The Red Truck story

This 1992 Red & White Peterbilt has a wonderful story to it.  A retired vet came to visit his family in South Texas. As he drove past our shop he saw an old yellow Peterbilt without a sleeper. He stopped to talk to Jorge for a few hours.  Jorge, who is the owner at US 281 Truck & Trailer Services, Edinburg and also takes care of truck sales, said he was going to make this truck for a special truck driver. Jorge had ordered a small show sleeper for this Peterbilt.  Trucks spend at times several months before they are checked mechanically, painted with custom paint job, and completely detailed to pass DOT.

In March of 2018 Mr. Mc Lambrook left a down payment to hold this truck.  He sent us a picture of this truck paint job, his father had driven a Peterbilt for many years for a company in Indiana with this custom paint job.  We wanted to get this paint job perfect. We got a small sleeper installed. Our painters are so gifted that they can bring a photo paint job to real life.  

Many people don't know how long every single step takes. Work at every layer has to be done to the tee. If not, your paint starts peeling off.  Remove decays, start sanding down paint to get to base. Our painter start with 80, 180, 320 grit sandpaper. This step can take from 8 to 30 hours, depending on whether the vehicle is a daycab or a Freightliner Century that have lots of extra skirting. Some tanker trailers take on average from 30 to 60 hours, from start to finish.  

If repairs need to be made, we start with red putty to see if surface has pores. A special lite filler is applied to repair any pores in the surface.  We use a Fusor T21 glue for all fiberglass repair. This product is a top of the line adhesive for trucking industry. We have used it for many years and it's expensive but totally worth every dollar.  Our painter has an array of paint material.

We stock thousands of parts and materials to paint and detail any commercial vehicles.  Fiberglass is installed on parts that are small and can get detailed to last for years to come.

After all fiberglass repairs are complete. Now we can start tape and covering with paper. Then we apply a wax and grease remover.  Primer is mixed with a hardener to paint and dry overnight. After a primer coat, painter can see all details that need to get detailed before actual paint.  Usually this takes another 4 to 8 hours before base paint can get applied.

We stock reducer and thinner for each application. Once all details are ready, we paint base color.  We usually paint most commercial vehicle one color but once in a while we will get a customer that wants several colors.  Our most detailed have been 3 base colors with a pearl clear coat. This project took over 80 hours to complete. We often have Peterbilt owners paint fender a strong color to add flare to a truck.  After paint dries for a day we wet dry sand it to remove any imperfections. We use the best product like 3M, Dupli-Color, and many more. After paint job on cab is completed. We detail frame to black or custom color and get all Aluminum buffed out to shine like new.

One of our pride and joy is seeing our customers over the years with their truck and trailers that we painted here at our shop.  By the end of July this truck completed and sold. Customer stop by on the beginning of October with his Peterbilt all clean and shinning for an oil change.  Hopefully soon we can get a picture of this beauty in front of our new red shop.