Larry Weiner has been creating custom and racing vehicles for over 40 years, and in the early '90s he started a company that eventually became Performance West Group. The last truck you might have spotted that came from his shop was the Mr. Norm's Dodge Ram we ran back in August issue of '08. Well, Larry is at it again.
Larry partnered with Jason Hulst of Hulst Customs to take a set of Ford trucks and restyle them into something cool and aggressive for the SEMA Show. Ford decided to provide the trucks, but with only 5 months till the show, this was going to be a monumental task. While Larry is an accomplished wrench, building two trucks by oneself in that short of time is just ludicrous. Larry called his friend Jason to build these trucks. Hulst Customs is a one-stop shop when it comes to design and execution, plus it has built some really bitchin trucks. Jason and his father, Paul Hulst, sat down and brainstormed all kinds of cool ideas until they came up with a good plan. Then, Jason and Larry got together and refined those ideas. With that information in his head, Jason got busy on the drafting table to create the concept drawings of the trucks.
Once the concepts were finished, Jason brought the trucks into his shop and started the restyle. To add the essence of a pony car, while still retaining something that resembled a truck, Jason used his talents to whittle a new body kit out of clay. This is the same procedure the designers use at the factory to create the trucks. Once the clay was in the right shape and smoothed, it was turned into a mold from which the fiberglass Striker body kit could then be produced from.
No matter how cool the body kit is, some other modifications were needed to really make it shine. We are talking about a dropped stance and new rolling stock. Both trucks received components from DJM to bring them closer to Mother Earth. The F-350 components went on without issue, only needing the rear wheeltubs to be widened, but the F-150 stuff needed a little tweaking. Since the F-150 was a new model, some of the '08 parts differed just a bit. Working in conjunction with DJM, Andy Peterman from Hulst got it all on and the changes to the parts were sent to DJM so they could apply them to the new kit. To complement the lowered stance, big shiny rollers were needed. To outfit the dualie, American Force Wheels supplied six of the company's 24-inch Caliber rims. These wheels feature a big rig bolt pattern that hooks to the F-350 via a set of heavy-duty adapters. The F-150 rides on a set of 22-inch Rodtana GT rims that were redesigned for a six-lug application. All ten of the rims were wrapped in appropriate Pirelli Zero Asimmetrico rubber.
With the body kits fresh from the molds, both trucks were ripped apart for a color-change paintjob. Paul manned the spray gun and laid down two identical Sherwin-Williams Striker Silver with Dearborn Blue-striped paintjobs. Every part of two body kits also had to be sprayed, and remember this is all happening in a 5-month span. Once the paint was dry enough, everything was sanded smooth and buffed to a high shine before the trucks were reassembled.
To bring the interior up to speed with the exterior, all the seats in both trucks were rewrapped in leather covers from Katzkin. One thing that bugged Jason was the light grey headliners, but that was nothing a little black leather, glue, and some elbow grease wouldn't take care of. To finish off the cabins, both trucks were stuffed full of Sony Xplod audio gear. The Hulst crew took care of the F-350 while Syndicate Automotive Concepts tackled the F-150's audio install.
Both of the trucks were finished just in time for the SEMA Show and looked great under the lights of Vegas. Right now, both trucks are traveling the show circuit to showcase the body kits and custom work. Soon, the F-350 will head back to Hulst's place, while the F-150 will find a spot in the Performance West garage. Larry and Jason both stated the trucks are not finished and more horsepower will be the first thing addressed. We guess they want the trucks to run as mean as they look.