LA’s Sport Truck Superstore Emphasized Design
Trader’s Truck Superstore, located in the Los Angeles area, was a business establishment that found its niche as a builder and supplier of all things relating to sport trucks. Tim Souisaman was the proprietor and their specialty was working with new-car dealerships in outfitting brand-new trucks with custom paint, lowered suspensions, custom wheels and tires and other popular mods for sale to dealer customers.
The shop’s services allowed for truck buyers to be able to purchase a turn-key tricked-out truck and be able to finance it all with one car payment. The top makes were Chevy, GMC and Ford.
The product lines that Trader’s stocked included Boyd’s (billet wheels and steering wheels), Alcoa aluminum wheels, Belltech spindles, Borla exhaust, Phantom billet grilles, Hellwig sway bars, Ground Force shocks, Posie leaf springs, Street Scene front valances, roll pans and Cal-Vu sport mirrors, among other items that catered to this specific truck market.
In addition, the shop had its own private label line of fiberglass tonneau covers. All those products were also promoted in their 72-page color catalog, encouraging mail-order sales.
Promotional vehicles were a specialty of Trader’s. The shop worked with noted automotive artist Steve Stanford in 1997 to create an award-winning Ford F-150 done-up as a tribute to the 1964 Ford Galaxie. They also put together a GMC drag race truck that featured a tubular chassis and an all-out big block powerplant.
