When a person has a history of building awesome show rides, some companies can start offering them products and/or services in exchange for building their next ride to heavily advertise those products and/or services.  Shawn Bennett from Anaheim Hills, California owns Image Audio Design and has built some of the best show quality audio and video systems. His previous ride, a Toyota 4Runner was sold last year and Shawn was thinking about building a new ride. Shawn was approached by Sony to build a truck with their full Xplod product line at his disposal. After sending them his proposal for them to look at, a main concept of the 2002 Chevy Silverado project was rendered by Brandt at GraphicDisorder.com. The project was approved and building was underway.

   Shawn's Chevy is the first air bagged ride he's owned. He decided that JC at Schoolhouse Kustoms in Huntington Beach, California would be given the truck to bring it to a much lower stance than Shawn has ever ridden at. The front suspension of the truck was pulled apart and the spindles were replaced with a set of McGaughy 3-inch drop spindles. Slam Specialties 'bags were installed in the front for adjustability and Toxic Shocks for road dampening.  The rear was a much larger task. It had to be able to lift the truck a large amount to give the wheels some space and it also had to lay without compromising bed space that would be filled later. An Extensive Metal Works 3 link was installed along with another set of Slam Specialties bags and Toxic Shocks. Adjustability is accomplished by way of 2 ViAir 500 compressors, 1/2-inch GC Valves, and a Dakota Digital air gauge. The wheels are a set of Boyd 22-inch x 10-inch Turbo's wrapped in Goodyear 30 series tires. Each Wheel had one spoke that was custom CNC milled with the Sony Xplod logo. To stop a truck that was going to end up being very fast and very heavy at the end of the build, a set of Stainless Steel Brakes 14-inch rotors and  4 piston calipers were installed.

   The body of Shawn's project needed a large amount of objects removed in order to make it as smooth as it's audio system was going to be. The items removed were of the normal variety on most custom trucks including the door handles, cab seams, stake pockets, taillights, gas door finger indention, and the tailgate handle. Th taillights were replaced with '84 Cadillac lights and the headlights are now Sylvania HID head lights. The rear bumper was removed and a Sir Michael’s roll pan was added in it's place. An All Sales Billet Gas Door was installed painted over to blend in with the paint scheme. Covering the bed and all of it's contents is a Gem Top GT Classic Tonneau cover with a large Xplod logo on it. The body and paint work were completed by Rock & Roll Custom Paintworks in Orange, California. They painted the truck with House of Kolor Cobalt Blue Kandy, Orion Silver, and a Custom Green. The windows were given a custom tint treatment by Joe at House of Tints in Tustin, California. They are tinted blue with the rear having most of the sponsors logo's and the sides getting the House of Tints logo. The drivers-side corner of the windshield also has the Sony Xplod logo.

   Moving to the interior aspect of Shawn's ride, this is where he and his crew at Image Audio Designs got to work. They began by pulling it apart and re-molded the dash board with fiberglass. The also smoothed out the dash and added Hot rod air vents in place of the factory ones. Every panel and piece of the truck's interior were heavily modified in order to add audio and video components to them. Everything was either shaped with fiberglass or smoothed out and prepared for paint. The seats were replaced with a set of Sparco Milano buckets and they were re-wrapped in Alcantra Leather along with the headliner by Stitchcraft Interiors. The carpet was also recovered using Mercedes Benz Black. The seats use a set of Sparco 4 point harnesses. The steering wheel was replaced with a Trenz Billet Steering Wheel.

   This trucks claim to fame is it's audio/video system. All of it was installed at Shawn's company, Image Audio Designs in Orange, California. The system starts with a Sony CDX M9905X head unit and DVX 100 DVD changer but that is just the beginning. The power that was going to be needed needed for Shawn's truck was high so the factory battery was replaced with an Optima Yellowtop and 2 more Optima's were added under the bed. Making use of that power is 12 Sony Amplifiers including 3 Sony Xplod XM-2200GTX for mids, 2 Sony Xplod XM-4060GTX for highs, and 7 Sony Xplod XM-D5160P5 for Subwoofers. There are a total of 23 Sony XVM-H65 6.5-inch monitors placed in the cab, bed, and engine compartment. There are also 3 Sony SDM-V72W 17-inch monitors in the bed with 3 of them in a custom enclosure on the underside of the Tonneau cover and 1 of them in the doghouse of Shawn's Sony AIBO Robot dog. The custom dashboard houses the last of the monitors with a 10-inch for Shawn's viewing pleasure. The mids and highs come from 3 sets of Sony Xplod XS-HF500G components in each door.

   A ton of horepower was going to be needed to get Shawn's truck up to speed after adding so much weight in audio/video equipment. A Vortech Supercharger was installed with Vortech Intercooler custom piping by JC at Schoolhouse Kustoms. The truck received a 150 shot Nitrous Oxide NX Direct Port Rail System for even more get up and go. The stock exhaust was replaced using Gibson Exhaust 2.5-inch SS exhaust and Gibson Headers.

   Shawn would like to thank all of his sponsors and especially thank Sony for helping him to create one awesome mobile entertainment system. We would also like to thank Star Noelle for posing on Shawn's truck.