10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

COVER FEATURE - SEPTEMBER 2006

LARGE CAR LOWRIDER
CUSTOM PETE HAS OLD CHEVY THEME
By Daniel J. Linss - Editor

Sergio Gonzalez of SG & Sons Trucking has always been a Chevy guy. From his daily drivers to his weekend cruisers – he’s always had Chevrolets. So when he decided to rebuild and customize his work truck, a 1997 Peterbilt, what better concept was there to go with than a lowrider Chevy theme. Complete with custom headlights, wire wheels, snazzy metallic paint and hydraulics on the front axle, Sergio hit the mark for sure.

Born and raised in San Diego, California, Sergio (34) grew up around trucks. His father drove a 10-wheeler truck and hauled lumber and building supplies from Los Angeles to San Diego. Ever since he can remember, Sergio wanted to be a truck driver and own his own trucks. While still in high school, he took a job as a forklift operator in the warehouse of a local trucking company. At 18, he got his CDL and started driving. Two short years later, he bought his first truck and became an owner operator. Fourteen years and nine trucks later, he is still going strong. Sergio, like his father, pulls a flatbed trailer and hauls building materials throughout all of California. His trailer type and loads have never changed, but his tractor has – many times.

Sergio’s first truck was a 1961 Peterbilt with a butterfly hood. He drove that truck for about three years and then bought a day cab Freightliner. Next was a Kenworth cabover, then a Freightliner cabover followed by two Freightliner FLD condos. Two years ago, he found and bought a plain-Jane 1997 Pete 379 with a blown engine and transmission. The truck had steel wheels, a 270-inch wheelbase and a stand-up sleeper. Except for the color that did not change, you’d never know that the simple Pete just described is the same one on these pages (and the cover and centerfold). Sergio had a new 3406E Cat engine with 475 horsepower and a new Eaton Super-10 transmission installed in the truck. At that time, he added aluminum wheels and fiberglass front fenders and then put the truck to work.

Over the next year and a half, Sergio bought two more Peterbilts – a 1994 Extended Hood Pete 379 and a 1998 Pete 379 with a short hood. Neither of these rigs are show trucks – just clean working trucks. Last February (2006), Sergio decided that it was time to do his ride right. He always wanted a custom truck, much like the custom lowriders he has owned, and figured it was a good time to do it. He pulled the truck out of service and took it to his friend’s shop in Tijuana, where most of the work was done.

Some of you might remember Sergio’s friend, Jose Sanchez. Jose, known to many as Jockie (pronounced Yokie), built and owned a turquoise KW with yellow flames that won just about every show it entered in the early 1990’s. Jockie owns Samasa Building Materials in Mexico, but building custom trucks is his true passion. All of the work done on this truck was done by Sergio and Jockie – Sergio didn’t just pay someone to build it – he did it himself. And if you don’t believe it, just ask him about any part on the truck. He’ll give you a ten-minute dissertation as to what they did, how they did it and why.

Quickly looking at Sergio’s truck, it would be easy to miss many of the things he has done. The first thing he did was stretch the wheelbase to 310 inches then wrap the rails in stainless. The standup sleeper was replaced with a flat top, then all of the cab lights, horns and door handles were shaved and everything was put on remote access (his remote control can also start the truck). All of the doors were turned around suicide style (even the sleeper compartment doors) and 8-inch stacks with old-style rain covers were installed.

The front of Sergio’s unique truck features a 22-inch bumper, a louvered grille and big, round, brass headlights from a 1925 Cadillac. These neat old lights even have small, engraved Cadillac emblems on the front of them. Sergio replaced the guts of the headlights with DOT-approved lights, and then made his own small blinkers and mounted them just below the headlights. To complete the front of this truck, Sergio added full hydraulics (like a lowrider) to the front suspension. At the push of a button, the front end can be instantly dropped or raised almost six inches. If he wanted to, Sergio could probably “bounce” the front end – now that’s a lowrider!

