A Childhood Dream Brought to Fruition

 A few of the many delights of any car and truck enthusiast are the possibilities and fantasies that we carry as children. Whether it’s posters on the walls of our rooms or Hot Wheels that we “modified” in the living room against our parents’ wishes, we grew up with fantasies about what we wanted to drive. Efrain Valdez of Manor, Texas, had his dream truck in mind since he was 8 years old. His dream was to own a two-door Chevy Tahoe. But with the emergence of the rapidly selling Chevy Tahoe in the four-door version, it looked like his dream might never come to fruition.

The frustration of not finding what he was dreaming about ended in Dallas, Texas, where he saw a two-door 1996 Chevy Tahoe for sale, seemingly left to die.

The frustration of not finding what he was dreaming about ended in Dallas, Texas, where he saw a two-door 1996 Chevy Tahoe for sale, seemingly left to die. “It had paint and air ride already,” Efrain tells Street Trucks, “but the Tahoe was just left for dead.” Efrain and his brother jumped in a truck and borrowed a trailer (which he later found out had no lights) and rushed to pick up the Tahoe before someone else could. With so much anticipation to get the Chevy back to running on the road, Efrain brought his new truck to Brownie’s Automotive in Austin, Texas, where Jose rewired and upgraded everything under the hood to get the Tahoe running again flawlessly.

RED ON RED

The next step was removing and replacing the entire air-ride suspension by upgrading the ’bags, compressors, and air lines that had been compromised due to neglect. Now that the Chevy was successfully back to basics, Efrain enlisted Pete Andrew to replace, redo, and relocate the shock mounts and panhard bar. Inside the two-door, Efrain’s brother Rene began designing a whole custom interior with Diego Chacon in Round Rock, Texas, to handle the upholstery work. Diego added a two-tone, red-on-red leather interior with dimple buttons and a red background that replaced the outdated factory black leather and suede interior. Efrain started searching for the perfect set of wheels for his new truck and found a set of 22-inch Boyd Coddington Meridian 5s. At first, he loved them once he’d mounted them on the Tahoe, but shortly thereafter, he found a set of 22-inch B.A.D. Havocs and then couldn’t decide which he preferred. He did what any custom-truck owner would do: he decided to put two different wheels on the Chevy, with Boyds on the driver’s side and Havocs on the passenger side. “I started noticing people looking confused when I drove by them a few times,” Efrain says with a smile. “They would say, didn’t I see that truck with different wheels earlier?”

Efrain has spent the last few years enjoying the resurrection of his Tahoe, and the people at the shows he enters all seem to agree.” 

When it came time to update the paint, Efrain handled the paint correction by cleaning up all the scratches and dents and bringing the PPG paint and the masterful graphics of Madd Concepts’ Patrick Reid back to life. The last step to finish the bright red Chevy Tahoe was to add some custom sounds, so he brought the Chevy to Patrick Reid, who added a full Kenwood stereo system including all Kenwood components, subwoofers, and amplifiers.

DREAM COME TRUE

Efrain has spent the last few years enjoying the resurrection of his Tahoe, and the people at the shows he enters all seem to agree. Efrain wishes to thank his family and friends, but most importantly, he wishes to thank his brother Rene for always being there to help, and his longtime girlfriend, Jisela, for being there to hold the flashlight at 3 a.m. in freezing temperatures on the nights before a show. It took a tribe’s effort to bring this dream to reality and it couldn’t have played out more perfectly. Efrain wants to let people know to never give up on those childhood dreams because hard work can get you there.

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TRUCK SPECS

 Owner 

Efrain Valdez
1996 Chevrolet Tahoe
Manor, Texas

CHASSIS

• Front Suspension:  Z’d front end, 2-linked with pan hard bar, Dominator 2,500-pound airbags
• Rear Suspension:  2-link with pan hard bar, bag over axle, Dominator 2,600-pound airbags
• Air Management: dual 480 Viair compressors, 5-gallon air tank, SMC valves

DRIVETRAIN

• Engine: Vortec 5.7L V8, Red Top Optima, Spectre air filter, painted intake

BODY & PAINT

• GM Torch Red, PPG clearcoat, multi-colored graphics with flat PPG clearcoat done by Patrick Reid at Madd Concepts, shaved handles, tailgate, bumper, recessed bumper, color-matched front end, LED headlights, GMC grille, shaved roof rack, stock floor body drop

INTERIOR  

• Custom rear seats, stock front seats with lowered brackets, custom interior panels, rear panels, two-toned red leather with custom floor mats, painted patterns flow inside, flat clear on inside pieces, suede headliner, Billet Specialties steering wheel and adaptor with hand metal engraving
• Stereo: Kenwood KDC head unit, Kenwood 6.5 components in doors, two Kenwood 12-inch subwoofers, 1000-watt Kenwood amplifier

WHEELS & TIRES 

• Wheels: river side: 22×9 and 22×10 Boyd Coddington Meridian 5; passenger side: 22×9 and 22×10 B.A.D. Havoc
• Tires: 265/30R22 Lionhart