[Tom95YJ]

There's a guy that lives around me and he's into mini-trucks big time I used to see him driving his ranger all-over the place and I havn't seen him driving it for a few years I saw him working on his ranger last night and talked to him for awhile......

He had about 20K in that thing !!!!! its unbelivable I must admit it looks great

it has a Bodydrop (what ever that it) its Bagged , custom paint 20in rims , custom interrior

Those guys are simular to jeepers there constantally modding their rigs to make them better

[BeerMonkeY]

a body drop is just the oppistie as a body lift. there are a couple ways of doin it but they both are time consuming and make a lowered truck look even better.

[Moose_God]

I thought about getting into mini truckin' over the summer. I've always wanted to stuff a small block Chevy into a LUV truck. I'm thinking about an S-dime though, there's actually an aftermarket for those.

But then again, I've always wanted to build a third gen Camaro/Firebird....

[Twisted]

Woot, I'm here finally.

Jeepers and minitruckers are a fairly similar breed with different intents. No disrespect to my fellow Jeep owners but minitruckers are a lot more open to other types of vehicles such as Jeeps, 4x4's in general, classics, imports, etc. etc where as most Jeepers still think they can run over everything that isn't a Jeep and that they should be doing so. Its all about loving custom car stuff more than anything, and nothing comes as close to custom as the minitruck mentality.

Another similarity between Jeepers and minitruckers we all know the meaning of "money pit" and proudly show it off. Unfortunate for me I own a Jeep and a minitruck so I have two "money pits." (as if the wife and 3 kids don't take enough money already)

A body drop can be done several ways. Most common is to literally cut the floor of the cab and raise it so that the body sits lower on the frame. Then you get to weld it all back together and make filler panels where need be. The bed is usually done similar but often instead of cutting the floor out you cut the inside of the bed just below the rails and let it sit down. This is the method I did to mine.

The other method is often referred to as a "stock floor body drop" and can be more work. Essentially you just rebuild the frame however you can so that the cab can sit lower on the frame. The bennefit to this is that all your interior still fits without modification and can leave all the headroom still because you aren't shrinking the interior cab height at all. But often requires more skill because you don't want to mess up the frame by making it weak or out of square.

With both methods there are several things that often have to be figured out to make it all work. One of the most common is the fact that the motor often won't fit under the stock hood anymore. Luckily for me I just had to cut some of the bracing off my hood. Other methods are building a custom cowel hood or trying to lower the motor if you have room. Most often you can't lower the motor because it will hit the ground.

My truck is a 87 Mazda that I've had for almost 10 years exactly. Just did the body drop and suspension this past April. It has a 2.5" body drop, custom 3 link rear suspension, contitech 2500 lb bags all around, 1/2" line throughout, 1/2" Electric valves, 7 gallon tank, Viair 450c compressor, adjustable pressure switch, and a dual needle gauge inside. I love driving it around. It gets a lot of attention and almost every time I park somewhere someone who is into cars will come over and ask questions and look it over to learn how we did everything.

(its a work in progress, paint will be coming eventually, got a lot more body work to do.) And this is my car clubs website: www.alteredstatescarclub.com I'm updating the members rides section soon as we've gotten a lot of new members and new pictures of everyones rigs.

[Twisted]

And yes, the body is laying on the ground in those pics. I actually still have most my pinch weld but I'm grinding it off slowly.

And with the body on the ground I still have about 1/2" before the frame hits.

[creature]

ey Twisted, have you done any new work on your non-jeep rig recently? Looks good!

[Twisted]

Originally Posted by creature

ey Twisted, have you done any new work on your non-jeep rig recently? Looks good!

Not really, been too busy to work on anything. All I've done to it is replace the alternator and drive it every now and then when its nice out. Since I'm in Oregon and Fall is here the not so sunny weather makes the XJ my driver of choice more often than the truck.

When I get time and such I'm gonna pull it into the shop and do some motor maintenance, its got an oil leak that I've been putting off. And I really want to get the back of it shaved up but I can't decide on a tail light setup that I like. So we'll see. Its a slow coming project and I have no date goals set for it. One thing about minitrucks is there is no shame running in primer. When you reach paint it gets boring cause it means you are basically done.

[creature]

Originally Posted by Twisted

When you reach paint it gets boring cause it means you are basically done.

I would like to meet the guy who has finished a project car.

[Twisted]

Originally Posted by creature

I would like to meet the guy who has finished a project car.

Yup, but in the proper steps of customizing paint should be right there towards the end. Many of my friends who have reached the final paint stage and taken home many trophies are bored and either 1) Tear it back apart, bring it to bare metal, and start over again or 2) Sell it for dirt cheap and start another project.

Of course there is 3.... I have a good friend who had a pretty sweet truck. Took home best of shows all the time, got a couple magazine covers, lots of recognition, and after 9 years of putting all his time into it had realized it was done so he sold the frame/motor, has the cab sitting in his backyard, bed is covered by blackberry bushes, and interior scattered around the shop. He was gonna rebuild it to be totally different but has other plans now so it just sits.

Here's the truck in one of it's last features. I think it was actually torn apart when the magazine finally came out.