Owner: Tim Ferguson
Ride: 2000 Dodge Dakota R/T
Hometown: Phoenix, AZ
Club: Negative Camber
It's a bit difficult for us to tell you which to stay clear of, Tim Ferguson's cool blue-flamed 2000 Dodge Dakota R/T, or Tim himself.
You see, Tim is one of those guys who doesn't take anything from anybody, and you'd better believe that if you step out of line around him or his truck, you may just end up getting thumped on. This isn't to say Tim is a bad guy, he is just protective about the hard work that went into building his Dakota to the pristine condition that it's currently in, which anyone with a full custom ride can certainly understand.
Tim has been into customizing vehicles since 1983, when he was in high school. Ever since then, every car or truck he has owned has been somewhat customized. In the case of his gorgeous Dakota, the first three years of ownership only resulted in a few minimal modifications. It wasn't until the next two years leading to SEMA 2008 that it really began to start taking shape. Since Tim's truck is a Dodge, the convenience of ordering off-the-shelf parts just wasn't an option, which meant that most of the custom components had to be fabricated as the build moved forward. Tim acknowledged that building a fully customized Dakota wasn't the easiest or cheapest builds he could have undertaken but he's glad he was able to finally conquer the challenge; "I would have been done $10,000 ago if I would have built a Chevy or Ford, however, I love my Dodge."
Tim admits that he started the build ass-backwards as he completed the interior first and then started chroming the engine. His first intention for the Dakota was just to convert it into a clean motorcycle hauler, but after seeing a few high-caliber trucks at local shows, he realized that having an average looking ride just wasn't going to fly. So did Tim run into any major problems on the road to SEMA? Of course he did! The first major glitch occurred when the first painter to touch the truck performed a downright, "piss-poor job" according to Tim. This had him fuming, as anyone could imagine, since he was going to have to cough up even more funds for new paint and sit through an extended period of downtime, yet again. Luckily, Tim found the right guy for the job in Rick Westcott, as he laid down an impressive combination of blue real fire flames alongside the classic hot-rod variety in the deep black paint.
With the truck looking spectacular and with all of headaches out of the way, Tim now looks back to the good that came from taking on such an extensive project. Tim says that working closely with the likes of Kevin Brumfield at Grunion Fabrication, Todd Jubert at Interior Shop, and Steve Yiu at Definitive Audio can certainly be considered just a few of the positive experiences he encountered during the build-up process. Another bonus was being introduced to the fine folks of Negative Camber, which Tim proudly became a part of. Although the stress and sleepless nights while getting the Dodge ready for SEMA are long gone and done with, Tim would like to clarify some speculation that has surrounded his truck since that trip to Vegas in '08. "Yes, it is true, someone did climb in my truck at SEMA and locked himself inside. What you probably don't know is, yes, I did threaten his life." Again, Tim is a nice enough dude, just be warned not to anger him or come near his truck. If you really want to take a closer look at his truck, we suggest you take few steps back and check out these pics and The Lowdown instead!