Southern California's custom car and truck culture thrives on many distinct influences. It's quite hard to stay true to just one genre of custom automobile when admiring all the beautifully-built mini and fullsize trucks, lowriders, hot rods, and high-dollar luxury vehicles making their way through the traffic-clogged arteries of Cali's freeway system. Daniel Maldonado, a lifelong resident of SoCal, has been soaking up inspiration from the streets for as long as he can remember, but the idea of sitting back and praising other people's creations just wasn't good enough for him anymore.
Since Daniel was always partial to the truck scene, he selected a standard cab '99 Chevy Silverado to serve as the base for his first custom build. The initial blueprint for the Silverado didn't call for anything too extreme, but once Daniel's creativity took over, his truck ended up on the chopping block at All The Above Motorsports in Chino, California. While there, a custom triangulated four-link setup was cooked up and 2600 'bags, Toxic Shocks, and 1/2-inch SMC valves were thrown together to create a frame-laying suspension that any aficionado of fine rides would envy. To finish off the Silverado's street hugging stance, a set of custom 22x9-inch Collectizone wheels wrapped in 235/40R22 Pirelli P Zero were mounted to the front hubs and a wider pair of 22x12-inch hoops dressed in 295/30R22 skins have taken up residence out back.
With the Silverado laying low, and sporting a set of true luxury rollers, Daniel continued with the high-end theme by incorporating an '04 Escalade front clip complete with factory HID lighting and a T-Rex vertical billet grille. Factory Collision, in Compton, handled the front end swap, and they also shaved the taillights, third brake light, tailgate handle, rear cab line, front fender, and molded in a Grant Kustoms roll pan. The bed was flared out to make room for the rear rolling stock, and a stylish wood floor, stainless steel stringers, and a one-off axle tunnel creates a clean, hot-rod appeal.
PPG black and pewter were applied to the altered Chevy skin, and Larry Fator, of Automotive Artwork by Quicksilver, in San Dimas, broke up the two hues with a strip of gold leaf-a color combo that is reminiscent of a simplistic, yet bold lowrider paint scheme. The end styling result hits on so many types of street customs and each different flavor has been successfully blended to perfection.
The factory 5.3L was upgraded...
The factory 5.3L was upgraded with a shortened and painted K&N air intake assembly, color-matched pewter engine cover, and exhaust by Vino's Muffler.