GM trucks have dominated the lowering scene more than twenty years ago and they still maintain a mighty strong presence in the custom auto enthusiast world today. Despite all of the "my manufacturer is better talk," people have to admit that GM has maintained some clean lines for its full-size pickups.

Jason Lester of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, liked the old square bodied Chevy's to begin with. Maybe that is why he purchased his 1985 Chevy Silverado and decided to do a complete tear down and restoration. Wait... did we just say restoration? Well, maybe that is how it started out, but as you can tell this truck has gone beyond a simple restoration. Isn't that how all custom truck projects start out? First it is maybe a set of custom wheels and a stereo system and the next thing you know you have a full blown custom! For Jason, I think it was seeing all of those lowered trucks that seemed to push the envelope in the custom truck scene. After all, there is just something about a clean, lowered, hauler like Jason's which causes us to give such trucks praise. praise to the lowered that is!

For starters, Jason's 1985 Rado was built around the idea of kewl. The goal was to make the truck simple, yet stand out, as well as remain somewhat functional. Sure there are a lot of trucks at shows that are "pretty" but when it comes to overall functionality combined with style, they fall short. Jason's truck isn't one of these trucks! In fact with a 350 crate engine under the hood, it is hard to believe that Jason would actually sit for hours at a truck show and not go stir crazy. Yeah, we think Jason would be better off cruising down the highway at a double quick pace with the wind in his face and his lady at his side, making all of us that more motivated to finish our own projects.

Speed is one thing, but Jason also likes to look good, so to achieve such a task, he decided the dynamic suspension route was the only way to fly. The Air Ride suspension consists of Firestone air bags under each corner with two-nine gallon chrome air tanks with an engine driven compressor feeding them each air. A four-link setup with a C-notched frame help to hide the 20x8.5" Panther Realm chrome DUBs wrapped with 255/35/20 Hankook rubber. Ten switches are at Jason's beck and call when it comes time to adjust for a ground leveling experience.

The suspension gives the truck a kewl overall appearance, but the real eye catcher is the body work performed on Jason's kewl kustom kruiser. For starters, Jason shaved everything including the drip rails, door handles, tailgate handle, mirrors, and emblems. The stock hood was swapped out for a cowl induction hood and the stock grille was changed out for a phantom billet grille styled hood. Finishing off the body work are frenched-in taillights and a flush mounted hard tonneau topper.

With the bodywork completed, Jason readied the spray gun and commenced to laying down three coats of House of Kolor bright titanium on the Rado's sheet metal with five coats of clear. Once the paint dried, Jason was happy with the color, but still felt that something was missing. Then it came to him. flame on! Finishing off the truck's aggressive appearance is a set of classic shaped flames in House of Kolor magic blue pearl.

In the interior, Jason went the loud route with four 12" Rockford Fosgate subs and one 15" Rockford Fosgate sub all powered by a 3,000 watt Ample Audio amplifier, which reside in the bed of the truck. In the cockpit, a Pioneer CD head unit, 7" TV, and Sony Playstation 2 provide plenty of entertainment for those long road trips. Finishing off the build, Jason added gray tweed throughout the interior with 3-D flames and various billet accessories.

When it was all said and done, Jason's "restoration" turned into a full blown custom rig which you see pictured here. All of this was set into motion just because Jason gives praise to the lowered.

Shout Out: "Thanks for the feature shots of my ride and I wanna send a shout to Brian's Motorsports, in Hendersonville, Tennessee." -Jason