1994 Mitsubishi Mighty Max - Weekend Warrior: STK TRUK Edition Part 1: Intro
I'd like to introduce you to project STK TRUK (Stock Truck). This is a project that many of you can relate to. It's being built in my garage, completely after-hours, and only with the help of friends. The premise is to show that it is possible to build and drive a project from the garage, using tools that are affordable and easy to use. We'll be making our own brackets, and making our own four-link and installing it. Like most minitruckers, I work late into the night, and the majority of this truck will be built in the dark, as you'll see in some of the pictures. Of course, we'll try and build as much as we can over the weekends when we're not at shows or covering assignments.
The majority of the tools we'll be using are what most of you will find in your own garage. Granted, not everybody has air tools, but I think it's becoming more common to find these in most garages nowadays. However, if you don't have a welder, I would definitely recommend getting one, especially since you can't really 'bag a mini without a welder. Most of my tools are very affordable, about 80 percent of the tools are Craftsman I have purchased at Sears over the years. The body saw I'm using is from Matco and it still costs less than $200. Like a lot of guys do, I borrowed it from my buddy, Steve, at Bio Kustumz, who is taking part in the buildup. I know we can't have all the tools we want, so sometimes we need to borrow them from friends. Regardless of what brands of tools you have, this will give you a good idea of what we're working with for the project.
Now that we have given you a run- through of some of the tools for this job, we can begin setting up the truck. We say some, because we can't go through every tool, but you'll see most of the tools and their applications during the build. Today, we're going to set up the truck to prepare for 'bagging. After we 'bag the front and rear, we are going to body-drop it, tub the front and rear, and lay the truck out on 18-inch rims.
