1967 Volkswagen Beetle + roof chop + 1950 Chevy pickup = Bugtruck!
Thanks to Geoff for submitting.
Click here for more ute/pickup conversions. Click here for more VW builds.
Tag: ute
Retromod Toyota Tacoma
Well here’s a first, I cant’ say I’ve ever featured an expedition truck before, nor have I read a build with the words “can be loaded safely in a 20-foot container with one or two NATO crates of supplies behind it”. The owner of this rig had gotten the most out of his trusty FJ Cruiser, so he decided to create a new expedition vehicle with some retro flavour. Instead of scouring the classifieds for a well-worn 70’s-80’s truck and having to go through the whole restoration process before even beginning to modify it for his needs (including a shortened bed), he began this build with a brand new 2012 Toyota Tacoma and proceeded to turn back the clock aesthetically to create what he cleverly calls a “retromod”.
Click here for more off-road builds.
Mini Pickup Restoration
With so many out-there projects and engine swaps being featured lately, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to feature a good old fashioned restoration. Jon emailed me his very thorough re-build of a classic 1977 Mini pickup. What I love about this build is that Jon built the car to be driven, and when I say “driven” I don’t mean to a few shows and back home again, he took his freshly completed Mini on a 3000mile road-trip around Europe.
Click here for more Mini builds.
Layed-out Datsun 620
I need to be careful about what I post on the Facebook page, I seem to have created more work for myself! Today I found a picture of a car I thought looked pretty cool, edited it slightly, then posted it up. I didn’t realise it would prompt a handful of the 1700+ followers to request a full build thread. Well, who am I to decline such a request? Although, I’d hate to imagine what would happen if I couldn’t provide a thread to go with an image in the future, I’m imagining an angry mob with home-made TIG’d pitch forks and high-octane gas powered torches.
So, by poplular demand, here’s a Datsun 620 pickup with a very funky oldschool paint job, having it’s undergarments torn out and replaced with fresh metal and airbag suspension.
’51 Ford pickup
Almost 2 years ago to the day I featured a hand-built aluminium hot rod named Emerald Tide which took it’s styling inspiration from an artist’s painting. Well the same artist has many more paintings and the same builder is creating another awesome car to match one of them. This time it’s a chopped and channeled ’51 Ford pickup going by the name of Lit Up. I know I say this about many builds but the fabrication work in this one really is simply amazing. The word “talent” doesn’t even come close when trying to describe the one-man, metal-morphing, killer-shop-owning, car-building machine they call Jimmy. The custom chassis rails made from laser-cut sheets of flat metal on the first page should give you a fair idea.
VW Fox ute conversion
Take one VW Fox 2-door wagon, wield your choice of cutting utensil around some structural pieces of metal rearward of the B pillar, mix in a bit of hard work and welding, and you end up with your very own US version of a VW Saveiro. That’s exactly what Shawn did, and he was nice enough to shoot me a link to his build thread to share with everyone. One thing is for certain, all the custom fabrication work wasn’t done so it could sit pretty and hardpark it’s whole life, this little truck was built to work!
To see more ute conversion builds, click here.
ETS Drift Ute
Do you follow Nigel’s blog, Engineered to Slide? Well you should, he’s the crazy DIY fabricator behind two awesome S13 Nissan builds, one of which was part of the starting line-up of posts I made when this blog debuted. He’s just started a new project which I think you’ll be interested in, a hollowed-out Toyota Hilux ute/pickup being built around a custom chassis with a drive-line and suspension setup donated from an S15 Nissan Silvia. I’m very excited about this build because I know from Nigel’s previous work that it’s going to be finished, and finished to a high standard, this guy doesn’t muck around! Make sure you keep up with the progress by following the updates on his blog, I’ll be sure to post another update here as the build progresses further.
Syborg – Completed
Well this is a weird feeling, I’m posting an update on the first ever build that I featured on this site from way back in February of 2009. There’s a good chance some of you haven’t seen all of the builds I’ve posted during the life of the site, including this one, so click here to go back to the original post to locate the build thread link for this pro-touring masterpiece. Marty has been busy in the past year or so, so there’s plenty of work to catch up on.
R33 Skyline Ute
You most likely saw the finished product featured on Speedhunters last week, but have you seen the build of the R33 ute? Check after the jump for the link. If that isn’t enough sportscar-to-ute conversion action for you, then you can check out these previous features:
– Truckasaurus RX7
– BMW M5 ute
MX520
Here’s a build thread I’ve been reading for quite a long time, and I’ve got a slight suspicion that a lot of you are going to enjoy it. It’s another build based on the “X-chassis underneath Y-body” formula, and this time the culprits are Mazda MX5 subframes/driveline/shock towers being attached to the body of a Datsun 520 pickup.
When it all comes together after a long and creative build process, Bob takes his DIY hybrid creation to the track and shows up some much more expensive machinery. Here’s a small snippet from one of his race outing results to give you an idea:
Position 3 – 1:08.886 – 1966 Datsun MX520
Position 4 – 1:10.366 – 2003 Corvette Z06
You can’t help but sit back and smile when that happens. Check after the jump to see how this track day sleeper was built…