Pro Touring Pickup Perfection

• August 9, 2024
• Story By
  Mark Masker
• Photos By Tim Sutton

If there’s one thing the internet has taught me, it’s to be wary of Nigerian princes. If there’s a second thing it’s taught me, it’s that if you think something is cool, someone else probably does too. Because of this, Facebook groups, TikTok algorithms, and YouTube channels exist for pretty much everything. Justin Keith of Killer Performance learned this lesson firsthand by deciding to build out an OBS truck. The one you see here came out of that experience, too.

Popularity Explosion

“We started building this truck, for myself, on YouTube,” he said. Much like a burning warehouse full of fireworks, it blew up quickly: “It gained popularity fast. People started emailing me to do another one.” Then the orders started coming in. “All our trucks have been customer builds, and so far, we’ve done ten. It started organically with something I liked and turned out lots of people liked it too.” In fact, that first build may have led to the whole LT OBS craze. Now you’ll find a bunch of guys doing pro touring trucks. But when Justin built up that first truck, he was navigating uncharted waters. “We had to buy a whole bunch of one-offs. But now the aftermarket makes more options for us.”

While that may sound like a lot of time has passed from those early days, it’s only been about five years. Killer Performance started business in 2019. However, its crew has plenty of experience. Justin has been working on cars and trucks since 2002 with late model GM fare. His partner, Curtis, has decades of Ford experience on late model Corvettes, F-150s, and Mustangs. At one point they even had the world’s fastest sixth generation Camaro in the quarter mile. They love themselves some speed, but they also focus on building functional customs.

Modified Nostalgia

Now, for you kids just joining us OBS stands for Old Body Style. It refers to the blockier 1990s body types that trucks rocked prior to the NBS (yes, you guessed it, that stands New Body Style) spawned by the OEMs in the early 2000s. Lately, though, OBS truckery has seen a retro renaissance, with customizers modernizing them with performance upgrades, and morphing them into pro touring trucks. 

According to Justin, “I think what I like most is the feeling of back when they were popular when I was kid. My dad and grandpa had them. I also get that same old feel with the new vehicle tech, best of both worlds for me.”

Like we just said, all of the OBS truck builds Justin’s done since that first one, came from YouTube viewers. In this case, the owner wanted a restomodded 1993 GMC Sierra in a bronze paint with a lighter brown cockpit: “This bronze truck is the only one where we’ve done a complete paint and interior. It’s a one-off like that.”

Simple OBS Strategy

Killer Performance has a profile they use to find OBS trucks. They’ve got to be as stock as possible, with 50,000 miles or less. The idea is to have the cleanest possible slate for each build.

Dropping a bunch of 2020s upgrades into a 1993 truck isn’t exactly plug-n-play. It’s not like the OEMs sat around for three decades without changing things up. “Just figuring out how to make everything work like it came from the factory was tough. You research things, like working with new harnesses or getting a ten-speed transmission to work with the column shifter,” Justin said.

Upgraded from the Roof to the Tires

Nearly everything that wasn’t the body or the frame has been modernized for performance, from the 2019 supercharged GM 6.2L LT5 to the Nitto NT555 G2 tires: “For one thing, those tires look nice; we like to run drags on the back of the OBS’s. Those trucks run high horsepower, so we like the better grip that we get with Nitto Tires. They also handle well in all conditions, like in the rain.”

That YouTube video is still paying dividends for Killer Performance. Although they’ve knocked out ten OBS customs from it, they seem to be going stronger than ever. “We’re building one like the bronze Sierra that’s black instead. I have four full-time techs and one full-time fabricator, so the shop is always full. We have four big projects going on right now.”

Hard Facts