At age 30, Alan Sensing can trace the beginnings of his automotive enthusiasm back more than half his life to middle school, which was when he first began noticing custom rides. A modified '96 Ranger got him started in the hobby, but the desire for a head-turning magazine-quality custom truck got stronger every year. Currently as the body shop manager for Quality Collision in Forest Park, Georgia, Alan decided to make his dream a reality. And it happened in an instant!

Ah, the great state of Iowa. Known for its great, um ... corn? Well, they have great professional sports teams. In fact, I can't think of anything interesting in Iowa, except for Cody Paulus' '89 Mazda. Putting the King of Pop to shame, Cody has reworked this dawg four different times with three different 'bag setups since high school.

Building a minitruck in the land down under isn't as easy as one might think. The laws governing the Aussie minitruckers are very stringent. Every modification that we take for granted in the United States is actually specifically outlawed in Australia, and the fines can be outrageous. If you want to have any hope of keeping your 'bagged truck, it must be tested and signed off by a safety inspector, which can get quite costly. It's not a bad idea, if the government's purpose was to keep hacked-up death traps off of the road; but it's still quite a hassle for legit shops and builders.

Brian "Izzy" Crane is an eager minitrucker, who got into this pastime to do more than party and play. For the most part, Izzy was a typical young minitrucker. He was the sort of enthusiast who couldn't wait to get to a show, set up his ride, and help others, so he could begin to soak up anything and everything about building custom rides. What we learned, however, was Izzy was mature far beyond his age.

Editor's Note: Every month we write about trucks and the owners who built them, or paid to have the trucks built by others with the know-how and tools. Well, this time we are going to flip the script a little and try something different. Over the last two years, Forbidden Fantasy has been working on building a show truck, not for any member of Forbidden but for one lucky individual who attended the 11th Annual Forbidden Fantasy Show and Shine. This truck carries with it a certain amount of pride, as it was built by a family; not a family that shares the same last name, but something that runs just as deep.

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.

Joe Hughes of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, is one hard-core minitrucker. A member of Dropmob, Chris represents his club to the fullest and hits up shows all over the East Coast. With his '95 Nissan Hardbody, he has picked up a handful of First Place trophies. But his truck was not always trophy worthy; it took some serious work to get his Nissan to the state it's in now.

In the world of minitruckin', there is an ongoing battle between two factions: those who believe in building a ride yourself, and those who pay to have a completed truck. Not being partial to either side, it is very easy to see the argument from both points of view. However, there is one trait that both have in common: passion. Minitruckers will argue about it all day, and for what reason? The fact is, there will always be someone who feels that building a truck should be done themselves and not by anyone else, and vice versa.

Thomas Matzke has owned more than one custom truck in his lifetime. He's been the owner of a '94 Isuzu, '98 BMW, and a few others throughout the years. When he decided he wanted another truck to work on, he bought a '95-1/2 Toyota Tacoma from a friend with some modifications already intact. The only problem was the truck was in about 20 crates and boxes. Because the truck was in so many pieces and purchased so cheap, Thomas couldn't resist the urge to take his game to the next level.

Owner: Gary White
Ride: '87 Dodge D-50
Hometown: Greensburg, KY
Club: 2nd to None

Owner: Ryan "Rizzo" McFadden
Ride: '00 Ford Ranger
Hometown: Taylor, MI
Club: Vertically Challenged

So, you've been to all the big shows in your area, and have yet to see your ride in the show coverage of a magazine. Or even in a picture of another truck with yours in the background. We understand your letdown; we're the ones who have to cut hundreds of photos from show coverage everyday. Believe us, we wish we could run every last photo from show coverage, but we can't. We are the ones who have to answer all the "what happened" questions.

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.

We hear it all too often, "I'll never be able to build a cover truck without my daddy's trust fund..." But that, my friends, is a stereotype that has no bearing whatsoever! The majority of the cover trucks on this very magazine are the result of years of blood, sweat, tears, friends, and beers. Yes, some trucks are shop-built and cost an arm and a leg to build, and those trucks deserve just as much respect. But this story is all about one man's battle to the top. Kyle Bertsch is a North Dakota native, who has been unfortunate enough to fight off the elements year after year, while wrenching in his cold-ass garage, all to make his dream come true.

