Online Customizing

Online truck buying is not what you might think. Bits and bytes travel at the speed of light as you bid on the truck of your dreams. You watch intently as the other players of the auction bid mercifully against you. Don't they realize what they're doing? A few more keystrokes have you in the lead. You decide to get a frosty cold one from the kitchen, and when you get back to the computer, wouldn't you know it, you got bumped again. The game of cat and mouse is on. This is only for the truck; you still have to bid on the parts.

We recently had the opportunity to join the Editors Charity Challenge, presented by eBay Motors, for a deal that would have us actually purchase and customize a truck from the web. Did you ever think you could get enough cool parts online to actually customize a truck? We were slightly skeptical at first, but a little bit of positive thinking and a quick rundown on parts available had us on our way. A couple of clicks here and there had us surfing the online super highway in no time at all. As part of the Custom Street Truck Team, and we were tasked with the actual building, planning, and buying of the online products.

Here's a little heads up with what we're doing. eBay Motors set up a couple of limitations to make this a somewhat realistic project. We started with a workable budget of $25,000. Of that amount, 75 percent has to be spent on eBay Motors and the rest is available to spend offline for items you can't possibly buy online such as paint and fabrication. We are allowed a limit of five gifts. Basically, we are allowed to have five freebies, worth no more than $500 retail value, and we are not allowed to receive more than one per brand name. There is no limitation set on labor and services. What that means is we can buy parts online, and if someone volunteers to install them for free, no harm no foul. The way the program is set up is really about what it would be like for you as a reader to have $25,000 and a will to build a sweet show-winning custom.

We had to log in some time in cyberspace and be on the lookout for the right truck to bid on. eBay Motors hooked up a username and password, so we could be on the road to bidding stardom. The first truck we ran into was actually an ex-cover truck. Some of you might remember the Massey Chevrolet giveaway truck that graced the cover of Truckin' in Dec. '96. We actually thought it would be cool to get that and do some updating work, but the truck was located on the East Coast, and we know how winters are there, so onward with the bidding. One of the obstacles associated with the truck purchase was the distance factor. eBay did not allow for the money to be used for transportation costs to get the vehicle. OK, so something close to home was now part of the equation. Eureka! Lots of trucks are located on the West Coast. Keep in mind, we were allowed to buy a truck in any state of customization that we saw fit. What would you do? Buy a truck that has some work done to it already and use the money to improve it, or start out stock and build it your way but not make it overly custom?