One of the things we like to do here at Diesel Army is keep a close eye on the forums for interesting new builds that we can bring to you while they are in process. One of the more interesting ones we came across was Erik Andresen’s LML Duramax build on the Duramax Forum.

We reached out to Erik and asked him why he was building this truck and what his plans were. “Ever since I was in high school, I’ve always been known as the person that can never leave a vehicle well enough alone, so obviously that obsession and passion has carried on over to the Duramax. When I got back from my last deployment to Afghanistan, I found myself joining the diesel community, and since then, it’s turned into a very enjoyable lifestyle. In the end, my desire to do this build was to have a clean, well-built, and dependable truck that could sling some mud, cruise the town, and on top of that, still be able to tow my other toys from state to state,” stated Erik.

Erik’s truck entitled “Quicksilver” is in the process of getting full overhaul. The 1500 truck was purchased in February of 2013 and Erik has been stocking up on parts as paychecks would allow until he finally had saved enough to begin the build. He basically stock piles all of his parts down in Texas and then call them up to his buddies at Cabot Tire & Off Road to do the install. So, there are tons of photos of his apartment stocked full of parts.

Throughout the entire buid-up process, Erik has been documenting everything and has been very meticulous. The truck has always looked great each step of the way. Initially, the modifications were light. window tint, upgraded handles, bed liner, tool box, jack, and CB.

Then came the 20×10 BMF Death Metal wheels wrapped in 37.5×12.5×20 Nitto Trailer Grapplers. Now the wheels wouldn’t fit, unless he went to the sky. Initially, he installed a BDS 6.5 inch lift with some Fox Racing shocks.

Now he wasn’t going to lifted the truck and have the whole front end torn apart without fixing some of the known issues. So, he called the guys at Cognito Motorsports and ordered their pitman and idler arm support, as well as their upper control arm. Then he opted to get a set of Rare Parts extreme duty tie rod ends.

That gave the truck a great look and he was happy with the progress. Then he moved on to the body. Had the bumper painted to match and replaced the lower valance with one from a Denali.

Next ,the performance stuff started coming. He turned to PPEI for custom tuning via a H&S Performance Mini Maxx mounted to an Auto Meter triple gauge pillar (Speedhut’s boost and EGT gauges were also installed) and installed Merchant Automotive’s resonator delete.

Then it was onto the emissions deletes. He installed a straight pipe kit from MBRP and completely deleted all of the emissions equipment off the truck. To make sure that he doesn’t run into any problems, he turned to Amsoil and completely went through the fluids in the truck as well as adding a Mag-Hytec rear differential cover.

Turning his attention to the interior, he installed a set of WeatherTech floor mats and then got deployed to Europe. While there, the lift bug bit him again.

When he got back, the truck went up even higher, thanks to a 10-12 inch Cognito stage 2 tow lift package. With the truck further away from the axle, a new set of rubber was called for. So, Nitto 40×15.5×20’s were mounted on the BMF wheels.

While most of us would be very happy to have this awesome looking rig, Erik isn’t finished yet. Make sure to follow his progress here on the Duramax Forum.