COVER FEATURE - FEBRUARY 2009
STILL ON TOP
10 Years of Winning for Sandvik Trucking
By Daniel J. Linss - Editor
Sandvik Trucking is used to being at the top – after all, they’ve been there for ten years. When thinking about the best show trucks in California, only a few names come to mind quickly, but none have been on top as long as Sandvik. Bill & Marie Sandvik’s numerous rigs have set the standard for what it takes to win at the shows. Their latest offering to the truck show world is a flashy Peterbilt called “Still Delirious” that has already racked-up two Best of Show honors. Why is it “Still Delirious”? Because ten years ago it was the first show truck the Sandvik’s ever built and competed with – and back then, it went by the name “Delirious Dezire”.
It’s hard to imagine Bill & Marie without a fleet of beautiful long hood Peterbilts, but at one time it was just Bill and a cabover. Actually, before even that, Bill was a cabinet maker. For fourteen years, Bill, who was born and raised in Escondido, California, worked in a cabinet shop. He used to admire the trucks coming in from L.A. to deliver their wood, and then one day in 1980 he just decided that he wanted to go trucking.
After cutting his teeth driving for a few other companies, Bill decided in 1983 to get his own truck. With help from his father, Bill bought a 1975 Peterbilt cabover and Sandvik & Sons Trucking was formed. Bill drove that Pete until shortly after his father died. In 1985 he sold the cabover and went to work for Gene Wagner, who at the time had a contract to haul ceramic tile for a company called Arizona Tile. Gene put Bill in a 1979 Freightliner cabover and then, later, in a 1980 Kenworth conventional. In 1991, Gene retired so Bill bought the company – which came with the Arizona Tile account, the Freightliner cabover and the KW conventional. Today, the cabover is long gone but Bill & Marie still have the Kenworth, which is used as a backup truck.
Bill & Marie have hauled tile, marble, slate, granite, limestone, travertine and onyx slabs exclusively for Arizona Tile since the inception of Sandvik Trucking in 1991. Sandvik Trucking currently runs in California, Arizona and Nevada. Over the years, Sandvik’s fleet increased to 26 trucks, but because of the recent economic downturn and the housing crisis, they are only running 11 of them regularly. In fact, after all these years of running exclusively for Arizona Tile, they may actually begin looking for other work to help “fill the void” caused by the tile company’s recent decrease in business.
As Bill & Marie’s fleet grew, so did their interest in truck shows. The first show they ever competed in was the Las Vegas truck show in 1998. They took three of their best trucks and ended up with one third place award. Everyone that went to the show was amazed at the quality and craftsmanship of the trucks in attendance. Not long after that eye-opening experience, Bill decided to step up to the plate and build a “real” show truck.
“Delirious Dezire” started out as a plain work truck, painted blue, which Bill & Marie had purchased back in 1996 from a guy in Reno, Nevada. At the time of purchase, the 1992 Pete 379 already had about 700,000 miles on the odometer. They ran it hard those first few years, but in 1999 decided to go all out and build a truck that could compete with the best of them. The Pete was a good candidate to build because it had a factory 300” wheelbase that could accommodate a large sleeper, so the first thing they did was install a custom 96” Double Eagle sleeper. After that, they polished and painted everything under the hood, fixed up the interior and added a marble floor, covered the truck with chrome (that was the thing to do back then), and then painted it a dark burgundy color with magenta and silver graphics. This truck was all the rage on the West Coast, and one of the first California trucks to hit the national show circuit. Over the years it won many awards, including a Best of Show Combo at the 2002 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky. It also earned a coveted spot in the 2003 Shell SuperRigs truck calendar.
In 2001, Sandvik built their second show truck – a 1996 Peterbilt named “Kaotic” that graced our cover back in May of 2001. This truck, which still competes today, is painted white with purple graphics. In 2002, they built their third show truck – a white 1998 Peterbilt with blue and green tribal graphics. This truck, among other things, featured a granite floor, flamed door panels and seats, a purple motor, and a mural depicting Bill, experiencing some sort of road rage, busting through the back of the sleeper with a crowbar in his hand. And, believe it or not, this truck is still winning awards today.
Over time, “Delirious Dezire” lost its luster as the other show trucks took center stage. The polished and painted-to-match 1993 Ravens flatbed that was built for “Delirious Dezire” was taken by Bill and redone to match his new show truck (the 1998 Pete), and has been behind it ever since. Sometime around 2004, “Delirious Dezire” was retired from the show circuit and put back into service among the rest of the fleet. The other two trucks went on to compete and win regularly at shows all across the country.
