Innholdsfortegnelse for OBS Builder's Guide - Fall 2025 i Street Trucks

WELCOME to the annual edition of our OBS Builder’s Guide—where we bring together all of the best ’88-’98 content for you to feast on in one magnificent place! This issue is jam-packed cover to cover and coast to coast with some of the baddest OBS builds, products, people, installs, artists, builders, and events. From retro to modern, old-school to new-school, and mild to wild—you will find it right here, along with everything else in between. We’ve also been gearing up to embark on a family father/son build journey over here in the Alexander house for a while now. From C10s to OBS options, and yes, my boy has the automotive ADD as bad as his old man, ha ha. Passing on this love for custom trucks to your kiddos and…

Down in the sun-soaked southern tip of Texas, where the truck scene runs deep and tradition holds strong, there’s one shop that has carved its name into custom culture. The Drop Shop Customs, owned and operated by Guadalupe Gonzalez, known to locals simply as “Piri,” is more than just a garage; it’s a sacred space for slammed steel and smooth welds. Step inside, and you’ll find the unmistakable scent of fresh paint, the hum of grinders, and a legacy that has been built one truck at a time. Piri isn’t just a builder; he’s a pioneer. Long before hashtags like #baggedOBS flooded the scene, Piri was laying frame, dialing in stance, and setting the bar for what a clean build should look like in the Rio Grande Valley. His name…

Hello dear OBS Builder’s Guide readers, Emma from Mobsteel/ Detroit Steel Wheel here, and yes, we are talking about our Detroit Steel Wheel OBS Suburban. This truck has acted as my media cruiser, Adam’s daily, and a Hot Rod Power Tour centerpiece for the Pilot Transport booth these last few years. For all of you hunting for that perfect OBS, let me tell you the story about how two boys with a dream scooped up a nice little rig with a fun history and shaped it to be a standout showpiece for a worldwide brand. Adam and Steve flew down to Kansas City after seeing “Chad’s” listing on Marketplace. Actually, that was after Adam had his first go at it on Bring a Trailer. It never met the reserve, so…

In a world of custom truck builds, having something that stands out is getting harder to accomplish. The right mix of clean and custom can only go so far, so something extra is needed to make that happen. When it comes to the OBS world of GM trucks, standard cabs are still a dime a dozen, and extended cabs are right behind them. But for the crew cabs, finding one lying on the ground is pretty rare. Fortunately for Chad Wheeler from West Union, Ohio, all he has to do to see one of these rare versions of the OBS is walk into his garage. Chad has been around custom vehicles since the day he was born. His dad was a true car guy, so going to shows and building…

Kids, smoking is bad for you. But like, some of the branding is pretty cool, and when your job is supervising design for an international audio company, you pay attention to these things. Behold, Tim Smith’s incredibly cool ’94 OBS. I mean, look at those colors—they have that pop in the sun and a cool black flip in the dead of night. Shoot, he calls it Black & Mild, having me recall my teenage years of sitting outside 7/11 toking wood tips, giving off the essence of cool. But again, smoking is bad for you. Whatever, I digress. My guys Adam and Steve of Mobsteel/Detroit Steel Wheel Co. go way back with Tim since he works for Kicker Audio. When he reached out about his personal build, we were all…

One of the most anticipated truck events of the year, Battle in BAMA, has now added the addition of OBS Nationals and just celebrated its 10th anniversary in legendary fashion. Formerly hosted beneath the iconic USS Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, the show has now shifted gears to an even more adrenaline-packed location: the world-famous Talladega Superspeedway. Craig Rowley and his dedicated team pulled out all the stops to make this milestone event their biggest and baddest yet, drawing custom trucks from every corner of the country. From slammed mini-trucks to sky-high lifted beasts, there was something for every kind of enthusiast and then some. One of the hottest highlights this year was the return of the OBS Nationals, a dedicated section of the show now in its second year. OBS…

Part two of our Belltech suspension install on this cherry ’97 Chevy C1500 dives straight into the front end. With the bed off and rear end dialed in from part one, it was time to tackle the nose of this OBS legend. We ditched the factory front suspension and bolted in Belltech’s new coilover setup, which is their first-ever front coilover kit for ’88–’98 Chevys. This is huge news for sport truck fans who remember the golden era. Just like the rear, everything up front is engineered to perform. The coilovers offer adjustability, precision, and a tight stance. We also added Belltech’s beefy front sway bar to keep this rig flat and confident in the corners. With the suspension fully updated from front to back, it was finally time to…

