Owner: Joey Whitby
Ride: '06 Scion xB
Hometown: Phoenix, AZ
Joey Whitby of Phoenix, Arizona, is a long-time mini builder. For almost 20 years now, ever since he was 16, Joey has been building minitrucks. Most of them, though, have just come and gone and never really been completed; in the sense that none of them saw paint.
With family and responsibility came the need for something with a bit more room in the backseat. So, Joey bought himself a commuter car, an '06 Scion xB. He still had a mini to build, a 4Runner with a 2WD Toyota as a parts truck. But while that was being built, he had something to get to and from work.
It was a fateful day in the spring of 2006, when the annual Art of Noize show hit the Phoenix area, and Joey took his son, Tyler, to the show. A car club named Scion Apocalypse was there in full force with a huge group of done-up xBs just like Joey's. Tyler turned to his Dad and asked, "Daddy, when are you going to fix up your Scion, so you can bring me home some trophies?"
When you get a green light like that, you've got to do it, so Joey did. He went to his buddy, Jimmy, at Arizona Artworx and he tore into the xB from head to toe. The stock suspension was yanked and replaced with a two-pump Pro-Hopper Pro Competition setup with four Parker accumulators and three Optima batteries. To get the car that extra bit lower, Joey yanked the power steering box, so the half shaft could travel that much higher. Then, Jimmy painted every inch of the car with bio-mechanical graphics of skulls and tubing everywhere with a tribal pattern to break it all up. The details in the paint are amazing, and it took a ton of time to get it perfect.
It's not everyday that your 5-year-old son tells you to build something, but when he does, you'd better listen. It may not have a bed, but Joey feels that his xB is just as much of a minitruck as any of the other trucks he's built. To put it in his words, "I've got minitrucker blood flowing through my veins."
To submit your ride for consideration, you can e-mail high-resolution jpeg pics and information to galen.armenta@sourceinterlink.com or snail mail to Mini Truckin' magazine, Attn: Hometown Heroes, 2400 E. Katella Ave., Ste. 700, Anaheim, CA 92806.