Wicked: Vic Attard’s custom Kenworth K200

Words: Chris Smith · Photography: Toast Graphics

When Vic Attard first had it in his mind to create a special show truck his ideas were turned upside down when he first stepped into a Kenworth K200 big cab and knew that this would be the truck for him. After months of customisation “Wicked” was born and Australian Custom Trucks has the story.

At 60 Vic Attard has seen the transport industry through all its ups and downs. He started at 18 driving an AV International doing a Sydney to Canberra run and later he owned a B-Model Mack, running the old Hume from Sydney to Melbourne. But it was his admiration for the Grey Ghosts, the first cabover Kenworths, which has influenced his trucking orientation for the last four decades.

He has travelled all over Australia doing whatever needed to be done from fridge work, general freight and heavy haulage work.

“Like everyone in that era we used to dibble in everything,” he tells Australian Custom Trucks. “Through the 40 years we’ve had to be versatile and float from one segment to the other.”

Today he runs three trucks and hauls for some of the biggest names in transport. “We have tautliners, B-double dropdeck mezzanine floors and we do 90 percent local work for most of our customers,” he says.

“When the customer can’t cover the work themselves that’s when they contact us and that’s when we cover their B-double mezzanine work.” Vic has built a reputation founded on reliability and giving his customers the best service possible. Along with the attention to detail to the job, Vic also takes pride in the appearance of his fleet of three trucks and 11 trailers.

He has always customised his trucks. He prefers to give his trucks murals and themes that stand out from the crowd rather than doing what he sees most doing, the seemingly standard, one solid colour and some bling.

He says however, he doesn’t customise his trucks to gain more work or just to look good, it’s all about one thing, his personal pride.

“There is always someone there to do the job cheaper than you so having a nice vehicle rarely brings on a monetary gain,” Vic tells ACT. “I believe it’s solely personal pride that’s the gain of having a truck of this style.”

If you run through Sydney you may have seen his 10 year old orange candy apple coloured Elvis truck that’s adorned with the legends of yesteryear the “Rat Pack” including Ol’ Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior, Dean Martin and the rest. With his latest creation a fat cab K200 aptly named “Wicked” he has created a rolling artwork both on the outside of the truck and internally.

Vic says his dream show truck was not originally intended to be a Kenworth and he was planning a Peterbilt truck unlike anything else ever seen. They had penned what they wanted the truck to be like with American Truckworks in Adelaide however…

“What happened was the missus (Sue) and I pulled into Kenworth to pick up some parts, and the first of the K200s was there on the lot. I opened the door and climbed inside what was the first of the flat floor Kenworths,” he says.

“It was a completely different concept. We’d been running with Kenworth for 40 years and this was the first Kenworth we could say this is definitely different.”

However, Vic maintains although it was different: “It was still the Kenworth that we grew up with but they’d raised the cab, lowered the floor and made a walk around interior and I still haven’t seen a European truck of this calibre,” he affirms.

This was the stretch cab version which totally blew him away and after 10 minutes sitting in the cab he was convinced he could do more with the K200 than he could with a Peterbilt. He bought the truck on the spot.

The first stop from the dealership was to the painter. In this instance the painter was the legendary Wayne Harrison, the Principal of Advanced Airbrush based in Penrith, NSW.

“I had several meetings with Wayne and he asked me what style I wanted. I said that we were definitely going to do a theme that flowed from the front to the rear,” Vic recalls.

“I told him the colours black, blue and silver and he came up with the gothic blade. I asked him if he could incorporate the trucks into the gothic theme and I told him the Grey Ghost would have to be there and the K104 put on the passengers’ side. We blended in the more American styled trucks on the back and it all came together.” After the truck was stripped back it stayed with Advanced Airbrush for three months while Wayne weaved his magic.

After the initial paint it went to Andrew Heathcote at A & I Custom Chrome & Accessories, a division of A & I Autogroup. This would be the first of two visits.

“The first stint at A & I was the major one this included a hand styled sun visor, one that they have never made before,” Vic explains.

In this stage A & I fitted the bull bar supplied by Bar Up Bullbars from Wagga Wagga and they put the T-bar with the skulls and the guards on the rear. They replaced the standard Kenworth wings with their own custom wings and after two months of intense customisation the truck was on the road.

“We were lucky enough to have three other trucks working on the road and we had always intended for this to be a project that would take a while to do,” Vic admits. “The intention was when it hit the road it would be a project truck that not many had done before, especially in Sydney.”

For its second stint at A & I they removed the fuel tanks for wrapping however Vic decided to paint the tanks instead. The tanks were painted at Wales Truck Repair to be similar to the rest of the truck.

“After the artist painted the tanks Wales cleared the tanks and placed it in their oven,” he explains. “We also completed the back of the truck so there wasn’t any exposed area, we painted more and we did a lot more stainless.”

Part of this process was to fuse the metal guards together and lower them to the ground to give Wicked more of a hotrod look at the back.

Vic says it is very similar to what the Americans do in fibre glass but they reproduced that in metal. The original Kenworth exhaust was replaced by a massive 10” exhaust pipe, which as Vic says is pretty out there.

The first visit also incorporated the internal alterations, the fitment of the TV, DVD player and the microwave.

The doors, fuel tanks, the wrapping of the dash and the transformation of the inside of the cab was done on the second visit to A & I.

Alligator skin was used extensively in the interior, through the door trims and the dashboard area. It combined well with the cream upholstery.

The door trims were made with a combination of aluminium as well as the alligator skin to give it a raised look and feel.

“We had the aluminium pressed so we had protruding areas on the door trim. We painted the interior to match the exterior, with the gothic look,” he says.

“One section was a skull head and we incorporated the lights that were in the door to be the skull eyes, so instead of just seeing a door trim you see a skull peering at you.”

The finishing in the interior is exquisite.

It’s got a pearl steering wheel and dashboard wrapped in a material that when any sunlight hits it, it sparkles.

Even the internal cupboard is adorned with a mural.

Now when the truck stops there are always people wanting to take photos. Vic says if they are that keen on taking photos of the outside of the truck then he’s more than happy to open the door of Wicked.

“I say have a look at this and then I open up the door and their jaws drop and they say oh my god,” he says.

“The unique interior just continues from the door trim, follows the dashboard and goes into the truck.

“That’s the pleasure I get, opening the door and letting people have a look inside,” he says with a smile.

However he is very particular about his truck and understandably gets a bit nervous when forkies are unloading and loading. He says if something does happen, as it did recently, it’s not in his nature to take the truck out damaged and so it’s straight to the shop to get fixed.

“Loading and unloading the truck can be nightmarish; forklifts are prone to do some damage so you have to be vigilant. However if damage occurs you have to take it on the chin,” he says pragmatically.

Rear Vision: where are they now?

Do you know where this truck is today, or have an update on its story? We would love to hear from its owners, drivers or anyone who helped build it.