rd Place – John Gonzales/Yamko Truck Lines, Long Beach, Calif. – 2009 Black Cherry Peterbilt 388

4^th Place – Bob Orton, Panguitch, Utah – 2006 Black Peterbilt 379

As the second stop of the 2011 Pride & Polish show season, the Great West Truck Show will play host to the nation’s top truck beauty contest,  where some of the country’s top show and working trucks are on display. The show, sponsored by Overdrive and Custom Rigs magazines, pits one-of-a-kind rigs against one another in a contest of beauty and cleanliness.

As opposed to previous years, though, there’s slightly more at stake for the contest’s Best of Show winners, as they’ll be invited to Dallas in August for the first-ever Pride & Polish National Championship held at the Great American Trucking Show.

Boots Chivington of Vernal, Utah, took home Best of Show honors in the Limited Mileage class with his 2002 Kenworth W900L in 2010, and Phoenix, Ariz., resident Mike Most’s ’99 Freightliner Classic won Best of Show in the Working Class category.

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 8

Michael Most set out to prove a point with his ’99 Freightliner and came up a winner

By James Jaillet

To put it bluntly, Mike Most says, he was just tired of seeing Peterbilts and Kenworths take home all of the awards and get all of the glory.

Most is a self-proclaimed Freightliner man, having driven one for years, and he never saw a Freightliner compete in a truck show and win. Four years ago, he decided to make amends to his bystander-seen Freightliner tract record.

“I wanted to slowly but surely show that a Freightliner classic could compete with Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks and win best of show,” says Most. Seven Best of Show awards later, “I think we’ve kind of proved the point,” he says.

The Phoneix resident bought the 1999 Classic, his first truck, in 1998, and he used it as a cornerstone to build what is now a 60-truck fleet that hauls tropical fish nationwide for PetSmart.

When the truck needed a new paint job in 2006, Most seized the opportunity.

Most coated the truck with Millennium Yellow, which he’d seen on a friend’s Corvette. “I had never seen that color truck on the road, and we wanted to have a completely different color truck than anybody’s out there. So that’s what we went with.

Freightliner of Arizona applied the paint to the cab and frame rails. The next year, Most added chrome, stainless and WTI fenders, pulled the engine and painted it to match, pulled and fabricated all of the stainless steel boxes and changed all of the looms on the engine to match one another. He also had the entire drive train and suspension painted yellow.

Next, Most says, the truck’s calling card was added. Spun of ideas from Most, his children and the truck’s driver Nick Mitchell, the Classic’s cartoon-based paintings and namesake theme, Legends and Heroes, was born and implemented with detailed murals throughout the truck’s entirety.

The truck, despite its pressed and immaculate show appearance, works just like any other of Most’s 60 during a normal work week. The truck runs about 125,000 miles per year, and keeping it clean is not something he and his crew take lightly, he says.

Between runs, generally on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday of each week, the truck is taken to a local wash, Danny’s Truck Wash in Phoenix, and “completely and utterly power-washed, steam-cleaned and waxed,” Most says. “We make sure no road crud stays on longer than 48 hours.”

During the course of Most’s truck beauty show winning spree over the last few years, his attitude has changed slightly from proving a Freightliner can win at shows to simply being part of the action.

“We do it for the fun,” Most says. “Now, our mindset isn’t completely on winning best of shows. Do we want to win best of show? Yea. Do we want to be first in our class? That’s there, too.

“But I think the important thing is getting out and showing people the trucks in the industry and showing the industry is alive and well.”

Murals with meaning

To get the true feel of Michael Most’s Freightliner requires getting up close to see the details in the murals.

M&M candy characters (stemming from Most’s nickname and initials) hitchhiking to Vegas decorate the passenger side of his 1999 Freightliner Classic, along with the Looney Toons Tazmanian Devil and the Cheetos Cheetah.

On the back of the sleeper a mural honors the New York City native’s family members who work with the transit, police and fire departments in NYC involved in the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.

Then there’re the murals on both outside and inside of the hood commemorating Dale Earnhardt.

