outhern Californian John Canepa is just your average professional pedal-pusher turned top-notch custom car builder—we all know the type, right? Rhetorically speaking, wrenching professionally (as well as riding) on downhill mountain bike teams and building custom cars/trucks equally at a professional level don’t normally go hand in hand. But in John’s case, that’s exactly the scenario.

Many moons ago (no pun intended), I met John at GT Bicycles when the whole retro beach cruiser craze started and Dyno had just released the Mooneyes 26-inch balloon tire model. Neither of us really knew it at the time that our paths would once again cross—this time in my four-wheeled world.

One day, John contacted me saying he’d just finished a full-custom build on his 1959 Chevy Apache. My initial reaction was probably not the most positive, as I’d imagined some flat black, hastily chopped truck with the obligatory red steelies and wide whites. But boy was I wrong!

Unbeknownst to me at the time, John was in the process of making a career move—and his Apache was to be his new calling card, as it were. As he recalls it, “I built this truck to grow my skill set and showcase my capabilities in an effort to attract solid clients to build cars for and further grow my [new] business.” Well, his rolling business card was nothing short of spectacular in not only my mind, but pretty much everyone fortunate enough to lay eyes on it—then and now.

As it turned out, the words “hastily” and “obligatory” were the furthest from my vocabulary, as without a single doubt John’s Fleetside was absolutely the finest, most well-executed, custom-built truck I’d ever seen. There was nothing about it that was overdone; to be honest, it was the subtlety that struck me the most. But in reality, the amount of work that went into creating this particular pickup is anything but subtle.

In an elaborate nutshell, here’s what “subtle” steps John took to create his calling card. First and foremost, the cab proper is typically where your line of sight is immediately directed, most notably for the gentlemanly 2-inch chop. But if you look even closer, you’ll see that not only were the factory eyebrows removed from above the windshield, John went one step further by leveling out the height of the door glass to match, omitted the driprails, and tapered the roofskin. Furthermore, the cowl vents have been filled, all sharp corners rounded, and the front fenders molded to the cab. It should go without mentioning that the grille is by no means stock—but it will be mentioned that John custom-built the entire front surround, hand-bent the tube grille, and welded the dual headlight bezels in place.

Taillights are frenched 1954 Buick, and the bed floor features quarter-sawn white oak planks (from Austin Hardwoods in Santa Ana, California), finished in the same cut-and-buff manner as the surrounding paint, with Mar-K stainless strips, bent/folded at the rear to conceal the seams. Along with a custom, molded rear roll pan, John facilitated a unique retractable cable-operated tailgate mechanism. The bed itself is completely molded, free of seams, and has even been extended forward and reshaped to match the cab profile. John finished off his underlying bodywork with an array of PPG materials, including the custom-mixed Mint Green dusted with white powder pearl. Color-matched 1954 Chevy Bel Air wheels have been treated to 1951 Oldsmobile full-disc hubcaps and wear Coker Classic 205/75R15 radial whitewalls.

Inside, although the one-off upholstery job by Sean “Fat Lucky’s” Johnstun speaks for itself (it truly is a work of art), John spent a considerable amount of time reworking various areas—from integrating a 1953 Chevy passenger car centerpiece to rounding the glovebox door corners, custom-building the Vintage Air Gen IV controls to hand-making all the pearl acrylic knobs. The steering wheel is courtesy of a 1959 Impala, while the shifter is a Gennie unit, the throttle pedal from Lokar, and the sound system—all hidden discretely thanks in no small part to Fat Lucky’s—is all Kicker Audio components.

Lastly, and by no means least, underhood and even further back under the cab and beneath the bed were not overlooked as many a traditional custom in the past has done. While the exterior sheetmetal was out for initial blasting, John went to it on the chassis, adding a 1978 Trans Am frontend (with McGaughy’s dropped spindles and Firestone ’bags) and 3.23-ratio rearend, also with ’bags controlled by an e-Level air management system. He did spend a bit more time situating the truck’s small-block—or rather, fabricating and facilitating the surrounding sheetmetal, as you probably have noticed by now.

As it turns out, John Canepa’s calling card seems to have done the trick. He’s now a full-time custom car builder, and among his jobs to date is the famous Barris-built Hocker 1940 Ford coupe he’s just now putting the finishing restoration touches on.