Hot August Nights began in Reno in 1986 as a 1950s and ’60s nostalgia event, a way to “fill the void in tourism in Reno during the month of August,” according to its website. From the start the car parade that was the highlight of the event.

Now it has grown into a six-day event that brings enthusiasts from around the country, many as spectators and many to show off their classics and customs at “Show-N-Shine” events.

It’s a pretty big deal — especially for Calvin Fisk, a Benician who first restored his 1953 Ford pickup truck in his garage in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and who this year won the event’s coveted Best of the Best in Show award — beating out vehicles with builds that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Fisk and his wife Janice have been bringing the truck to Hot August Nights every year for the past six years after its most recent rebuild, and about 10 years before that.

This year Fisk entered his truck in the Summit Racing Equipment’s Downtown Reno Show N Shine, one of several are put on over the course of the event, which this year ran Aug. 4-9. A daily Best of Show was awarded, and those winning vehicles were pitted against each other for a “Best of the Best in Show” award.

“We’re just nobodies,” Fisk said. “The crowd was for us. It came down to five finalists, then it came down to two, and we were one of them. And we won.

“Can you imagine, just average people, going up against big-time cars?”

It’s not like Fisk’s pickup, known as “POPS 53” for its license plate, hasn’t been recognized for its beauty. It has graced the sidewalk across from Sailor Jack’s during the annual Benicia Car Show, and won that competition’s Best of Show award in 2013. It also won the PPG Dream Car award at the GoodGuys West Coast Nationals in 2012.

“It’s won at Sacramento Autorama, and it’s been all the way to New Orleans,” Fisk said. “I got paid to take it on a show circuit.”

Fisk acquired the truck in 1986 when his youngest son, Brad, wanted a hot rod truck. “We bought two old trucks. We bought some books and all that, he wanted a chop top. He worked with me for two years. Chopped it, frame-off, welded in the Chevelle front-clip,” he said.

Fisk and his son did a cab-off restoration from the frame up on his truck. “He helped me for two years, and even picked the color,” Fisk said.

When Brad turned 16 he decided he didn’t want the truck anymore, preferring to purchase his brother Scott’s Trans Am. So Fisk and Janice finished building the truck. “We already had a hot rod,” he said.

The truck has a 4-inch chop on the cab, and the running gear from a Chevelle. All of it was done in Fisk’s garage, and the fine-tuning on the body work was done by Eric Lewis of Benicia’s Hot Rods by Lew.

When the truck was rebuilt again in 2006, the Fisks put in a 460-cubic-inch Ford motor and a C6 transmission that came out of Fisk’s old one-ton work truck from his days as a welder and pipe/steam fitter. The motor was rebuilt by Joe’s Engine Shop.

The paint job is the work of Manuel Angel at Manuel’s Auto Body in Vallejo, and the upholstery was done by Express Auto Upholstery and Tops in Vallejo.

POPS 53 isn’t done for the year. Fisk next plans to take his truck to the GoodGuys West Coast Nationals in Pleasanton during the weekend of Aug. 21-23.

“It’s a great truck,” Fisk said.