Custom 1994 Nissan Hardbody - The Road Star

Jeremy English has been working on making his truck better and better since he bought it in the summer of 1993. He built the truck initially, then rebuilt it a couple more times to try to please his ever-changing custom tastes and keep the truck competitive in Midwest shows. If you add up all the different looks the Nissan has had while in Jeremy's hands, you'll find at least three separate themes. The one we're most concerned with, however, was developed over the past 2-1/2 years.

Jeremy has always been concerned with building the best truck. After an accident left it pretty banged up, it was do-or-die time for the Nissan. As the truck was struck, Jeremy hit a guardrail. When the driveshaft broke in half, it dug into the ground and kept the truck from completely rolling over. While the damage from the accident was bad, it all could've been a lot worse. Jeremy was still in one piece, luckily, and when the soreness from the impact wore off, he found plenty of reasons to go hog wild with a buildup that would turn his twice-built Nissan into a showpiece.

Although much of the body was beaten during the accident, Jeremy wasn't swayed from still wanting to own the hottest mini-truck the world had ever seen. The beaten parts were stripped away, and new Pathfinder fenders, a new hood, and a new bed were added. With these new pieces, however, there was still something that couldn't be unbolted that needed serious fixing. The most impacting modification Jeremy could think of, which would also fix the truck's rumpled roof, was to roadster chop the top and permanently ditch the roof. Jeremy and Mike Leonard busily hacked the roof of the Hardbody away and cut the A-pillars down more than 7 inches. Since Jeremy does windshield replacement for a living, pulling the old glass out and putting a freshly cut windshield in its place was a piece of cake.

The open pillar ends were then capped off, along with the tops of the doors. Not wanting anything to look out of place, Jeremy requested that the back of the cab also be capped off. Before the crew started to weld all the openings shut, Jeremy had a brainstorm: He decided that every corner should be rounded off. Any place that used to be square would no longer be. With that in mind, the open cab corners were radiused, along with the four corners of the bed. The guys smoothed the cab floor, bed floor, and anything else that didn't flow with the ultra-clean look Jeremy was after. A steel dash was built especially for the truck and molded into the cab so that there wouldn't be any seams or bolts to ever worry about.

Next, the truck's suspension was revisited. A TCI four-link was installed in the rear, while fresh air-ride suspension was installed up front. The whole chassis was detailed and painted dark purple to give it show appeal. For the air supply, a tank was installed against the bulkhead in the bed area and plumbed using flexible DOT tubing. With the truck's suspension 100 percent operational, all that was left to do was bolt all the necessary parts onto the chassis with top-quality hardware. Jeremy insisted that everything attached to the chassis should stand the test of time, so all-stainless-steel fasteners were used to put the truck back together again.

Once Jeremy's entirely too-long list of body mods was met, Todd Boatright ensured that the truck was perfectly straight before spraying the BASF Starlight Silver Metallic basecoat over every square inch of the truck's body. When Todd was done with his duties, Jeremy looked to the talents of Lance Moorehead, who was given the task of breaking up the all-silver coat with BASF Boysenberry Purple tribal flames on the sides and hood of the truck. What rolled out of the paint booth was every bit what Jeremy had always dreamed of in a custom ride.

This project came full circle as Jeremy prepared to finish off the interior. Trim World in Edmond, Oklahoma, was handed the 240 SX bucket seats to wrap with gray leather. The shop also added dark-gray carpeting for the cab floor and a pair of gray Hyundai lap belts to the bucket seats for safety's sake. Before they were done with their job, though, the guys also installed a custom center console, which houses Jeremy's digital air-pressure gauges as well as the switches to control the truck's suspension height.

We've seen Jeremy with our own eyes, as he's taken his finished roadster Nissan Hardbody to shows all across the Midwest and southern states. He's found that his beyond-sanitary truck does well at shows, no matter where he goes. Jeremy's truck won the Daryl Starbird Custom Rod Builder of the Year Award for 2003 - a huge accomplishment for anyone, much less a mini-trucker. When it comes to showing people that mini-trucks are every bit the refined customs that street rods are, Jeremy has succeeded flawlessly. We're very proud of the accomplishments Jeremy has had with his Nissan not only for himself, but for the custom-vehicle world in general.