John Melvin of Laveen, Arizona is nothing if not a character. Standing 6’1 or so, with a slight accent and a positive attitude about trucks that’s infectious, he brings a fresh take to the scene. For example, when we met John at our shoot in Scottsdale, he brought the SS you see here in the back of a huge enclosed trailer, towed by a 2005 Silverado crew-cab dually all decked out in SS Trim and boasting 479 horses. Not two weeks later, when we setup to shoot some burnout shots, we found out that he had traded the truck in for a 2006 Crew-cab HD, and it was already lifted on 20’s. And of course, there's also his orange crew cab, featured here: True Flamed Silverado. See, John owns a bodyshop out in Laveen, named JM Collison Center. There he does all the usual things you’d expect from a guy who runs a shop: he repairs quarter panels, fixes dents, and sprays things all day long. The business was doing great, and he decided to expand a bit and add a new branch to the company, named JM Custom...

The name John Melvin may not quite be a household name, but that depends a little bit on what kind of circles you run in. Performance junkies know that John is famous for building a killer Supercharged Silverado SS; one that set records just a few years ago. But while he was building that black-and-silver supercharged terror, he also was working on this 2005 crew cab Chevrolet Silverado. This gave him a duo of amazing trucks, both featured here at MyRideisMe.com. Let's start with the crew cab, a truck that also isn't a slouch in the performance world. When we first found it, the truck needed only an interior to get to the upper level. The taillights were shaved, the true-fire flames on the front were painted, and from the outside, the truck was complete. At the time, John owned a crew cab dually, but he was losing interest in it, so he traded it off at the dealership for a crew cab 4X4. Now he had two crew cabs, and two different interior colors, so he decided to make the swap and give his orange one a little...

Meet Curt Garrigus of Tempe, Arizona. His story starts with the purchase of a brand new, charcoal gray, 2001 Chevy Silverado a few years ago. Back then, the new-body Chevys were still pretty new, and yet, everyone seemed to have one. With so many trucks on the road that looked just like his, how was he going to stand out from the crowd? Curt soon found out that the truck he was building didn’t stand out - not by going down the path he was planning on. In fact, with the mild shave job and drop, it looked just like any other Chevy on the road. Something had to be done. He was sitting at his house one night when it came to him. Curt made a quick call to his roommate at the time – “Bring me a sawzall!” – and the rest is history. What you don’t notice about this truck is what really sets it apart from the others. Sure, it’s a fully shaved truck with a Denali clip and the roof cut off. Big deal, right? Well since it’s a Chevy, Curt had some work...

This is a Mustang for all car enthusiasts, old hot rodders and young tuners alike...its the "Game Changer!" If you like American Muscle, you'll dig the Dynacorn '69 Mustang fastback shell, Art Morrison custom front subframe,  individual throttle body/injected 2011 Mustang GT 5.0L 32Valve engine with 6 speed trans and Pro-Touring style.  If you like Drifting Imports, you'll dig the slammed stance, 50-60 degree steering angle, 7000 redline, aggressive Japanese wheels sized 18x10 front and 18x12 rear with 7" lips and Street Drift style! Meet the '69 Mustang "RTR-X"!  The coolest project car of 2010, due to intro at the 2010 SEMA show in Vegas later this year. This is the answer to my "Pro-Touring + Hellaflush" Dreams!  Remember this post I did last year? The creative mind behind this Street/Drift Mustang is Sir Vaughn Gittin Jr (ok, I added the Sir), Formula Drift points leader and "RTR" Mustang brand owner.  But you'll also notice the "Team Need For Speed" logo in the bottom right.  This is a collabo between Vaughn, Speedhunters.com and the Need For Speed brand.  Andy Blackmore of the Speedhunters.com/Need For Speed family has helped Vaughn put his Inspired Ideas on paper (or...

Everyone gets into the truck scene differently. Some inherit the interest from their father, some get sucked in by their friends, and others, like Tony Saenz of Andrews, Texas, got into it by going into a convenience store to grab a tasty beverage. It was on that fateful day 3 years ago that he first saw a yellow Dodge in the parking lot of said store that was painted with ghost flames. A short conversation later, Tony had the number to the painter of that truck, Jamie Torrez, the owner of Demented Customs in Hobbs, New Mexico. Hobbs isn’t known for being a big town, but for a city with just over 31,000 people, there’s a surprising number of custom car and truck guys. One of those shops is Demented Customs, who have slowly been building a reputation for themselves as powerhouses in the industry. Over the past few years they’ve put quite a few customs out on the pages of various magazines, so when Tony decided to take his car to them, it turned out to be a very fortuitous decision. The first thing that Tony wanted to...

We spotlighted the 1st Gen Chevy Camaro RS sponsored by Optima Batteries a couple months ago in a blog (click the link to check it out) when it was being prepared for the One Lap of America 8 day long grueling competition.  The One Lap (it used to be called the Cannonball Run) of America makes the race cars drive themselves from track to track (3500 miles total) and then expects them to race hard at the track.  That's right, no trailers.  How did it do in its first year at the race?  Keep reading... Here is the updated livery for the One Lap event.  Looks just like PCK Studio's rendering/T-shirt. This Pro-Touring built Camaro RS won its class, which is called American Vintage.  This was its first One Lap race, so the fact that the car won its class (which competed against a 1981 Camaro that has run the event 20+ times before) is really a big deal. This is the Katech prepared 427ci LS7 Corvette Z06 powerplant to propels the OneLapCamaro. The team of James Shipka and car owner David Pozzi had a pretty crazy 8 days.  At one point...

