2007 Chevy 2500HD: A Daily Driver Turned Showstopper

Connor Stewart’s Flashy 2007 Chevy 2500 HD

A show and competition trucks including powerful Duramax trucks, as well as a very clean 1st Gen Cummins Dodge, Connor Stewart intended this 2007 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD to be his standard daily driver. The twenty-seven year old New Lexington, Ohio, factory worker makes breakfast cereal by day and thoroughly enjoys diesel performance and diesel motorsports in his free time.

Being hard pressed to drive a com- pletely stock truck, he planned to dress it up some by simply color matching the bumpers and giving the truck a fresh coat of factory silver paint since the truck wasn’t in perfect condition when he purchased it.

“CUSTOM GALAXY GREY CANDY-PAINT OVER A BLACK BASE AND GENEROUS USE OF HEAVY FLAKES BURIED UNDER LAYERS OF CLEAR TOPCOAT FINISH”
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2007 Chevy 2500 HD — To give his truck the stance and ride he was after, Connor Stewart installed a 6-inch Rough Country suspension system and Rough Country Nitro 2 shocks with suspension
components painted Illusion Blue to make it pop under the sparkly Chevy.

HEAVY FLAKE

Stewart took the Chevy to his friends Damon Hart and Jordan Windex at 923 Customs in Wooster, OH, to respray it, but the duo had other plans in mind. Since 923 Customs was a new shop at the time and they wanted to promote their busi- ness while showing off their paint capabil- ity they talked Stewart into allowing them to customize the truck. The one-off cus- tom ﬁnish is achieved with a custom Galaxy Grey candy-ﬁnish over a black base and obviously makes generous use of heavy ﬂakes buried under layers of clear topcoat ﬁnish.

Before spraying on the new color they smoothed the body repairing any imper- fections to give the paint a smooth sur- face to lie on. They also removed the moldings, badges and emblems as well as the rear bumper and replaced it with a smooth roll pan. All of the small items like the door and tailgate handles, mirrors and lights were also removed and prepped for paint. Out back the lights were simply smoked then painted to match, but up front they opened up the housings and painted the inside then reassembled the housings and even integrated an LED off road light into the outer headlight posi- tion. To ﬁnish up the body modiﬁcations, they installed a 3-inch cowl hood to give the truck a muscular feel then they sprayed everything in the wild Galaxy Grey candy paint to give it a totally unique look.

“AMERICAN FORCE 22X14-INCH FALLOUT WHEELS”

The amazing Galaxy Grey paint that the crew at 923 Customs laid on the truck takes on a different look from every angle looking black, grey and a full rainbow of bright colors depending on how you view the truck and the sun’s position overhead.

STANCE

After seeing the truck and its crazy ﬁn- ish, Stewart knew he couldn’t let the rest of the truck stay stock, so he installed a 6- inch Rough Country suspension system. But he decided to make the suspension components stand out to ﬁt the truck and painted them Illusion Blue. Rough Country Nitro 2 shocks tame the ride in the front and the rear.

Even when lifted, this truck wouldn’t look right with run of the mill wheels and tires, so Stewart turned to American Force for a set of 22X14-inch Fallout wheels. But rather than install them on the truck right away he sent them off to his friend, Rick Jimenez, to polish the back side of the wheel to match the ﬁnish American Force provides on the front side. While Jimenez was working on the wheels, the 923 Cus- toms crew painted the bolt-on aluminum trim plates Galaxy Grey to make the wheels pop and link them more directly with the custom painted truck. After the wheels were ﬁnished, Stewart mounted a set of aggressive LT325/50R22 AMP M/T Terrain Mas- ter tires to ﬁnish the truck’s transfor- mation from ho-hum to ﬂashy.

Stewart’s interior is stock but comfortable grey leather with Weather Tech mats to protect the carpet as the truck is a daily driver after all.

They also customized the parking lights and headlights by painting the insides and integrating a small LED offroad light in the outer positions.

DURAMAX POWER

Stewart was ﬁne with the factory grey leather interior as it was in good shape and the dark tinted windows would keep prying eyes out, so he kept it stock for now. But it would be hard to justify leaving the LBZ Duramax engine stock under the wildly painted cowl hood. Without going overboard and tearing into the engine for a performance rebuild, he focused on subtle things that would help wake up the engine while retaining the stock turbo. To help it inhale better, he in- stalled an S&B Filters cold air intake sys- tem as well as a Sinister Diesel intake pipe. On the exhaust side of things, he in- stalled an MBRP 5-inch system that ter- minates in the stock location with a 6-inch diameter polished stainless steel tip. Then to really wake up the engine, he turned to Jeff Dean at On-Track Automotive in Lan- caster, OH, for EFILive tuning. He esti- mates the engine is putting down more than 500-horsepower to the ground when he mashes the loud pedal and that is plenty to make a daily driver nice and fun.

The truck was completed just in time to be debuted at the 2015 Scheid Diesel Extravaganza where it drew a crowd throughout the event. Stewart takes the truck to as many diesel events as he can so keep an eye out for it. If he’s there, we’re sure you won’t miss his sparkly Duramax in any crowd. DW