(truck engine)
- Hot Wheels, to a guy that builds are...
they're everything.
(rhythmic rock music)
- [Presenter] We are thrilled that Mitch Allread
with F5 Rat Rod dually, down at the end
is taking win one out of Hot Wheels Legends.
Congratulations Mitch.
- Thank you.
- Thank you for embodying the challenger spirit
and really like living, breathing and bleeding Hot Wheels.
In not just how you built it, but what you made.
It is a beautiful work of art. So thank you.
(audience applause)
- [Mitch] I was on the verge of crying, I still am.
And this is such a last minute thing for me.
I just can't believe that it happened like this.
Really, really neat. Let's head up to Simi Valley.
(truck engine)
(lighthearted guitar music)
Hi my name's Mitch and we're here in
Simi Valley, California. My little shop.
My little 1000 square foot shop.
I've worked in motorsports for a long time
and then I worked on a Pikes Peak Truck that
a guy by the name of Mike Ryan owns.
I was on the team that built that first truck.
After finishing that truck I just thought it
would be really cool to have something like that.
Something with a diesel in it. It was kind of inspirational.
Engine here is a 7.3 liter.
Power Stroke diesel.
The donor vehicle was a '97 F350, crew cab, dually.
This particular motor didn't come with an air cooler,
so I retrofitted it. And used a Subaru intercooler.
I painted it green to kinda replicate the other green
that you find in the rest of the truck.
The seat frames were green and the engines green.
It's been on the road since March of '09
and prior to that it took me six years.
And it got shelved a couple of times and almost sold once.
Originally is was two dump trucks that had
gotten wrecked on the side of the road.
Somebody drove through a fence and it smashed them both
and so took the best of the two of them.
And kinda melted them together as far
as the stock body that I wanted.
The grill shell and hood came from
a separate truck than the cab.
And so I kinda put them together that way.
(lighthearted guitar music)
Having worked in Motorsports, of course I'm gonna
have that bent, I'm gonna have that motorsports inspired
holes, lightening holes and roll cages,
almost all my builds have roll cages in them.
I like to say it handles like a Porsche,
but it rides like a truck.
(Mitch laughs)
(lighthearted guitar music)
The rock screen on the back window,
this was on the original truck.
That was protecting the back window from
rocks coming in cause it was a gravel truck.
So then I copied that for the door panels
and the screen on the floor. This will raise your feet
off the floor because the master cylinder
and the brake booster are mounted on the back of the cab.
So we raised the floor basically up off the rods.
That thing has been driven as a daily driver for
years and years. It just recently has been kind of
shelved and weathering as it does.
And so I brought it in and I re-checkerboarded the top,
cause it had all faded away and ya could barley see it
and I liked that. Cause the rest of the truck is
not painted actually. It's all natural patina
from an original dump trucks.
I been driving that truck for nine years.
And I know the kind of attention that it gets.
Everywhere I go it's like I'm in a parade everyday.
It doesn't matter where I go or where I been
that truck always garners attention.
I have people follow me off the freeway
and ask me to take pictures. I have since it was built.
I begun to anticipate a little bit that I might be a winner.
And so I started to get a little emotional about it really,
because Hot Wheels to a car guy
and to a guy that builds are... they're everything.
I mean I have hundreds of them.
There was this big tree and would build these little ramps
and stuff up to this dream house right.
And I would build this little dream house,
this little diorama dream house.
And there would be always Hot Wheels on the driveway.
OK, that's where is started for me.
When I was 8, 10 years old or something like that.
(bouncy piano music)