OWNER: Toshihide Kazama
RIDE: '94 Toyota Pickup
HOMETOWN: Namekata, Ibaraki, Japan
Toshihide Kazama, the owner of this insanely clean and detailed '94 Toyota truck, was not a minitrucker when he bought this Toyota six years ago. It all started because he had friends who used to drive minitrucks in the city, so he just thought he'd buy and cruise a minitruck around with them.
At first, he just kept a static-drop and attended his first car show, where the biggest thing that caught people's attention was his fat tires. Luckily Toshihide won a trophy, thanks to clean details and fat tires that stayed inside his fenders. He became instantly addicted and was ecstatic to take home a trophy. From that point on, he began to modify his Toyota more and more.
When the chassis of his Toyota was stripped down to install airbags, Toshihide began to clean up every detail that he could do by himself. He started to clean up anything he could-like it was his lifetime work, so the truck got cleaner and shinier each day.
One day, Toshihide brought a stainless exhaust back to his house and polished it up for an entire week. The next week, he brought link bars back to his house and did the same thing. He asked his builder, Yoshiaki Kakishita at Continental Kings, to buy the best parts for his baby. Yoshiaki bought Wilwood brake calipers, an aluminum fuel cell, Earl's fuel and oil lines, a custom-made stainless header, and so on. The crew at Continental Kings worked very hard to ensure that every detail was perfect, just like Toshihide desired.
The frame was fully detailed, shaved, all the holes were filled, it was smoothed, and painted. The rear axle and link bars were smoothed and powdercoated. Custom- made plastic air tanks were designed to match Air-Zenith compressors with Dakota Digital air gauges that mount between the two air tanks.
You might wonder why such an immaculately modified and detailed truck would keep such a stock-like exterior. Well, stock-like looks with a fully detailed chassis underneath is the Japanese style. Pretending to be stock, with many tricks underneath, is what many Japanese minitruckers prefer. There's no compromise in the hard-to-see areas, which is an aspect that reflects their true passion. Six years of polishing and building make this truck one of the highest quality custom trucks in the entire world, not just in Japan.
The Lowdown
Rolling Attire
Wheels: AXIS 19x8-inch, polished front and back, bought six to cut two in half for the show display
Tires: 225/35-19 Dunlop Lemans
Chassis Modifications
Suspension type: Air
Front suspension: Custom-made tubular arms with powdercoated drop spindles
Rear suspension: Custom-made crossmembers, four-links with powdercoated rear axle
Airbag type and size:Firestone
Compressors: Two Air-Zeniths
Air line: 3/8-inch
Air accessories: Custom-made clear air tanks designed to match AZ compressors
Frame mods: Fully shaved, smoothed, and painted gun-metallic
Gas tank: Aluminum fuel cell
Brakes: Wilwood big rotors and four-piston calipers up front, and Wilwood two-piston calipers in the rear
Misc.: Fuel and brake lines are stainless tubing, or Earl's hoses
Detail work: Everything was highly-polished; every single nut and bolt
Performed by: Owner Toshihide Kazama and Continental Kings in Tamatsukuri, Ibaraki, Japan
Body Modifications
Shaved: Gas-door, tailgate handle, holes in engine bay
Body-drop: Yes with a 1/4-inch clearance between rocker and ground
Front end: 4Runner front clip and 4WD fenders
Back end: Custom-made roll pan
Misc.: Door handles are from Scion xB, widened wheel-arch on bed, de-arched front and rear fenders, smoothed inner fenders inside engine bay, fully reshaped bed floor to clear suspension and tires, and a smoothed firewall
Performed by: Owner Toshihide Kazama and Continental Kings in Tamatsukuri, Ibaraki, Japan
Paint
Brand and colors: 100-percent pure black
Style: Solid and clean
Misc.: Owner didn't like the first time the truck came out of the paint booth, so everything was repainted twice.
Interior
Seats: Procar seats, wrapped with leather and tweed
Dash: Painted
Door panels: Custom-made arm rests, power window switches, wrapped with leather and tweed
Center console: Custom-made, wrapped with leather and tweed
Gauges: One-off from Dakota Digital
Engine/Performance
Displacement: 2.4 L
Model/year: Stock '94 Toyota 22R
Header/exhaust: Custom-made stainless
Misc.: Polished aluminum parts, chrome bolts and nuts, Earl's hoses, aluminum radiator, finned ATF cooler, and much more!
Special Thanks by Owner:
Anyone who helped me, even though they were just as busy, my wife who doesn't know how much money I spent on this truck (ha ha!), my buddies who lead me into the minitruck world, and the talented crew at Continental Kings for all of their hard work.