Excuse me while I wipe the dust off of my keyboard *cough, cough*. There is an old saying that goes something like "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." I suppose Mr. Nietzsche has had his moments of brilliance and I would never want to step on his toes, but I would like to have his famous quote amended to read more like this "That which you know will kill you, you should not try."

Anyone who frequents any type of social media has more than likely seen the abundance of '80s and '90s styled minis popping up from shows in Japan. Upon seeing the first few photos, I assumed that these guys were banging out new builds of retro styles. Some of these trucks are, in fact, current builds but others are artifacts from what was a mass importation into Japan from the States. In the mid-to-late-'90s there were companies that strictly dealt with exporting custom vehicles. Stories are told that guys from Japan would show up at the large shows on the west coast and purchase 10-20 high-end vehicles at a time. The purchase price was often two or three times the actual worth of the vehicle. A bit of research revealed a bit of info that I had either forgotten or had blown right by me. I guess a bit of history will best explain why we see so many cool rides in Japan including minis, muscle cars, hot rods, and lowriders.

Renderings
Comer Design

Renderings - On Deck

The custom car and truck scene in Southern California is rich with history and variety. On any given day, sightings of low rides of all kinds are not rare. One shop in particular that has been doing their fair share of crafting road-worthy beauties of all makes and models is Hoppo's Custom Suspension Works in Ontario, California. For nearly two decades, this small but lethal group has been staying on the full-time grind, and is picking up speed with each flip of the calendar page.

Art
Flip Your Lid
Graffiti artist Grant Hicks, otherwise known as SANO13, is combining his two passionsminitrucks and graffiti. Weve all tried drawing cool designs or club logos on the bill of our lids, but Grant just kicked things up a few levels. Grants specialty is shop/home graffiti as well as big canvas, but anything he touches turns into a piece of beautiful street arteven your sweat stained, stinkin hat. We tracked down Grants contact info just in case you want to give him a shout about inking up your own cap. Find em creeping around at facebook.com/grant.hicks.54 or drop a line to sano13graff@hotmail.com.

A recent discussion came up between a friend and myself about fabrication versus details. Has one replaced the other? Are the details still as abundant as the extreme fabrication we see in current trends? Don’t get me wrong, details are abundant in many vehicle genres including minitruckin’, but are they as abundant as extreme engineering and fabrication? Maybe we can blame the insane price of raw materials used in the fabrication process for yielding to a broke ass builder, in return, not leaving much coin for those details. Anyone who has visited a chrome plating facility recently knows the insane cost for some of the details I mention. Same goes for a visit to the paint supplier; a few rolls of quality tape, body fillers, primers and sealers can leave a guy in the parking lot gasping for air after paying the bill. Have we, the custom enthusiast, decided to sacrifice some of the details or final touches for other things? Is this why banging audio systems have made their way to the wayside?

OK, so we have another weird issue for you. Not sure if that’s a good selling point to start this one off with but whatever, it should make for a nifty little flip-through. I think as the year goes on (it’s currently October 29th) the need to drop the cool guy face becomes more important than ever. Why? Well, the winter months absolutely blow for a good majority of you out there. The combination of snow, freezing temps and frozen toes, and a lack of shows to go to sounds like a great mix for a bad time—or so I would imagine.

I often make a reflection to a certain place or time that sparks the idea for each month's MT Originals article. Each reflection needs to have a connection to my thoughts rather than me throwing a dart at a board each month. This month's subject matter came to me while our 4-year-old son had an in depth conversation with our 17-year-old son about toys and cartoons. Odd how something so random can transport you to a specific place and time, often down to the minute. This time, I found myself reminiscing to when my high school senior was a youth, a toddler, and a newborn. After he was only a few months old, I had taken a picture of him lying on the bed next to an MT centerfold, which was his namesake of sorts. When he was still a bun in the oven, I was having trouble with a middle name. After a few months of bouncing around ideas, that name indirectly came to me in the form of an issue I had been obsessing over for months. After reading the article in the mag numerous times, I kept seeing the name Pat, short for Patrick I assumed, hence the idea for Logan Patrick.

