Beginning with a Chevy

A CUSTOM SHOP ISN'T FOR THE WEAK.

- BRANDON BURRELL

It requires a drive to succeed and the passion to create rolling art. Our friend Chris Stafford over at Stafford's Garage had been building and modifying vehicles in his spare time for a while but recently decided to take on the adventure of going full-time with it.

Luckily, he had already lined up a 1957 Chevy 3100 pickup to fully revamp and knew it would be a good first vehicle to come out of the shop. This would be just the beginning of what's to come, hence the truck's name—Genesis.

This truck belongs to Odie Hughes from Bogalusa, Louisiana, and Odie was excited to have his truck be the flagship for what will be a long line of custom vehicles to come out of Stafford's Garage.

Stepping back three years, Odie dropped the truck off with Chris for what would be one heck of a transformation. He had a 1957 Chevy truck before he and his wife Deborah had children, and after retiring, his wife told him to build the truck he always wanted.

So, teaming up with Stafford’s Garage to showcase Chris’s talent was an easy choice for Odie. The first thing to do was to line out a game plan to ensure the finished product would not only be a fun drivable truck but to serve as a high-caliber example to set the bar for the shop and make a statement on the show circuit. Odie trusted the vision Chris had for the truck, which was to blend both off-road and hot-rod styling to create a clean classic pickup.