FOREIGN AFFAIRS

A Titan With a Twist

BUILDING A NISSAN TITAN DEFINITELY HAS ITS UPS AND DOWNS. On the plus side, they’re still a rare sight even after 14 years of production. Conversely, they’re a pain to modify, which might be why it’s uncommon to see them on the ground. Did Jimmy Chollett know what he was getting into when he decided to build a Nissan full-size? Maybe. But as the previous owner of a ’bagged ’02 Dodge Ram, he was no stranger to a challenge.

Although there are a few lift kits available for the Titan, if you want to go in the other direction, you’re pretty much on your own. Going down requires a lot of ingenuity, a ton of one-off parts and slew of patience. After all, you can’t just bolt on a kit and roll out like you can with other makes.

Jimmy’s first experience with ’bagging his Titan didn’t go as planned—at all. In fact, it was a pretty harsh lesson in choosing the right shop, as the rear suspension decided to remove itself from the truck on its maiden voyage home. Luckily, he soon found Rutherford’s

Rods & Customs, which fixed the whole air setup and made Jimmy’s truck as reliable as could be, which encouraged him to hit shows with it as often as possible.

Around this time, a buddy of his, who also had a Titan, mentioned that he knew of an Infiniti QX56 front clip for sale. The deal was too good to pass up, and it didn’t hurt that Jimmy’s wife agreed to buy it for him for his birthday.

But after a few cruises with his club, Aftermath, he soon felt like the odd man out since his was the only truck that wasn’t body-dropped. Yeah, the guy with the ’bagged Titan with a QX56 clip didn’t feel like his ride was turning enough heads—go figure. The peer pressure was

strong, so when he eventually discovered Jake Mckidde and Kyle Dimetroff at Phat Phabz, he knew what to do. Jake and Kyle are just about the body-droppingest guys around these days (that’s a new term as of right now). Jake and Kyle fabricated a new frame from the firewall back from 2x4 boxed steel, which allowed the cab and bed to come down a total of 4 inches. And since everything else was now new and the rearend was getting narrowed anyway, the Phat Phabz crew built a new 3-link wishbone rear suspension and updated the front with custom drop spindles from Michigan Metal Works. For wheels, Jimmy wanted to go the big ’n’ billet route (can you blame him?), so a custom set of 22- and 24-inch Raceline Deceptive wheels, with 265mm wide Falken tires, were installed all around.

Now, we would probably be tempted to call it quits for a while and cruise, but Jimmy knew that if he slowed his pace, he might not stay motivated to finish the truck. In all honesty, it was the smartest move he could have made. According to Jimmy, things moved pretty quickly from that point. “From [Phat Phabz] it went to Twizted Mindz Metalworx for bodywork and paint. I didn’t much care for the big fender flares that came with the front clip, so the [Titan] fenders were grafted in and rolled into the bumper.” But the list of body modifications didn’t stop there. Stephen Bramlett and Ryan

Alford from Ryan’s Sheetmetal Designs put in some work in the bed, adding bead-rolled metal with dimple-die holes.” Once the body was blocked smooth, the truck was painted with Chrysler

Granite Crystal Metallic to keep things classy.

Approaching the finish line, while no doubt showing plenty of updates online, Jimmy’s cohorts in the Aftermath California chapter, Stanley Butler and Elias (who goes by “Weezy”), convinced him to ship the Titan off to Socal to hook up the interior at California Upholstery. Without a fully formed plan, Jimmy just told them to surprise him. “I have no imagination, so I couldn’t figure out a color scheme. Ten days later, the truck arrived back in Texas, and wow!” That last part pretty well describes Jimmy’s truck in a nutshell.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT JIMMY SHIPPED HIS TRUCK FROM TEXAS TO CALIFORNIA TO GET THE INTERIOR DONE BY HIS BUDDIES AT CALIFORNIA UPHOLSTERY IN BELL GARDENS? EVEN MORE AMAZING IS THE FACT THAT HE GOT THE TRUCK BACK JUST 10 DAYS AFTER IT ARRIVED IN CALIFORNIA.

THE INFINITI QX56 FRONT END JUST MAKES THIS TRUCK. SURE, IT’S BOLTED ON, BUT A LOT OF EXTRA WORK WENT INTO MAKING IT LOOK PERFECTLY AT HOME ON THE TITAN. FOR INSTANCE, THE INFINITI FLARED BODYLINES WERE ELIMINATED BY GRAFTING SECTIONS FROM THE ORIGINAL TITAN FENDERS INTO PLACE, AND THE LEADING EDGES WERE ROLLED TO MATCH THE INFINITI BUMPER.

LEFT. THERE ARE A LOT OF WAYS TO CUSTOMIZE A TRUCK BED, BUT WE’RE BIG FANS OF MAKING A BIG IMPACT WHILE MAINTAINING FUNCTIONALITY.

ALTHOUGH THE ENGINE IS STOCK, JIMMY DIDN’T SPARE ANY TIME, EXPENSE OR ENERGY GETTING EVERYTHING INSIDE AND OUT LOOKING TOP-NOTCH. FROM THE CUSTOM PAINT, INTERIOR AND SHEETMETAL BED, THIS TITAN LOOKS ABOUT AS GOOD AS IT GETS.