I'm pretty sure I'm the first here in the US if not the world - I've just begun construction on my 95' Kingcab mini - 5" (total, 2 1/2" each side) widebody, all completely custom metalwork done by myself and my friends. Here's a pic (sorry for the bad lighting - once I have new pics I'll be putting them on my website, which I'll link below here.) The bumper is off of a 2001 pathfinder, had to widen the truck to fit it. Hopefully I'll have the work done soon. Be on the lookout for it at minitruck shows.
If those link's aren't clickable just copy & paste. Thanks for checking out my ride and I'll be checking all yours out as well. Nissans Rule!
(For anyone interested as well, I just crashed the Z that's on the site... But with the insurance money from that I'm turbocharging the minitruck, so it's all good!
I'm diggin' it. I think it will look pretty tight. Drop a Sr20 in there while your at it. And then you will be taking show and go. Good luck on the project, hopefully it will come out nice. Keep us posted!
it's already got the go, and will be gettin faster as well. I'm not going the SR20 route, I'll be twin turbocharging the VG30E that's in there with 2 Garrett T25's and an intercooler. I'm probably going to make the jump to engine management as well, maybe Haltech E6K or the like. Right now it runs a 15.17 in the 1/4 mile (that was in Palmdale at 3000 ft level as well) but with the turbos it should be much lower... if I can get traction that is... lol
it's already got the go, and will be gettin faster as well. I'm not going the SR20 route, I'll be twin turbocharging the VG30E that's in there with 2 Garrett T25's and an intercooler. I'm probably going to make the jump to engine management as well, maybe Haltech E6K or the like. Right now it runs a 15.17 in the 1/4 mile (that was in Palmdale at 3000 ft level as well) but with the turbos it should be much lower... if I can get traction that is... lol
Sounds like a great idea so far. Twin's sounds fun also. I have beeing pondering that idea myself with my sr20. But not big ones atleast. I was think of 2 small ones, but I don't know what the out come might be. Only if I had the money to spend on the whole project. Another 4 years I guess.
Traction sounds like its going to be a bit of a problem. I wonder if there is a way to get pozy on your truck... Perhaps?!?! Just an idea... A long shot you could say.. lol. But dude, i think this is going to be a bad ass little project. You have my luck.
As far as posi goes I was looking at a couple options... one being some kind of air locker like they use in offroad applications, the other being swapping in a *looks to see if anyone is paying attention...* toyota *phew* axle from the TRD tacoma, which not only has an electronic locker, but disc brakes on it as well. Only probs i have with the 2nd option are the fact it's toyota, and that I've heard from a friend with the TRD taco that the locker isn't all it's cracked up to be, which means I'll prolly be going with an ARB locker or a Detroit of some sort, if I can find one for the Nissan. Any 4x4 guys that know of any out there?
As for the turbos, I'm getting the settlement check from my insurance (for my Z) tomorrow, so I should be turbocharged by the end of june at the latest. I'll be posting pics & specs as there's a mustang chassis dyno in the same shop, and I'll make a couple runs to get the HP & torque figures. Right now the engine (with minor mods) is putting 143.3hp & 158.3 ft. lbs. torque down to the ground. (all figures taken at SWAT performance in Lancaster, CA at 3000 ft. elevation) FYI my mini has an auto trans too in case anyone was wondering. IMO, they're better for drag racing thanks to the torque converter... anyone wants to start a thread on that subject, put it in an appropriate area, I don't think this is the place though...
Sweet truck man, I am diggin' it.
TT VG30 Nice!
Lockers, if the truck has the Stock V6 rear-end I belive you can find Detroit lockers for it, personally I would go with the ARB so you can have the best of both worlds locked and open. ARB has a good rep, i think you would be happy with it. Auto tranny, should work great for you, most hardcore drag guys use auto trannies. For traction I'm sure you could have a set of traction bars made for your truck. If you plan on a lot of drag racing I would considers tubbing the rear and shortening the axle so you can fit big meats under there, again this isnt that hard to do. If you were to consider swapping rear axle the best way to go would be a shortened Ford nine inch. You can get hella parts for them, you can buy them shortend to your specs, tough as nails, and easy gear changes. Have you thought about using mostly 300Z TT parts for your motor? Like say the fuel system? I think a good way to go would be to convert your motor to a ZX TT, fuel sys and all, better yet sell your motor and drop in a modded ZX TT motor(save some hassel).
Yeah it has the stock Diff on it, and that'sthe reason I had thought to go ARB - so I can still drive it reasonably on the street.
Funny you should mention the 300ZX TT... I just crashed mine. I was going to buy the car back after they paid me for it but I did math, and the cost of rebuilding the VG30DETT out of it would outweigh the cost of just turbocharging my VG30E. Heck, I was always going to put the 300's engine in there, but when I found the car for only $500 more than the parts were going to cost me for the swap, I bought it last year. But now it's gone. I'll post a link to some pics of the totalled Z once I get them up online. I may still go with a VG30DETT sometime in the future, but for now I think the VG30E will do fine. They have the same bottom end & block (only diff being lower compression pistons in the VG30DETT, which I am eventually going to do to the VG30E so I can run higher boost levels) so the one I have should be able to handle the extra hp/torque.
Here's the deal, it's costing me $3500 for twin turbos, intercooler, blow off, and all custom manifold work & piping, installed. I don't think that's bad at all.
So as far as the rear end of the truck goes, I was going to be 4-linking it. I can't use traction bars because they'd scrape the ground, and I thought about ladder bars but they're not very street freind'y and I do plan on still using this on the street. A friend and I are working on a design that will allow me to have airbags for show & street, and then swap in coilovers for racing, kind of a pushrod type suspension deal. If we ever make it work, I'll be sharing the design with everybody on my website. This is all in the future though, right now we're concentrating on finishing the body work.
*Phew* that was alot of typing
Peace
~Stickerz~
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But with the insurance money from that I'm turbocharging the minitruck, so it's all good! 
