Richard’s interest in a vast range of cars stems from his hot-rodding father, as he explains: “My dad grew up in the 1950s next door to Art Chrisman and lived very close to George Barris’ shop. While he did his fair share of drag racing at the Santa Ana Dragstrip, his true love was dirt track racing, ultimately building a beautiful Sprint Car. After his racing days were over, he moved onto dune buggies and ultimately embraced four-wheeling in a 1970 Bronco.”

As a young car junky, Richard first began wrenching on a ’64 Chevy Impala at age 15 and has remained faithful to the Bowtie brand ever since, owning a range of models from 1937-58. His ’58 became his first ground-up project car, which led him to meet and forge a lifelong friendship with artist Steve Stanford, who had a nearly identical 1958 Biscayne. Through the years, his tastes gravitated toward cars that were essentially stock, restored but low, very low. It was only natural that he would move into the world of “bomb” lowriders. He even helped form a respected lowrider club called the HB Gabachos.

Through the years, Richard never owned a truck, yet he always admired a handful of them—starting with Eddie Tovar’s amazing and multiple show–winning 1954 Chevy. “I first saw it at an event at the Felix Chevrolet dealership in about 2008,” he adds. “It easily won Best of Show that day and I remember being knocked out by the level of detail.” Richard was especially drawn to the pickup’s color, not from the old Volkswagen palette as he thought, but a rarely chosen 1954 Chevy truck hue called Coppertone. At the time, the vehicle remained almost entirely stock inside and out, while featuring a handful of unique particulars: 1954 Bel Air wheel covers, Appleton spotlights, an industrial step bumper on the back, and so on. The bed additionally welcomed a well-built box that housed part of the hydraulic suspension system. Richard later learned that Tovar created it as a “tribute truck” to resemble the one his grandfather had bought new in 1954; it even had the same distinctive rear bumper.

Fast-forward to 2017, when Richard got word that Tovar’s truck was sold to a mutual friend. The latter happened to have a strong interest in Richard’s 1937 “Slantback,” trunkless sedan. The two pals therefore exchanged cars, and the ’54 soon made its way to Richard’s garage. What now? “It was definitely ‘Eddie Tovar’s truck,’ but I knew I wanted to make it my own in some way,” Richard concedes. He thereby performed several changes, starting with “artillery-style” wheels from The Wheelsmith capped with 6.70-15 Firestones blackwall rubber, complemented by a handful of vintage “work truck” accessories. The ’54 Chevy soon had a whole new life. Even Tovar loved it, as it looked close to the way his grandfather had it back in the day.

However, Richard soon realized that the black wheels made it difficult to photograph. This led to his hauler’s “Version Two,” which involved removing the work truck items, mounting 1954 Bel Air wheel covers, and flipping the same 6.70-15 tires to show the whitewalls. In this form, it debuted at the 2018 Goodguys Del Mar event and took the Best Chevy Truck award, “which to this day is one of my proudest accomplishments with the vehicle,” he comments. More changes came later, in the shape of desirable, fully restored 1957 Cadillac wheel covers.

While all these alterations were ongoing, his dad brought up the idea of installing a set of Halibrand wheels just like his old Sprint Car. The idea sat in the back of Richard’s mind as he remembered some of the push trucks at Ascot’s dirt track. Several of his hot rod idols who had perfected the stance on their project also served as inspiration, from Pete and Jake and Fat Jack Robinson to Barry Lobeck and Ryan Reed. Sadly, Richard lost his father in 2019, and his death somewhat prompted the idea of adding Halibrand-style wheels. He acquired a couple of sets from Real Rodders and American Rebel and started the process of installing them.