Banning

Dave Walton · Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 19

I've been to Banning (CA), and it's basically a hole from what I could see.

Several years ago Julia had a heavily-lowered GMC stepside truck. The truck was a basic green augmented with hot pink swirls, bursts and stripes. On the back gate there were twin Betty Boops with crossed pistols (Yosemite Sam style).Sounds gauche but this truck actually rocked.

Oh and did I mention, it had silver running boards with about 5" of clearance. That's five inches.

The guy that did all that customization had his shop in Banning. He came up to the Orange County dealership where Julia purchased the vehicle (car dealer lingo) to do the work initially, but if we needed him for anything after that, we had to go to him and that meant a trip to Banning.

So after having the truck about two days we came out of the McDonalds next to the Holiday Inn on Bristol, turning north (left) on Bristol and there's just the smallest little dip if you cut the corner a little close, which you might do if you were trying to make the green left turn light which comes on maybe every six minutes or so and you'd gotten a late jump...

She heard it scrape ever so slightly. The right running board. I didn't think I heard it but allowed it was possible so we immediately pulled over as soon as we'd crossed the bridge over the 405 and got out and inspected the damage. Barely perceptible. But it was there. And that meant a trip to Banning. It was the first of many.

The running boards got scraped every couple of weeks or so. After several of these it was decided to raise the truck just a little. That was done. Later, it was decided to lower it back to where it was before, but just be really, really careful. Etc...

Someone keyed the truck once. Another time, a small rock flew up from the freeway and chipped the pink. Etc.

Our customizer man did very well for himself indeed. No expense was spared. He quoted a price and we paid whatever, because we didn't want to insult him or upset him - we wanted him to be happy and serene so that he could execute his craft, and inspired so that he could create his art. He earned enough to help finance a move to Hemet, which I was told is a step up from Banning.

Later I checked that out and believe me, it is a fine distinction...