Don’t Worry, it was a Quick Ride

IT’S OFTEN THE CASE WITH TRUCK BUILDS THAT ONCE THE INITIAL EXCITEMENT WEARS OFF YOU START TAKING YOUR TRUCK FOR GRANTED AND BOREDOM SETS You decide to install a new hot tub in your backyard instead of getting a new paint job, or maybe you just start parking closer and closer to the entrance at Home Depot, next to all those poor contractors’ trucks (eek!). A couple of door dings later, you suddenly realize that you really should be taking better care of your truck.

Eric Gutierrez of Hobbs, New Mexico, followed a similar path with his ’00 GMC Sierra. It was first passed down to him in high school from his parents, and he immediately came up with some pretty big plans for it. The only problem was the difficulty in building his dream truck on a high school student’s budget. So Eric did what many kids his age have done for decades, lots of burnouts. And, of course, what often follows burnouts is some late-night back-road racing, which eventually ate up a total of three rearends before Eric decided to call it quits for a while.

Eventually Eric got married and his wife, needing something reliable to drive, began using the truck. Years went by, and although it had more than 250,000 miles on it and was on its fourth paint job, the truck was definitely well maintained and running great. Unfortunately, it was in a wreck and some reconstruction was in order. At that point, Eric tells us, “I decided it was time for me to restore my truck—it had been through hell and back!”

If Eric was going to drop a big wad of cash to fix it, he wanted to finally have his dream truck, and that included having something fast and low. But to make this all happen, Eric was going to need some help, which he found with James Torrez and the crew at Demented Customs. To top it off, a deadline of 15 weeks was set in order to debut the truck at SEMA 2015.

First things first, Eric never wanted to have to replace another rearend, so a narrowed and built Ford 9-inch from Moser Engineering was ordered to sit underneath a custom Stone Fab rear frame clip, welded on by Jaime and CJ Torrez. The crew also incorporated a Stone Fab fuel cell, custom bracing, a 4-link and airbag mounts to make sure that the truck would lay frame—and body—once the 3-inch traditional body drop was done. The front suspension received Slam Specialties ’bags, Stone Fab upper and lower control arms, and McGaughy’s drop spindles, which give it enough travel to swallow up the 24×9 and 24×13-inch Intro Texan wheels with Pirelli rubber.

At this point, Eric’s Sierra was ready for its new powertrain, and man, is it wicked. An Edelbrock supercharged 416-ci LS3- based crate engine was sent over to sit between the frame rails, producing an easy 720 hp and 695 lb-ft of torque. Hedman headers were a simple way to keep the power flowing and send wasted gases to a pair of 3-inch Black Widow Pro Venom mufflers. Just in case the need for additional power should ever arise, a 100-shot Nitrous Express kit was plumbed into the intake system. Keeping things cool is an aluminum radiator from Be Cool.

One of the things that really makes Eric’s truck look like it’s blasting off is the perfectly executed flamed paint job, but it took plenty of work from CJ and Paul Torrez to get the body ready for the slick stuff. To start with, the bed was widened 3 inches, and the front fenders were flared and smoothed. You’ll notice that plenty was shaved off the body, such as the exterior handles and taillights, but there were some additions made to the body as well. Custom exhaust ports were grafted into the bed sides and 1969 Camaro taillights were transplanted into a tailgate/roll pan Cali-combo skin. Once every panel was blocked, James took over for a while and sprayed the Martin Senour Tuxedo Black paint, and then he taped the flame pattern, which received red, yellow, white and orange gradations as well as purple House of Kolor pinstriping to set it all off just right.

With 700-plus hp now under the hood, Eric wanted everything to be extremely functional inside the cab. CJ, Paul and Jr. completely revamped everything, beginning by completely stripping the interior down to nothing. Then they fabricated a roll cage, dashboard, door panels, center console and a custom subwoofer enclosure, which houses six Kicker L7s and three Kicker amps. The scratch- built door panels feature Kicker component speakers, while a Clarion touch-screen DVD head unit controls the symphony of sound.

