When the average person thinks about building a clean daily driver for their spouse they might set aside a timeframe varying from maybe six months to a year. And it almost certainly would not be as extensive (pun intended) as a full show truck. Well, Bill Carlton is not the average person and his shop, Ekstensive Metalworks, has a long track record of doing the extraordinary. Since the average SUV would not do the job for Bill (already having body-dropped an Escalade, Hummer, and countless other badass rides), he decided to pick up a Cadillac SRX and had small plans to make it a cool driver for his wife, Jennifer.
Well, the plans certainly changed from just tinkering with the SRX over a few months to making it an all-out custom overnight. The long and short of it took place in the local Wal-Mart parking lot. Jennifer, back-up sensors and all, was backing out and those annoying little sensors were getting louder and louder, but she still thought she had plenty of room. Apparently, the huge grille guard (everything's bigger in Texas) on the truck behind her was being picked up by the sensors, but not by her, so she backed right into the truck, smashing the rear of the SRX. All this took place a little more than two weeks before SEMA '05. Again, not being a right-minded average Joe, and just cursing at his old lady, he said "F%#k it!" and proceeded to steal the truck from her while she thought it was at the body shop getting the back hatch fixed. Straight out of an Overhaulin' episode, Bill and his crew tore the whole truck apart, repainted it, and debuted it two weeks later during a surprise visit to SEMA without Jennifer even knowing it was out of the body shop!
Yup, 'bagged, painted, interior, and wheels -- ready for SEMA, all in two weeks. So you probably think the story ends there, but that's not Bill's style. Even that would be too easy. Two weeks before CES, he decided that the SRX would make the perfect display vehicle for Rockford Fosgate's CES booth, and yet again volunteered his wife's truck and his entire crew for getting the SRX ready. Another shop dropped the ball, coming way too close to not finishing up the crazy stereo and audio/video system (consisting of all Lightning Audio and Directed product) in time. So Bill hooked up with a buddy by the name of Dante and got cracking. Dante and his brother stayed at the shop four days straight with nothing but a pile of boxes to keep them company! Needless to say, with the help of Dante and the Ekstensive crew the two-week miracle was turned around yet again. And after coming through big time for Bill, Dante is now a permanent part of the Ekstensive family.
So there it is, the long and short of it. Bill just wants to give a huge shout-out to his wife, Jennifer, for putting up with all his crap. For all the specifics on her ride, make sure to check out the Lowdown.