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1989 Chevrolet 1500

Tribal With a Twist
From the February, 2009 issue of Sport Truck
By Taylor Vlahos
Photography by Dan Sanchez
 
1989 Chevrolet 1500 Front Driver Side View
1989 Chevrolet 1500 Rear Driver Side View
1989 Chevrolet 1500 Center Speaker View
Tom did the interior himself,... 
   
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1989 Chevrolet 1500 Center Speaker View
Tom did the interior himself, including the custom-fabricated center console. If you look closely in this photo you’ll see that the leopard print also goes around the base of his ’64 T-bird seats. Cool.
1989 Chevrolet 1500 Cockpit View
Tom ripped some seats out... 
   
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1989 Chevrolet 1500 Cockpit View
Tom ripped some seats out of a ’64 T-bird, added a custom console, and then wrapped the dash, door panels, and steering wheel in leopard print. The only thing missing is Tom wearing a leisure suit and bumping into Sinatra with a martini in hand.
1989 Chevrolet 1500 Driver Side View
Suspension/grille/paint: With... 
   
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1989 Chevrolet 1500 Driver Side View
Suspension/grille/paint: With the 10/10 drop, Tom’s Chevy practically floats on water. The Tiki Tribal grille insert and Copper flames look bitchin’.
1989 Chevrolet 1500 Front Wheel View
Wheels: You know you love... 
   
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1989 Chevrolet 1500 Front Wheel View
Wheels: You know you love 20s. Here’s an especially yummy set of Oasis Titans wrapped in tasty Pirelli rubber.
1989 Chevrolet 1500 Specification View

Tom loves the scene. He loves his truck. And it makes perfect sense why. He did things the right way. He used a lot of creative ideas and loving assembly. We totally dig the tribal thing he’s got going on. The flames look damn good against that pearl white paint, and it is freaking awesome how well it melts in with the interior, which isn’t too done up but nonetheless one of the coolest we’ve seen.

When we asked Tom to name the most distinctive feature about his truck, he replied, “Everything.” You know he’s got an honest heart.

This baby sits nice and low with DJM drop spindles and Firestone airbags. It has Toxic shocks all around and an MIC step notch in the rear, in addition to a DJM flip kit. All of these suspension goodies are worth 10 inches of sinkage.

The 20-inch Titan wheels look perfect. We don’t think anybody could have picked out a better style to match this flamed and slammed Bow Tie.

Copper tribal flames look good against pearl white. Master Image Customs shaved the door handles along with the tailgate handle. The taillights have also been shaved, and the gas door was nixed. The MIC Tiki Tribal Grille insert plays along in the tribal theme. The front bumper and rear roll pan are from Sir Michaels. On top sits a Stockland Daytona Shell complete with sexy tint. There are APC lights all around, and APC sprayed the loose and smooth Mandarin Copper tribal flames that are accented with bright orange. The stock 5.7L has been dressed up with a few accessories, but nothing too crazy. It’s clean and sweet with a billet MIC hose kit, a billet air cleaner, and Jacobs ignition. It gets that healthy, slightly modified, more-special-than-stock rumble from a 3-inch CGS exhaust system.

The interior is just too cool. Laid-back lounge lizard cool. The ’64 T-bird seats give it a really distinct custom feel—you sense that you’re riding in something special. Sometimes leopard print is gaudy, but not in this case. With the small print in just the right places, the orange and tan match both the copper-orange exterior flames and the tan tweed interior. The cat-wrapped Billet Specialties steering wheel looks totally tight. Tom did all the upholstery himself, including the custom center console. His sound system consists of a JVC head unit, Fusion amps, 4x6 front speakers, and 6x9 and 4x6 rear speakers.


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