The other two trucks are classic examples of two distinct styles. The first is a '65 GMC short wide bed. Primered out with a silver flake-painted roof and matching dash, Kent Kelly owns this bad ride, and this is his daily driver to and from his tattoo shop, Stay True Tattoo in Las Vegas. Still in the building stage, Kent works on his truck as time allows. Power comes from a 350 small-block and matching 350 tranny. He and fellow body dude Danny Blackwell smoothed the body and primered the bottom half of the truck. Staying true to the style, they sprayed a little silver flake to the cab for that perfect touch.
Now here comes the new in old-school. Back in the '40s and even the '60s, you didn't see many step-notched frame kits, but this bad boy has it. Cut coils up front gives it the lowered stance we all love. White walls and beauty rings round out this '60s era rod.
Next comes Alfred Mendez, also of Las Vegas, in his '48 Chevy. This truck is sporting a lot more upgrades than the other two. Alfred loves the old styles, but he also loves the comfort of new upgrades. Those upgrades come in the form of airbags, which lets this old-school ride go from front to back, side to side, and pancake. Wow, that made us dizzy! Scott Chambers of Chambers Chassis was responsible for that upgrade. Alfred didn't stop there; he mated a Mustang II front clip for better steering and handling. The rear got the upgrade, too, with a ten-bolt rearend borrowed from a '69 Chevelle. Then, he painted everything PPG Black and bolted up some 14-inch steelie wheels and white-wall 560 Silverton tires. Voila! You have a bodacious Bow Tie that's ready to cruise the strip.
Last, we have a really new old-school truck. This '02 Chevy Silverado is 'bagged with a six-link kit from KP Components, step-notched and tubbed by MIC in Mission Viejo, California, and rolling Nitto tires shod with Oasis 22s, and it lays frame. Even though this is a new truck and can hardly be considered a Rat rod or old classic, we did keep with the unfinished theme by painting it PPG Black and spraying some flat clear over it to create the illusion that it is primer. As we mentioned before, Danny Collazo painted the pinstripes to complete the old-school feel. Being the hardcore gearheads that we are, we couldn't help but bolt on a Vortech supercharger as well, to give it the ability to go fast.
As you can see from the photos, this type of vehicle attracts the ladies, and if you attend one of these old-school events, you may see them there. So, just when you thought we were making leaps and bounds in the custom truck world with modern build techniques, we find that sometimes simple and cool is the way to go.