Built From the Bottom Up

YOU’RE PROBABLY SICK OF HEARING PEOPLE QUOTE DRAKE (AS ARE WE), BUT “STARTING FROM THE BOTTOM” IS THE BEST WAY TO DESCRIBE THE STRUGGLE WALTER PEÑA FACED WHILE WORKING ON HIS RAM. It was the first full-size truck he ever purchased, and when he got it, the thing was in poor shape—and that’s being generous. It was formerly used as a farm truck, which means it spent most of its days carrying, lifting, towing, pulling and pushing cruddy farm equipment from one side of the property to the other. The Dodge had been used and abused, but it’s a common reality for the working class pickups of California’s agriculturally rich central region.

THE GUYS DID THEIR RESEARCH, TOOK THEIR TIME AND ENDED UP WITH A RESPECTABLE SETUP FROM FRONT TO BACK.”

Walter bought the truck from a friend’s parents. Luckily, the cost of ownership wasn’t too steep, but the amount of work that stared Walter dead in the eyes was intimidating, to say the least.

The year was 2002, 13 years ago. There was a local truck club, Insane Images, that Walter was hoping to become a part of, but first he had to cook up a game plan for his “new” ride. Tearing apart the suspension system was his first taste of custom truck building. He and his pal, John Banda, took on the task of ’bagging the Ram in his parents’ driveway. The guys did their research, took their time and ended up with a respectable setup from front to back. Walter was off to a great start, but as in too many stories having to do with a guy and his truck, the crap really began hitting the fan.

“At the time, I didn’t know how to do bodywork,” Walter says, “So I let one of my buddies shave the door handles. He totally destroyed them. I was working in the tire and lube department at Wal-Mart, so naturally I couldn’t afford to get them fixed right away.”

As soon as the build started to pick up steam, this little headache was the first bump in the road that had to be addressed. But as the old saying goes, when it rains, it pours. “Not too long after the whole thing with my doors happened, I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant. It was unexpected for sure, and it slowed down the progress on the truck, but what it did do for me was increase my determination to get out there and make more money for my family as well as my new project.”

Walter and his girl decided to lay down the groundwork for their budding family by getting married. Then he followed his passion to better himself by venturing out and finding an apprenticeship at a local body shop. He went in after work and on the weekends— unpaid, of course—but he was learning the basics of bodywork. In no time, he was starting to get the hang of it and was offered a position at the shop. He bid farewell to Wal-Mart and said hello to an exciting new chapter that would soon become a huge part of his life. “By the second year of working at the body shop, I was already painting. I fixed my doors and had the whole truck primered. I had the know-how to finally paint it, and I’ll never forget when I sprayed the VW Green color on it. It was the 4th of July in 2003, and I could hear fireworks going off while I was in the booth.”

With some experience points under his belt, Walter now had the confidence and knowledge to work on his own truck rather than rely on others for help. But instead of remaining stagnant and getting caught in a revolving routine, he stepped out of his comfort zone again and began moving toward a much deeper pool. “I went to work at The Hot Rod Shop in Reedley, California for Jim Teague where he started showing me how to really paint. The work was far more custom than I had first been exposed to, and once I started to become more comfortable with it, Kool Hand Luke started to help me two-tone my truck as well as add graphics. I kept the truck like that for a while, but in the end, we decided that the paint could look better, so we primered over it. After that, the Ram sat for the next 11 years.”

So what happened during those years? Well, Walter kept on learning and practicing what he had been taught in real world applications. But it wasn’t until 2012 when things really started to turn around for him. “I was finally given the opportunity to open up my own shop in the same location Jim Teague once taught me. My little crew [Rene, Preston and David] started working on my truck little by little, but all this was done after hours, since working on my project wasn’t paying the bills.” Every member of Walter’s team contributed to a different portion of the build, which really gave the truck a unique sense of character. Out of all of the technical aspects of running a custom shop, Walter had paid great attention to the importance of assembling and maintaining a cohesive group of professionals to achieve a lasting success.

In the span of the Ram’s build, Walter was evolving right along with his truck. The obstacles that detoured and slowed him on his path have actually seasoned his ability to navigate the road. Even though he might not have had the slightest idea where his journey would take him, there’s no doubt that he would credit his previous place in the world as the ideal starting point. The bottom may only be the bottom for some; for others, the ground level is merely a springboard to greater heights.

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TRUCK SPECS

OWNER

Walter Peña
1996 Dodge Ram
Reedley, CA Aftermath

ENGINE

• 1996 Dodge Ram 5.9L
• K&N cold air intake
• Flowmaster muffler
• Custom under-hood billet covers by Preston Cervantes of CenCal Machinist
• Custom aluminum gas tank

SUSPENSION

• Shop: 559 Customs
• Airbags front and rear
• Stock spindles
• Disc brakes all around
• Rear 4-link
• Rearend converted to six-lug and shortened

WHEELS & TIRES

• 22×8.5 and 22×10 Bonspeed Laguna polished with painted center
• Atturo tires

BODY & PAINT

• Shop: Wally’s Customs of Reedley, CA
• PPG custom-mixed color
• 2006 Dodge Ram custom front bumper
• Hot rod-style push-in gas filler
• Roll pan
• Shaved door handles, antenna, tailgate, bodyline on tailgate
• Rain gutter and bottom bodyline molded
• Bed widened 1 ¼ inches to fit trailing arms and wheels
• Custom bed floor with spray- on liner

INTERIOR

• Shop: Big Daddy’s Upholstery/Beats By Bigs
• Black leather upholstery
• Chopped headrests
• Bonspeed steering wheel
• Pioneer head unit
• Pioneer speakers
• Treo subwoofer
• Zapco amps

SPECIAL THANKS FROM THE OWNER: Rene Resendez, Preston Cervantes, Adan Cervantes, David Lopez, Vince Sandoval, Efren Rangel, Miguel Navarrete, Matt Diaz, Raudel and Cristina Jacobo, Jerry Gaytan, Vince and Joe Lombardi, Andy, Chuck Del Bosque, Todd Anderson, Mike Garza, Vidal Cuevas, Armando Sanchez, Casey and Travis Jones for always believing in me, and a special thanks to my wife Yesenia for always being there for me, and to my #1 fans: my kids Destiny and

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