Oftentimes, there are vehicles that make a major splash in the scene and then happen to mysteriously die off the face of the planet. Most of the time, this happens when a truck gets built, makes the requisite magazine appearance, and the owner keeps it low-key after it has been considered old news. Also, a lot of times, the trucks are sold and cherished by the new owner who never takes it to shows but drives it often.
In this case, it seems like Dalton Walker built this truck years back to tease everyone and then hid it in his garage afterward. What actually happened is he started to build it and showed it with the paintjob it has now. At the time, the interior was stock, and Dalton had plans to complete it before having it photographed. Later on, it was finished and a slew of mishaps occurred to prevent it from being shown in a magazine. As time went by, it became old to him and he lost his passion for it, while it sat it his garage untouched.
Recently, we headed to Central California in search of feature vehicles, and we stumbled across this truck. It had a busted-up bumper and looked as if it had been in a muddy ditch. Somehow, we convinced Dalton to clean it up and tow his ride for five hours to our Southern California photo location. That was a task in itself, as Dalton rarely takes it out of hibernation to drive it around his hometown of Hanford, California.
Once we started to chat with Dalton, we realized that he is not really a truck guy even though he owns this rad GMC. He shared with us that ever since he was younger he would read magazines like Custom Rodder. He needed something to read during boring school hours, and he slid them between his history book pages so that his teachers would not know he wasn't paying attention. At this same time of his life, Dalton started to learn how to weld alongside his father. When his dad started his own business welding on farm equipment and making trailers, he went to work with him.
As Dalton's knowledge grew, he found himself playing around with actual vehicles. By the age of 14, he chopped a top on his own '51 Plymouth, and one year after did his first 'bag job on it to lay that sucka on the ground. Then, about the time he got his driver's license, he figured he needed something to drive to school in. Back then, his father had just purchased this '00 GMC when it was brand-new and gave it a traditional 4/6 drop. Dalton was looking to find another truck to buy just like this one with its standard cab and V-8 engine.
His father gave in and told him that he could have the truck without having to make payments as long as Dalton didn't cut it up. His intentions changed as he saw other low trucks and saw that his newer one could be badder than the rest. Dalton asked about making payments and then started hacking away on the GMC. It was 'bagged over the Boyd wheels and driven for a while before getting painted. Then, Dalton decided to shave it up and had Kal Koncepts paint it in an old-school way to represent his style of vehicles. It then debuted at the 2003 Resolutions show and caught major attention throughout the year.
Dalton drove this truck everywhere and used it to haul materials for work. As he used and abused it, he wound up putting a nice-sized hole in the gas tank. At that point, he wanted to make a fuel cell, and while he was at it, he could body-drop it. The truck went on the lift at Dalton and his friend Rick's shop called SIK (Split Image Kustoms). They cut the body mounts to lower the cab over the frame. The frame was then moved forward 1-1/4-inches to avoid cutting a hole in the floor when compensating for the transmission moving up with the bodydrop. Then, that frame section was made up with the back half in the rear that was made in a hot-rod style with lightening holes. The forward wishbone four-link and Maltese cross aluminum fuel cell were attached to it. During this time, Central Valley Upholstery worked on the interior and the spiderweb upholstery work was done to the seats.
The truck was lowered off the lift and taken out for the next show season. Dalton had the truck finished, and a number of times it was scheduled to be shot by other magazine editors. Somehow things went wrong and it never got its 15 minutes of fame. So here it is, to capture its moment in time.