Here's the scenario: Halloween, a few years back. Tim, an employee of Mike Skenian, makes a comment off the cuff, "A classic truck would be a great promotional vehicle for the business...you know, landscaping, pickup trucks...come on." Being that Mike's company, Grasshopper's Landscaping, had a certain reputation to uphold, a rolling business card of sorts of this magnitude was a perfect idea-the seed was planted!
So, the search was on. The problem was, just "what" type of classic truck would serve the purpose of representing Mike's business sufficiently? A Chevy? As it turned out, nothing spoke "true classic" to Skenian quite like the clean lines of a '55 Ford F-100-and a custom one, at that.
Within a couple months, Mike and his wife, Pam, had found what they were looking for-an older restoration just waiting for a new lease on life. A few months later, after a trip to the F-100 SuperNationals, a "hot rod" game plan was put together, and the project went from a spare-time effort to a complete company collaboration. We're talking serious business, for folks who weren't even in the business of building custom trucks!
A year and a half later, the seed had been nurtured into a full-fledged baby grasshopper-and for a group of "green" grasshoppers, it was nothing to be ashamed of. Actually, the efforts of Mike and Pam, Tim Via, Ernie Monroe, and numerous friends, was worthy of a Top 50 honor at the very place that inspired Skenian to begin with, the annual F-100 SuperNationals (then held in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee). In between the regular landscaping routine, the team turned a stock F-100 into quite the modern-styled pickup, as you can see. From the Volare-equipped, four-linked chassis to the potent 460 FE, the stunning two-tone PPG paint to the stylish leather interior, this is definitely no ordinary grass hauler!
To step out of your element and turn and old truck into a cool landscaping business promo is one thing; to do so and get high praise from a community of classic truck builders/lovers is an impressive feat. Quite a nice ending to that initial scenario, wouldn't you say? We definitely would!