ORANGISH

As the head honcho at Tre 5 Customs in Peoria, Arizona, Jeremy Rice is no stranger when it comes to knowing what goes into a top-tier truck build. A well seasoned team filled with razor-sharp talent, hundreds of man hours, the best components you can source, and a finely-tuned plan of attack. 

We sat down with Jeremy and he told us about his ‘50 3100 and how it came to be. “I bought the truck straight out of a barn on a farm about 3-1/2 hours outside of Phoenix. It was, of course, in worse shape than described by the owner, but I had already driven so far to get it and was committed at that point. Sometimes you just take one for the team and make the best decision you can make.”

“I got back to the shop with the truck the same day and completely stripped it down in about an hour’s time with my guys. We spent a few days doing rust repair and then sent the cab off for sandblast and primer powder coat. Over the next few months, I spent my spare time collecting parts for the build. During that time, Mike over at Ikandy Paintworks was working evenings and weekends doing the major bodywork on the cab. Once we took delivery of the GSI chassis, we went all out on the build. That chassis is pretty cool – it’s a new design and the very first one that GSI produced for the ‘47-54 trucks.” 

We’ve been to the Tre 5 shop several times over the past couple years and we’re always amazed at the volume of vehicles in progress at any given time. “Squeezing in a personal build can be tricky thing with so many customer builds going on at the shop, but we made it happen. Owning a shop that builds vehicles like this, it’s hard not to have one of your own. When an opportunity to build the truck came about, we took it. The entire build was spread out over about a year and included lots of late nights and weekends. All the guys at the shop pitched in. Everyone here and at Ikandy spent some time on it outside of work hours, and I can’t begin to express my appreciation for those guys enough! ”

When it comes to efficiency and sticking to the plan at hand, Jeremy is methodical about the whole experience. “I built this truck the way we like to do it around here. We kind of have a formula that works for us. I like the builds to be just custom enough. What I mean is that I don’t want to take too much away from the classic styling of these vehicles, but everything underneath needs to be modernized. This truck has a brand new 525HP LS3 and 6-speed automatic trans from Gandrud Chevrolet. I like to keep as much of the drivetrain Chevy as possible. It makes for a better driving and more reliable build. And we always like to start with a full chassis, too. I’ve found this to not only be better in the ride quality and drivability, but also more cost-effective.” 

“Of course, Frank Rechlin and his team at Ikandy are the ones who straighten out all the sheet-metal and lay down the paint for us. As Frank likes to say, ‘You make them sh*tty, and I make them pretty.’ We agree. The paint and bodywork on Jeremy’s truck is flawless and the custom-tinted “orangish” ChromaFlair paint is simply dazzling in the Arizona sun.

“The interior was designed and built to be more like a newer car than a classic truck. Everything inside the truck is wrapped in vegan leather. Steve Yui at Elevated Design in Phoenix knocked it into the next stadium on this one.”

Out back, you’ll find a Mar-K Pro-Tilt bed floor along with custom carbon fiber wheel tubs. “The tubs were a collab between myself, Munssey Speed, LS Fab, and Central Composites, and they came out better than I could have ever expected. I liked the carbon fiber so much that we carried touches of it into the engine bay on the coil covers and into the center console mount for the Accuair ECU.”

At the end of the day, is he simply too exhausted to enjoy the finished product? “I really enjoy the time we spend building vehicles like this, but we look forward to SEMA every year. Having Accuair invite us to spend the week in their booth last year, well, that just makes for a memorable experience that we’ll never forget.”