Owner: Lucas Bates
Ride: 1998 Chevy S-10
Hometown: Monticello, KY
Club: Relaxed Atmosphere
Have you ever walked around a show looking at the crazy mods, graphics, and wild colors and gone into sensory overload? Well that's what Lucas Bates from Monticello, Kentucky, kept running into while looking for ideas for his S-10 build.
Lucas would walk around shows and look through magazines trying to get ideas for his project, and would always end up dissatisfied. In fact, Lucas would end up walking away from trucks that had way too much done to them without a purpose or theme, for that exact reason-sensory overload. That's when Lucas had the brilliant idea of making his truck appear completely stock, but still have an aggressive stance and enough cool factor to keep people staring at his truck way longer than some of the crazy creations lining the show fields nationwide.
When Lucas went looking for a shop to help him create his masterpiece, his style and taste kept bringing him back to one place-the famed Little Shop of Horrors in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. After talking to Eric from Little Shop for hours upon hours, a plan was set forth to build a stock looking truck that could hold its own with the best trucks in the country. In fact, upon receiving the S-10 to build, Eric did so little to the outside of the truck that when it was aired up, most people would walk right past it. The only body mods on this truck are the shaved hood squirters, fender trim holes, and front bed seams, and that's it.
With a truck that has almost no body mods to speak of, you would think that Eric wouldn't have too many problems with the build. But, early on, the truck tried to kill him by slicing his wrist open and sending him to the hospital for a few dozen stitches. Luckily for Lucas, Eric doesn't give up too easy. Eric proceeded to lay the truck out with a 2.75-inch body drop and a set of 20- and 22-inch Coy C-5 wheels. The staggered hot rod- style rolling stock draws you in for a closer look. That's when you stumble upon a one-of-a-kind interior that grabs your attention and makes you want to really know what this truck is all about.
Eric's first order of business to give the interior a nice and clean wow factor that Lucas was after was to do what he is known for-retrofitting a '63 Galaxy dash complete with Dakota Digital Gauges in place of the stock S-10 dash. Hudson's Rod and Custom wrapped the cut down factory bench seat in chocolate colored hides and the rest was painted DuPont Chocolate Brown. Who would have thought that a dark brown interior could look this good on a fairly "stock" looking truck?
Needless to say, Lucas accomplished what he set out to do. He built a super clean minitruck that deserved it's special magazine debut in this clean, hot-rod themed issue. The best part about this S-10 is that ten years from now it will still be as cool as it is today, because sometimes less is more. See, stock doesn't always have to suck if done just right. For more info on this killer Dime, check out the Lowdown.