Saturday, November 04, 2006

Compact pickups? No, old school mini trucks.

(Photo: Mike Dominguez in his Nissan 720, Freestylin' Magazine, ??/1986)

Holy crap I love old-school mini trucks. The very attributes that made mini pickups of the '70's and '80's so popular: simplicity, low cost, and economy; made them excellent canvases for customization too. Unfortunately, the mini truck scene has lost sight of the aesthetic. Modern custom mini trucks are a garish mess of graphics, huge rims, hydraulic pumps, and DVD screens. Classic mini trucks, although flashy, exhibit quite a bit of constraint in comparison. For example:

Cool: Monochrome magenta
Not Cool: Lime green with graphics

Cool: Static drops
Not Cool: Airbags, hydraulics

Cool: Cranked torsion bars
Not cool: Body drops

Cool: 15" wheels
Not cool: 20" wheels

Cool: Subwoofer walls
Not cool: LCD screens

Cool: Tweed
Not cool: Tweed

When I calculated 16.26 MPG for the last tank in our Xterra today, I thought again about finding a unique, frugal alternative f0r c0mmuting and Home Depot runs. And I d0 need a place to apply my NOS Freestylin' and Rockville BMX decals...

2 comments:

Tony said...

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!! I've been looking for pics of Mikes truck and I knew this one existed because I had this mag. back in the day.

This truck may not be all you think it is...It was a VERY custom truck for it's time..maybe even today. Aside from the obvious paint(which was top notch btw) and the convt. The truck featured custom mirrors (mustang, I believe as this was the mod to do or baby turbos), Nissan Maxima headlights,Nissan 4X4 grill,shaved door handles and I believe suicide doors as well as a custom neon sign that read NISSAN in the tailgate. I also recall a tilt bed and he later replaced the wide directional wheels with polished and color matched porshe alloys(agian the wheel to have back in the day, especially in Whittier!). I used to love seeing this truck cruising the blvd. He used to cruise with a monochromatic euro white Nissan king cab, with similar mods and porshe cookie cutters. Those were the days!!

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