Star Attraction — Laurie Williams’ Phat Cat Western Star

Laurie Williams has created a truck show star with his hardworking 2006 Western Star 4800 Constellation named Phat Cat.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by Warren Aitken and Chris Smith.

Australian Custom Trucks caught up with Laurie Williams at the Kilcoy Truck Show in Queensland earlier this year and persuaded him to take his 2006 Western Star 4800 Constellation, named Phat Cat, to the Melbourne International Truck Trailer and Equipment Show (ITTES) Show & Shine Event.

One look at Phat Cat and it was apparent it was a very special truck.

This truck has three appealing features, the paint job, the mirror finished stainless and the amount of lights it has.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t look over cooked at night as the opening and closing night shots taken by Warren Aitken clearly shows.

Not everyone has the same taste in custom vehicles, and that is expected. With Phat Cat one could easily disagree with the amount of lights or the amount of mirror finished stainless.

On the other hand, others may think the combination comes together extremely well.

The judges in Melbourne shared the later view and Phat Cat won the major prize, Truck of the Show at the ITTES!

Laurie got the majority of the custom work done through Rocklea Truck Electrical (RTE) based in Darra, situated in its new home just behind Brown and Hurley. He has done a bit himself as well.

As the owner of North Queensland Truck & Machinery Movements Laurie has been driving for 32 years starting out initially in a D Series Ford. He has built up a speciality business carting small trucks and machinery including excavators and Bobcats.

Phat Cat was originally a repossessed vehicle when he purchased it. It was four years old with 280,000 km on the clock.

It had been essentially stripped bare, they had taken the wheels off and even taken to the radiator with side cutters.

This left a blank canvas to work from which Laurie reckons gave him plenty of scope for his imagination to run wild.

“Everyone told me I was nuts but you get a picture in your head of what you want and you tell people to do it, some people don’t want to do it and other people will do it. That’s where Brock Macdonald from RTE is pretty good,” he says.

“If you go to Brock and you want something done out of the ordinary, then he’ll do it.

“Most places you go, if you want something done out of the ordinary it’s is hard to get done because they usually have a standard product and that’s it, there is no flexibility.”

Laurie concedes Brock probably thinks he is a pain in the rear but says he does what is asked of him and the results usually work out well and, “if it doesn’t work out, he just does it again.”

This has been the case over at least five years as the truck has sporadically visited RTE to have work done. Brock says there is nothing ordinary about this truck at all, and I tend to agree.

Out of everything that has been done Brock says wrapping the bumper has been the most challenging task. He says this is because of all the folds and rolls it has on it.

All the bar has been wrapped in mirror finished stainless steel with LED lights put on its chin.

Above this the bumper even the headlights have lights.

LED lights feature on the base of the headlight trims.

Lights have also been added to the grille via an LED light bar sitting under the Western Star bonnet emblem. Yet another set of lights sits on the mirrored stainless bug deflector.

The window stone guard also has two strips of lights.

Above the window sits an impressive visor.

Lights continue on the front and the back of the mirror finished stainless wrapped air intakes.

The exhaust stack shrouds have Phat Cat cut outs that are backlit, these lights have a remote control switch so that it can be lit any colour you want, even from outside the vehicle.

The mirrors have lights, and you guessed it, are wrapped in a mirror finished stainless.

All the fuel tanks have been wrapped in stainless and the original steps have all been polished up.

The deck plate is dead flat stainless rather than checker plate. It is more of a piece of art because Laurie doesn’t stand on it at all, he doesn’t want to scratch it.

The back of the cab looks very neat. The Viesa air-conditioning unit has been boxed and chromed and a water tank has been made in the same shape to provide symmetry on the back wall.

A chrome visor also sits on the back cabin window, it adds a lovely little touch.

The roof lights and safety lights are all amber. The party hat was on the truck originally and works well to keep the bugs off the machinery being carried. The airkit also has lights on the back of it to add…more light.

The wheel guards look very sexy. They are the bracketed type rather than the usual pole type to give the back end a sleek look and a streamlined finish.

The back light bar is both impressive and practical.

“We shift a lot of dog trailers and all sorts of trailers so I came up with this concept,” Laurie explains.

“I made the tow bar myself, then we got Brock to wrap it all. He told me I was nuts doing this,” he says.

He explains the deck plate lifts up so they can still get underneath to do what they need to do. It’s the same with the front deck plate. It gives Laurie access to the chassis.

“Once they actually did it and saw how it works, they were pretty impressed,” he says.

Even the turntable has stainless trim…which adds to the bling.

This is really a truck that looks so much better up close because of the paint work.

Laurie explains he wanted a clear over base for the chassis to match the body rather than 2 pack on the chassis.

“It looks so much better. It has so much more depth you can see yourself in the paint work,” he explains.

“You can’t see that with normal 2 pack, it’s just got a better finish.”

He says the paint work did cost a lot more money doing it this way but at the end of the day that’s what he wanted, and that’s what they did for him.

“The finish, especially with the graphics on, feels like glass to the touch. It has been clear coated and sanded back several times, especially when the artwork was done. If you rub your hand on the sign writing it feels like glass,” he describes the smoothness.

The name Phat Cat is derived from the 740hp Cat C15 engine it has in it. Although the plan is to amp it to 1000hp and by the time you read this it might have already happened!

Laurie says he blew up the engine in Emerald three year ago and he got it rebuilt in Brisbane through Dave’s Diesel Repair.

“He gave me the option 550hp standard again, 740hp or 1000hp,” he explains.

“Back then I was doing road-trains so I wanted to keep it reliable. But the motor is coming out of it because it’s leaking oil, Dave reckons it’s easier taking the motor out of it and fixing it. While that is going on we’ll change the cam so we can take it to 1000hp. It goes pretty good,” he says.

“I would like to thank Brock and Kim at RTE for doing all the bling for me and Phil and Kirsten from Advance Tech Auto Body Repairs for painting it for me,” Laurie concludes.

Rear Vision: where are they now?

Do you know where this truck is today, or have an update on its story? Tell ACT what happened next. We will verify current updates before adding them to the archive.