I still remember the day my grandfather told me, “It’s not what you buy. It’s what you build,” and ever since then I’ve held that idea close to my heart. When I purchased the bone stock Scottsdale when I was fourteen, I looked at it as a blank canvas, a fresh start to a big idea.

The old Scottsdale had been sitting in my driveway for a while, and when Christmas break had finally arrived, it was time to start wrenching away. First, came the body lift, a painful task of disconnecting brake lines and removing body mounts. Most the bolts came out well with the impact wrench except just one. For that I cut the bolt with the torch and removed the excess with a center punch. After many long days and nights, the blocks were set in the mounting points, and I re-welded steel under the cross beams of the bed. The truck was finally sitting higher but not nearly close to being finished.

Tires were the next big task on my list and big they definitely were. I chose a set of thirty five inch mud terrains mounted on a seventeen inch chrome Mickey Thompson bead lock rim. I came across a clearance problem when I put them on the front axels. When steering, the tires clipped the front of the wheel well. ‘How on earth am I going to fix this?’ I thought to myself. This dilemma didn’t set me back too much. I simply just brought out the cutting torch and cut away the extra unneeded fender. I had the truck lifted and sitting on a big set of mud terrains, and it sure looked pretty. Everything wasn’t finished just yet; the old Scottsdale still had more in store for it.

I’m a performance junkie, so I didn’t want just a good-looking pickup. I wanted it to perform well, too. With this on my mind, I purchased a jet performance and tuning computer module. With the jet in place, the old Scottsdale had an ungodly amount of torque and would spin all four tires in a hurry. Straight pipes were next on the list; I wanted it to sound sweet. I cut out the catalytic converter and inserted a three inch pipe in its place and ran the pipe toward the back of the truck where it came to a Y and exited out the back with a set of four inch chrome tips. I put in my keys and excitedly waited for what was about to come next. I turned the truck over and a loud idle filled the shop. I rolled out of the shop and drove down the road to hear even more. Running through those gears and listening to that old truck sing was one of the best moments during that entire project.

Now the old Scottsdale is my daily driver. I’ve changed it from a bone stock farm truck to a lifted pulling powerhouse and I’m proud of what I have done. There is no better feeling than the proud feeling when someone asks, “Who did all the work?” I did.