You wouldn't turn up to your wedding wearing your best 'whistle and flute' with a pair of wellies on your feet would you? Well, it's the same story when you're pimping a truck. Let's face it, it's all very well spending tens of thousands on an expensive paintjob, bull-bars, spotlights and a customised leather interior, but it's never going to look the part until you swap those factory-fit steel wheels for a set of decent alloys. Luckily this is one part of the pimping process that we don't have to worry about, because we are fortunate enough to have Tyretracks on our list of generous sponsors. Truck enthusiast Chris Hopton, who runs the Midlands-based family firm with his wife Claire, explains that he's donating a set of Alcoa wheels to the project.

'Alcoa are the original, and in my opinion the best alloys wheels in the world,' says Chris, who always has a good selection of new and used wheels in stock. 'Although there are cheaper alternatives available, you really do get what you pay for. Alcoa offer a combination of looks, strength and lightness.'

He goes on to say that Alcoa wheels are available in three different finishes - brushed, mirror-polished or Dura-Bright. Our pimped truck will be treated to a set of mirror-polished forged aluminium wheels, which Chris describes as perfect for our needs. He explains that if we were pimping a working truck he would recommend Dura-Brights, because of their ability to keep clean. In comparison the mirror-finish alloys require a bit more work to keep pristine, but then that isn't such an issue with our truck, which is unlikely to clock-up too many miles. 'Besides', adds Chris, 'I'll throw in a some of the genuine Alcoa cleaning products that we sell, so the next owner will have something to keep them busy on Sunday mornings!'

He explains that forged alloys are lighter and stronger, than cast wheels. Of course the weight saving isn't going to be a great help with our truck, which won't be working for a living.

Our tyres come courtesy of Michelin. The wheels will be shod with 315/70 R 22.5 X Energy SaverGreen XF on the front and XD on the rear. Both tyres are manufactured with a Michelin Energy Flex casing, which reduces fuel consumption. Meanwhile the inclusion of patented double-wave sipes should give up to 7% more grip throughout the life of the tyres compared with the 315/70 R 22.5 X Energy XDA2+ in the same dimension.

Ours should look fantastic to, as Tyretracks is going to paint the 'Michelin' wording on the sidewalls in white.

Want to know more about Tyretracks? If so click below to continue reading.

Pimping a truck is so much more challenging, expensive and time-consuming than I ever expected! This has been an incredibly steep learning curve, and I now have vastly more respect for the owners of the thousands of stunning trucks that turn up to Truckfest.
But the good news is that while everything has taken considerably longer than I thought it would, there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. I am quietly confident that our unique 2002 Scania 124 Topline pickup truck will be fully pimped by the end of the year, and will raise a lot of money when we finally sell it in aid of Help for Heroes.
At the moment I'm really concentrating on the interior. I have just met up with L A and R W Piper of Yeovil, which has agreed to take care of the leather upholstering. The company is perhaps best known for the work it does on classic and vintage cars, but in recent years it has expanded into trucks. Boss Larry Piper tells me they are currently doing about five truck interiors every year. 'I love the creative freedom I get when working on a truck,' he says. 'With classic cars you have to put them back the way you found them, but with trucks you can be more adventurous.' The company has already worked on some stunning creations, including Chris Hopton's 'Passion de l'automobile' T-Cab (below), which has since been sold.

Between us we've decided on a predominantly white interior, with a few splashes of purple. We realise that white isn't the most practical of colours for a working truck, but then we don't envisage the finished truck working particularly hard for a living. In the meantime Keltruck, which is spraying al the plastic bits and pieces for us, will use the same two colours.

Pic credit: Shutterstock

When the Pimp My Truck project is finally finished it's my intention gain as much publicity as possible by taking it on a mini summer roadshow. Just one problem - we're going to need some diesel.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there's an oil company/fuel card company out there who would be happy to donate some diesel to the cause. I envisage that we'd probably do about 2000 miles at the very most - which according to my very basic calculations equates to about 200 gallons. In return for the gift of diesel, we'll give the generous sponsor a good plug in the magazine and of course put their logo on the side of the truck. Plus of course they'll me helping to raise money for Help for Heroes.
If you are interested you can call me on 020 8652 3721 or email will.shiers@rbi.co.uk

Mark Lucas, depot and accident repair centre manager at Keltruck's Newark branch, has emailed me pictures of the fully painted cab. Doesn't it look great?

