Mike Maciejack, owner, fabricator, and broom pusher at No Sin Customs has a story that is probably familiar to many of us. The hot rod hook was set seemingly at birth. Mike recalls his father being into cars and always having F-bodies throughout his childhood. “I came home from the hospital in a yellow ’76 Trans Am with a forged Pontiac 400 and a big ISKY cam,” Mike said. Although he wouldn’t take a deep dive into wrenching on vehicles until he was well into his teen years, Mike was into anything mechanical as far back as he can remember.

When I was 12 years old I was in the town paper for having a bicycle chop shop. — Mike Maciejack

Start Them Young

Fortunately, Mike’s passion for cars and trucks led him away from causing a ruckus with activities that were less than legal and instead guided him down the road to success. Mike began working on cars before he had a driver’s license when he was 15 and bought his first vehicle at 17. So began his never-ending automotive journey. It was a 1986 Chevrolet K10 that his dad bought new, and Mike received lots of on-the-job training while getting the K10 roadworthy again.

Although he spent time off-roading his K10, it wasn’t long before Mike discovered speed in the form of a 2001 Camaro SS. According to Mike, it was all downhill from there. He started building his first drag truck and he spent a couple of years working in a fabrication and chassis shop building altered-wheelbase Super Stock nostalgia drag cars and pro street cars. At the young age of 22, Mike struck out on his own and created No Sin Customs building custom cars and trucks.

No Sin Customs is run out of the shop Mike built in his spacious backyard. Ruckus and the square body drag truck Mike named Archangel are rolling billboards showing off his immense talent as a fabricator and builder.

From Junker To Carbon Fiber Jewel

Mike was initially drawn to going as fast as possible in a straight line, and he spent many nights at the now-closed Northstar Dragway in Denton, Texas, watching the King Of The Hill Outlaw 10.5 series. But his interests took a slight turn when he bought the 1987 R10 you see before you. Originally looking for a cheap parts truck that he could pull the bed off of for his son’s truck build, Mike came across the ’87 R10 on Craigslist in 2018. It was a long bed model and for $500 he couldn’t pass it up.

The old R10 now known as Ruckus became the No Sin Customs shop truck, with version 1.0 being built using leftover parts lying around the shop. Truth be told, Ruckus may have never transformed into what you see now if it weren’t for Mike’s good friend Jeff Martin. “One day, Jeff from Munssey Speed hit me up and said, ‘Hey let’s build a wide body,’ and I was like, ‘What the hell,'” Mike recalls. Now is a good time to mention that Jeff’s company, Munssey Speed, is a premier carbon fiber parts manufacturer specializing in various components for classic cars and trucks. When Jeff suggested building a wide body, he meant doing so entirely out of carbon fiber. This is the point at which Mike remembers Ruckus snowballing into its current version 2.0 state.

Mike’s carbon creation named Ruckus definitely grabs attention everywhere it goes. However, it may be hard to say which aspect people notice first, all of the carbon or the wide-body shape.

Projects Sometimes Snowball

To transform Ruckus from a rough shop truck to a shiny wide-body track terror, it received the complete No Sin Customs treatment. Mike first had to fabricate the wide-body fenders and bedsides out of steel. Once these parts were to his liking, he handed them off to Jeff to create molds for the carbon parts. While the truck was stripped down awaiting its new carbon body panels, Mike back-halved the frame and fabricated the roll cage inside the cab with support bars running into the bed area and the engine bay. The entire chassis and cage were then coated in bright white, while the cab and doors were painted gloss black.

The wide-body fenders and bedsides stand out to the eye but are well executed without being overdone or gaudy.

To give you an idea of how much lighter Ruckus is now, The only remaining parts of the body that are not carbon are the doors, grille, and cab. The bedsides, front fenders, tailgate, front bumper, and front splitter are all made of the lightweight stuff we like. The steel doors have been stripped down to get them as light as possible and feature lift-off hinges, and there is no bed floor, inner fenders, or hood. The interior is sparse as well, featuring two Racequip seats with five-point harnesses and a Holley Pro Dash LCD screen to keep an eye on the engine vitals.

With the truck about as light as he could get it, Mike turned his attention to increasing handling performance. The front end utilizes No Limit Engineering‘s Wide Ride IFS setup with Viking coilovers. The Wide Ride package allows Mike enough clearance to run 18×11 LT-III wheels from E-T Wheels with Falken Azenis RT615K+ 315-30R18 tires. In the rear, Mike utilizes trailing arms and QA1 coilovers with a custom panhard bar to keep things planted to the pavement. The rear of the truck rolls on the same 18×11 LT-III wheels and Falken 315-30R18 tires as the front.

How Ruckus Got Its Name

When it comes to powerplants in autocross you tend to see a wide variety of combinations. For Ruckus, Mike chose to go with an engine befitting the name of the truck. It is a naturally aspirated 434 cubic-inch monster built by Thompson Motorsports of Nevada, Texas. They started with an LSX block, and after the machining was complete they filled it with top-of-the-line components. A billet center-counter-weighted crankshaft from Dart, a set of Wiseco Boost Line connecting rods, and CP-Carillo pistons make up the rotating assembly. Thompson Motorsports then assembled a pair of Frankenstein Engine Dynamics LS3 M311 cylinder heads and bolted them to the block along with a CID 5.0 intake manifold to round out the long-block. 

An Accufab 5500 throttle body brings in the air while an Aeromotive 1000 fuel pump and Siemens Deka 60 lb/hr injectors feed the fuel to this beast. Spent gases are exhaled through Speedtech headers and 3-inch Glasspack mufflers. This combination is good for 700-plus crank horsepower on pump gas, and Mike installed a 150-horsepower nitrous system from Nitrous Express for times when a little extra oomph is needed.

Originally Mike built Ruckus with a TH400 three-speed automatic. Recently, he pulled the TH400 and installed a road race-prepped T56 manual transmission from Tick Performance. A new driveshaft was installed along with the T56 to get power back to the Winters Performance Quick Change rearend that houses 33-spline axles and a limited-slip differential. Mike says the gearset in the rearend differs depending on the track.

Mike decided to make a number of changes just weeks before the upcoming LS Fest East 2023 Grand Champion competition. We look forward to seeing how Ruckus performs with the new transmission and other upgrades.

Preparing For Battle

While Mike had the truck apart to install the new transmission, he decided to strip the whole thing down so he could repaint the frame. Then things snowballed again. He added big six-piston Baer brakes at all four corners, a new larger Holley Pro Dash to keep tabs on the Terminator X that runs the truck, and he added more aero by fabricating a giant rear wing that he mounted to the chassis.

Mike likes gold, so big Baer brakes in one of his favorite colors only makes sense.

Ruckus has competed in the Grand Champion class at LS Fest events in the past, but with the new Tick Performance T56, big Bear brakes, and additional aero, Mike is ready to attack the field at the upcoming LS Fest East event on September 8-10, 2023. This truck really shows off Mike’s talents and the level of build that comes out of his No Sin Customs shop. I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next, and if you ever attend an event and see Mike’s wide, low, and rowdy R10 be sure to check it out up close.