It’s funny how trucks work. No matter how many stories are written about trucks and their experiences, they all seem to have a common thread: Guy buys a ride with the pure intention of just doing a few things here or there to make it a little bit better, and next thing you know, the truck is getting painted, the suspension is rebuilt and it becomes as far away from stock as normal. This story is no different. Andrew Moreno, of Tucson, Arizona, bought this ’72 Chevy truck in 2004 with the intention of fixing it up a bit. His brother was about to turn 16, so Andrew and his father figured that they’d rebuild the motor, give the truck a blue paintjob and some chrome wheels and it’d be a perfect driver for his little brother. Andrew and his dad tore into the truck, taking out the drivetrain in the process, and they discovered that the suspension all needed to be rebuilt. Plus it really needed a quality restoration if they wanted it to be safe. No reason why not, right? A decision was made: Take the truck...

A lot of adjectives come to mind when describing Adam Hartley of Las Vegas, Nevada … Eclectic, unique, maybe even a bit odd. Not that this is anything new in the custom car world. Not only is he the father of three, but he's also a heavily tattooed car builder with quite the collection in his stable. He’s built quite a few rides in his past too including a ’94 Toyota pickup, a few VW’s, and an ’87 Astro van, which lead to the purchase of the ’63 Impala you see here. We do mean that literally too. Adam was cruising around a Tangelo Orange pearl Astro van around Vegas everyday with a little “For Sale” sign in the corner of the window. While cruising around town he ran into a dude with a ’63 Impala wagon, also Tangelo pearl, that was selling his car as well. The ’63 was juiced, laid on 14” wires, and even appeared in the pages of Lowrider back when the car was in Hawaii. A deal was struck and Adam traded his van for the Impala, straight across. Even though the car was...

His accent says “West Texas”, which is only partially true. The tall guy with the all-American boy looks was born in Lubbock, Texas, but that’s only because his folks were in the area when he decided to break free. In reality, Chad Fincher is from Hobbs, New Mexico, a city famous for … well, nothing really. Chad spent his formative years growing up in this small town, and when he turned 18, his father bought him a 1998 GMC Sierra as a gift for graduating high school. That truck took him through college and came with him when he moved to Phoenix, Arizona in the summer of 2003 with his new wife, Shelly, to start their life together. This is all boring stuff really, I mean Chad’s life in small town New Mexico shouldn’t have a lot of bearing on the direction his truck went in, and in most cases, that would be correct. But here, with Chad and his ’98, however, the city of Hobbs actually plays a vital role in this build, because his dedication to his hometown is bordering on legendary. It was May of 2004,...

I can't let another day go by without sharing about my amazing past weekend! Yes, I was at Gene Winfield's. Yes, I learned a gazillion metalworking tips from a legend. Yes, I even did my very first burnout. Let me start at the beginning though... Early Saturday morning I stumble out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, and jump in Stude for the hour and a half drive up to Mojave, CA. My Dad makes the trek there from Vegas and we meet at Roadhouse Mikes - just the sort of greasy spoon you'd expect in a small desert town. With full bellies we head eight miles down the road to Gene Winfield's. We're signed up for Gene's bi-yearly metalworking workshop. By 9 o'clock Gene is busy acquainting all 10 participants with the various tools around his shop. Among the tools are a slip roll,  english wheel, beverly shears, pipe anvil, bead roller, and dozens of hammers, dollys, and dies. Soon Gene is fully absorbed into teaching us about various metals, chopping customs, gas welding, breaking an edge, and hammer forming metal. (You'll have to come back for how-to articles!)...

It all started with a phone call. Justin Higley of Phoenix, Arizona, had built a few trucks in his day, but nothing really crazy. He was barely getting into the scene, and little by little he dipped his toes into the water of customization. Soon he had a few trucks under his belt, but nothing that really made him satisfied. He needed more. Enter Kevin from BNC Offroad and Third Coast Customs. Kevin’s a master builder, and has been putting trucks in the sky for years. Third Coast Customs is the fabrication side of things, making custom suspension kits for mass production and sale, while BNC Offroad is the retail side of the puzzle, installing those same kits, as well as selling other miscellaneous accessories. From lifted to lowered, the BNC crew can do it all. Kevin was looking to build himself a truck for the new show season, so he needed something special. It was around the time that the first 2007 Chevrolet Silverados were rolling off the transports, so he bought himself a brand new crew cab. Third Coast specializes in independent suspension lifts, and Kevin wanted to...

Reaching out to be friends or at least friendly with other car sites, I met up with Alex at "Road and Track" magazine online. Oh, you've heard of them?  Alex told me about a "Corvette Chronology" piece they'd compiled and thought it'd be great for the readers at MyRideisMe.com.  "I'll take a look." I have to admit. I didn't look very hard. Some time later, I finally went back and realized there was so much info about the Corvette, I missed most of it just for being in a hurry. There's a ton to see and it's laid out in a clean, easy to follow format when you take the time to look closely. The coverage starts from the 50's, but I skipped right to my favorite years, the 1960's. (I mean, it's hard to imagine a 'vette with a six cylinder, so that throws out the first two years!) Clicking on the link that says, "1960's" you're taken to a page with the picture above. There's a brief description that says: The Sixties was a decade of rocketships — both NASA's thundering moon machines, and the rubber-burning road...