This month’s cool creation was actually a do-over for Arnaldo “Nery” Martinez of Denver, CO. Nery bought a truck from me back in 2011 that was originally built for RoadWorks Mfg. This truck featured tons of RoadWorks accessories, and did the show circuit in 2010, promoting their products. After the year was over, Nery bought the rig – and he loved it. Truth is, he would have kept that truck forever, but after an unfortunate accident, I had to build him another one.
Born and raised in Honduras, Nery moved to the United States when he was 27 years old with no more than the bag in his hand and the clothes on his back. Moving to a small town in Colorado, Nery had big dreams. After getting his CDL, he began his driving career. Eventually, he moved to California and started working for Beneto Tank Lines. In 2008, Nery bought his first truck – a 378 Peterbilt – and moved back to Colorado to pull a tanker for some friends.
In 2011, still pulling tanker in Colorado, Nery got the RoadWorks truck (I featured it back in the March 2011 edition) – a 2010 Peterbilt 389. After a year, things weren’t working out in Colorado, so Nery moved to Florida – but it was even worse, there. Seeing Nery struggling, a friend in North Carolina (also from Honduras) offered him a job running general freight on the east coast. Nery was grateful for the help and took it, but he hated it. After six months, he got back on his feet and moved back to Denver, CO where he found great people to work with.
Back in March, pulling into a dark truck stop he had never been in before, one of his trailer tires dropped in a deep hole and, in super slow motion, his liquid load shifted and rolled the rig over. The insurance company totaled it, but he was really bummed. As he put it, “Sometimes you have to get out of the ‘hole’ and just move on.” And move on, he did.
Wanting to build another truck exactly like his old one, Nery called me. The outfit he was working for gave him a company truck to drive, and while running that truck he actually made more money. But his American Dream is to own his own truck, so away we went. The new truck is a 2019 Peterbilt 389 with a 72” flattop, a 605-hp Cummins X15, a 280” wheelbase, and factory two-tone paint in black and metallic grey (just like his old truck).
When the truck showed up, we spent a lot of time trying to duplicate his old one, but many of those parts were custom and hard to get. Eventually, Nery said, “Just make it pretty, because I gotta go!” So, Tyler hid the DEF tank and added straight pipes, the body shop added tons of painted skirts and covers, a smooth deck plate, Fibertech front and rear fenders, and a “Jimmy Crain” light bar. Other added accessories included a shock box, custom breather panels, a painted visor and window chops, and a new American Eagle front bumper with a flip kit. We also installed the custom RoadWorks grill from Nery’s last truck on this new one.
Although we were unable to truly duplicate Nery’s old show truck, he really loves the new one – he just needs to get used to everything being a little different. Tons of people have already told him they like this new truck even more than the 
last one, which makes him feel pretty good. The American Dream is alive and well, once again, for Arnaldo “Nery” Martinez. Sometimes, you just gotta move on.