The story of Eddy Cebreco's Payback Toyota is like many of our stories that have had a truck in process for more than a decade. Crappy shops, promises broken, loss of money, less and less time, the list goes on.
You see, Eddy's story began back in 1994 and would fill this entire magazine with the number of changes and mods that this 1993 Toyota has seen. Eddy bought the truck in 1994 and took it straight from his brother's car lot to JS Customs in West Palm Beach, Florida, to be lowered with a few minor touches. He had a roll pan installed and shaved the tailgate with a tag box under a purple neon plate ring, and back then he thought he was clowning!
Fast forward a couple years to 1996 where Payback saw it's first cut and unfortunately, it's first crappy shop. After years of back and forth's, Eddy knew he had to get it out of there, so him and a couple buddies pulled the truck and took it to storage. When Eddy finally got the courage and funds to try again, he took it to Jimmy from Jimmy's Rods & Customz (at the time he was Srcape-N-Customs) to be put back together and running in time for the first "It Don't Stop" show around 2001-ish. Johnny O was actually the last person to drag in it at that very show. After that it was back to storage again. As funds permitted Eddy brought it over to another "bust" audio shop in Georgia (knowing what he knows now he says he should have left it at Jimmy's to finish no matter how long it would take or how much it cost). In the process of this long truck build Eddy was also producing Blood Drag and a couple other shows. He then got a job offer to move to California and produce the Havoc Shows that he jumped on. So after a run around with the audio shop in Georgia, Eddy had what was left of his truck hauled out to Los Angeles for another stint in storage.
At this point Eddy was working hard getting the Havoc shows up and running so the truck sat during this transition. The year was now 2005 and Eddy was at the point of giving up on his truck. He let it sit for another year or so and then decided enough was enough, and he was ready to put it out of his misery! Good thing Big Jay from No Regrets never listens to anything Eddy has to say, because if Jay would have listened and brought the sawzall to that night's meeting, then Eddy and Painter Shak Mike would have cut the truck into pieces. After some time to cool down and rethink his strategy, Eddy came across Terry from Draggers Inc. Terry came to the rescue and jumped at the challenge of taking Payback from scrap metal to SEMA show truck with only four months of build time left. With help from friends near and far they actually pulled it off with more mods than Eddy could have imagined! At this point Eddy was finally relieved to see his dream of having a SEMA truck realized and a photo shoot in Mini Truckin' become a reality. Although he isn't quite done yet, the end is actually near and now Eddy can finally taste it!
With another job offer out in Bowling Green, Kentucky and a little more storage time, Eddy decided it's now time to finish what he started more than 15 years ago. Payback is currently at the Tin Shop in Alabama working on the steering, shock mounts, frame repair, brake and fuel lines, and hopefully a motor so we can see that big Eddy smile back on his face as he's finally cruisin' his baby once again! For more detailed information, check out the Lowdown, and for pics of the build and continued progress you can visit myspace.com/paybacktoyota.com.