OWNER: John Juarez RIDE: 2000...
OWNER: John Juarez
RIDE: 2000 Chevy S-10
HOMETOWN: Houston, TX
There Comes A Time In Everyone's Life When You Really Start To Hate Your Truck. Maybe Not Hate, Hate It, But Probably More Of A Love/Hate Relationship - You Love It, But It Hates You.
Minitrucks tend to have a mind of their own, and the deeper you get into your build, the more they take on a life of their own. That's sort of what happened with John Juarez of Houston, Texas, where his custom upbringing came in the form of building lowrider cars. However, after seeing the work of area minitruckers like Patrick Reid's early Ford Ranger, as well as some of the 'ol skool rides in Mini Truckin', John was hooked on the entire mini scene.
After swapping an early-model ride for the 2000 S-10 pictured here, John could not wait to jump into the minitruckin' lifestyle head first. He began with the musts and laid his frame flat to Mother Earth. Sharing ideas and making new friends along the way, John really became part of the minitruckin' crowd, so attending shows near and far only further lit the fire and made John delve even deeper into his truck. It was not long until John decided to tackle the interior. Laying down some fiberglass to the dash, door panels, and a custom console slowly snowballed and turned into a full five-month effort that included doing a custom in-dash mount for the 10-inch monitor and a scorpion tail center console that comes complete with spine spikes. John wanted to create some serious bass with his sound system, so a custom box was built in the bed with the back cab wall opened up for access. With the interior taking on a life of its own, the truck began to speak to John and the love/hate relationship was developing.
Of course, one thing leads to another, and being a fan of the lowlife, it was only natural that a bodydrop was next on John's "to-do" list, which meant that he had to start from scratch yet again. But this didn't stop John from creating a truly one-of-a-kind mini. To keep things different, John decided to crank it up a notch and totally modify his doors. No simple suicide door set would work for this dime, so John molded the pillars, swung the doors backwards, then twisted them to the sky making what's now referred to as suicide-lambo doors. For the paint, Rick Macias at All in One applied the base color of ebony black that has silver based tribal flames covered with a final candy red color that holds deep seeded graphics. The pinstriping was completed by Michael Cato of SIC 713, while the airbrushing came from "Big Red".
John has truly created something unique out of his love for modifying his truck and knows that he will keep on changing things up until the day he dies. He even mentioned that he might drop in a V-8 to put a few more horses under the hood! Yup, those Damage Inc. guys are crazy, but hey, aren't we all? We can't wait to see what John's next love/hate combo produces. Until then, these pics are going to have to do. For more information on the mods check out The Lowdown.