1995 GMC Sierra Sport Truck

The everyday driver is always a special truck. To take your pride and joy down the freeway at 70 takes some guts, especially when rocks fly through clearcoat like a knife through butter. Craig Montes of San Jose, California, started with a few project vehicles, sold ’em, built ’em, but never drove a custom daily. After his affair d’Amour with an S-10, he moved up to a street-driven GMC Sierra and banged out a clean custom.

Craig’s ’95 GMC Sierra started life as any other. Craig rolled it off the lot and got crackin’ on the mods. He wanted a clean, simple, and reliable daily driver that could turn a few heads, win some shows, and maybe…get featured. Cleaning up the exterior is a full roll pan out back, shaved handles/tailgate, and a smoothed front bumper, all by D-Rods Street Rods in San Jose. Craig opted to keep the factory Autumnwood skin, but had it spruced up with some simple graphics sprayed by David Rodriquez and striped by Real Ralph at D-Rods in DuPont paint. To finish things off, a custom 30-bar aluminum grille was slapped in.

On the inside, this GMC is just as clean. Keeping to the theme of a tame custom, Craig chose tweed matched carefully to the exterior paint. Bascom Upholstery stripped and stitched to obtain what you see here. After covering the stock bench seat and the custom door panels, Craig added a bit of shine with machined aluminum plates, sill, and covers from Billet Specialties.

With paint and interior complete, the suspension came next. With help from Pat Lusk, Craig went about installing Belltech’s drop spindles and shock relocators. A set of 2600 Firestone ’bags was slung under the frame that gave a drop of 6 inches all around. To keep some performance in the driving characteristic, the rear was stiffened with a Panhard bar from Art Morrison and a full set of KYB Monomax shocks. Suspension travel in the rear has been clearanced and secured with a custom C-notch and custom ladder bars. Controlling ride height is accomplished through Master Image Customs air controls mounted under the dash. Things are kept rolling right along with Budnik 17-inch Raptor wheels, ensnared with Bridgestone Potenza 235/45R17 tires.

As the ride began to take its finished form, Craig cracked into the motor to give it a little more hum. The stock 350 was kept, but tweaked into something completely beyond. Forced induction comes from a B&M roots-style supercharger fed by a fuelie system, and filters through B&M’s cool cast-aluminum filter. Inside the mouse motor, a custom grind cam from Comp Cams keeps the valve timing open to flow spent fuel through a full boogie exhaust from Doug Thorley. Taking power to the rear tires is done through a standard 4L60E tranny stiffened thanks to a Shift Improver Kit from B&M. To ensure that the engine would look as great as it ran, a smattering of chromed and polished accessories were added. Craig even added his personal touch with a battery cover, a master cylinder lid, and a billet relay cover that he fabricated himself. With the truck now complete, Craig is moving on to his other project vehicles: a ’47 Chevy coupe and a ’54 Chevy truck, which we certainly hope to see at a show this season.