Custom 2000 GMC Jimmy - The Great Houdini

This isn't the first truck of Shane Thompson's to make the pages of a magazine. The very first truck he built was featured in the Oct. '04 issue of Truckin' on page 242. It was a much simpler truck, with a clean exterior and interior that made it magazine-worthy, but it was no where near the downright nuttiness of this '00 GMC Jimmy. After building the neon-green '94 S-10, Shane got a real taste of what it took to build an incredible mini-truck, yet he felt that he still needed to accomplish more with his next project. Once he made up his mind that he wanted to build the "lowest truck on the biggest wheels" around, he went hunting for a good platform.

Shane came across an '00 GMC Jimmy two-door that he knew would make the perfect guinea pig for his latest experiment. He picked it up in January 2003 and began the build process right away by stripping the nearly new truck completely apart. He pulled the body off the frame and began with the suspension. After bolting up a set of drop spindles, building a wishbone three-link for the rear, and reworking the front suspension to lay out with a 20x8-inch wheel, the real chassis mods began. He reworked the frame and suspension for a 3-inch stock-floor body drop so that he could keep as much headroom as possible. After the frame and suspension were finished up, Shane moved inward.

With a completely stripped body, Shane took a billion measurements and proceeded to cut out the entire floor and raise it for a 3-inch traditional body drop. This, plus the 3 inches he took out of the frame, put Shane's Jimmy 6 inches closer to the ground, nearly laying the door flat on the pavement. That alone is a major accomplishment, but after Shane reworked the front fenders, hood, and firewall to fit the 20x8-inch Intro wheels up front and 22x8s in the rear, he instantly graduated from fabricator to amazing magician. With the body on the ground way past the rocker and those big wheels tucking deep into the body of the Jimmy, Shane "Houdini" Thompson finally achieved what he had set out to accomplish. Still, he didn't stop there.

Shane went through his entire truck and gave it the same attention he'd given the suspension and body drop. He completely shaved the exterior and prepped it for the two-tone paint that he also sprayed. He redid the interior with the addition of Mazda buckets up front and a rear Jeep bench seat for the available room. This left him plenty of room to build a thumping Memphis stereo system complete with Accel Vision audio/video entertainment. However, the thing that stands out the most about the interior has to be the air tanks painted to match and mounted to the underside of the roof-skin bracing.

After the interior was buttoned up, the motor was tended to with a few handbuilt panels painted to match. When Shane finally got to take a breath and step back to take in his new creation, he almost couldn't believe what he had built. Exactly one year and one month of tedious work went into Shane's '00 Jimmy, but the magic the truck exudes will be around for some time. For all the particulars, check out the Lowdown.

The lowdown

Wheels/Tires Front: 20x8-inch Intro Radicallis wrapped in Nitto's 235/35ZR20 NT555 rubber / Rear: 22x8-inch Into Radicallis wrapped with 265/35ZR22 rubber

Suspension/Chassis All suspension mods by owner / DJM 2-inch drop spindles / Monroe shocks relocated at all four corners / prerunner hub assemblies swapped to S-10 spindle setup / 'bagged all the way around with 2,600-pound Firestone 'bags / three-link wishbone for the rear / 3-inch stock-floor body drop on the chassis

Body Modifications All body modifications by owner / 3-inch traditional body drop on the body (3-inch stock floor plus 3-inch traditional - for all the math geniuses, that's a huge 6-inch body drop) / suicide doors / shaved hood squirters, gas door, taillights, roof seams, roof rack, third brake light, rear wiper, rear hatch pop / gas door relocated to roof / fenders pie-cut and extended 2 inches with a handbuilt hood to fit the 20s with such a huge body drop / 8-inch LEDs flushed into the bumper / billet grille insert

Paint Painted two-tone Viper Red on top and black on bottom by owner

Interior/Stereo All stereo work by owner / Mazda MX 3 bucket seats up front and Jeep Wrangler rear seat wrapped in gray and red carbon-fiber vinyl / Pioneer head unit fiberglassed into the overhead display / two air tanks for airbag system mounted to the rear of the headliner and underside of roof skin / two 10-inch Memphis subwoofers mounted in custom-built box / two Memphis amplifiers powering the subs and separates / 12-inch Accel monitor and two 6-inch monitors connected to a PlayStation 2 for video entertainment

Engine/Performance Flowmaster exhaust system / Optima Yellow Top relocated under the rear

Miscellaneous Shane Thompson set out to build the lowest truck with as big of rims as possible to push this sport to its limits. We think he succeeded.

Special Thanks Kelly and Derrick at Frameworks / Jim Johnso