 
'We have painted the cab and deflectors, and now we are about to paint the brackets and fit the deflector kit back onto the cab,' he says. 'That just leaves us to paint the front crashline plastics in silver and fit the cab back on to the truck.'
And Keltruck aren't the only ones who have been hard at work. Check out this fantastic heat shield design that Eminox is working on.

 
In the meantime, Chris Hopton from Tyretracks has delivered half of our interior to LA and RW Piper for retrimming, while Gary Cole from Coles Custom is taking all the plastic trim to CRS for painting. 

We have just been contacted by Capital Stores who have very kindly offered to donate one of their superb Avtex TVs to the Pimp My Truck project. They are letting us have the W163DR version, which has a 16" screen and a built-in DVD player. Result!
Although designed initially for caravans and motorhomes, this TV is absolutely perfect for trucks. It's slim, light, has a fantastic picture quality, and even allows you to record programmes onto a USB stick. It's a great TV, it costs £328, and it's going to be a fantastic addition to our truck.
Meanwhile I've got a meeting with Fusion Electronics next week to discuss their contribution.

If the Pimp My Truck Scania is going to raise thousands of pounds for Help for Heroes, it's going to need a fantastic paintjob. Keltruck to the rescue!
After checking out the driveline and putting it through an MOT, our 2002 Scania 124 Topline was driven from Keltruck's West Bromwich HQ to its Newark branch, where the bulk of the work is going to take place. Mark Lucas, Newark's depot and accident repair centre manager, explains that this branch takes on some very unusual projects, making it absolutely perfect for 'pimping' a truck. As well as being a one-stop shop for Scania owners, the Newark branch frequently works with other marques too - and not just trucks either. In fact, when we went up to Newark to check on the Pimp progress last week, we discovered that they had just re-sprayed a 1930s Hudson, and were well on the way to restoring an old Bedford truck for another customer. 'We certainly do plenty of oddball stuff,' explains Mark.

Old Bedford truck at Keltruck's Newark depot

Preparing the Hudson for a respray

A HUGE thankyou to Mark Lucas from Keltruck for bringing the freshly-painted Pimp My Truck Scania to Truckfest. It took pride of place on the Truck & Driver stand, where it attracted a lot of attention.

Although I heard a few people asking 'what's that pile of scrap?', most people immediately realised that they were looking at the Pimp project.  

Mark has taken plenty of pictures of the respray, and I'll be sure to put them on the blog as soon as I've got some time.

I've just had a call from Kevin Larkin (who runs Larkin Auto Electrical) - and he's offering to help us out. This is fantastic news as I've been desperately trying to find an auto electrician.

Not only is Kevin responsible for wiring the Scania pictured above, but he actually worked on our Pimp My Truck when it was first purchased by previous owner Kev Dandy (including wiring the Kelsa bars).
 

Fantastic news! I've just heard from Mark Lucas (the depot and accident repair centre manager at Keltruck's Newark depot) who says work is well under way. As you can see from these pictures he's sent me, not only is it all stripped, but blasting has started too.

Mark is going to spray the cab in VW Merlin LZ3W - a rather nice metallic purple. If you go to this website, and scroll down, you'll see an Audi in that exact colour. He's going to paint the crashline, grille, meshes and door handles in Ford Moondust silver. The chassis will be black and he's going to do the seat base and grab handles in white. I can't wait to see it at Truckfest.

Since dreaming up the Pimp My Truck idea I've been blown away by the generosity of the numerous companies and industry experts who immediately embraced the idea. If you add up all the time and money these guys have donated, the total would come to tens of thousands of pounds. Hopefully the finished truck (which I'm expecting to be ready by the end of July) will raise some serious cash for Help for Heroes when we auction it.

Although this list is changing all the time, here's a brief run-down on who's doing what.

BEN'S CABINETS

Dutch custom interior specialist Ben's Cabinets manufactures a vast array of in-cab furniture, seat covers, curtains and engine covers for all popular makes and models of truck. It has agreed to supply and fit one of its fantastic cupboards on the rear wall of our Scania 4-series.

Thanks to owner-driver The Boss (a regular contributor to BigLorryBlog), we now have a private numberplate for the truck. Having read about the project on the blog, he has purchased us 'H4H TD'. And before the letters of complaint start to pour in, yes, it will be positioned legally when it's on the road.

CDC

Truck accessory supplier CDC has allowed us to take our pick from its exhaustive catalogue. So far we have helped ourselves to a pair of wind deflectors for the side windows (which will be colour-coded) and no fewer than four of its 22-inch long, round trumpeted air horns and solenoids.