Art From Behind Bars
Back in our October 2012 issue, we made a comment about not seeing as many drawings from the “inside” as we used to. That’s all it took to stir the pot, and the influx of amazing inmate artwork began pouring in. Do the time, don’t let the time do you. Thanks guys!

ALL of this stuff! Yup, it's that time again. The season of giving people gifts out of pure obligation is upon us once again. Hopefully you have cool and interesting people to shop for. But even if the only cool and interesting person on your shopping list is yourself, hey, that's cool. You can waste your time trying to find a parking spot among the mob of hostile, last minute shoppers at the mall, or you can find that perfect gift for your favorite minitrucker right here! Again, if you're your own favorite minitrucker, hey, that's cool. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.

Write us at!
Email: mini.truckin@sorc.com
OR
Mini Truckin' Magazine
1733 Alton Parkway, Suite 100
Irvine, CA 92606

Twelve miles west of Philadelphia, in Media, Pennsylvania is Brad Fab Industries' small, tucked-away shop space. The building is just big enough to house two handfuls of projects, a second story office/loft space, and a few “someday” projects out in the back. There isn't one square foot of space that isn't taken up by machinery, tools and parts, or trucks, but when walking through there isn't a strangling, cramped feeling.

January 1992 Volume 6 Number 1

In Louisville, Kentucky, there's a guy by the name of Mike McKinney. Never heard of him? Well, that's really no surprise. If you aren't a fan of gritty, bare bones, pre-ECU minitrucks, then you may have naturally glanced over his work.

While doing a bit of lurking on the ol' social media sites, I came across a topic asking the exact name and model of a specific wheel that was ever so popular in the '90s—the WED GS. This wheel seems to be the Holy Grail among the old school crowd. Not a week goes by that someone doesn't go on record regretting selling a set or is searching the globe for a set. Ironic that this wheel seemed to be on one out of three minis back in the day and now no one can find a foursome, not to mention a single wheel. After the discussion bounced around a few times debating if the wheels were actually called Weld G5 or WED GS, I decided to go do some research. The first mag that came to mind was the issue bearing a super low Mazda on a set of the chrome wheels in question. After grabbing the mag and reading a few pages, it was obvious that this was a great feature for the next subject for MT Originals. By the way, WED GS is, in fact, the official name of the wheels.

Write us at, email
mini.truckin@sorc.com
Mini Truckin' Magazine
1733 Alton Parkway, Suite 100
Irvine, CA 92606

In heart of the Crossroads Arts District in Kansas City, Missouri, and encased in a nondescript brick building is KC Auto Worx. Shop owner, Patrick Cox, prides his small tribe on offering the customer quality automotive craftsmanship, bulletproof general maintenance, and a unique experience unavailable anywhere else. What this young shop might lack in years, it makes up for with a unique take on the classic American service station and a blend of hard knocks old school style and street art culture. "Great Service at a Fair Price" is the motto, KC Auto Worx is the name.

One hundred bucks isn't really that much money at all…until you find 100 extra smackers that is. At this point, the options are limitless, and buying something you really don't need becomes the best part about the newfound cash. Now, there's nothing wrong with being el cheapo and buying a bunch of smaller things to stay under the bill budget but we're looking to blow our load on single items with this list. On that C-note, let's get blowin'.

My phone went off one day while I was with the family—everyone was home, so I knew it couldn't be of much importance. This email included a link to Craigslist, and as the page loaded, I couldn't believe what I saw … Wrapped With Envy was for sale in Texas. Anyone who has ever been remotely associated with minis or lowriders must recognize this '85 Nissan 720. It seemed like everyone's second cousin and his neighbor had a poster of this truck in his garage back in 1997!