It was a dark and stormy night. I drove into work not really thinking about the terrible time some poor soul may have had the previous PM. But there it was at the shop as I turned in, a once beautiful, black with flames, wrecked SSR.
First I have to tell you, I LOVE these trucks. Ever since I first saw the prototype at the SF international auto show I have seriously thought about buying one. As most of you know I have an "AD" (Advanced Design) Chevy pickup as the SSR reminds us of. The SSR was a 2005 version of the Rod & Custom "Dream Truck", which I worshiped from the very first time seeing it after I bought my truck at 15.
This truck at the shop is hit pretty hard and after doing an estimate with new parts, it’s a total. The resale is about a third of what they sold for just a few years ago! Plus I am told by the parts man the dealer that they are very hard to get parts for, many of them already discontinued!
So I grabbed the phone looking for used parts, no luck locally but find a front clip 1000 miles away.
The guy at the yard describes to me this front clip with flat black fenders and it just sounded like a piece of junk. So I had him email me some photos and this is what I saw!
It looked like this body sitting on a pallet wasn’t even wrecked! I called him and sure enough, it wasn’t! It was a GM owned show truck that they were going to cut and part out! He said he had a few SSR’s and that he could build me the front clip I needed. Starting with this one and then change the smoked lights for new, add the grille emblem and so on. We were talking strategy in the office on how we would use the parts and slice the front inner structure and the wrecking yard called me again.
They changed their mind and thought that it may be sold together and that he had another clip for me and would email me more photos.
While killing some time in the office I googled “SSR custom paint” and came up with the truck he sent me on the first page!
Located at…….http://www.truckinweb.com/features/0903tr_2005_chevrolet_ssr/photo_06.html
He said he had this other clip that would suit my needs better. He then sent me this photo.
I was blown away to see this BEAUTIFUL SSR. I thought it was a joke or a scam, “Yeah, tell me your credit card number and I’ll send you this clip, wink, wink”. Again, I got right on the phone to find out what the hell was going on. Seems they have a deal with GM where they buy test vehicles and strange warranty returns and stuff like that.
So boys and girls, Monday this beautiful red SSR will have it’s windshield and doors removed and the body sawed in half at the windshield pillars and across the floor right behind the cowl. It will be put on a pallet and shipped to us to fix a truck that probably isn’t as nice as the one in the picture!
Yep is makes me sick to think of this, but that is what is going to happen.
Brian
First I have to tell you, I LOVE these trucks. Ever since I first saw the prototype at the SF international auto show I have seriously thought about buying one. As most of you know I have an "AD" (Advanced Design) Chevy pickup as the SSR reminds us of. The SSR was a 2005 version of the Rod & Custom "Dream Truck", which I worshiped from the very first time seeing it after I bought my truck at 15.
This truck at the shop is hit pretty hard and after doing an estimate with new parts, it’s a total. The resale is about a third of what they sold for just a few years ago! Plus I am told by the parts man the dealer that they are very hard to get parts for, many of them already discontinued!
So I grabbed the phone looking for used parts, no luck locally but find a front clip 1000 miles away.
The guy at the yard describes to me this front clip with flat black fenders and it just sounded like a piece of junk. So I had him email me some photos and this is what I saw!
It looked like this body sitting on a pallet wasn’t even wrecked! I called him and sure enough, it wasn’t! It was a GM owned show truck that they were going to cut and part out! He said he had a few SSR’s and that he could build me the front clip I needed. Starting with this one and then change the smoked lights for new, add the grille emblem and so on. We were talking strategy in the office on how we would use the parts and slice the front inner structure and the wrecking yard called me again.
They changed their mind and thought that it may be sold together and that he had another clip for me and would email me more photos.
While killing some time in the office I googled “SSR custom paint” and came up with the truck he sent me on the first page!
Located at…….http://www.truckinweb.com/features/0903tr_2005_chevrolet_ssr/photo_06.html
He said he had this other clip that would suit my needs better. He then sent me this photo.
I was blown away to see this BEAUTIFUL SSR. I thought it was a joke or a scam, “Yeah, tell me your credit card number and I’ll send you this clip, wink, wink”. Again, I got right on the phone to find out what the hell was going on. Seems they have a deal with GM where they buy test vehicles and strange warranty returns and stuff like that.
So boys and girls, Monday this beautiful red SSR will have it’s windshield and doors removed and the body sawed in half at the windshield pillars and across the floor right behind the cowl. It will be put on a pallet and shipped to us to fix a truck that probably isn’t as nice as the one in the picture!
Yep is makes me sick to think of this, but that is what is going to happen.
Brian