Saler Customs LLC in Aurora offers many options for owners who want to customize their vehicles. They sell aftermarket parts such as lift kits; bumpers; wheels and tires; headlights and taillights; coil, camber and bag kits; leveling kits/air bags.

They do custom work on about 40 to 50 vehicles a year in their shop on Makoutz Road in Aurora. The property that has been in her family for about 150 years and the building had previously been used as a machine shop and then a trucking company. They purchased the building and now it’s an aftermarket truck parts shop, she said.

“Originally, I wasn’t going to offer installs, but there is a huge demand for custom trucks up here that I didn’t realize. And it just kinda blew up into what we are now,” she said.

They try to provide a fast turnaround time because sometimes it’s the person’s only vehicle. “It’s their lifeline,” she said.

Saler Customs LLC in Aurora, Wis., offers aftermarket parts and installs for people looking to upgrade their vehicles. (Marguerite Lanthier/Daily News)

She credits Anderson and her father, John Saler, and grandmother Dorothy Saler with helping her achieve her dream. Since starting the business, she has been networking, talking to many people in the industry, building connections and getting in with huge companies.

“Now I work with some of the biggest lift kit companies in the world, like Stryker, Any Level — huge, huge brands — and I like to bring attention to some of the smaller guys, like Wabam, a Wisconsin-based detailing company.”

Her passion for big trucks was sparked when she built her first truck with Anderson when she was 16 — a 1976 Chevrolet K10.

“We pulled it out of the weeds at my buddy’s dad’s house and it was just rotted,” Anderson said.

“I just loved it. It gave me so much confidence,” she said. “I worked three jobs in high school just to pay for one. That’s all I wanted, was to have a big truck and I did this.”

Since that time she has had several different trucks. Her current vehicle is a decked-out 2024 GMC Denali with Fittipaldi Wheels, a pink-hued underframe, custom lighting, with a lot of little hidden details featuring their anchor logo.

They travel to truck shows across the Midwest every other weekend, where she has won many awards.

“I don’t think there has been a show we’ve gone to where we haven’t won something,” she said. “My truck is huge, but my truck is tiny when we go to a show, but it’s so detailed that we do well,” she said, adding the little girls at the shows love her truck.

“Some of these shows, there are people that put 300 grand in a truck,” Anderson said.

They were invited to go to the Specialty Equipment Market Association, or SEMA, trade show in Las Vegas. The SEMA Show is a trade-only event and not open to the general public, but it wasn’t in the budget this year.

On her 21st birthday this summer, they purchased a 1970 Chevy 10 pickup frame that they plan to work on next year to take to shows. It will have a 16-inch lift.

“I’m really trying to tap into big and crazy with that C-10,” she said.

During the day they work other jobs. She does inside sales at BOSS Snowplow and he is employed as a millwright at Louisiana Pacific in Sagola.

“We work our other jobs and come out here and work until 9 to 10 o’clock every night,” she said.

In the future she wants to turn it into more of an experience for customers, than just a service. She tried to build a couple of trucks before she started the business but found it difficult to find someone locally that could execute what she wanted and not try to talk her out of it, and at an affordable price.

“I want people to come here and know that I’m going to take care of them. I want them to know that their truck is in good hands,” she said. “A lot of people, like me, take pride in their trucks. It’s almost like an extension of yourself. I love that truck so much. It’s given me so much confidence and it’s connected me to so many people. And I want my customers to feel that, too. It’s fun and it’s our passion and we try to do everything we can to try to make sure the customer comes first. I want them to leave here happy, and I don’t want them to be remotely happy, I want them actually thrilled.”

Their mottos — “Don’t talk about it, be about it,” and “Small enough to hear your dreams, big enough to deliver” — help them achieive this.

To contact Saler Customs LLC, call 906-282-7527, go online to Salercustomsllc.com or find them on Facebook and Instagram.

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Marguerite Lanthier can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 85242, or mlanthier@ironmountaindailynews.com.