IT HAS been a hell of a year for the street machining community, a year that will forever be remembered for the loss of too many of the scene’s personalities – great names, great mates and great talent, taken way before their time.

One such shock loss was the passing of Dallas Lash, the man behind Queensland-based trim shop Daltrim, who passed away from a heart attack on Friday 14 November 2014, aged just 37.

Known for his amazing skills with the needle and thread and his innovative custom trims, Dallas stitched together the interiors of more than his fair share of Street Machine feature cars, including Jason Manley’s Monaro TUFFHQ (SM, Mar ’10), Mark Schwarz’s HQ HANFUL (Dec ’11), Brad McCosker’s TUFFEH (Jun ’13) and more recently the amazing Bliss n Eso custom Kombi (Sep ’14).

Keen to leave formalised education behind, Dallas started his automotive trimming apprenticeship and before long was running a business from the back shed of his parents’ Gold Coast home. His folks would arrive home daily to find a different car in the driveway while Dallas worked away on it.

Word spread of his skill and passion, and soon the business was successful enough to move to a small shop in the Gold Coast suburb of Molendinar, near Nerang. Customers would tell you it wasn’t a big shop filled with the latest tools, but it was a place where Dallas could toil away and pour his passion into his craft, and it quickly became synonymous with some of Queensland’s best builds.

An enthusiast himself, Dallas owned and modified a long list of cars in his life – everything from chrome-bumpered Commodores to early Holdens, with his last creation being a KE70 Corolla that had recently had the CA18DET turbo engine plucked in favour of a carby-fed LS2.

No one ever had to ask for proof of his passion, so vigorously did he live the modified car lifestyle. He was at every show that his busy work schedule would allow, including Powercruise, where he could be found fixing any number of mates’ and customers’ cars; MotorEx, where he’d absorb fresh ideas and gain inspiration from the highest-calibre builds in the country; and annual trips to Summernats, including the one year that he cruised HANFUL over 2000km from Queensland to Canberra and back with Mark Schwarz and Mark’s daughter Lexi.

Dallas’ life and contributions to the modified car community were celebrated on Friday 21 November at a brief service in Mudgeeraba that was attended by over 150 family members, friends, customers, enthusiasts and peers. He leaves behind an incredibly large and tight-knit group of mates – a testament to his endearing and loyal personality.

Our thoughts go out to his family and all those devastated by his loss, including his widowed partner.