What’s Old Is New Again

Building a nice clean daily driver might sound like a fairly simple task, but we all know damn well that if you’re reading this magazine, it’s actually much more difficult than it sounds. Our crowd tends to go big on everything we do, and even if we have a stable full of “customs,” generally our “stock” daily driver still takes its toll on the wallet once we start adding our own personal touches.

Francisco Rios from Fort Worth, Texas knows this pain all too well. He picked up an ’08 Chevy Silverado single cab with small plans to just update a few things and use it as his daily shop truck. But as the story generally goes, Francisco took his Chevy to a few local shows, and the more he drove it the more he got the persistent itch to do something to help it stand out from the rest. Even then, what began as a “simple” update plan soon turned full tilt.

WHAT CAN WE SAY, WE CUSTOM TRUCK FIENDS JUST CAN’T HELP OURSELVES, AND ANOTHER TRUCK GOES DOWN IN THE BOOKS AS A ‘SIMPLE DAILY’ GONE WILD.”

Luckily the Rios family is in the custom biz, but this only made matters worse because Francisco had the resources to not just bolt on a set of killer Intro Twisted Vista IIs, instead he went with a massive set of 26-inch wheels all around, and this meant some work to get the truck to sit at the proper drive height. After the notch and DJM lowering kit, Francisco still wanted to go the distance and came up with the idea to completely transform the ’08 and update it with all new 2014 Chevy parts. Come to find out, this new front- end obviously isn’t a “bolt-on” affair by any stretch of the word, so now the real fun began.

The Rios family began to cut and shape metal, and after some trial and error, eventually the 2014 front end was perfectly mated up and flowed seamlessly with the 2008 body. But the Rios family didn’t stop there, of course the bed and back half of the truck had to match the new updates; so, they shaped all new wide-body fenders and completely rebuilt the bed to flow with the massive Intros and the addition of the 2014 front. With all of this intense metal work, a stellar paint job was necessary to really make the mods blend, and the Rios family knocked that out of the park as well. A custom-mixed House of Kolor tri-stage White pearl was mixed and sprayed, and before Francisco knew it, his vision had come to life.

With the wild body mods and wheel choice, he wanted to update the interior a bit; so, a full Kicker Audio setup was run through a Kenwood head unit to allow him to enjoy his long road trips even more. This is a daily-driven shop truck, but it definitely has all of the right custom touches. What can we say, we custom truck fiends just can’t help ourselves, and another truck goes down in the books as a “simple daily” gone wild. ST

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TRUCK SPECS

OWNERS

Francisco Rios
2008 Chevy Silverado
Fort Worth, TX Team Billet

ENGINE

• Chevy 5.3L
• SLP cat-back and Power-Flo mufflers
• Custom-built engine cover
• Paint and detailed

SUSPENSION

• Custom notched frame to tuck the 26-inch Intros
• DJM upper and lower control arms
• DJM lowered shocks
• DJM rear flip kit
• Belltech rear shocks

WHEELS & TIRES

• 26×9 and 26×12 Intro Twisted Vista II
• 295/30/26 and 305/30/26 Lexani Tires

BODY & PAINT

• Custom 2014 Silverado front-end swap
• 2014 Chevy headlights, hood and front bumper
• Hand-built front fenders mated with new front end
• Complete custom sheet metal bed to match the 2014 Silverado swap
• Custom LED tails
• House of Kolor custom-mixed White pearl tri-stage
• Painted By Rios Kustoms

INTERIOR

• Black leather with white stitching
• Carbon fiber accent pieces
• 2012 Tahoe door panels and door handles
• Upgraded LED gauges
• Custom center console
• Kenwood DDX 371 head unit
• Complete custom Kicker Stereo system (10-inch sub, two amps, mids and highs)

Special Thanks From Owner: To all my family, my dad, my friends and those who had to put up with me talking about my crazy ideas, and those who helped bring them to life.

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