For Jeremy, this wasn’t just another build; it was personal. Betty White, his jaw-dropping OBS Chevy isn’t just about frame-scraping lows or flawless body lines. She’s a tribute to his roots, a rolling memory machine packed with heart, history, and horsepower. This build started decades before the first bolt was turned. Back when Jeremy was just a kid, his father owned a similar truck, a daily driver that doubled as a school shuttle for him and his brother. It was the first truck Jeremy ever drove—the one that sparked his obsession with OBS Chevy trucks. That early connection set the tone for everything that followed. At 15, he got his hands on a 1993 single cab and dreamed of building it into something wild. But like many young projects, life…

We finally got our hands on a super cherry 1997 Chevy C1500. Bone stock, clean as a whistle, and ready for a modern-day sport truck makeover. For this first phase of the build, we’re tearing into the rear end with an all-new suspension system from Belltech that’s anything but old-school. This isn’t your grandpa’s lowering block kit. Belltech went all-in with a rear coilover setup and performance-driven parallel 4-link system that’s built to handle. And yeah, we’re the first ones to bolt this kit on, so you know we’re hyped to show you how it all came together. To kick things off, we yanked the bed and stripped out every piece of factory rear suspension. With the frame exposed, we hit it with the sandblaster, laid down a fresh coat…

The third-generation K5 Chevy Blazer was the last generation, as Chevy discontinued the K5 in 1994. The Blazer was one of the most popular Chevy SUVs in the long brand history. In 2005, Kevin Schroeder owned a 1992 Chevy K5 Blazer that he jacked up and was looking to have rebuilt. Kevin’s father had recently been diagnosed with cancer, so his timetable was to have it completely rebuilt before his father passed. Kevin enlisted Jason Watts from DJ Customs in Cedar Park, Texas, for a full rebuild. Jason knocked it out of the park for Kevin, bagging the lifted 4x4, rebuilding the entire motor and transmission, and completing all the bodywork and paint. Unfortunately, the timely task wasn’t completed before Kevin’s father lost his battle. Kevin was devastated and just…

When it comes to nostalgia, Hammer Time doesn’t just check the boxes; it obliterates them. Stephen Conyers of Gonzales, Louisiana, set out with one mission: to build a truck that screams ‘90s vibes while seamlessly incorporating modern flair. The result? A jaw-dropping 1997 GMC Sierra that’s not just a build, it’s a time capsule on wheels. Making its second appearance at Battle in BAMA, Hammer Time first broke the Internet during its jaw-dropping debut at Lone Star Throwdown (LST). And with just one glance, it’s easy to see why. Stephen’s vision was clear: recreate the golden era of the ‘90s in truck form. The journey began with a true diamond in the rough—a barn find OBS that had seen better days. These trucks, now pushing 25+ years, were once the…

There’s just something about an OBS dually laid out on the ground that reminds you of a woman. Maybe it’s the curves of the wide fenders, but Maryann Graham fell in love with her 1993 GMC Sierra 3500. As the story goes, she almost lost it before she ever had a chance to build it. One afternoon after picking up her daughter from school, they were involved in a bad wreck that split a tree in half and came to a stop right before going over a cliff. Since Maryann owns a body shop, she began the rebuild process of the truck by replacing all the body panels destroyed in the wreck. Next on the list was to send the truck to Bill Shutter and Jerry Kiesler, so they could…

Tristan Pengelly has spent years blending and refining his creative art styles and love for custom car culture that began at the ripe age of 14 years old. By 15 he started rendering vehicles to show builders what their dream project could potentially look like, and at age 16 he had accomplished his first magazine entry in a Canadian local hot rod magazine and has been published numerous times since. Tristan Pengelly has always had an artistic background ever since he was little with creating artworks in many mediums. From pen and marker, charcoals, painting and sketching. But it wasn’t until he purchased his first computer that he started experimenting with photoshop thanks to his friend, Preston Johnson, who had done a rendering for his 1993 Chevy S10. It took…