The Result of a Burning Desire

Living in a town without much of a lowered truck scene can be a bit disheartening. The local cruise spots are filled with muscle cars and imports, and the very best you can hope for as far as trucks go is a bunch of high-schoolers in their parents’ stock trucks hanging out at Taco Bell on a Thursday night. Don’t ask why we’re being so specific; just trust us on this one. 

Abe Silva bought his ’03 Dodge Ram brand-new off the lot to do regular ol’ truck things, more specifically, to tow his show car. Since he didn’t have much of a local influence, it was relatively easy to avoid the temptation to modify his truck—for a while anyway.

The problem started when Abe wanted to check out what a real truck scene was all about. He started going to out-of-state shows to get his fix, and eventually the thirst was too much to handle. After all, you can only go to so many truck shows without a truck before you feel like the odd guy out.

It started innocently enough, as it often does, with a set of custom wheels. More shows meant more ideas swimming around in Abe’s head, and he knew that he was about to get himself in big trouble. He needed some guidance to help him pare those ideas down so that his truck wouldn’t end up looking like an afterthought. Luckily, there were a couple of locals he could talk to, Daniel Lujan of D-Lue Kustoms and Bernie Mac of Duke City Auto Body.

A lot of careful decisions led to a rendering, and that rendering became the road map to Abe’s build. Daniel was the first to tear into the truck, adding a completely new fabricated air suspension to the truck’s chassis.

Go ahead and take another quick look at the photos of this truck while we prep you with this piece of info: Daniel runs D-Lue Kustoms out of his driveway. Notice that we didn’t even say “garage”—his friggin’ driveway, man! The work on Abe’s Dodge is amazing at any level, but a truck of this caliber being built in someone’s driveway is just nuts. This dude is going places.

Abe’s Ram is an amazing piece of art that fulfills his dream of owning a top-caliber show truck, which now allows him to participate at truck shows instead of just spectating. ”

A foot-high step notch and custom suspension gives just enough clearance for the truck to swallow a set of 26-inch Bonetti wheels, and Abe gave the OK for Daniel to splurge on Fox Racing reservoir shocks all around. Fitting those large-and-in-charge rollers required that the bedsides be widened a total of 6 inches, but Daniel made it look flawless and the change is hardly noticeable unless you know what to look for. The one-man crew at D-Lue Kustoms also took care of the major body mods, which are almost too numerous to mention. The most significant one is the completely custom bed, which was totally shaved, smoothed and, as mentioned previously, widened.

Once Daniel was done with the metal fab, though, there was still a lot of work to do. He and Abe delivered the truck to Bernie Mac at Duke City Auto Body to smooth things out and lay down some color. Plenty of NAPA Auto Care refinishing products were used, including the paint itself, which consists of tan metallic, Snakeskin Green and a special mix of three colors for the graphics.

With all of this amazing awesomeness, we’d be completely fine with a bone-stock interior, but Abe didn’t want to leave anything on the table when it came to making his truck stand above the rest. Gotcha Covered Upholstery and Gabe Padilla collaborated to create a one-of-a-kind interior treatment that combines plenty of suede, sidewinder snake, crocodile and visual entertainment—including a monitor in the steering wheel. We just have to wonder if Abe sometimes zones out and watches “Crocodile Hunter” reruns on his 10 monitors. Or maybe he drives to reptile zoos and makes threatening hand gestures from the parking lot.

In any case, Abe’s Ram is an amazing piece of art that fulfills his dream of owning a top-caliber show truck, which now allows him to participate at truck shows instead of just spectating. Having the right friends to help out certainly went a long way, and as Abe told us, “A mixture of a few beers and a good friend created a badass truck!” ST

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TRUCK SPECS

Owner

Abe Silva
2003 Dodge Ram 1500
Albuquerque, NM
Baliztik Truck Club 

Engine

• 3.7L Magnum V-6
• Airaid air intake
• Flowmaster exhaust
• Five-speed manual transmission
• Custom fuel cell

Chassis & Suspension 

• Work performed by D-Lue Kustoms
• 12-inch step notch
• Bag-on-bar triangulated 4-link
• Slam Specialties RE-8 airbags
• Fox Racing shocks all around
• Raised upper control arms
• Ekstensive tubular lower control arms
• Belltech drop spindles

Wheels & Tires

• 26×10 Bonetti 81 wheels
• 255/30ZR26 tires

Body & Paint 

• Work performed by D-Lue Kustoms and Duke City Auto Body
• Bed completely shaved and molded
• Bed floor raised 10 inches with wheel tubs
• Two-inch cowl induction hood
• Harley-style fuel filler with billet cap
• Rear bedsides widened 3 inches each side
• LED taillights
• Custom-fabricated grille
• LED light bar mounted in Ram Sport bumper
• Tan metallic and Snakeskin Viper Green paint with tribal graphics

Interior & Stereo 

• Work performed by Gabe Padilla and Gotcha Covered Upholstery
• Completely custom interior with suede, sidewinder snake and crocodile material
• Monitors throughout cab, including steering wheel
• Alpine flip-screen head unit
• Rockford Fosgate amplifiers
• Rockford Fosgate component speakers and 10-inch subwoofers
• Two Optima Red Top batteries

Special Thanks From the Owner: “Daniel Lujan of D-Lue Kustoms, Bernie Mac and the crew from Duke City Auto Body, NAPA Auto Care Center and my wife, Joy Silva.” 

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