At 69 years of age, customizing has been a way of life for Bill Stockstill and his wife of 49 years, Dorothy. His most recent build was not because it was cheaper to find an S-10 bed and frame in a wrecking yard, but because it was the look Bill was after. A quick glance at the quality of Bill's '98 Chevy S-10-based '53 Chevy Advance Design and it becomes quite clear doing a graft job was not about saving money. To the contrary, the couple's original goal of not spending more than $25,000 went well to the wayside shortly after Bill and his oldest grandson Zac hauled the '53 back from Kansas City, Missouri, only to discover the truck started its life out in Texas. Being originally from Texas meant that the body on the '53 was relatively rust-free, and that the crew at Mastercraft would be able to focus their talents on other details. Starting with a stock '98 S-10 chassis and then incorporating a few minor touches, the '53's frontend was dropped 3 inches with a pair of 2-inch drop spindles, and 1-inch dropped coil springs from Stylin' Concepts. To guide the '53, the S-10 power-steering box was left intact, but the actual pointing was left to a tilt column modified to fit (snagged from a 2000 Astro Van). For rolling stock in front a pair of 17x8 BC Stingrays are shod with 225/17/50 Nittos, and 17x11 BC Stingrays on 275/50/17 Nittos bring up the rear.

When Jonathan Garcia decided to get out of the mini-truck scene, and into the classic truck scene, he went all out. His first ground-up build is this '68 Chevy truck. A hybrid of classic styling, with new-school billet parts, combined for one killer look. In our August '08 issue, Jon's truck graced our cover as he carved the canyon roads of Azusa, California. We also got some urban shots of the Chevy down in the Port of Los Angeles, in Long Beach, California. Check out these never before seen photos of both shoots.

When building one's ideal custom truck, it all boils down to balance of power. Whether it's money, design, stance, or the left and right side of one's brain battling over whether creativity or function should be the key theme, it's always a balance of power between two sides. In the end, either one side caves in or a mutual agreement is established. For Quinton Bryant of Adair, Oklahoma, it was a balance of style and cents.

Manuel and Joe Cordoza concocted this '49 F-1, dubbed "Wild Portugee," which was featured in our November '07 issue. Although originally started by Joe's dad Manuel, Joe had to come to the rescue and help finish the truck after his old man had to have heart surgery. Luckily, the two got this Lime Time Green hauler finished, or we wouldn't have these pictures to drool over. Check out some expanded coverage of this one-of-a-kind hauler that never made it past the editing room.

Back in our May 2007 issue of CCT, we featured this wicked awesome '36 Ford shop truck. Lynn Ashcroft, owner of Ashcroft Motorcycles, built the chopped and channeled fender-less hauler. He also threw in a Hemi motor, and a set of So-Cal Speed Shop Lakester wheels, on the truck to cap off this gnarly look. Check out these photos we found lying around the office that never made the magazine spread.

Who ever said customs are dead is full of baloney and cheese! Quinton Bryant's '50 Chevy is homage to custom trucks of yester year. This Lime Green Chevy is a dead-on custom, which is sure to stop anyone in their tracks, just so they can get a second look. Quinton's ride was shot in Vinita, Oklahoma, just off Route 66, for our October '08 cover. Take a look at these extras from the shoot, and we're sure you'll agree with us that customs are still alive and kickin'.

The beauty of customizing is that it allows as few or as many changes as the owner wants. Some prefer the sleeper approach: where you see factory visuals, but it packs a punch with chassis and driveline upgrades that aren't immediately apparent. There are also trucks that might have an in-your-face paint job, dropped stance, loud mufflers, and trick rolling stock to make you think it's hell on wheels, but the changes usually don't deviate too much from stock after that. And then there are customs that really run the gamut of upgrades and definitely have the juice to back up their hot rod looks. When it comes to this no-holds-barred way of customizing, you're definitely speaking Kent Reinert's language. The lightning-bolt emblems on the sides of his '57 Ford F-100 panel are truly a prelude to the firestorm of mods it contains.

