Why This Kenworth Semi Is Known As The World's Most Modified Truck

In the world of automobile customization, people can spend thousands of dollars overhauling their vehicle with all manner of flourishes to make it stand out from anything else on the road. That can include massive exterior overhauls and major under-the-hood upgrades that can transform a vehicle from bumper-to-bumper, with such vehicles regularly being featured on MTV's beloved reality series "Pimp My Ride" during its heyday.

As wildly entertaining as that series frequently was, it did not feature much in the way of customized semi trucks. But these days, some customizers are having a grand time tricking out those highway-hauling behemoths with eye-popping work beyond even the wildest dreams of customization legend George Barris. If ever there were a semi truck that deserved a small-screen closeup via "Pimp My Ride" or the now-defunct "Diesel Brothers," it's the 2000 Kenworth W900 L that was customized by Raul and Roland Mendez at Texas Chrome in San Antonio, Texas.

The highly customized show vehicle has been referred to by some as the most customized semi in the world. In fact, according to Roland Mendez, from front to rear, the incredible truck features about 90% custom work, leaving little of the original Kenworth intact. That was, apparently, just the idea, with Raul noting in a 2019 edition of Ridiculous Rides that the customization was undertaken specifically to put their fellow customizers on notice that "we're the ones to beat."

The converted Kenworth semi truck no doubt caught the attention of the Mendez brothers' contemporaries when they debuted it. As Roland told Ridiculous Rides, the customization took about a year and a half to complete. The work cost a pretty penny, too, with the Texas Chrome team sinking somewhere between $150,000 to $180,000 into the truck's ground-up conversion.

As for the work itself, well, you can really see where the Mendez brothers spent the money in overhauling the Kenworth W900 L, which has since been affectionately renamed "The Kenworth TOC." On the exterior, one of the first things you'll notice is the truck's custom chrome work, with the engraved material adorning everything from the vehicle's polished aluminum wheels to the customized stacks and front grill. Then there's the truck's astonishingly detailed paint job, which Raul claims took several weeks to complete. And as you can see in the picture, the Mendezes also went all out in lighting the vehicle's exterior and undercarriage.

One of the few original elements that remained in the truck was the dash display, though the Mendezes touched up even that with a series of custom switches of their own design. There's also a shoulder-high chrome gear shift installed in the cabin, as well as a high-end stereo system consisting of 38 speakers and woofers. If you're curious about the engine, the brothers took it apart and reassembled it, giving each piece a custom paint and chrome job and turbo-charging it to produce as much as 750 horsepower, leaving Raul to proclaim it "the baddest truck ever built."