Justin Berry is no stranger to custom trucks. He has been in the scene for ten years and has had several jobs doing custom work. Recently, he gained a new position as lead painter at Kustom Werx Autobody in Conroe, Texas. While transitioning into his current job, he rolled a very factory-looking Ford Super Duty. Since the rest of the crew at the shop has at least one custom truck of their own, they hounded him about getting a new project to represent the shop while at shows.
Not wanting to be left out in the cold, Justin gave in and started his search for a square-body Chevy dualie. He chose this particular vehicle because he likes the way larger trucks look when hammered on the pavement. Instead of going the easy way of customizing a newer running truck, Justin decided to go with an older model because there is more work involved. With determination, Justin found an '80 Chevy dualie in Ohio that was already body-dropped on 22s. Thinking he had just saved himself a ton of work, he purchased the dualie and had it shipped to Texas.
Once it was in his possession, Justin discovered that the truck needed more work than he planned for. He inspected the lower portions of the body and found a massive amount of rust that was going to be a pain to repair. To eliminate the situation, Justin swallowed his pride and bought another truck just so he could take all of the body pieces off of it. Though the '88 Chevy was a work truck and had some dents, it was easier to repair them than to weld in a bunch of patch panels on the other body.
The '80 Chevy already had the modifications made to get the body on the ground. Also, the rear suspension had a triangulated four-link with shocks and Firestone airbags. The front of the frame did require some work, since the 3-1/2-inch Z wasn't reinforced with enough steel. When that was done, Cory Scott of Kustom Werx, made a set of upper control arms to help keep the geometry of the front suspension correct. Though the truck was equipped with a set of 22-inch Alcoa wheels, Justin plans on having Dima Wheels machine a cool design on them.
To help him visualize the end result, Justin had KEG Media create this high-quality rendering. In this piece, you can see how the truck is going to look real simple with original mirrors and door handles. To change it up a bit, Justin will suicide the rear doors, swap the rear handles, and move those handles forward. Then, the fiberglass dualie fenders will be extended up so they fit over the big wheels. To finish the '88 body, Justin will lay down a two-tone design from an earlier-model Chevy truck. It will be painted in black with Daytona Blue, and have a chrome trim airbrushed on by Pat Maxwell of Maxwell Designs.
The rest of the truck will be just as simple and classy. The original 454ci V-8 is rebuilt and now sports a coating of Daytona Blue. The interior will host two reupholstered bench seats, a painted dash, and a ton of original styling. With progress being made at a good pace, you shouldn't be surprised to see this truck at events in the '09 show season.