Moving to the back of the truck and continuing in the classic, Chevy lowrider theme, the rear light bar was fitted with bumper guards from a 1953 Chevy Coupe, wire wheel inserts were added to the rear wheels and a custom, polished diamond plate headache rack and deck plate were installed. To give the truck that really low look, Sergio widened his rear fenders four inches (so that when he drops his air, the fenders cover the tops of the tires) and then, using wood, fiberglass and body filler, he added a raised seam down the center. Holes were cut in the back corners of the sleeper and curved windows from a 1951 Chevy pickup were mounted.

Besides replacing the upholstery, not much has been done to the interior of Sergio’s truck, but he did add a nice stereo and DVD system complete with small flip down screens in the cab and a larger flat screen in the sleeper. The entire truck was repainted with Metallic Blue-Green paint, both the front and rear fenders were sprayed with chameleon paint (that changes from brown to green) and then ghost flames were added. To finish everything off, Sergio replaced all of the modern Peterbilt emblems will old square ones. As we said earlier, you’d never believe how much was done to this simple-looking truck, but truth is, there is a lot more – we just don’t have the room (or patience) to list it all.

After four months of hard work, Sergio debuted his new rig at The Truck Show Las Vegas, which is also where we met him. In fact, Sergio and his whole family came over to our booth and all of them each had their caricature drawn by our artist (see photo). Sergio married his high school sweetheart Karla 17 years ago, and today the couple has four children – a 16-year-old daughter named Kisai, a 13-year-old son named Sergio Jr., and 12-year-old twin boys, German and Sebastian. Of all the kids, Sebastian is the one who loves trucks the most. Sergio told us that his bedroom walls are covered with our centerfold pictures. Just think, now he’ll have a cool centerfold picture of his dad’s truck to put on the wall. Thanks Sebastian!

When we met up with Sergio a few weeks later in San Diego to take our pictures, we wanted to find a place that would really underscore his lowrider roots. We ended up at the famed Chicano Park, just south of downtown San Diego in Logan Heights. The park features huge Latino-themed murals painted everywhere. In fact, the area all around the park has murals painted everywhere as well. The mural we parked Sergio in front of (see photo) was painted on the side of a warehouse down the street from the park. We had a lot of fun taking pictures down there. If you are ever in the area, drive by the park and check it out – it’s pretty interesting.

Years ago, before kids and trucks, Sergio was a member of the San Diego Chapter of the Majestics Car Club. He and his buddies would cruise together, host local charity events, have car shows, hang out and barbecue. It was good, clean fun. For Sergio and the other members in the club, it was all about the cars – these guys had a lot of pride in their machines and they loved to show them off. Back then, Sergio had a cherry 1979 El Camino and today he has a 1963 Impala. Right now, the car is in the shop getting repainted and then Sergio is going to have the interior redone. He doesn’t get to spend too much time with it, but when he does, his kids love to cruise around with him and go to the local shows.

Sergio wanted to send out some special thanks to a few people who have helped him along the way. Building this truck was a dream come true, but he couldn’t have done it by himself. Sergio’s thanks go out to his buddy Jockie, Sanchez Truck Repair in San Diego, and Mauricio, his paint supplier. He also wanted to thank the person that takes care of the truck – washes it, polishes it and keeps it looking perfect – his nephew Jose Dueñas, who has worked for him for years. Jose just recently got his license, so now he is going to start driving for Sergio as well. But most of all, Sergio wanted to thank his wife for supporting him and putting up with him. Sergio’s family is very important to him, and he wanted them to know how much they mean to him.

Now that the truck is basically finished, Sergio Gonzalez plans on attending a couple more shows before putting it back into service. At that point, it will become just another beautiful, custom, working show truck running hard out on the road. But that’s what trucks are for, right? Working. And that is what Sergio plans on doing with his large car lowrider. But we are sure that he will take it out for a little “cruise” from time to time as well. Isn’t that what a lowrider is for? Well, we guess he’ll figure it out!