Richard Gaffney may be considered a newcomer to minitrucks, but he learns fast. The Ft. Lauderdale, FL resident tells us he started to get into trucks about 3 years ago. He purchased this S-10 sportside in June of '96. Suffering from the "stock truck syndrome," Richard knew he had to do something quick. No minitruck enthusiast would leave a truck in stock attire. So Richard began his quest for the ultimate ride.

The first thing Richard did was shave the entire truck smooth. Any unsightly accessory was shaved, incluing the door handles, tail gate, tail lights, wiper cowl, and rear side steps. The front bumper turn signals were redesigned. To clean up the rear, a roll pan was molded in and given a set of custom taillights, cut by hand.

To make his truck stand out, Richard added sport mirrors, a phantom billet grill, and a custom air dam with PIAA 1100 fog lights. The bed was covered with a custom toneau and given a carpet bed kit. The side step covers are carved out of billet aluminum.

Once the exterior was perfectly smooth and ready for paint, the truck was shot with a 3-color graphic scheme, including yellow and purple air brushed graphics along with some light purple hand pinstriping. The final effect is a fresh graphic which wraps around the cab, door jams, and tail gate.

With the exterior almost complete, the truck was taken to Wicked Kustom Auto in Ft. Lauderdale, FL to be given a major slam. The truck got airbags at all four corners, which allow Richard to set the truck down on the ground over his 17x8-inch Budnik Switchblade wheels. The airbag system consists of a 5 lb. air tank (painted to match the truck of course), paddle gauges, 2600lbs bags in the front , 2500lbs bags in the rear, and a 150 psi compressor. To allow the truck to reach new lows, the rear frame rails were given a monster notch. Belltech spindles aid in droppping the front and lowered leaf springs and blocks ground the rear. To keep the ride under control, KYB shocks were added in the front and dually shocks were bolted on at the rear. And to get the most out of his ground-scraping truck, Richard had a custom cross member installed which uses 2 scrape blocks to light up the streets of Ft. Lauderdale at night.

When Richard bought the truck just a couple years ago, it did not even come with a radio. We know that did not last long because Richard has built up one killer sound system. It uses eight MTX thunder 5000 10's with 3 MTX amps, two 2300's and one 2160. The system uses three capacitors, an Optima battery with 10 gauge wire, all Stinger platnium distributions, Monster Cables, PPI EQ and PPI crossover, and the Epicenter. Richard then installed three digital volt meter gauges to monitor the volts running to each amp, and mounted them in a custom plexi console along with a CVA 1000 reciever with Clarion VCR and Sony Palystation, and a 6 disc CD-changer. The system gets charged by a 200 amp alternator which has a knob to adjust the volts (up to 20 volts) and uses a Stinger battery isolater. The mids and highs are powered by MB Quart (Q-Series) speakers. The custom sub box was custom built using plexi and neon for style and is was wrapped in black tweed along with the door panels, and head liner. Completing the interior, the truck has white-face gauges, carbon fiber accents, a carbon fiber stick and custom floor mats.

Like any true mini-trucker, Richard admits that he is not done yet. He still wants to go lower and do more wild custom tricks with his truck. We think he's already got a pretty good start.

Richard would like to give a shout out to his boys from Sufficient Grounds in
Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

You can reach Richard by email, or you can tell us what you think.