La Colorada

A Truck Buils A Memory

- Kevin Whipps

​WE ALL HAVE BENCHMARK MOMENTS IN OUR LIVES THAT LEAVE AN INDELIBLE MARK ON OUR PERSONAL HISTORY. Usually it’s a momentous occasion—like the birth of a child—that we’ll always remember. For Manuel Zavala of Houston, Texas, one of those moments was the day, 10 years ago, when he started his construction company. Like many beginning small business owners, he didn’t have a ton of cash to sling around, so he picked up a rusty ’85 Chevrolet C-10 for $1,000 to tool from worksite to worksite. It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done and started his business off on solid footing.

Soon the one truck became two, and the next thing he knew, his business was off and running. As the years went by, that ’85 stayed in his life. He just couldn’t seem to part with it. That’s when the idea hit him: turn the truck into a shrine of sorts to honor its place in his business’s history. Make it completely custom, from top to bottom, restoring and tricking it out. It would become a visual representation of his personal and business successes.