Curious creativity. Or as the kids call it: FAFO. That’s what the hotrod spirit is REALLY all about. It’s not about conformity, fitting in, or following an influencer. Rather – it’s about handing over the keys to that curious/devious voice inside your head. And making something badass that defies authority & any inkling of a rulebook. Perhaps now more than ever, we need to think more like original hot-rodders. This is the TredWear RuckusTruk: A wildly-proportioned, lowered, widebody OBS Chevy Silverado… curated from an old Craftsman Super Speedway truck.
Vintage Nascar platforms are actually of hell of a bargain…
Especially as far as anything ‘motorsports related’ goes. In a nutshell, the TredWear boys found this somewhat bastardized Craftsman Series truck. They did some country-calculated trading & finagling, and only had to come out-of-pocket a few thousand bucks to bring this badboy home.
Here’s the brilliant part…
The truck already had an aluminum 5.7 LS with a T56 transmission! It also came with a tube chassis/cage, race brakes, race suspension, giant swaybars, etc. The only thing it didn’t have… was typical amenities like windows, hinged doors, etc.
So how do you put a racecar on the street?
You re-skin it… disguising it to be an ’88 Silverado. It’s funny, because most tuners & hot-rodders take a street car & try to turn it into a racecar. But the TredWear crew reversed it lol.
In this Craftsman Series era…
The NASCAR Craftsman Trucks used the outer skin of the OEM/factory cabs, and the race chassis were built off that. And this is key, because at its nucleus (at the cab), the Craftsman Truck’s proportions are OEM. So with that in mind, TredWear bought an ’88 Silverado donor (below) to see if this ‘re-skin’ thing might actually work.
The Fenders, hood, etc… fit right in place…
Width, height, & length, most everything was spot-on. And that really opened the doors! Wait that’s a bad choice of words… there are no doors. But – having a race chassis with reskinned OEM body panels gave TredWear an open lane to build the truck around the wheels/tires. They could go as extreme as they wanted to on wheel & tire size… and build the body panels around that. The RuckusTruk began to take-on larger than life dimensions. Almost like a childhood toy come true. Like a stunt truck racer you opened as a kid on Christmas morning… turned life-sized. In fact, that theme would ultimately carry over to the graphics & paint-scheme.
Wider is definitely Better…
The wheels are 20×12 -44 modern off-road wheels, with 305/50R20 steamrollers. On a newer lifted pickup, maybe that’s not so preposterous. But on a lowered OBS, it’s obviously wide & nuts. The body of the truck had to keep that insane energy going. So TredWear made a custom ‘factory’ widebody… using the OEM Silverado sheetmetal. We’ll start with the front. The top/shoulders of the front fenders were cut-away from the rest of the fender, and mounted to their new mounting points. Since the Craftsman Truck uses the OEM cab, they fit seamlessly with the a-pillars. Then a frame/rod was made to widen the front fenders, still using the OEM sheetmetal for the sides.
Since there are no working doors…
TredWear didn’t have to worry about door-clearance issues that would normally (potentially) come with a widebody. In fact – they were able to crank it up a notch, and cut huge slotted vents onto the ‘doors’ themselves. Since nothing actually opens, there’s nothing to bind.
TredWear vented the hood as well…
What you see is what you get here. Slots were cut into the OEM hood, the metal was pulled downward, and panels were fabricated & welded-in to fill the gaps. Viola!
The bed & tailgate was a little tricky…
The Craftsman Super Speedway Truck had no tailgate. Hell – the entire ‘bed’ was faux. But – it’s all steel, not fiberglass. So TredWear was able to graft-on the rear section of the OEM Silverado bed (the section around the taillights)… in order to have mounting points & hinges for a functional tailgate. The RuckusTruk also now had factory taillights.
The bed of the Craftsman Race Truck…
Is a couple inches shorter than an OEM civilian Silverado, so the side of the new bed-skin needed to be shortened. TredWear sectioned the bed-skin as seen in the photos.
From there… the OBD Silverado bed got the widebody treatment…
It was the same procedure at the front fenders. A frame/rod was fabricated, to which the OEM skin could be welded.
The OBS Silverado’s new rear diffuser was created in the same manner…
TreadWear framed-out the rear rollpan, skinned it with sheet metal, then added the diffusers for a gnarly & nasty finishing presence.
The paint scheme…
TredWear is known to roll-on enamel as a base coat to their custom liveries. The goal is to capture feelings of nostalgia. Like pulling something out of a drawer that’s been shut for decades. To portray thoughts, feelings, & concepts that maybe actually never happened… but should have. It’s kind of like watching a movie. You take parts of real life & automotive heritage… and you dramatize it.
People love a good story…
And this RuckusTruk tells one. The paint/graphics pull inspiration from the iconic Marlboro chevron. It also blends in cues from Evil Knievel, a TredWear childhood hero.
Obviously this feature simplifies a journey…
But to stay in touch, check out TredWear on their website, and definitely their Facebook or Instagram or Youtube pages. As a brand, Tredwear makes durable adhesive custom tire letters. But as enthusiasts, TredWear is as authentic as it gets. The cars are pure passion projects. And this RuckusTruk is just another one of their truly unique builds that prioritize character & creativity over the modern formula of cubic dollars and/or sponsorship partners.
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