Owner: Von Chounlamany
Ride: '84 Toyota Pickup
Hometown: Douds, Iowa
Club Affiliation: Negative Camber
What would you do if you lived in podunk Iowa and there was no custom anything within 350 square miles of you? Well, if you're Von "Lo Asian" Chounlamany or his brother Jason "Crazy Asian," you start cutting up trucks yourself. Since they had so many crazy ideas for their mini-trucks and nobody to perform the work, they got a taste of learning customization by trial and error. The brothers spent many, many hours and learned so much by cutting and building their own trucks that they eventually started working on their buddies' trucks. Before they knew it, they had enough business to open their own shop.
Von and Jason are from Laos (a land-locked country in southeast Asia, bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west). Their friends call them Laodies, and their shop quickly became known as Laodies Kustomz. Their first full buildup was this insane '84 'Yota, and like the true mini-trucker Von is, he says it will never be done. Although this is one of the first trucks the brothers have built to this caliber, you would think, from the detail and crazy mods, they've been doing this for more than 20 years, but Von is barely 26.
Before a finger was even lifted, Von knew he wanted his 'Yota on the ground. He and his bro got down by disassembling the entire truck to 'bag and body-drop it. Von cut the frame off at the back of the cab and built a custom back-half and 'bag setup. The pair cut the inside of the cab and body-dropped the '84 3 inches to tuck the 19-inch KMCs wrapped in Nitto 555 rubber deep into the fenderwells. They also went super nutz on the rest of the body by shaving the rear body line and flaring the bed to match the front 4x4 fenders using another set of 4x4 fenders. The rest of the exterior also received the same smooth treatment, including the inside of the bed. Custom LED lights were built and flushed into the tailgate skin. Another cool body mod was the custom license-plate mount, which shoots the license plate ("LOASIAN") up from the tailgate super-quick.
With the exterior smoothed to their liking, Jason sprayed the entire Toyota PPG Bright Iris Pearl. The 'Yota was now laid out and sported a really clean, solid color, so the bros next tackled the interior. Once again, they couldn't trust anyone around, so they did everything themselves, with the exception of wrapping the seats. Seat & Top Upholstery took care of that. Von and Jason smoothed and painted the dash to match and gave the rest of the interior a tan-tweed makeover. They built a custom box to house all the Power Acoustik bumps and finished off the rest of the details with a few billet goodies. For a full compilation of all the details, along with the engine and performance upgrades, check out the Lowdown.
The Lowdown
Wheels/Tires 19x7-inch KMC Suicides swathed in Nitto 555 225/35R19 rubber
Suspension/Chassis All modifications by Laodies Kustomz / 2-inch drop spindles / Firestone airbags all the way around / custom-built lever suspension setup / fully built frame back-half from the cab back / painted and detailed frame and all suspension components
Body Modifications/Paint All modifications by Laodies Kustomz / shaved door handles, taillights, rear body line, wiper cowl, and stock mirrors / smoothed rear with tailgate skin / molded 4x4 fenders into bed to match 4x4 fenders up front / smoothed inside of bed / smoothed wheeltubs in the rear / custom-actuated license plate built into tailgate / LED taillights / custom mirrors / painted PPG Bright Iris Pearl by Crazy Asian
Interior/Stereo All modifications (except seats) by Laodies Kustomz / shaved and painted dash / tan-tweed carpet, headliner, door panels, and seats / bucket seats wrapped by Seat & Top Upholstery / Billet Specialties steering wheel with tan half-wrap / billet window cranks, door handles, and armrests / custom center console / Auto Meter gauges / Lanzar audio/video head unit / 1,600-watt Power Acoustik amplifier to power the two 10-inch Power Acoustik subwoofers / Lanzar 6-1/2-inch separates mounted in custom kick-panel pods / PlayStation 2
Engine/Performance Weber dual-side-draft carburetor setup / Crane Cam ignition / Pacesetter header / LC Engineering distributor / Maganacore plug wires / MS Rodding fuel cell
Miscellaneous Because of the attention to detail, this truck has received many trophies in shows all over the Midwest. You really must see it to appreciate!
Special Thanks Von's parents / Von's friends / the NC crew / especially Von's brother Jason