The everyday driver is always a special truck. To take your hauler down the freeway at 80+ takes large cojones, especially when rocks fly through paint like a hot knife through butter. Shawn Byrd of Louisville, Kentucky, has owned his share of custom cars and trucks. He would build 'em then flip 'em, but never drove a custom daily. After his last custom, Shawn decided to buy the 2003 GMC Sierra you see here with the full intentions of leaving it stock for the purposes of driving it daily. Well, Shawn failed miserably because he ended up banging out a clean custom hauler instead. Kind of hard to fight off the custom urge when you have owned five custom vehicles!

Shawn's 2003 GMC Sierra started life as any other. Shawn rolled it off the lot and decided he would just drive it as-is. stock. However, a month later Shawn found himself tearing into what used to be his stock GMC truck with a plan of keeping it a clean, simple, and reliable daily hauler that could turn a few heads, win some shows, and maybe... snag a feature or two. We say mission accomplished in all of those categories!

First, Shawn took the original paint all the way down to the metal. The bed was removed and the front side of the bed was sanded smooth along with the backside of the truck's cab. The door handles and tailgate handle were also shaved. A custom antenna was frenched-in on the right side of the fender. Custom sport mirrors replaced the stock "Dumbo Ears" and the nose received a custom front valance, smooth wiper cowl, billet wipers, and a billet grille. The center mounted brake light was modified with a chrome 1992 Caddy light ring with a LED light installed inside. The cab's factory drain guards were also filled to give the truck an overall smoother appearance.

The bed also received more body mods including smoothed stake pocket holes, Caddy taillights, relocation of the fuel filler neck into the driver's side forward bed rail, a Sir Michaels molded-in steel roll pan, and a smoothed Gaylord hard tonneau topper which covers the custom Bed Rug liner.

Once the body was sanded smooth and all perfections worked out, Shawn enlisted Chats Custom Automotive to lay down a killer paint scheme which consists of candy root beer mixed with a lot of graphics and metallic paint. The paint scheme runs from the light root beer base coat to the darker root beer color. Under the hood, all accessories were also painted to match the exterior skin color.

On the inside, this GMC is just as clean. Keeping to the theme of a tame custom, Shawn chose leather and Ostrich skin matched carefully to the exterior paint. The interior was stripped and stitched to obtain what you see here. After covering the stock bucket seats door panels, and headliner, Shawn added a custom audio system that includes one in-dash TV where the stock radio used to be and another TV in the steering wheel.

With paint and interior complete, the suspension came next. Jason Caranto was given the nod to install a full Air Ride system plumbed with stainless hoses. 2600 Firestone bags were slung under each corner which is filled with the help of a 12-gallon tank and two air compressors. To keep some performance in the driving characteristic, the rear chassis received a 4-link setup. Things are kept rolling right along with 22-icnh ASA wheels, ensnared with Dunlop performance rubber.

Shawn is living proof that once you have the custom bug it is very difficult to fight off customizing urges. Maybe Shawn failed in keeping his truck stock, but we certainly aren't gonna complain!

Shout Out: "I want to give a big thanks to Chats Custom Automotive out of Spencer County, Kentucky for the body work and paint. A thanks to Jason Caranto for the Air Rid installation. Also, to Rick Deneen for the wheels and tires. Thanks!" -Shawn Byrd