“Dale Earnhardt’s a legend, and the heroes are from 9/11,” explains Most. “That’s where we came up with it. And on the [driver] side we put M&M guys in military outfits to add a little bit more to the legends and heroes theme.”

Interior Challenges

During the course of rebuilding Legends & Heroes, Michael Most says he ran into a few roadblocks when looking for custom parts, especially for interior upgrades. So he improvised.

Rockwood Products custom installed the African Rosewood flooring and fabricated the truck’s dashboard pieces, including the stainless steel elements.

Freightliner of Arizona airbrushed the truck’s interior and sleeper to mimic the African Rosewood floor, and Tino’s Upholstery specially fabricated the interior in light brown and dark brown suede.

“A lot of the custom stuff just isn’t made for Freightliners, so we had to have a lot of custom installs and make things work,” Most says. “There were tons of challenges. But that’s also part of what makes the truck special.”

Legends and Heroes

Owner: Michael Most

Model: 1999 Freightliner Classic XL

Wheelbase: 265-in.

Engine: 550hp Caterpillar 3406

Transmission: Eaton Fuller 13-speed

Exterior Mods: Millennium Yellow paint, custom murals, 22-in. bumper, powder coated air tanks, double hump WTI fenders, chrome and custom paint job under hood

Interior Mods: Three-tone suede interior, mural on ceiling, Rockwood African Rosewood flooring, airbrushed walls made to match floor, powder-coated dash to match paint

[View with PicLens]

Mike Hug's 2007 379 "Rollin' for Jake" won Best of Show-Combo at the 2011 Pride & Polish season opener in Wildwood, Fl

The first Custom Rigs Pride & Polish show of the 2011 season is in the books, and Ron Huey’s 2010 International ProStar and Mike Hug’s ’07 Peterbilt 379 took home the Best of Show honors in the Working Bobtail and Combo categories, respectively, at the 75 Chrome Shop’s annual show in Wildwood, Fla., held April 8-10.

Here’s a complete list of winners from both the Pride & Polish show and the more casual Wash & Show competition.

Pride & Polish Winners

Working Combo, 2004 and Older

1st Place – #156 Paul Rissler – “Rissler Built” – 1996 White Peterbilt, 1999 Great Dane Trailer

2nd Place – #151 Ryan Derrickson – “Flight 305” 1993 Peterbilt w/ 2003 Great Dane Trailer

3rd Place – #154 Wayne Hollingsworth – 2004 Blue Peterbilt 379 w/ Reitnouer Trailer

Working Combo 2005 and Newer

1st Place – #155 Mike Hug – “Rollin 4 Jake” – 2007 Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #153 Shawn Cielke – “Lead Sled” – 2006 KW W900

3rd Place – #152 Jeremy Leavitt – 2005 Peterbilt 379, 2003 step deck trailer

OEM Sleeper

1st Place – #151 Ryan Derrickson – “Flight  305” – 1993 Peterbilt, 2003 Great Dane Trailer

2nd Place – #155 Mike Hug – “Rollin 4 Jake” – 2007 Peterbilt 379

3rd Place – #153 Shawn Cielke – “Lead Sled” 2006 KW W900

Combo Lights

1st Place – #155 Mike Hug – “Rollin’ for Jake” – 2007 Black and Orange Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #152 Jeremy Leavitt – “Haysled” 2005 Peterbilt 379 with step deck trailer

3rd Place – #154 Wayne Hollingsworth – 2004 Blue Peterbilt 379 with Reitnouer Trailer

Cab Only

1^st Place –  #152 – Jeremy Leavitt – “Haysled” – 2005 Peterbilt 379, step deck trailer

Engine

1st Place – #155 Mike Hug – “Rollin’ for Jake” – 2007 Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #300 Ron Huey – LB Trucking – 2010 International ProStar

3rd Place – #153 Shawn Cielke – “Lead Sled” – 2006 KW W900

Custom Paint Combo

1st Place – #155 Mike Hug – “Rollin’ for Jake” – 2007 Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #152 Jeremy Leavitt – “Haysled” – 2005 Peterbilt 379 with step deck trailer