The new dashboard is home to a complete stack of Auto Meter gauges, which can be seen just behind the ididit steering column and Sparco steering wheel from the Sparco reclining bucket seats. A Vintage Air AC control panel is within easy reach, as is the Accuair air ride controller. The crew finished up the details, such as the suede headliner and Sparco race harnesses, for a flawless combination of form and function.

With everything basically brand new inside and out, it didn’t really make sense to keep any of the original wiring, so James plumbed new electrical throughout the whole truck, with a pair of XS Power batteries providing all of the juice it could ever need. Any odds, ends and additional tasks that needed attention were handled by friend and Demented Customs apprentice David Muños, as well as Omar and Sam Barron, and Cecil Stevens.

Now that Eric’s dream truck, which he has named “Race Truck,” is finished and SEMA 2015 has come and gone, it’s a fair bet that it’s going to see a lot of wide open throttle excitement for years to come. With 820 hp on tap, one thing’s for sure—the words “boredom” and “monotony” certainly won’t be on the menu.

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TRUCK SPECS

OWNER

Eric Gutierrez
2000 GMC Sierra
Hobbs, NM

ENGINE

• All work performed by Demented Customs
• Edelbrock LS 416-ci stroker engine with Edelbrock E-Force supercharger
• Nitrous Express 100-shot nitrous oxide kit
• K&N air filter
• Be Cool aluminum radiator
• SPAL electric fan kit
• Hughes Performance 4L80E performance transmission with 2,500-rpm stall converter and B&M shifter
• Stone Fab aluminum fuel cell
• 3-inch exhaust with Black Widow Pro Venom mufflers
• Moser narrowed 9-inch rearend with 3.73 gear set
• Painless Performance Products wire harness

SUSPENSION & CHASSIS

• All work performed by Demented Customs
• Custom Stone Fab rear frame clip with Art Morrison frame rails
• Custom 4-link with ’bag-on-bar rear setup
• Stone Fab upper and lower control arms
• McGaughy’s drop spindles
• Slam Specialties airbags
• Accuair air management system
• Viair air compressors
• Painted and detailed frame and suspension
• Wilwood big brakes front and rear
• Wilwood master cylinder

WHEELS & TIRES

• 24×9 and 24×15 Intro Texan billet wheels
• 255/30R24 and 405/25R24 Pirelli P-Zero tires

BODY & PAINT

• All work performed by Demented Customs
• 3-inch traditional body drop
• Shaved handles, fuel door and taillights
• 1969 Camaro taillights in molded steel tailgate/roll pan combo skin
• Bed widened 3 inches
• Bed floor raised 8 inches and covered with spray-on liner
• Custom exhaust ports on bedsides
• Flared/tubbed front fenders
• Tuxedo Black paint with multi-colored traditional flames/purple pinstriping
• Street Scene sport mirrors
• Projector headlights
• LED running lights

INTERIOR

• All work performed by Demented Customs
• Custom door panels
• Custom race-style dashboard
• Custom center console
• Auto Meter gauges
• Vintage Air AC
• Sparco seats
• Sparco steering wheel
• Sparco seat harnesses
• Custom roll cage
• Clarion touch screen DVD head unit
• Kicker pre-amp processor
• Kicker component speakers powered by 600- watt Kicker amplifier
• Six Kicker 12-inch L7 subwoofers powered by two 1,000-watt Kicker amplifiers
• XS Power Batteries
• Hushmat

SPECIAL THANKS FROM THE OWNER: “I wanted to thank James, Jaime, Christian and Paul Torrez for doing a kickass build for me in just 15 weeks, without outsourcing a single part of the project at all. I also want to thank our sponsors: Team Demented, Edelbrock, Hughes Performance, Moser, Intro Wheels, Kicker, Stone Custom Fab, Accuair, Viair, Nitrous Express, ididit, Be Cool, Sparco Racing, Teakwood Performance, Barron Paint and Supply, US Shift, XS Power, Twist Machine, Black Widow Exhaust, Rick’s Hot Rod Tanks, Hushmat and AVS. Finally, I want to thank Scott Harris, Omar and Sam Barron, David Muños, and Cecil Stevens for their hard work in getting Race Truck done.”

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