Article and Photography by:
 Bryan Fross
 Model: Heather Moss

   What does someone do with a Sport Utility Vehicle that is daily driven and will be driven a lot of miles in a short amount of time? Customize it and enjoy the ride that you'll be spending a lot of time in. Steve Burkett from Surprise, Arizona purchased his 2008 GMC Yukon with the intention of driving it daily for his Real Estate business. He decided to start customizing it and got hooked on turning his hobby into a passion. It is still daily driven to this day but has been through over 67,000 miles in less than 2 years as well as making appearances in many shows and even a Dr. Dre video.

   The first order of business was too get a little closer to the ground without sacrificing ride quality. Steve brought the Yukon down to Mouses Kustom Fab where they installed a custom pan hard bar, Accuair E-Level Ride control, Slam Specialties Bags, and Lowrider Depot bolt-in front bag holders. The GMC was also outfitted with Air Zenith OBD2 chrome air compressors to refill the bags after Steve laid it down over the 28-inch U2-55 Wheels that are mounted to D-Centi 295/25/28 tires. All of the suspension parts were removed and powder coated as well as pinstriped Tony's Pinstriping. The frame was completely painted by Steve and then pinstriped as well.

   Steve's ride needed a little flash on the outside to grab some attention so he drove it down to West Coast Racecraft where Mike Royal covered the Yukon with custom paint including House of Kolors Orion Silver Mixed with 1.5 oz of silver mini metal flake and Candy Apple Red mixed with 1.5 oz of silver mini flake was used to spray the flames. Mike also sprayed murals on the rear deck lid and then turned his artwork loose painting/airbrushing the entire engine compartment. Pinstriping around the flames was done by Ron Hernandez. Tiarra Grilles provided the custom handmade double mesh grille and bumper inserts to upgrade the front end.

   Inside the GMC is a comfortable and entertaining variety of modifications to suit the needs of Steve and his kids. Starting at the top, a custom suede headliner was added with built in 7-inch HD monitors. The door panels were redone with custom 3d flames and the seats were wrapped in Tuscany leather Katzkin covers. The factory dash was updated with a custom gauge cluster by US Speedo, Evolution Steering wheel by Grant and is custom painted to match the exterior along with the door inserts then pinstriped by Tony’s Pinstriping. The audio and video in his ride is a complete Kicker Competition Stereo System installed By CJ Silvey of Superior AutoSound. It starts with a Pioneer double din DVD head unit and four 7-inch HD monitors mounted in head rests. The tunes comes from four Kicker L7 12-inch Subwoofers, three sets of Kicker QS6.5 components, two 1500.1 Kicker Mono Block Amplifiers, two 650.4 Kicker 4-Channel Amplifiers. The kick panels to hold the third set of components were hand crafted by Steve and CJ. CJ also built a custom fiberglass enclosure to Kickers recommended specifications and added metal amplifier racks also. The power for this setup comes from four Optima yellow-top batteries and an Ohio Generator 315 amp Alternator. Keeping the ride protected from thieves is an alarm provided by Viper.

  The stock 5.3L GM motor was performance tuned by GM Performance to give the motor a boost from 317 Horsepower up to 387. An AEM Cold Air Intake was added to let the motor breathe better then leading out to a complete Stainless Steel Exhaust provided by Magnaflow. The entire engine bay has also been painted and pinstriped by Mike Royal and Tony’s Pinstriping. Some custom covers were fabricated by Mouse's Kustom Fab to cover the brake reservoir and coolant recovery tank. A custom aluminum heat deflector was fabricated by Mouse's Kustom Fab and 3D flames were ground into the aluminum in order to keep the flamed theme.