This Letter Carrier Went Absolutely Loco on His Personal Delivery Truck

At first glance, you might not think that someone employed by the U.S. Postal Service would own this truck, but Michael “Mikey D” Sainz is no was lucky to score a job at the post office right after he got out of high school. Before this, he would tag along with his uncle Chris Sainz to truck shows as a way to get out of the house. Once he secured his full-time gig, he was able to get into the scene with a truck of his own.

A short time later, Mikey D and Chris had themselves a pair of similar trucks. Chris got an ’04 GMC Sierra, while Mikey D got this ’06 Silverado. Chris was a little ahead in the game the entire time and really motivated Mikey D to push forward. At first, he simply lowered the truck on a set of 22 inch wheels and called it a day. However, as his uncle made stunning progress with his truck by adding air ride to lay frame, Mikey D wasn’t going to stand on the sidelines while his uncle was scoring game winning points.

Mikey D was ready to enter the game and play like a beast. His first major play was to take the truck to a radical new low by ‘bagging it and giving it the traditional 2 ¾ inch body drop treatment, which was performed by Kevin Brumfield of Grunion Customs in Phoenix. For the rear, the frame was notched so the axle could travel up. For the rear suspension a 4 link with panhard bar was made, while a set of Slam Specialties RE 7 airbags mounted over the axle provide lift for driving. Todd Burton of Lowboy Motorsports in Mesa, Arizona, was a big help on the front suspension, creating new shorter, lower control arms and flipping the ball joints on the spindles. The frame mounts for the factory upper control arms were moved to help with front end alignment then another set of Slams was mounted to complete it.

A truck needs to have a decent interior before it can be called a full blown show vehicle, and Todd Jubert of The Interior Shop in Phoenix helped with the majority of the work. This included sculpting the floor with foam and black Mercedes carpet to create the illusion that the floor hadn’t been cut for the body drop. Todd also modified the seats by removing the top seatbelt mount and covering it in red Italian leather with black Bel Air style inserts. The door panels were customized to match, while a center console was fabricated for good looks and to serve as a sub box. The dash and other plastic accents were smoothed and painted black or Viper Red by distant relative Richard Ayon.

Although Mikey D has put a lot into this truck he stills drives it regularly and this required some improvements in the mobile entertainment department. One of the things you may notice is the 11 inch screen mounted in the console and fed by the Pioneer DVD head unit in the dash. It also powers two sets of Rockford Fosgate 6.5 inch component speakers in custom pods found in the door panels and the 12 inch P3 subwoofer in the center console. Power is channeled through a Rockford Fosgate T Series crossover and JL Audio amplifiers. The stereo was all made possible by the talented hands of Steven Yiu at Definitive Audio in Phoenix.

The first time around this truck had a factory white paint job. Because Mikey D really wanted a simple and clean look he was happy with it until the truck was caught by a surprise hailstorm. The body was badly damaged, so he took it to a local shop to get repaired as an insurance job. While there, he found out that it would only cost $1,000 to swap the color to black, so he went for it. In the bed, the stake pockets were shaved, the tailgate handle was swapped to the inside, and a steel roll pan was molded in.

While driving the truck, Mikey D messed up and rear ended a car, which wrecked the front end. Fellow club member Keith Haymore stepped in to replace and upgrade the front end with a Reflexxion cowl hood, Altezza headlights and T Rex stainless steel mesh grille. Keith painted the front end black to match the rest of the body, and even sprayed the raised bed floor Viper Red to mimic the interior. Then Mikey D had local legend Ron Hernandez add red and charcoal pinstriping on several spots to add some old school hot rod flavor. The wheels complete the overall look.

Though Mikey D likes billet wheels, he opted to go with chrome because they are less vulnerable to bending or breaking. A set of chrome Liquidmetal Motorsports Wingman 22 x 9.5 wheels with low profile Pirelli Scorpion tires takes care of the problem.

This Silverado does have a 5.3L V 8 with a Brute Air Force cold air intake and custom stainless dual exhaust with two Magnaflow 40 Series mufflers. Though there is nothing much to display in the engine compartment, you have to give Mikey D some major credit for hovering this clean, body dropped truck over the streets as he makes his way daily to his postman’s gig. He has also driven the truck to shows in Texas several times. Mikey would like to thank John Tipton, Kenny Caskey, Kevin Brumfield, Todd Burton, Steve Yiu, The Interior Shop, uncle Chris Sainz, brother Tony Sainz and all of his Negative Camber family. ST

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MICHAEL “MIKEY D” SAINZ
2006 CHEVROLET SILVERADO
GLENDALE, AZ
NEGATIVE CAMBER

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