companies, Mike got paid in U.S. dollars, so after the exchange rate was factored in, he was making really good money. Doing “just in time” delivery to the assembly plant, Mike and his drivers could not be late. In fact, if the assembly line had to be stopped because Mike or one of his drivers was late, he was told he would be charged $5,000 for every minute the line was shut down! Needless to say, it almost happened once, but thankfully it never did. Powered by a Cummins 444 engine, which at the time was considered to be a powerhouse, the driver named the International Eagle “Big Bear” because it was powerful like a bear when climbing the hills. Later, on a local run in the International, one of his other drivers let the oil go dry and blew up that Cummins 444 engine, so Mike towed it back to the shop and stuck it in the corner, where it sat for a while. Enter Dennis Bradbury of Cincinnati, OH. Dennis was an owner operator that started parking in Mike’s yard when he was up there, and he had a black Peterbilt show truck called Star Cruiser. Dennis saw the International parked in the corner and told Mike he should fix it up and take it to some shows. Mike’s response was something like, “That 13-letter #@*! spreader? It ain’t worth 10 cents!!” But Dennis was able to talk him into it, so Mike started working on the truck, doing almost all the work himself. At first, he had a local mechanic named Jay Sterling rebuild the engine, then Mike painted the entire truck a dark purple color. Mike had another friend who worked at International and was able to get him all sorts of brand-new parts and accessories for the truck. Always pushing the envelope and very creative, Mike made plexiglass panels and then glued them to the frame to hide the rust. They made the frame look beautiful! Dennis told him how to clean the truck and get it ready to be judged, and Mike did so good, he surprisingly got a 3rd place trophy at his first show in 1999 – and that lit the wick. Over the next three years or so, Mike made many changes to the truck and won many awards, included being featured on a Shell SuperRigs calendar. Back in the day, that was the pinnacle of success for a truck on the show circuit. At some point, Mike removed the sleeper and plugged the hole, making it a daycab, completely re-did the interior in purple, and then added dark metallic red ghost flames to the sides of the hood. Meeting photojournalist Bette Garber at one of the shows, she apologized to Mike for not being able to get those ghost flames to show up in her pictures, to which Mike replied, “Don’t worry, you’ll see them next time!” At the next show, his hood was covered with bright metallic violet flames that could not be missed on top of those ghost flames, that were still peeking out from behind, as well. Most of what Mike did was a reaction to something that happened or something he saw at a truck show. Case in point – the engine. After losing that class to a fellow competitor named Neil Holsomback, Mike looked at Neil’s engine and thought, “I can do better than that!” Once he got the truck home, he pulled the engine, painted it purple, polished the turbo, and then covered the entire motor and engine compartment with chrome and polished pieces, pinstriping, and lights. He even lined the underside of the front fenders with plexiglass panels with flames and mounted eight purple watermelon lights, four on each side, under there, too. And guess what, he started winning trophies for his engine. Remember, Mike was doing all this in the late 90s and very early 2000s, and he was doing it to an International Eagle, which nobody made custom accessories for. At a time when wood floors were getting popular, Mike installed a 5/8” thick plexiglass floor with flames underneath, and then surrounded the edges with purple neon tubes, that shined through the thick plexiglass and lit it up. He also modified chrome KW bezels to fit around all the gauges on his dash, modified and replaced the stock switches with toggle switches out of a Peterbilt, and painted and pinstriped everything, including the ends of the doors (I don’t think I’ve ever seen that). Working closely with Bernie, the son of the man who started Dieter’s Accessories back in 1976 in Canada, Mike would design something for his truck and Bernie would make it. Bernie even offered him a job once or twice, but Mike never took him up on the offer. All the custom 10-4 Magazine / September 2025 11
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