Why go out and buy a perfectly good new truck when there are plenty of wrecks out there that can be brought back to life? That is not necessarily a new concept, but for Ron Hecht's SUV dubbed the "Trail Mix" it is something that became somewhat of a mantra because this project would have a major setback that nearly killed its use once again.

The project began as a rolled over Chevy Trailblazer that Ron purchased from C&C auto in February of 2002. A tow truck was called and the wrecked SUV was taken to Mike's Body Shop where a new roof, front doors, and a GMC Envoy front clip were installed.

Once everything was put back together and in primer, it was sent off to Air Ride Technologies in Jasper, Indiana, to be used as a template for their new lowering system for Chevy Trailblazers and GMC Envoys. Once Air Ride was finished with the SUV, project Trail Mix was dropped off at a custom auto shop which failed to meet Ron's expectations. In 2004, Ron moved the project to Quality Collision in Columbia, Illinois, but unfortunately it was found out the truck was in worse condition than initially thought. The paint was peeling off and the frame was so hacked up that it was completely ruined and it was time to start over.

The street rod guys at Morfab Customs, whom normally do not build modern trucks, took over the project and so the real project began! The old frame was tossed and a new donor frame off a burnt Chevy Trailblazer was found and the project was spared. Keith at Morfab smoothed and cut away all unnecessary brackets then it was set up on a frame jig.

While the frame was being whipped back into shape, the body was taken to Jerry's Auto Body in Union City, Missouri, where the shoddy paintjob was removed in a matter of hours. The Envoy front clip was swapped for a Buick Rainier version with a one-off custom grille built by Carriage Works, which gives project Trail Mix a unique look. The set of Chevy Malibu door handles were grafted into the front doors, while Grand Prix door handles were grafted into the rear doors. The rear doors open suicide style and the rear lift gate was shaved clean. The rear taillights were shaved and replaced with LED light strips by Lambert Enterprises.

Once the body work was complete, the truck was repainted with PPG Sand over Sunburst Bronze and then taken to Mayhem in Washington, Missouri, where a cool set of '57 Chevy chrome-like graphics were laid down prior to having the final coats of clear applied.

Once the body was good to go, it was reassembled on Morfab's restored frame with a complete good-to-go Air Ride suspension. The front and rear suspension was built with myriad of Chevy and Air Ride Technologies suspension components. S-10 spindles are under the nose with custom boxed lower control arms, custom tubular upper control arms, and an Air Ride Shockwave suspension. The rear suspension consists of a Pete and Jake's parallel 4-bar with pan hard bar and an Air Ride Shockwave suspension. Ride Pro controls assist with the suspension adjustment while a ViAir 400 compressor attached to a 5-gallon air tank keeps plenty of air on tap.

With the body and frame back together and the suspension installed; project Trail Mix was taken back to Morfab's to have the engine covers and custom side mirrors installed. Next on the list was a full blown custom interior injected with a custom audio/video setup.

The interior of project Trail Mix is just as detailed as the exterior, thanks to Bruce at Hy Tec Auto in Columbia, Illinois. Seating consist of four Pontiac Grand Am bucket seats that have been chopped down and covered in sand and orange Katzkin leather with the Trail Mix logo embroidered in each seat. The door panels also received orange leather inserts and a custom headliner was installed minus the sun visors for a clean custom look. All plastic panels were dyed sand color and various pieces have been painted to match the exterior paint scheme. A one-off Colorado Customs billet steering wheel, half-wrapped in 2-tone orange and sand leather, tops off the steering column and a billet rearview mirror hangs from the glass.

The center console and rear speaker enclosure, built by Chris at Quality Collision, house the air ride controls and 7-inch widescreen monitors and a 10-inch Eclipse sub located between the seats. In the very rear, the enclosure spans out and houses two Clarion subs, a 17-inch widescreen monitor, and two amps. A Kenwood headunit was installed with a flip out LCD screen which has a dual zone setup that allows use of a second DVD hidden under the front seat to play two different movies at the same time, on the screen of choice! Power to the SUV is broken down into two zones: body and audio, both of which can be turned off individually. The rear wiper switch was rewired to control power to the headunit with power shut off to the front of the vehicle. All stereo and electronics were installed by Stereo One in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

The engine compartment houses an inline V-6 engine that has been dressed to the nines with various painted and billet accent pieces. A K&N air intake draws in cold air while a custom stainless steel HPC coated exhaust travels through the frame and releases hot exhaust fumes through a custom built NASCAR exhaust tip.

Of course, a ride this wicked can't possibly roll down the road with a set of wheels that everyone else is buying, so Ron had Colorado Customs carve out a one-off set of 22-inch custom wheels out of a block of billet aluminum. Tires of choice are Pirelli 265/35/22 up front and 295/30/22 in the rear.

ESM must point out to our readers that considering all the setbacks, Ron's Trail Mix project has shown a lot of resiliency. Most other projects with lesser setbacks would have been left for dead a long time ago, but Ron was able to pick up the pieces (somewhat literally) and move on. Pure resilience has produced one of the baddest SUVs on the custom auto circuit!

Shout Out: "Special thanks to Air Ride Technologies and Colorado Customs who helped sponsor the project. I would like to also thank my wife Sheila for all her support, Keith and the guys at Morfab Customs, Tim at Mayhem's, Chris at Quality Collision, Bruce at HY-Tec, Kevin and the guys at Stereo One, Kevin at Carriage Works, and everyone else that helped make this dream a reality." -Ron Hecht