Some stories aren't meant to be passed down. For instance, stories with so many ups and downs and turns and twists that they sound like a National Lampoon movie are always better from the horse's mouth. Retelling that sort of story is right on par with second-hand news. For that reason, we're going to let Randy Thompson of Castro Valley, California, tell you his story about how his '57 Chevy came to be:

If you're around customs enough, over time you tend to see a lot of repetitious changes. You look at a truck once, start a mental inventory of the obvious mods, and say to yourself: "Seen it." Having spent practically his entire life building cars, Glenn Bogle has become uniquely adept at making modifications that those who aren't wise to the reality of the situation might miss. His '84 F-150 shortbed is the perfect case in point. At first glance you might just be tempted to think it only has a few tweaks here and there. But as you get closer and take a few walks around this deceptive Ford, you'll notice there's more than meets the eye.

This is not the story of a kid who fouled up one too many times and his parents banished him to his room indefinitely. Quite the opposite. As many of us can relate, Matt Krawchyk was bitten by the automotive bug through having family members with a passion for cars. Those hours spent at home being around big brother's Vette, tinkering on dad's '63 Impala SS, and learning how to weld gave Matt the inspiration he needed to pursue his own ground-scraping projects.

When Mike Curtis was in fourth grade one of his dad's employees drove a dropped '72 Chevy truck. It was blue-on-white with trim and super fast. Mike knew he had to have one someday. Eight years ago Mike was halfway there: He had purchased a '72 from his dad. Little did he know he was still eight years away from fulfilling his dream of having the truck he pictured-the reason being that the truck was worked on here and there, bounced from here and there, and sat around more than Peg Bundy during an Oprah marathon. Eventually, the plans for the red-and-white Chevy came to fruition.

Editor's Note: Getting your truck into Readers' Trucks is a snap, of the camera, that is. All it takes is a stack of good-quality photos of your ride that are in focus and well lit. Due to the volume of mail we receive, we regret that we cannot return photographs. Send photos of your truck (no Polaroids or printouts) to: CCT, Readers' Trucks, 774 S. Placentia Ave., Placentia, CA 92870. It is important that you include a detailed description of the modifications you have made to your truck, including any interesting stories behind it.

Many of us have had ones that got away-trucks, women, jobs, barroom brawls, subprime adjustable rate mortgages. Seeing as this is a custom classic trucks magazine and not a country music station or, regrettably, a saloon, we'll stick to discussing trucks. Many years ago Jerry Johnston owned a 1956 Ford F-100, but sold it and regretted it ever since. With vigor, Johnston began to search for a new '56 F-100 to call his own.

Editor's Note: Getting your truck into Readers' Trucks is a snap, of the camera, that is. All it takes is a stack of good-quality photos of your ride that are in focus and well lit. Due to the volume of mail we receive, we regret that we cannot return photographs. Send photos of your truck (no Polaroids or printouts) to: CCT, Readers' Trucks, 774 S. Placentia Ave., Placentia, CA 92870. It is important that you include a detailed description of the modifications you have made to your truck, including any interesting stories behind it.

Some things you just can't part with, especially when they hold sentimental value. For Lori and Royce Ring it was this '53 Chevy, dubbed Ol' Red. Lori's husband, Roger, bought the truck back in '79 as a daily driver, but that all ended with Roger's death during the SCORE Baja race in '82. Instead of selling the truck, Lori kept it so her then three-year-old son, Royce, could drive his father's old truck for his first ride.

Everyone has made a mistake at some point in their life that they lived to regret. Oftentimes these mistakes can usually be traced back to poor judgment, peer pressure, or excess alcohol. These mistakes can range anywhere from that extensive collection of torn acid wash jeans and tank tops from your Van Halen days, to that good ol' fashion bar fight that landed you in the drunk tank with no recollection of how you got there. Yet we live and learn (hopefully) from our mistakes. For Jonathan Garcia, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, he learned the hard way that nothing turns heads like a classic Chevy.

