He also moved the gas tank to the bed of the truck and in the hole left by the fuel door, he welded in a piece of exhaust pipe and installed an electric antenna. Now when the radio is turned on, the antenna comes up out of the hole.
Anderson says the most unique aspect of the car is the handmade metal dash, which they created because Anderson didn’t like the original dash. He had an idea of the shape he wanted, so Wright went home to bend the metal, but came up an inch too short. Even though Anderson offered to just weld it in, Wright insisted he could do it and the next day brought back a piece that fit perfectly. His secret? He bent it over a 15-inch tire after trying a 14-inch tire first.
“This is probably a $70,000 truck, and when you tell people that’s how you made the dash—you bent it over a tire—they can hardly believe it,” Anderson says. “It’s old school.”
They took the leftover pieces from the bed of the truck and made a console for the car. The seats are covered in a burgundy and black leather with a kimono-style, dragon-themed print, and the rest of the interior, including the dash, roof, carpet, and door panels, was painted to match.
Wright selected a burgundy and silver color scheme for the exterior, and the painters at Precision Body Works custom made a three-stage candy pearl color with a custom airbrushed Buick stripe, and three-stage silver inset.
The truck was finished in a year, and, while Anderson has shown the car five times (racking up awards everywhere he’s taken it), he says the most memorable part of the experience was working on the car with his father-in-law, who has often helped Anderson with his own classic cars in the past.
“The neat thing about the story is that he’s one of those guys that doesn’t want anybody to have to do anything for him,” Anderson says. “It was cool to do something for him for a change.’”
