Year/Make/Model 1989 Toyota Pickup
Owner and City/State Brian Mendez/ Austin, Texas
Club Affiliation: Committed Car and Truck Club
Chassis: Traditionally Body dropped 4 ¾”. Body drop was completed by Fester’s Garage with the help of Cody Brokenshire. Dual Chrome Viair 480s with a chrome 5-gallon tank. Accuair VU4 valve block controlled by the Accuair Speed Switch controller.
Front Suspension Tubular control arms with Airlift Dominator 2500 bags
Rear Suspension Reverse Triangulated 4-link. Bag over axle. Airlift Dominator 2600 bags
Drivetrain:
-Engine: 22r with Weber Side-drafts. Custom intake. Painted and Chrome pieces. GM 1-wire Chrome alternator. Crane Fireball Hi-6 Ignition, Crane LX-92 coil, Centrifugal advance distributor. Redline fuel pump and Redline fuel pressure regulator. The truck has been rewired with a Painless wiring harness setup and an 18-circuit Fuse Block.
-Transmission: Stock 4-speed Manual
Rear end Narrowed 2 ½”, converted to Ford 9 inch with 30 spline Moser Axles. Along with the brakes changed to Strange Engineering disc brakes.
Body/Paint Fester’s Garage welded in the tailgate with a custom license plate box, while Mouse’s Kustom Fab completed custom sheet metal inside the bed. More work was done inside the bed to smooth it out, which was done by Patrick Reid of Madd Concepts. The Webasto electric spoiler sunroof was added as well. The front end was changed to a 1992 4-Runner front clip, as well as a billet insert grille. To stick with the shaved theme, the Wipers were deleted and shaved as well, along with the door handles. Everything was painted in GM “Tangier Orange” and then covered in 90s-inspired graphics and checkerboards. The Theme “Speechless” carries through the graphics with the skulls not having mouths. All of the mouths are covered by graphics, rendering them “Speechless”.
Interior: Custom Fiberglass dash, Fiberglass door panels, Fiberglass console, Fiberglass back wall, all hand-fabricated by Patrick Reid of Madd Concepts.
Honda Civic bucket seats cut down and wrapped in Tan leather, along with the armrest on the door panels.
Custom Gauge cluster from Speedhut.
Painless Phantom Push Start button with keyless ignition remotes. Full Billet Toxic B.A.D Billet steering wheel. AVS digital gauge in the console for air management.
Stereo: Rockford Fosgate Punch P3S 10, Punch component 6.5”s powered by a P400-4 amplifier. Alpine CDE-143BT head unit.
Wheels: Boyd’s Deuces Rehooped by Chris Coddington of HRBB from 17×9.5 with a +6 offset, to 17×8 with +12 offset.
Tires: Kumho Ecsta ASX 215/45 R17
Reason for building/tell us the story behind it from your view. Why this vehicle, what was your motivation, and any stories you want to share along its process? = This truck was originally a passion project of Jeremy Brown, which started as a Ballistic clone, turned into what you see today. A rolling piece of art paying tribute to the early 90’s mini truckin scene, painted by the one and only, Patrick Reid. Like most of us, life happened, and unfortunately, the build was put on pause and tucked away until it could be completed. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to purchase this truck after it had been hidden away from the scene for many years. Knowing the history it held from the previous owner, I wanted to bring it back to life and give it a second chance on the show scene. Knowing the truck had some issues, but so close to being show-ready, I knew it was worth putting in some work to bring it back to life. I knew I couldn’t take this project on alone. I needed help, so I reached out to some of my closest friends to bring this show truck back. For that, I enlisted Grant, over at Partners In Crime, to help with the motor, brakes, fuel management, and all electrical issues. They didn’t waste any time taking it apart and replacing old parts with new parts, and getting the motor up and running again. Mean while Pete, AKA Pete The Meat, from Andrew Metal works, replaced and repaired the tired old suspension as well as replaced some of the air management components to get it off the ground on its own power. Without these guys, I couldn’t have gotten this far in the restoration. We have plans to replace some of the interior pieces and upgrade some of the motor components. It has been an amazing ride, and I look forward to showing off all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears everyone has put into building this truck over the years and getting it back out on the show scene.
Special Thanks:
First off, thank you to my wife, Sarah, and my son Danger for the love and support through all of this. Love you guys.
Thank you to everyone who has put in the work to build and restore this amazing truck. Also, give a Huge shout-out to my clubmates in Committee, Ben and Kristen over at Turkey Drag, Grant over at Partners in Crime, and Pete over at Andrew Metal Works. I hate you all, lol
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