Last Call — PJ’s custom Freightliner FLB

PJ’s turns a rough Freightliner FLB into a striking yard truck and a showcase of its restoration skills.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by Chris Smith; additional photography by Dan Murphy.

Australian Custom Trucks recently spoke with Steve Lemon from PJ’s Custom Spray Painting and Nick Allez from PJ’s Custom Stainless about their latest creation fresh out of the stable, their yard truck a Freightliner FLB now known as “Last Call”.

“We were finding more and more that moving trailers around in our yard was becoming a difficult proposition. This was mainly due to wait times for a truck to come down and do it for us and then the associated costs that came along with that, we needed the flexibility to be able to do this in a minute’s notice and at no extra cost. So in 2011 we picked up the FLB to solve the issue, this in turn gave us the ability to transport trailers to and from manufacturers, thus greatly improving the service we were able to provide. On top of that we were also able to now pick up and deliver trailers requiring general repair and maintenance at no cost to the customer,” Steve and Nick explain.

When the FLB first came to PJ’s it was in pretty rough shape so its first point of call was to the truck repair section, PJ’s Truck Mechanical for the necessary drive-line repairs and a service. At this point it was put to work and was making an honest living but they’ve since carried out an in chassis engine re-build for a little freshen up and they say it now drives better than ever.

In Late 2014 after a think tank session the team at PJ’s decided that they needed a new way to advertise and what better way than with a truck that is out on the road most days of the week.

It was treated like any other job that comes through the doors at PJ’s, they applied the same rules to this as any other. 1. Establish what the truck needs to do its job. 2. Make it functional. 3. Come up with a theme. 4. Make it look cool.

They started the job by removing the party hat to lower the look of the truck, removing the existing left hand side fuel tank, manufacturing a replacement toolbox, re-located the batteries to the toolbox to clear the top of the chassis, de-cluttered around the exhaust and intake stacks, upgraded the tail light bar to heavy channel, front and rear walk plates and this is just where it started.

The cab was then repaired as necessary and all of the custom designed air brushing was then applied over a period of about four weeks.

Then came the final dress work in the form of a custom drop stainless sun visor, stainless louvred grille with woven mesh, alloy bumper, stainless wing trims, stainless exhaust shroud, step foot well inserts and replacement stainless lower grille section all of which was designed, manufactured and fitted in PJ’s Custom Stainless department.

Perhaps the most notable feature of this truck is the fact that while it is in your face and does make you stand up and take notice, it is still quite minimal in appearance. With the abandonment of excess lighting and unnecessary stainless, they have managed to add to the look of this truck through omission.

PJ’s have once again proved they are a true one stop truck resurrection specialist.

Although PJ’s is well known for its paint shop and custom stainless, it started off originally as a mechanical workshop 16 years ago.

“We saw in the market place a need to expand into other areas to offer our clientele more services which branched into new truck fit-ups, old truck restorations and repair work,” Steve and Nick explain.

“We do everything from chassis extensions and wheelbase modifications, adding additional axles, suspensions modifications, you name it there is really nothing we don’t cover in regards to trucks and customisation to general repair and maintenance.

“We have that engineering background as well so whenever we build something, or make something, we heavily incorporate the engineering side into it to ensure anything we do is going to last. We make sure we have the fundamental base knowledge of what we need there to make something that will last and that will stand that test of time.”

They say the move to the customisation side happened pretty slowly and that it was driven by not getting support from other companies they relied on for custom work for their customers.

They add the standard they were getting back also wasn’t meeting their expectations and neither was the turn-around time for the jobs.

“We saw an avenue there for us to take it a step further, be better and up the ante a bit. To provide that service to the customer because that is what they were screaming out for, somebody to fill that gap,” they explain.

They also say that it was a market with limited choices and that it was hard to get anything that was different done.

This is where PJ’s excel, they are willing to take on the more difficult requests.

“We get people and they want something special and it is no problem for us to do that, we don’t shy away from that. Basically we’ll make anything. If you need something made or if you need something specific done, we can definitely come up with some sort of solution.”

These solutions come in the shape of custom visors, guards, toolboxes and anything else that can be manufactured, engineered and installed.

PJ’s is constantly evolving and prides itself as being flexible and adaptable to market trends. It has many suppliers it works with and has strategically chosen not to focus on pushing individual brands, rather focusing on installing what its customers want.

“If they want us to install an auto lube system, it doesn’t matter what make of system they want, because there are a few on the market, we are not tied down to any one of them so we can supply and fit any of those systems and on the same token with air-conditioning we are fitting Ice Pack units as well as Eco Wind and Rigmaster, we are not tied down to any one of them but we have the ability to go through and fit all of them,” they say.

Having the flexibility, engineering knowledge and customising ability means no time is wasted when they build a truck up. The whole process from start to finish can be streamlined.

“Because we have the whole job in mind when we start it we can streamline a few things with the way we design and the way we put things together because we don’t have to worry about other people having to pull things back off to do something they need to do,” they explain.

“We can just do the whole job here so it all comes together the way it should,” they conclude.

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.