After looking at a custom truck for the very first time, people fall into one of two categories. The first is the "Why would anyone do that to their truck?" category. The second category is the "I need to do that to my truck!" group. Jimmy Neeld Jr. from New Waterford, Ohio, began to see 'bagged minitrucks at his high school and the switch went on. From the looks of his truck today, he definitely fell into the second category and learned a little something along the way. Jimmy began by purchasing a '79 Chevy Luv. With some high aspirations from the very beginning, he knew it wouldn't take long before he was draggin' frame down the highway.

For this year's Construction Zone Special, we decided to pay homage to some of the coolest garage-built rides around by giving them more than just a single page of glory! Check out what some of the coolest under-construction rides look like from around the world, and use this as motivation to go cut on your own garage-built rides. Maybe we'll see your ride in these very pages soon enough.

For this year's Construction Zone Special, we decided to pay homage to some of the coolest garage-built rides around by giving them more than just a single page of glory! Check out what some of the coolest under-construction rides look like from around the world, and use this as motivation to go cut on your own garage-built rides. Maybe we'll see your ride in these very pages soon enough.

For this year's Construction Zone Special, we decided to pay homage to some of the coolest garage-built rides around by giving them more than just a single page of glory! Check out what some of the coolest under-construction rides look like from around the world, and use this as motivation to go cut on your own garage-built rides. Maybe we'll see your ride in these very pages soon enough.

For this year's Construction Zone Special, we decided to pay homage to some of the coolest garage-built rides around by giving them more than just a single page of glory! Check out what some of the coolest under-construction rides look like from around the world, and use this as motivation to go cut on your own garage-built rides. Maybe we'll see your ride in these very pages soon enough.

For this year's Construction Zone Special, we decided to pay homage to some of the coolest garage-built rides around by giving them more than just a single page of glory! Check out what some of the coolest under-construction rides look like from around the world, and use this as motivation to go cut on your own garage-built rides. Maybe we'll see your ride in these very pages soon enough.

When you live in a small, Southern town and one of the most influential minitrucks is built down the road from you, the chance is you are going to get a ton of ideas from that mini. Zach Quatrevingt lives in Houma, Louisiana, home of DIB Customs, the creators of the first body-dropped Nissan Hardbody on 22s. Being buddies with the guys at DIB Customs means you get to see first-hand what it takes to build a cover truck. When you get an ambitious new minitrucker, who owns his own bedliner business, together with his friends, what comes next is one of the most talked about builds on the internet: The Bayou Mazdawg.

On my final trip to Japan as the Associate Editor for MT magazine, I had the opportunity to shoot several of Japan's coolest trucks. No matter how many trucks we had seen before in Japan, it seems on each trip we found cooler and cooler trucks. The truck that stood out to me the most at this year's shoot had to be Hayato's Datsun Unibody.

Owner: Jason Fox
Ride: '00 Cheverolet S-10
Hometown: Maryville, TN
Club: Relaxed Atmosphere

Justin Terrell, or as some of his closest friends call him, "Tennessee Ellen Fish" (we'll let you ask him about that one), has been in love with minitrucks ever since he was a middle-school lad. When he had finally saved up enough coin to buy himself a worthwhile canvas, he chose this '94 Ford Ranger Splash with only slight intentions of droppin' it. You see, Justin endured some pretty harsh winters, and having only one vehicle, he wasn't planning on going all out. But, as we all know, that didn't last long. The minute Justin lowered his Ranger and bolted on a respectable set of wheels, it was game over.

Not everyone has the luxury of living in sunny Southern California, which is the birthplace of minitrucks and Mini Truckin' magazine. Many of you grew up in small towns all across the U.S., some in far-off countries. But no matter where you grew up, we have a common bond: love and appreciation for all things minitruck.