3rd Place – #153 Shawn Cielke – “Lead Sled” – 2006 KW W900

Limited Mileage Bobtail

Best of Show – Limited Bobtail  – #502 Scott Diller – 1981 Kenworth W900

2nd Place – #501 Charlie Turner – “Untouchable” 1953 Peterbilt

3rd Place – #500 Brent Greer – 1996 Peterbilt

Limited Mileage Combo

Best of Show – #700 Vinnie Diorio – “Picture Me Rollin” – 2005 Peterbilt 379 with Mac Trailer

2nd Place – #701 Tom Doty – “Freshly Squeezed” 1999 Peterbilt 379

Best of Show – Working Bobtail

#300 – Ron Huey – LB Trucking – 2010 ProStar Gray International

Best of Show – Working Combo

#155 – Mike Hug – Rollin’ for Jake – 2007 Black and Orange Peterbilt 379 w/ Mac Trailer

Wash & Shine Winners

Bobtail 2004 and older

1st Place  – #408 William Fowler, Fowler Trucking, 2004 Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #405 Garry Walker – 2000 Peterbilt 379

3rd Place – #407 Roger and Tonia Brown –2003 Kenworth W900

Bobtail – 2005

1st Place – Bob Tarezynski – 2005 Freightliner Coronado

2nd Place – #409 Jon Davis – “Dixie Whistler” – 2005 Peterbilt 379

3rd Place – #400 Bryan Bedwell – 2005 Peterbilt 379

Bobtail – 2007 and newer

1st Place – #404 – Mike Awker – 2007 Peterbilt

2nd Place – #401 Dick Bedwell – 2008 Peterbilt 389

3rd Place – #412 David Dill – 2007 Peterbilt

Specialty Class

1st Place – #413 Marcus Copeland – 2007 Peterbilt Emergency Service Truck

2nd Place – #411 Scott Roboski – 2006 Peterbilt Dump Truck

Combo – 2003 and older

1st Place – #100 Derek Schrader – 1997 Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #104 Scott Hogan – 2003 Peterbilt 379

3rd Place – #105 Wayne Hollingsworth – 1995 Red Peterbilt, Reitnouer trailer

Combo – 2006 and newer

1st Place – #102 Robert Cullen – Badlands Trucking – 2006 Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #101 Curtis Jean – 2009 Kenworth W900 with 1998 Phoenix Horse Trailer

3rd Place – #103 Larry Diller – 2007 Kenworth with 2011 MAC Trailer

Lights – Bobtail

1st Place – #409 – Jon Davis – “Dixie Whistler” – 2005 Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #300 – Ron Huey – 2010 International

3rd Place – #404 – Mike Awker – “Keepin it Simple” – 2007 Peterbilt 379

Lights Combo

1st Place – #102 Robert Cullen – Badlands Trucking – 2006 Peterbilt 379

2nd Place – #105 Wayne Hollingsworth – 1995 Peterbilt

3rd Place – #100 Derek Schrader – 1997 Peterbilt 379

Best of Show

Bobtail – #404 – Mike Awker – 2007 Peterbilt 379

Combo – #100 – Derek Schrader – 1997 Peterbilt 379

The 2011 Wildwood 75 Chrome Shop show will kick off the inaugural Pride & Polish National Championship series.

The 2011 Custom Rigs Pride & Polish season – and its new National Championship format – kicks off in Wildwood, Fla., April 8-11 at the 13^th annual 75 Chrome Shop Show. The show is held in the shop’s parking lot, and laundry, showers and a full-size game room are available for Pride & Polish competitors.

Co-owner David Farkus says the show is held as a customer appreciation event. Admission is free, and the show includes prize giveaways in the form of truck accessories.

This year’s Pride & Polish Best of Show winners will be invited and paid to go to Dallas in August to compete in the Pride & Polish National Championship, held in conjunction with the Great American Trucking Show.

For more information about the show or to enter your truck into the Pride & Polish event, visit prideandpolish.com.