There are a few people out there that share my pain and know what it's like to be a decade deep in trying to finish a killer mini.
Eddy Cebreco is one of these unfortunate souls, and has been slowly building his 1993 Toyota pickup since 1998. This means, that he too has seen many changes in the styles and innovations of custom minitrucks and has tried to stay in front of them. But for Eddy, one step forward generally led to three steps back.
In fact, Eddy's ill-fated build almost came to an end when he decided to finally throw in the towel. He asked his buddy, Big Jay from No Regrets So Cal, to bring a sawzall to their club meeting where Eddy was going to cut up his decade long nightmare and sell it for scrap. This is where the story actually took a turn for the better, because the very same night Jay forgot the sawzall, Terry Elms from Dragger's Inc. talked with Eddy about doing a complete rebuild for the upcoming SEMA show. So in just a few days, what was going to be turned into a pile of scrap, now carried Eddy's dream of once again becoming a badass mini.
Eddy decided to call his 'Yota "Payback" and it was quickly loaded up and trucked over to Dragger's Inc./GO EZ Customs for the resurrection build. It was dubbed "Payback" because this would serve to remind all the haters, shops with broken promises, and everyone else out there, that this Toyota was destined to make it somewhere, no matter how long it took to get there. With only four months before the SEMA show, Eddy and Terry assembled a crew with the talents necessary to see this build through in such a short amount of time. Friends came in from all over to help accomplish this task, and with four months of sleepless nights, energy drinks, welding, cutting, grinding, then grinding some more, SEMA came WAY too quickly.
Follow along to see the amazing mods that came together to make "Payback" a machine to be reckoned with. Stay tuned for the full feature on this truck in an upcoming issue, and for more information contact the companies listed in the Source box.
Once complete, Eddy finally got to see Payback in all it's glory. As builder and owner starred in admiration, all the exhaustion of sleepless nights quickly melted away. The truck was loaded and headed off to the SEMA floor.
Stay tuned for the entire feature on Payback, coming soon!
1-2. It all started with a...
1-2. It all started with a full custom frame built by Terry, from Dragger's Inc.
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3-4. When Terry tore into...
3-4. When Terry tore into the 'Yota he knew they were in for a ton of fun. Every square inch of the truck would have to be torn down and redone correctly.
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5-7. Terry made quick work...
5-7. Terry made quick work of the firewall and hand-built a smooth firewall both inside and out.
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8-9. Like with all of the...
8-9. Like with all of the build stories, these quick overviews can't truly capture the many late nights and hours of fabrication that goes into building something truly custom. After the firewall was completed, Terry moved inside the cab and made cardboard templates to begin the build of the dash.
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10-11. We always recommend...
10-11. We always recommend wearing a welding helmet, even when tacking or you could get a mean sun burn since you probably don't have Terry's beard to protect your face. Moving along, Terry built an entire skeleton for the dash and center console out of -inch rod.
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12-13. With the structural...
12-13. With the structural supports done, Terry got down on the sheetmetal.
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14-16. The entire truck, inside...
14-16. The entire truck, inside and out, received a complete metal shave. All of the interior and exterior work from the dash, to the right hand drive, to the front end, was built using all metal.
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17-19. Lowlife Mike came down...
17-19. Lowlife Mike came down to lend a hand. He separated the hood skin, and tacked the hood into place. The hood was completely welded to the fenders and cowl to go another step further with the fully molded theme.
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20-21. Terry built a one-off...
20-21. Terry built a one-off front grille shell and welded the bumper in place. With the front end completely molded, the smaller hood section was cut out.
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22-23. With the hood cut out,...
22-23. With the hood cut out, Terry quickly became one with the sheetmetal and finished off the complete mold job by building and molding inner fender wells.
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24-25. Tons of people came...
24-25. Tons of people came through to lend a helping hand on this SEMA build. Mike Alexander even spent a few all nighters burning up some grinding discs.
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26-27. It was time to mount...
26-27. It was time to mount the bed. Lou Santiago also flew in to lend a helping hand.
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28-30. Sheetmetaling the bed...
28-30. Sheetmetaling the bed turned out to be quite the task. Dave and Art from GO EZ, along with Terry and others worked around the clock using some good ol' fashion shop tricks to build a one-off bed just as impressive as the rest of the metal work on the truck.
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31-32. With all the metal...
31-32. With all the metal work coming to a close it was time for the ever dreaded body work. Mike Cotton from Midwest Images flew out to give a helping hand to the painter, Eddie Macias, and the rest of the crew as they all spent many hours sanding the night away.
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33-35. After the cab and bed...
33-35. After the cab and bed were prepped and primered, it was time for Eddie to lay down his black basecoat. Once dry, a few coats of PPG Santiago Gold was custom mixed for this one-of-a-kind 'Yota.
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36-37. The final paint touches...
36-37. The final paint touches were made to the cab, bed, and frame a night before it was time to head to Vegas. This is actually ahead of schedule compared to some SEMA builds, where the paint is still wet on the convention floor.
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38-39. With only hours left...
38-39. With only hours left before it was time to hit the road, the entire crew hurried along the final assembly.
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