FACE SWAP

Tom Pardini’s rock-walkin’ trail slayer is many things, just not a Sierra

- Jered Korfhage

Tom Pardini’s truck is definitely a Silverado, we checked. And if you don’t believe us, he’ll tell you how the monster shown on these pages began as an ’02 Chevy Silverado with a single-cab and a shortbed, and he almost let it get away.

“I went to trade it in on a Duramax,” Tom told us, but when he found that his leveled Silverado on 33-inch mudders was only valued at $1,500, he decided to keep the truck and start building. Tom was no stranger to building trail trucks, having ’wheeled beefed-up Chevys of a few generations in the hills of northern California, and he knew he wanted heavy-duty running gear. For this iteration of the Silverado’s build, that meant a Ford Kingpin Dana 60 held in place by a pair of custom radius arms. Leaf springs and Deaver coils designed for a second-gen Bronco were also among the suspension components. Tom reimagined the powertrain with a 6.0L LQ4, an NV4500 transmission, and an NP241/205 doubler. Out back went an AAM 10.5-inch 14-bolt axle and inside the wheel wells were 39.5-inch Boggers.

Tom thrashed the Silverado at local off-road venues like Cow Mountain, the Rubicon Trail, Hollister Hills, and in some of the NorCal Rock Racing events, and he realized the big tires needed a bit more clearance in the front to keep them out of the truck’s sheet metal. A face swap was in order, so he scavenged the grille and other parts from a GMC 1 ⁄2-ton and grafted them to the front of the Silverado. The new visage required some minor reshaping of the hood and presto the tires no longer touched the wheelwells.