Article and Photography by:
Bryan Fross
Model: Holly Weber

  When most people go to a car dealership they intend to purchase a vehicle that will get them from point "A" to point "B" on a daily basis. Tim Hess from Fullerton, California bought this 2005 Chevrolet ½-Ton Crew Cab Pickup with the intention of turning into the full-custom show truck you see here. This truck is a showcase of custom parts, accessories, and the hard work of many people.

   Tim handed the truck over to Jim Iiames and the crew at Imzz Industries in La Habra, California because Jim knows more about suspension and modification than any one person probably should. Imzz Industries began to take the suspension apart and pile up parts that were no longer going to be needed. As the take-off parts started piling up, a new stack of parts started to pile up as well. In that new stack was a 14-inch Bulletproof cradle kit for the front to give the truck a new stance that was quite impressive. The front also received a 4-inch lift spindle and was converted from coil springs to Sway-A-Way coil-overs raising the truck another inch. That brings the grand total to 19 inches of lift. The lower control arms were custom made from 4130 chrom-moly and paired with Delrin bushings and a mono-ball cup. Finishing off the front suspension is a set of tubular  upper control arms with mono-ball cups, Sway-A-Way dual shocks, and a Tahoe steering box. The truck was then converted from rack and pinion steering to Heim swing set style steering.  the rear end received some major attention as well. Starting with Atlas leaf springs, the truck was beginning to get a little taller in the back. It got a bigger lift from Firestone towing air bags which are filled using a chrome air tank, 3 ViAir 460C compressors, and the system is plumbed with polished stainless steel hard air lines. The sway bar was scrapped in favor of Sway-A-Way air bumps to keep the body from rolling when Tim turns a corner. The custom-trussed, 35-spline, Ford 9-inch rear end was beefed up at Imzz with Currie axles, Detroit Traclock, and 5:13:1 gears. To stop this beast in it's tracks, Willwood supplied six piston brakes with 16-inch slotted rotors. Then a set of Boyd Coddington 22x10-inch Ace wheels with powder coated gray centers and polished hoops were bolted up after being stuffed into Toyo Open Country MT 40 x 15.50 x 22 tires. The frame and suspension were powder coated blue by Central Powder Coating and the chrome plating was handled by La Habra Plating.

   With the truck standing much taller than before, it was time to get the body ready for a custom paintjob that not many lifted truck owners would have on their off-road style truck. Foreign Auto Body in Gardena, California got to work on transforming a huge lifted truck into a piece of art. They started with a Goodmark cowl inducted hood with a Foreign Auto Body custom made stainless mirror panel on the underside. The front end was given an upgrade by way of a Precision billet grill insert and Street Scene SS bumper cover. Other additions include chrome Denali door handles, Snugtop tonneau cover, and a Sir Michaels tailgate handle relocator kit after the handle opening was welded shut. The texture on the bed rail caps, rear bumper plastic covers, side mirrors, and windshield cowl was smoothed out and prepped for paint. Jeff Mohrfield of Foreign Auto Body and Ronn Tessensohn laid the custom graphics and the truck was two-toned with House of Kolor True Blue Shimron faded into a lighter blue , then into a silver for the graphics. All sprayed on top of a Pearl White Base color. The paint was then pinstriped by Steve Feinberg. The paint was completed after the engine compartment, firewall, transmission, and underside of cab and bed were sprayed with True Blue Shimron to match.  The bed was coated at Line-X of Long Beach with their spray on bed liner material.

   A name you may be familiar with by now is Mike Sutton. He is the owner of LB Threads and two of our past feature trucks. He got his hands on Tim's truck next to rip out the interior and make it much better than it comes from the factory. Mike and his crew modified and split the back seat into two buckets to make room for a custom center console subwoofer enclosure. They installed blue suede inserts in the factory gray leather seats as well as on the door panels. The headliner was wrapped in charcoal gray suede while the subwoofer enclosure was covered in blue suede and gray vinyl. The dash and interior pieces were covered in a marble finish. Advantage Audio in Brea, California custom built the fiberglass center console and amp rack behind the rear seats. The subwoofers are three Kicker CVX-10 dual voice coil subs powered by a Kicker SX 1250.1 amplifier. The front of the cab was fitted with Q forms kick panels that house Kicker 5.5-inch components. The front doors are home to 6-inch mid bass drivers and the rear received 6.5 components all powered by one Kicker 900.4 and one Kicker 500.2 amplifiers. The signal is supplied through a Pioneer AVIC- D3 head unit with Navigation,  iPod control, and a Kicker SXRC amplifier controller. The bed hides a set  of two Powerwave batteries by Centennial batteries to provide over 2000 Cold Cranking Amps to the stereo system.

   It takes a little extra power from the stock powerplant to get Tim's truck moving now. Gibson headers and Gibson super truck side exit exhaust kit started the process while a Pacific Performance Engineering tuner helped to reprogram the truck from it's factory defaults. To make it look nicer for shows, several items under the hood were covered in marble finish as well as the additions of polished exhaust shields under the truck, air conditioning lines, and condenser.

Special thanks goes out to all that were involved in building one of the sickest custom trucks