Photos By John O’Neill
In a world of copycats, the brave stand out from the
crowd. Currently, Chip Foose is the car guy we all hear
and see, in venues ranging from the TV show
Overhaulin’ to painting a racecar for NASCAR’s Jeff
Gordon and winning top honors at this year’s the
Grand National Roadster Show.
But jot down one name to follow in the coming years:
Robbie Azevedo.
How can we be so sure? Let’s start by telling you that
in January at the San Francisco Rod, Custom and
Motorcycle Show at the Cow Palace, Robbie debuted
his first original creation, something called ’48
Impression, in part as a tribute to his dad, John.
You see, the old man runs Pacific Auto Salvage, a 12-
acre junkyard holding 600 cars in American Canyon,
California—the same place that Robbie’s grandfather
founded in 1957—and Robbie’s dad loves ’48 Chevy
trucks.
“That was the type of truck he learned to drive on his
grandfather’s ranch,” says Robbie. “When his
grandfather died, he got the truck.”
Robbie, all of 22 years old, used to play in that
junkyard as a kid. He saw the cars with the fins, he saw
the cars with portholes and he dreamed the dreams of
all kids brought up in a family that loves the culture of
cars.
Like his brother, Willie, Robbie helped out at Pacific
Coast Salvage. He picked up skills along the way and
graduated with a perfect 4.0 grade point average from
high school. Then, after a brief journey to Denver to
work in a street rod shop, he returned home to do what
came naturally. Using a ’48 Chevy from his dad’s
collection of old Chevys as the foundation— he started
work on a special vehicle.
Now, remember this: Robbie was 19 when he got back
from Denver, and that’s when he opened his own shop,
Pacific Coast Customs, a few feet away from the
junkyard.
“Shortly after that,” says Robbie, “I found out that most
people don’t trust a 19-year-old kid with their pride and
joy, so to prove to everyone—including myself—that I
could do the job, I begged my dad to let me build the
truck (a blazer) that he’s always wanted. He agreed,
and gave me a 2003 S10 chassis to begin the project.”
Robbie started beavering away at what has turned out
to be a very important, award-winning truck. So far, it’s
captured the following trophies: At the Cow Palace it
picked up Best Truck, First Place in Class and
Outstanding Display; at the Grand National Roadster
Show it claimed First in Class and Best Truck; at the
Sacramento Autorama it won the Sam Barris Memorial
Award and the Manuel Arteche Memorial Award and
three other top awards; at the Forbidden Fantasy
Show in Perris, Calif., it took Best of Show out of 650
trucks, First in Class and Best Engine; and at the
California Truck Jam show in May, it was Best of Show
and First in Class. And, that’s just a few of the honors.
Right away, you can see that ’48 Impression doesn’t
look anything like a ’48 Chevy truck, but that’s
probably as much due to necessity as it is to creativity.
“The panel truck left much to be desired,” says Robbie,
“and after we sandblasted it, the only thing we utilized
were the rear quarter panels. Off came the top, for the
‘blazer’ theme. Then, to make the vehicle look
proportionate with a 108-inch wheelbase, I took 13
inches out of the length of the quarter panels. I added
four inches of that length back in the doors to make it
look better and also to make it easier getting in and out
of it.”
From that start you can see how it went. In the end,
Robbie made over 50 exterior modifications and it took
him 5,000 man hours and exactly two years to finish
the job.
In addition to the body mods, Robbie did a sterling job
on everything else as well. Let’s just check a few of the
items off for you right here.
The engine is a 2000 Camaro LS1 from Pacific Auto
Salvage. All the internals are stock, but it has a Magna
Charger polished blower on it and is estimated to
produce 480 horsepower at the rear wheels.
It wouldn’t be a cruiser without a stereo, and Robbie
used Kicker components wired with Scosche/EFX
products—all run through an Audiobahn deck
positioned under the passenger seat. Altogether, there’
s 5,000 watts or power.
While the truck looks like something from the past with
all those round surfaces, the computer kicks it
screaming into the present: Positioned between the
seats, it’s a highly modified Castle-Tek Systems unit
that does everything a computer does, with a media
center to store albums and movies/videos, plus it has a
DVD player and Internet access through T-Mobile.
Getting back to nuts and bolts, the suspension starts
with a highly modified 2003 Chevy S10 frame with
tubular front control arms and uses a modified KP
Components 6-link rear with a cantilever setup, all
supported by Slam Specialties air bags at the corners.
The wheels are Budnik M5 units, 20 inches in the front
and 22 out back wrapped in Dunlop SP Sport 9000
P245/35ZR-20 and 285/30ZR-22 rubber.
In today’s world, though, you don’t get noticed for the
underpinnings of a car or truck—and that’s where Joe
Iacono (who has a design company in Pleasanton)
comes in. “I chose two colors and told him the style I
wanted to start with, and from there he made up the
two-tone design with the name of the car,” says Robbie.
Robbie Azevedo now has himself one handsome ride,
but he didn’t do it all by himself, because his brother,
Willie—who originally taught him how to weld—was
right there along with his dad, John, and mother,
Shirley.
Of Willie, Robbie says, “He helped a lot in the
assembly of the truck, as well as wiring it, the engine
and the transmission. He’s three years older than me,
and he taught me a lot about working on cars when we
were growing up.” Part of that education involved drag-
racing Willie’s Tasca Ford Thunderbolt replica at
Infineon Raceway.
Now, running Pacific Coast Customs, Robbie finds
himself—like every young business owner—working
long hours. But, he takes inspiration from some key
people. “Chip (Foose) is good, but he’s at celebrity
status now, so he’s hard to talk to person to person. I
would have to say more of my influences would be Eric
Peratt from Pinkee’s Rod Shop; Tim Divers at Divers
Street Rods, Troy Trepanier at Rad Rides by Troy;
and Roger Burman at Lakeside Rods and Rides, would
be another.”
Still, there’s good old dad: “There are just tons of great
builders in this industry, but I look towards my Dad for
ideas on things—he’s always good for a radical idea,”
says Robbie.
Hustle and dogged perseverance were all required to
finish the ’48 Impression. “I kept cutting every panel
that I thought looked out of proportion or that needed
its shape changed,” says Robbie. “I didn’t build
anything on the vehicle to win awards, though. I built it
the way I thought it should be done. My perfect car is
one that has a ‘look’ that grabs your attention and
draws you in, but once it does, you need to do
everything to ‘keep’ the person’s attention, little details
that they keep noticing—things like the console, the
computer, the gauges, the steering wheel . . .. There
are people who have seen this truck four or five times
and are still seeing things they never saw before.”
Moving on, he had a new project, a ’32 woody. “I’ve
been working on that since high school, and being a
woody, it’s one of those very slow-moving projects. I
plan on having that done in about two or three years
from now. I may try for the America’s Most Beautiful
Roadster with it.”
But for now, take another look at ’48 Impressions—at
the curls, at the combination of old and new; the old
perhaps influenced by Robbie’s old man, and the new
generated by the kid’s ongoing quest to stride off into
the future—and see if you can prevent yourself from
making this most joyful of primitive sounds: Ahhhh!
