This entire truck was built from start to finish in just under 90 days. Most people couldn't build a tricycle in 90 days, but Chris Wilkins and his company, Group 5 LTD, took a stock '06 Dodge MegaCab dualie, and made the truck that Dodge should've produced. Sure, it only took 90 days, but that doesn't mean that it was an easy build.
It started with an idea: To build a showcase truck for Dodge for the '06 Sema Show in Las Vegas. After a few meetings and a little bit of work, Chris took possession of a bone-stock '06 Dodge Ram MegaCab dualie. With a rendering in hand, the foundation was laid for the project. The truck was going to be low, lower than any MegaCab had ever been. Not only that, but it would have a NASCAR race truck-style theme with custom rockers and an aluminum wing. Then of course, something had to be done about the bed. For those of you who haven't been by a dealership recently, in 2006 Dodge decided to change the traditional dualie fenders on their heavy-duty trucks with a "throwback" style fender-flare look. In a word, those fenders are ... ugly. Chris needed to come up with a plan to change things.
One of the interesting things about Group 5 is that they're a licensed automobile manufacturer. That means, they can produce cars from scratch and even stamp their own vehicle identification numbers (VIN). After a lot of talk, Chris decided he would modify his stock bed to accept a set of the older-generation dualie fenders. On the surface, that seems like it's an easy task, but Dodge never produced a dualie that was a shortbed like his MegaCab. He debated doing a longbed conversion, but since he was showing the truck for Dodge at the Sema Show, he had to keep the truck the stock length and had to make it work.
With a production facility at his disposal, the bedside dilemma became a little easier to manage. Chris made the new bedsides from scratch, and even made a mold of the product so that later he could sell them. Chris molded the '05 style dualie fenders to a shortbed, but because of the differences in bed lengths, the new fenders hung down a bit low on the truck. To compensate, Chris extended the Sir Michaels roll pan to match the new fenders. He also made the stock taillights look like they were meant to be there with the new, wider rear-end. Chris also shaved off the door handles, antenna, and roof lights. To give the truck a racer look, the team fabricated a set of custom rockers that flare out from the side. It may not be obvious, but the truck had a full color change, too. The entire truck was painted at Earnhardt Autobody, where it received a custom hue called PPG Dark Charcoal Metallic.