There are always going to be obstacles when you set out to be the first at anything in life. When a kid from Ohio named Neil Armstrong bounced around on that big rock we like to call the moon for the first time, there were tons of people holding their breath at NASA while they watched his every step. Although building the first 'bagged Chevy Colorado isn't exactly rocket science, there were plenty of people here at Sport Truck headquarters who were watching their e-mail inbox on a daily basis for updates from Clean Cut Creations, just to see the step-by-step battle to build the first custom Colorado.
The owner of the truck, Joann Kuehl, purchased the first Colorado that was dropped off to the dealer's lot in her hometown of Saint Louis, Missouri, right when the calendar year was advancing from oh-three to oh-four. The honeymoon period with her new truck came and went as fast as the cash for the down payment filtered through her bank account. From the lot, it was a straight beeline to Clean Cut Creations, where John Meyer was ready and willing to tear apart the truck that Chevy had spent years developing
John and Joann had been working through different design elements with Robbie from Kutting Edge Graphix months before the truck was actually in their hands, anticipating the obstacles they would have to overcome. Simple touches such as billet grilles had yet to be manufactured for the truck, so a call was put in to the folks at Kaik Products. Kaik, well-known for creating custom one-off billet accessories, had John remove the grille shell and send it to the company's Arlington, Texas, facility, where the crew began creating the billet grille that would brighten up the front end of the Colorado.
In the meantime, all eyes were turned to the suspension on the mini-truck. It was easy enough to see that in order to get the newcomer on the ground, there would need to be some serious suspension modifications. John hooked up with Air Ride Technologies in Jasper, Indiana, where the crew there pored over the new suspension and came up with a game plan that would leave the truck planted on the ground.
The game plan included using existing suspension components on the front of the truck, since manufacturers had yet to build drop spindles or control arms. Air Ride began by cutting away the front suspension and replacing the control arms with the company's own tubular arms. Air Ride then added Fatman Fabrications Mustang II drop spindles and brakes, as well as its own Shockwave airbags.
Out back, the frame was notched to allow the rearend to get sucked up when the suspension was cycled. To keep the rearend in line, a custom four-link was fabricated and controlled via a set of Shockwave 'bags. Each of the four 'bags was plumbed with 3/8-inch line and fed from a set of VIAIR 450 compressors. An Air Ride Technologies E-panel was wired up inside the cab to control the ride height.