Makin’ You Sick – Clint’s Pepto Pink Frontier

Posted by Kevin Whipps on Jul 25, 2010 in Featured, Import Rides | 12 comments

Custom Truck: Nissan Frontier

Sometimes you’ve got to go against the grain.

Take Clint McDowell, for example. If you saw the 20 year old on the streets of Phoenix, you’d wonder how one person could get so many piercings in their face, and how they were able to dig up a set of Max Headroom style glasses out of the 1985 parts bin. To say Clint is unique is an understatement in its highest form. Seriously on his tech sheet under “other interests” he put: “Hockey and Monkeys.”

It’s probably  no surprise then to know that this bright pink Frontier used to be a Desert Runner. Yes, Nissan’s factory pre-runner truck was in Clint’s driveway just a few years ago, really high off the ground with a funky blue color. It was neat for a while, but seriously, Clint doesn’t go for what regular people do. He couldn’t leave the truck stock, that’d be too… normal.

He wanted to reduce the daylight underneath the truck, and knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task. After searching far and wide, he came across Kevin Blysdale from Just Plain Trick in Mesa, Arizona. Kevin’s not a normal guy either, and he’s pretty handy with a plasma cutter and a welder. It was a match made in heaven.

The factory suspension is based off the 4X4 Frontier, so that had to go. Kevin cut off the front clip like it was nothing and in its place installed a front frame section from a ’94 Nissan Hardbody. After that, all of the crossmembers were raised up, and the rear end was swapped for a ’97 Hardbody axle. Now it was time to get this thing on the ground like it needed to be.

Up front, a set of 2-inch dropped spindles were paired with Slam Specialties bags to get the new front crossmember on the concrete. Kevin then built a custom 4-link to attach the new axle to the frame, then bridged and bagged the back half. Now the truck was laying frame and good to go, right? Nope. Clint wanted to go lower.

Out came the sawzall and the next few months were a blur. The truck was bodydropped 3.25 inches, the interior was done in black tweed and zebra print, and then the body was fully shaved and prepped for paint. Now the only question was, what color?

We asked Clint at our shoot that very question. “Dude, this is a sick color, but what made you pick pink?”

Clint turned to us, looked up from under his bowler hat and said, “Pink is my favorite color.”

Yeah, he’s different alright.

The resulting truck not only breaks stereotypes but also looks cool as well. Yes, the pink is a bit out there, but then again, so is Clint. He wouldn’t have it any other way.