When a truck enthusiast looks for a rig for a full-out custom project, they normally look for something with a few years of wear and tear on it. This makes it easier to justify all the cutting and welding that will be involved rather than a new expensive truck straight off the showroom floor. Bobby Bare of Tennessee shares this concept of thought and bought his 2000 Nissan Frontier in July of 2006 with full intentions of making it "one phat mini."

The truck was originally a project in the works for it was already in primer and laid frame when Bobby purchased it from a guy in Florida. However, according to Bobby, the truck was in absolutely terrible condition, and he even had doubts the project was doable. Not being the type to shy away from a challenge, Bobby tore apart the Frontier to see what could be done to bring it back to life. Other than the main parts of the air suspension, Bobby had to rework the entire truck to get it ready for the 2007 show season.

The Nissan Frontier was easily tucking the 17-inch Intro billet wheels with a dynamic suspension setup consisting of four Firestone airbags, dropped spindles up front, and a four-link out back, but to make the truck more his, Bobby decided to take the project one step further with a 2½-inch stock floor body drop. This gave the truck the reflector-collecting stance Bobby was looking for in his ride. To work the kinks out of the suspension, Bobby plumbed the suspension with new air lines and a set of new compressors which made everything good-to-go for the road.

Of course, this truck wouldn't be a show truck at all without a little bodywork. Factory extrusions such as the door handles, antenna, hood squirters, and fuel hatch were all shaved. A molded-in roll pan and smoothed tailgate was also added, along with a set of euro taillights to complete the rear end. The entire front end was replaced due to shoddy metal work and received a billet grille and euro styled clear lighting and side markers to brighten things up. Once the bodywork was complete, the Nissan skin received a healthy dose of apple green paint along with a trick set of silver flames that appear on the hood, tailgate, and sides.

Under hood, the engine is stock, except for a custom air intake and a lot of tricked out painted pieces. To make room for the drastic suspension modifications, the battery was relocated to a custom built compartment in the bed. Fuel for the engine is fed from a custom fuel tank which is also located in the bed.

Inside the cab, the truck used to sport gray fittings from the assembly line, but it was determined to be inadequate for the truck's new image. A matching interior was set into motion with two-toned green and silver velvet. All other left over pieces were smoothed and painted to match the exterior skin. To bring some further shine to the interior, a flamed billet steering wheel made its way to the top of the painted steering column along with a shifter knob that tops the five-speed linkage. A billet rearview mirror hangs from the glass to help avoid collisions when moving in reverse.

Tunes are a necessity when out and about, so this radical Frontier was fitted with a Pioneer CD head unit. An Audio Pipe multi-channel amplifier was installed to enhance the speaker signals to the dual 15-inch Audio Pipe subs located in a custom enclosure in the extended portion of the cab.

Bobby built is truck to drag, and draggin' is what he definitely does! We have a video of Bobby draggin' the rockers off of his truck at the 2007 Mini Truckin' Nationals which makes this truck "one phat mini."

Shout Out: "Thanks to my wife and kids, all the babysitters, Mallury Paint & Customs, Eddie's Truck Accessories, Daren, Moh, Biggie, Greg, Shane, and Travis." -Bobby Bare