Pride & Polish-winning 'Bandit' W900L: New floor and more mods add to the trophy case

Regular readers and/or Overdrive Radio podcast listeners will recall Oakley Trucking-leased owner-operator John McCormick's winning rig in our 2022 Pride & Polish competition -- the "Bandit" W900L, so named in part for its classic Smokey & the Bandit paint scheme. Today, get a little window into plans for the interior he told me about on our run last fall come to fruition, with good results. 

McCormick took home a second place trophy at the Mid-America Trucking Show in the working-truck category for Interiors, Cab Only. The trophy's shown here by the expertly gold-lettered driver-side steer in the final hours of the PKY Truck Beauty Championship there a couple weekends back.When I ran with him last fall, he mentioned a Rockwood floor he'd purchased that was with the painter who'd done his tandem full fender paint work for a finishing. The painter kept things simple for the cab floor, ultimately, and definitely stayed with the Bandit's principal theme. 

On the driver side, this legend calls up a lyric from the Jerry Reed hit "Eastbound and Down" made famous in part by the movie.

And as shown looking down from above, the passenger-side floor's legend finishes that lyric.

Between the seats, then, just back from the shifter base, the rig's moniker, "Bandit."The new floor completes the cab customization McCormick's done, with plenty of chrome accents around dash gauges, and more detailed in prior coverage of the rig. 

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Here's the dash as it was at MATS, from the passenger side of the interior.

The floor's not the only modification McCormick's made since last fall -- he's added an auxiliary power unit, too, the HP 2000 from Parks Industries; as well as additional ground effects and other lights to the trailer you can see in the following picture, taken by my colleague Matt Cole during the Thursday-night lights competition at MATS.

The Bandit combo lit up for lights competition.

Paint detail inside the rims on Centramatic balancers on drive and steer axles, too, done just before the show when McCormick finally took delivery of long-sought low-pro 24.5 tires and installed them, was nicely complemented by the expert gold lettering on those tires done just for the show. 

The gold shines through the wheels in this picture of the drives.

The added color really pops in the sun, as shown.

[Related: Rumors of the death of the 24.5 tire have been greatly exaggerated]

All in all, nice to see a plan come together in spectacular form. Here's the total package in the full light of the final day of the show. 

Here's a personal congrats to McCormick on the Interior category placement. For the full list of winners from the PKY Truck Beauty Championship at MATS, follow this link.