"I used to see this truck at a fish camp my dad took me to when I was a kid," Ron Jones told us. "It was in upstate New York, and they used it to haul firewood and blocks of ice, back when they still cut ice off the frozen lakes in the winter and stored it in warehouses-back when people had an ice box, before electric refrigerators."

This is a completely new vehicle. Although we didn't have to deal with rust and body rot notorious with a restoration project, we did pound, bend, and stretch the new sheetmetal to fit into our plans for a custom parts hauler.

Being brutally honest isn't always the easiest thing to do. But as they say: "The truth shall set you free." So, in hindsight maybe it isn't all that hard to speak up. For Mulvane, Kansas-native Rob Parker, he has nothing to hide.

In keeping with the "old-school" theme of this month's Custom Classic Trucks, we put Jeff Costa's flamed '54 F-100 from Petaluma, California, on the cover. That said, we'd bet it wasn't two seconds before some of you jumped right out of your seats, and roared: "It's a '55, not a '54!" That was our reaction too, so we asked Jeff if he would fill us in on what he knows about his Ford F-100's history, and it went something like this:

If a national poll was taken for favorite vacation destinations within the United States, the great state of North Dakota would probably fall a little short. Let's face it, how many people can picture Jimmy Buffet singing about being whisked away to a magical weekend in Bismarck? In fact, most Americans' idea of the state probably starts with the movie, Fargo, and ends with a vision of that oh-so-creepy Steve Buscemi being fed through a wood chipper. But what North Dakota lacks in sandy beaches and over-tanned, orange citizens, it more than makes up for with good people and plenty of old trucks. For Randy Nelson, a native North Dakotan, he fits the criteria to a T.

Merle Haggard had it right when he said it was time to "Sing a little bit of these workin' man blues." As a lot of the trucks that grace the pages of CCT are ex-work trucks, that lyric couldn't explain those trucks' state of mind-before their transformations-better. The same thing goes for Brian Baker and his '84 Chevy.

We have all been asked that ridiculous question from at least one high school guidance counselor or teacher: "If you had a million dollars what would you do with it?" As if by addressing this question it would map out what our future profession should be, and how to attain it. In reality, most people decide their career by utilizing three methods: follow their dreams, follow in their parents' footsteps, or simply try on everything and see what fits. For the most part, the best we can hope for is a job we like and a hobby we love. As for Gary Garret Jr., of Lewisville, Texas, he ended up with the best of both worlds.

From the age of 16, Phoenix, Arizona-native Mark Barbee has been actively involved in customizing fullsize trucks. His first effort was an '02 GMC Sierra 1500-and then two years later an '04 GMC 2500 HD. While 16 might sound like a tender young age to some folks, Mark told us that his passion for trucks started at a much younger age, when he must have still been in kindergarten. The truck that Mark traces it all back to was his grandpa's '65 Chevy Big-Window shortbed Fleetside. Unfortunately, when ethe time came for his grandfather to pass the truck on, it was one of Mark's uncles who outranked him in age and inherited the '65. As fate would have it, the uncle parked the short-wide Fleetside in a doomed spot and returned to discover the truck had been run over by a damned old train. In January 2003 Mark bought the '63 Chevy C-10 gracing our cover from a friend at work for $2,500. Tracing the '63's history, he found that the pickup was originally a farm truck from Casa Grande, Arizona. The original owner must have spotted it at the dealership and chose it because it had 283 V-8 with a compound four-speed-and the Big-Window option was just along for the ride. Mark used the Chevy as a daily driver for around two years before he commenced with the truck's radical transformation.

It doesn't seem to matter if it's a Corvette, Harley-Davidson, or an old pickup truck, there always seems to be some guy who will walk up and tell you that he used to have one just like it. The next words that usually babble out of his mouth are about how his wife made him sell it. In reality it's always a pathetic story, but for Mike Browne of Friendswood, Texas, he was lucky enough to be directly involved in a new twist to an old tale.