Building a vehicle to showcase your business can begin as a simple task with
only a few ideas to toss around. Most projects start out this way, but some
projects take that large leap and turn into something that is much more than the
original plan. Justin Bender from La Habra, California owns this 2004 GMC Sierra
1550 Extended Cab which began as a project truck for Diamond Liners, his
families business. After going through a time when it was lifted in the air on
big off-road tires, Justin decided to bring his truck a little lower to the
concrete and add a lot more to it than originally planned. The transformation
went from clean looking GMC truck, to an all around hooked up show vehicle with
plenty of changes worth catching a glimpse of.
Bringing it down from it's previous lifted position was a task that Justin left
to B&D Alignment in Lakewood, California. They removed the old suspension, and
began by lowering the truck using DJM suspension and shocks. Justin's truck was
going to be carrying some extra weight in the near future, so he opted for Air
Lift air bags that receive their air pressure from an Oasis air compressor. This
gives his truck an adjustable but aggressive street stance which still allows it
to ride nicely on SoCal roads. Filling the wheel wells and adding is a set
of 22-inch KMC Fargo wheels wrapped in Toyo Tires.
The
previous look on the body of Justin's Sierra was a simple-yet-effective vinyl
graphic scheme to draw some attention to his truck and the family business. This
current look screams "look at me" in a much larger fashion. Precision Grilles
created a grille for the front of the GMC that makes it stand out from most
others. An upper and lower grille insert really stylize the mostly stock front
end. Behind the grille is a set of PIAA fog lamps to light up anything in front
of Justin when the sun goes down. Then the Goodmark Industries Cowl Hood comes
into focus with a cowl that either makes you think he has some power under the
hood or that he is trying to fool you into believing his truck has some extra
muscle. More on that subject later. Some other goodies on the exterior of
Justin's truck include Street Scene mirrors, PIAA wiper blades, an A.R.E.
tonneau cover, and Llumar UV Shield tint to darken all of the windows. The paint
was sprayed at Merzees in Santa Fe Springs, California. They used ALSA paint for
the base and graphics colors. They added orange tribal graphics and wispy style
effects in the lower silver portion of the truck.
On the
road, Justin has a better entertainment system than most people have in their
home. After getting the interior upgraded at Radi's custom upholstery, Justin
took his truck over to Modern Audio in La Habra, California. First, the floor,
doors, and other easily exposed sheet metal areas were covered in Dynamat to
reduce vibrations that would have been caused by the audio system that Justin's
ride was about to receive. Modern Audio created several pieces for the interior
and bed of Justin's GMC to house audio/video equipment. There are three Cutting
Edge 12-inch subwoofers in the cab, three more 12-inch subwoofers in the bed,
and two 15-inch subwoofers in the bed. The subwoofers and components are powered
by a total of eight amplifiers pushing out more than 12,000 watts. Optima
Batteries were also installed to help handle the power load. There are six
monitors in the cab including two in the visors, two in the headrests, an in
dash monitor, and a 15-inch flip down. The dash and other interior pieces were
painted by Merzees. In the bed, a 32-inch TV resides close to the cab and Justin
uses a hitch mounted Freedom Grill to allow for great tailgate parties. Diamond
Liners took what Modern Audio fabricated and finished the speaker boxes up by
covering them with bed liner material making them completely air tight.
Under
the hood, Justin has made a few nice additions to make his truck more of a beast
than it was from the factory. A Procharger supercharger gives it a major power
upgrade along with a Magna Flow exhaust. A few pieces were removed and
color-matched to the blue that covers the upper portion of the Sierra.