He Invented a New Shade of Purple for His Souped-Up Ford

My first one was a 1931 Ford roadster. I built a 1928 Ford Model A, an old-school hot rod. Then one day in 2016 a friend showed me this rat rod—which is a beat-up hot rod of sorts—built out of a 1952 Ford pickup. It was in rough shape. There was rust on every panel, the bed had no floor, the glass was in bad shape, the tailgate was welded shut, and the front wheels came off of some other random car. The doors had holes in them big enough that you could stick your hand right through.

I felt that the truck had good bones, however, so I bought it in May 2016 for $7,000. It was a little expensive because it was already chopped, meaning the roof had been lowered, and it had air-bag suspension so it could lower and raise itself.

I tinkered with it for eight months until I came up with a vision of what I wanted to do. I wanted it to be in your face, almost like something you would see in a comic book. My vision included purple paint. Everyone told me I was crazy—even my wife. I kept saying, “It’s going to be OK. Trust me.” I started stripping it down in 2017.

I had a friend helping me. We did most of the work after-hours at a body shop I was managing. In all, we put about two years and some 1,200 man-hours into it. We did all the bodywork. I built it so it could lay frame. What that means is I can lower the truck so the running boards sit on the ground. I like to say I would have lowered it further, but the ground got in the way.

I spent about 25 hours building the grille, and I used headlights from a 1956 Oldsmobile. When I got the truck, there was almost no interior except a rough dashboard and a steering column. I hired a guy to help me build an entirely new interior. The truck also has what you call dragging plates in the rear. I can lower the rear so the plates scrape the ground and grind sparks out of the back while I am driving.

For an engine, I bought a new 351 V-8 crate motor from Ford, and matched it to a Ford three-speed automatic transmission. It also has electronic fuel injection.

People don’t believe me when I say I did the paint job myself, but I had a friend take a photograph of me in the paint booth, so I have proof. The color has no name, because I created it. The truck has what you call a three-stage paint job. I started with a base purple, then added on top transparent blue and green pearl layers.

When I set out to build this truck, I wanted to create something unlike anything else you see in Albuquerque or anywhere else. I ended up naming it the Joker, because how could you call it anything else?

Write to A.J. Baime at [email protected]