Isaac Aguilar, one of Sandvik’s newer drivers, attended the Louisville truck show for the very first time last year and was blown away – he loved it. Isaac (34) grew up around trucks but only recently got his CDL. Growing up in Escondido, he was friends with Marie’s son Al Scibilia, who works in the shop and in the office (he also does most of the custom work on the trucks). Al recently got a new CNC machine and is becoming very proficient at designing and fabricating custom truck parts. After getting excited at the show in Kentucky, Isaac began talking about rebuilding “Delirious Dezire” and convinced Al that it would be a good idea. After that, the two of them convinced Bill.
In May of 2008, Sandvik’s has-been show truck began a one-month transformation. The tall sleeper was removed and replaced with a 63” flattop and the small hole in the back of the cab was opened up to emulate a Unibilt setup. The truck was lowered, most of the chrome was removed or painted, and 11” cab and sleeper extensions were installed. The old fenders were replaced with new fiberglass ones from Haastyle and painted silver. Al didn’t like the brackets for the rear fenders so he made his own. The truck’s 200-gallon fuel tanks were replaced with 110s and new 8” Dynaflex pipes were installed, as well as a 22” Valley Chrome bumper and a 16” Wingmaster boltless visor. In addition to the rear fender brackets, Al also made a custom rear light bar, a custom “Peterbilt” emblem milled out of billet aluminum, a really unique set of mirror brackets (also made from solid pieces of billet aluminum), and an interestingly-shaped piece of steel made to fill in the gap between the back of the sleeper and the frame.
When it came time to repaint the truck, everyone decided that it should basically stay the same. Bill & Marie did not want to lose the original graphic that had been painted on the sides of the hood back in 1999, so they had the graphics taped off and then repainted the whole truck. After that, Jon Peters of Peters Art in Valley Center, California recreated the old graphic on the sides of the new sleeper, and then added more graphics to the back of the sleeper, the rear fenders, the belly pan, the rear light bar and the deck plate. It took several coats of clear to hide the fact that the graphic on the hood was not new.
When it was time to redo the interior, Chuck Prigge went to work. He replaced the old cracked and broken marble floor with a new granite one, and then he added new leather seats. A few billet pieces have been added here and there, but besides that, not much else has changed inside. Currently, a new dash is being built, which should be done before the Louisville truck show this March (2009).
Bill did all of the work on the truck’s 460 Cummins engine. The entire motor was stripped down and rebuilt, and then it was painted silver. Bill then took the air gun and turned the pressure way down so that the paint would just “spit” out. He then proceeded to speckle the engine with the dark burgundy color. Unfortunately, the engine developed some oil leaks, so it is presently being tore down and repaired. Bill will have to repaint the whole thing again when they are finished.
The rig made its debut at the show in Las Vegas and got a 2nd place. It then went on to shows in Dallas, Texas and Pomona, California where it took Best of Show Working Bobtail at both. Not bad for a truck with 1.9 million miles on it. When registering for the show in Las Vegas, the Pride & Polish folks asked them what the truck was named, to which they replied, “Its still Delirious.” From that, “Still Delirious” became the rig’s official new name.
Today’s show trucks are so evenly-matched that it is getting hard to pick a winner at the shows. Because of that, lately, it has come done to cleanliness – and nobody cleans a truck better than the guys at Sandvik. They know that a cool truck with fancy custom pieces won’t win anything if it is dirty, so they clean for days. Sandvik’s polisher and lead cleaning man is Sammy Avalos. Sammy has been with Sandvik for over 12 years, and he is one of the best in the business.
None of Sandvik’s success would have been possible without Marie’s hard work. With the help of her assistant Lori White, Marie is the backbone of the company. She handles everything in the office, orders parts, makes all the travel plans for the shows, and, most of all, pushes Bill when he needs it. The two have been married for 21 years and built the company together – side by side – and they couldn’t imagine it any other way.
On the back of the truck, Al and Isaac had the phrase “Loved by Few, Hated by Many & Envied by All” painted on the light bar. Although it’s a bit sarcastic, Bill let them do it just for fun. But, it’s probably truer than they’d like to believe. After raising the bar and setting the standard some ten years ago, “Still Delirious” is once again back on top and leading the way.