One thing that is never in short supply at a truck show are mini-trucks. Mini-trucks are very popular among the truckin' crowd and I am sure they will continue to be a favorite. One of my personal mini-truckin' faves are Chevy Blazers. Though they are not really rare, they are limited amongst the sea of custom mini-trucks. Naturally, when I am at a truck show a custom Chevy Blazer will always catch my eye. This was the case with the awesome Chevy Blazer you see pictured here.

I was covering the Southeast Mini-Truckin' Nationals when I ran across this Blazer at the very end of the day on Saturday. In fact the owner, David Burke, was packing up and getting ready to head for the hotel when I noticed his ride. Since I have a thing for Chevy Blazers, I like to blame the location of his setup for the reason of not noticing it earlier in the day, but actually it had more to do with all of the events and feature shoots I had to cover.

To kick things off David started with the suspension. Low is the only way to go in the mini-truckin' scene, so David conformed to contemporary standards by installing an adjustable air suspension. 2600lb Firestone air bags are mounted on each corner which are filled with the help of two ¾ horse power Blow Jax compressors (mounted in the rear frame section), 3/8" fast valves and lines, and two six gallon air tanks. A hand built 2-link rear suspension with a c-notch in the frame let's this Blazer lay frame over 20 inch wheels! The up-down and side-to-side adjustments are controlled with a 24 function wireless remote control.

Making forward progress, the next order of business were a few body mods including: shaving the emblems, antenna, door handles, roof rack, key lock, and the rear hatch wiper. The stock hood was trashed for a Goodmark Generation 2 steel cowl hood and the bulky stock mirrors were swapped for a set of Street Scene mirrors. Finishing off the body mods is a Xenon five piece urethane ground effects kit.

With the body good-to-go it was time for David to choose a color scheme. David appreciates all of the wild color schemes just like we all do, but he wanted to keep things a little more simple. In fact David wanted to keep it so simple that he decided that white was the only color for him! With that, David loaded up the spray gun and sprayed the Chevy skin with House of Kolors arctic white Followed by eight coats of clear. After the paint had dried David was pretty happy, but felt that the white alone was missing something. In a revelation it came to him, how about a set of flames? With this he needed a little help from his friend Nick LeBlanc who laid out the tribal flames which were painted with House of Kolors silver white pearl.

The exterior was looking good and David was pretty happy with the progress he had made on his truck, but a lot of work still had to be done! So, David switched hats and started to work on the interior which is one of the most interesting things about this particular custom. For starters, the stock dash was removed and replaced with a custom fiberglass dash which was smoothed and painted gloss black. The door panels were also painted with gloss black and arctic white, along with silver tribal flames, to match the exterior. Unlike the rest, David decided to sway away from tweed and opted to go with a type of leather that is seldom used in custom autos… black patent leather! The seats (with white tuck and roll leather inserts), trim panels, headliner, and even the floor board have been covered in patent leather! Unlike most patent leather interiors, which are few and far between, David's patent leather is not tacky at all. In fact the interior of David's truck blends in nicely with the gloss black dash, center console, and door panels. Finishing off the interior's look are a set of white neon lights under each seat to highlight the floor and black and white foot pedals.

The interior was looking good, but it was more than just looks that David wanted, he also wanted some entertainment. With that said, this Blazer is an entertainment center on wheels! In the audio department, David has all grounds covered with a Pioneer Premier CD player, powered by an Audiobahn amplifier, spins tunes to four 6.5" speakers located in the doors and two 12" Audiobahn subs located in a color coordinated custom fiberglass enclosure located in the rear hatch area. The subs have the popular chrome flamed grilles accented with patent leather covered trim panels. In the video department, David installed a Blaupunkt DVD/MP3/CD player which sends a video signal to six Power Acoustic 5.6" monitors located in the two visors and all four headrests.

Under the hood, the Chevy retains its stock 4.3 liter V-6 power plant, but with a laundry list of modifications. The "list" includes machine polishing the: alternator, alternator brackets, a/c compressor, a/c compressor brackets, power steering pulley, all adjuster pulleys, all a/c lines, throttle body, cruise control motor, wiper motor, a/c fan shroud cover, both upper control arms, and radiator core support. David also sent out a "few" parts to be chrome plated including the: brake booster cover (which is actually a $10 frying pan, bought at Big Lots, cut to fit over the booster), radiator fan shroud cover, power steering filler neck, air intake, hood prop rod, hood spring and latch, throttle brackets, radiator hose neck and cap. Finishing off the engine dress up modifications includes: Billet Specialties polished power steering cap, Billet Specialties brake master cylinder cap, Billet Specialties oil filter cap, Summit racing chrome wire loom, and a Lexan mirror on the bottom of the hood and both fender side walls. As for engine performance, David kept it simple with an Optima blue top marine battery and a Flowmaster exhaust system.

Finally, no custom truck can be complete without a nice set of wheels. David decided to sway from the norm by going with a set of white Oasis "Iroc" 20 inch wheels that match the paint job perfectly. Laying down the traction are Nitto 245/35/ZR20 rubber. The brake calipers were painted to match the wheels and most importantly, to stop this gleaming artistic perfection from sudden disaster, are Power Slot ceramic brake pads.

Now you are probably asking "What is the twist?" Other than the chroming, EVERYTHING was done in house... or at least in this case, David's garage!

Shout Out: "Thanks to Nick LeBlanc for laying out my flames and thanks to my wife for putting up with my long hours in the garage." -David