Custom trucks and lowriders are definitely not my bag, but there’s no denying that seeing a dealership / workshop that specializes in these is something to behold – and take a couple pictures of. This place I discovered recently seems to be chiefly concerned with pickup trucks, both JDM and American. Not much to say about these, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.
Nice little orange Toyota P30 Publica pickup in the back, there. Those were made from 1969 to 1988, outlasting the original saloon base by a decade. I wish I could have investigated further, but my nonexistent Japanese is not helping me in these sorts of situations. Besides, this was the workshop. I saw that there was another array of weird-looking vehicles down the road, which was the dealership.
Quite a strange mix, isn’t it? And the number of these things was pretty impressive, too. This is all located in a fairly out of the way part of Japan, yet there is a customer base for these. I hope that, unlike their wares, this workshop is doing better than just barely scraping by.
This side of the forecourt had a few pickups that looked less modified – and quite nice. The Nissan 720 was especially sweet, after all those sunken trucks with their bellies touching the tarmac. If this had been a classic car dealer, I would have tried to Google-translate my way into the place for a closer look. But as it wasn’t, I merely skimmed the surface. Ah well. Better luck next time!
Related posts:
Cohort Classic: Toyota Publica Ute (P30) – Cute!, by PN
CC On-The-Go Outtake: 1982 Datsun 720 (Turbo?) Diesel Pickup, by Jim Klein
CC Capsule: 1984 Nissan 720 – Who Needs a Big Truck?, by GGH06
Well, slamming these to the ground certainly takes the whole “the bed on modern trucks are just WAY too high for easy loading” thing. ;o)
In a rather sad CC Effect this morning was a 1975-ish “K5?” style Chevy Truck on Belair Road, perpendicular to the curb. And this must’ve just happened, too.
I was dropping of something to my wife that she needed and forgot to take with her to work. I pulled in to drop it off. When I went to leave, this Chevy pick-up (in otherwise a really in-great-shape classic) was sideways blocking the northbound lanes. It too was “slammed to the ground” in a sense. Something must have broken in its front end, as the right front wheel was askew, and the front of the truck was sitting on the ground near the curb. Hopefully, there was no other damage and it was easily repairable.
Not sure what’s going on with the comment editor this morning… Akismet must be having a bad day.
My first comment (to Paul’s post) had to be retrieved from the SPAM filter… twice. And this comment did not allow me to make a correction to add a missing word to that first sentence….
It should read:
“Well, slamming these to the ground certainly takes away the whole “the beds on modern trucks are just WAY too high for easy loading” thing.”
“Well, slamming these to the ground certainly takes away the whole “the beds on modern trucks are just WAY too high for easy loading” thing.”
As I’ve probably mentioned before, but the landscapers who maintain my neighbor’s lawn drive around in a lowrider Chevy pickup (although not nearly as low as the ones pictured here). At first I thought it was kind of silly, but as I thought about it more I realized the lower bed height does likely make it easier for them to load and unload their equipment. And whatever payload capacity may have been sacrificed by modifying the suspension, it’s surely still up to the task of carrying a couple of lawnmowers and leaf blowers. And IMO it’s no sillier than carrying the equipment on a trailer behind a pickup with the bed completely empty, like a lot of other landscapers in these parts do.
RetroStang Rick is right – for all who fuss about bed heights, here you go!
Interesting that all the American pickups are Chevrolet and, from what is pictured, primarily of the 1988 to 1997 generation. There is a single ’03-ish one I see plus an ’07-’10ish. It seems the habit of putting an Escalade front clip on a Chevrolet pickup, as seen in the first picture, isn’t limited to North America.
From my recollection of 90s customization trends, the 88-97 GM trucks were the favored base for lowriders due to a combination of traditional preference for Chevy, more easily lowered suspension than Ford and a body shape that worked well with period graphics. The only thing missing in these photos is a “phantom dually” which was a truck with extra wide rear tires covered by the fender flares from a dual rear wheel model. Unfortunately we don’t have photos of the rears of these trucks to see how many have a roll pan in place of the rear bumper and whether any of them have C4 Corvette taillights in the roll pan.
I know Japanese roads are smooth, but this seems like an even less practical fad in Japan than in the US. I guess I’m also surprised that local regulations would even allow this … or are these show vehicles only?
Just can’t get enthused about these vehicles that are totally slammed when stationary. This is what proper Citroens looked like when they were ready for the scrapyard and the clever suspension was shot. Locally there’s an “E” class Merc wagon looking like this as well – maybe the owner is saving up for the fix, since it must be worth more that the repair bill will be.
in answer to dman and Uncle Mellow these trucks typically use airbag suspension that can be set to a less impractical ride height for driving around