As last November’s SEMA show has demonstrated, the custom community is fully prepare to embrace the compact truck resurgence, with the 2022 Ford Maverick receiving multiple makeovers for the Vegas event. And, driven by the $20,000 starting price of the compact pickup, the Maverick modding craze continues, as shown by the example gracing our screens right now, which takes a trip back to the 1990s.
In the pure mini truck customization tradition, such a machine needs to receive a lot of attention so it can kiss the pavement. And, as you can notice in the image above, this box has been ticked here.
Lead builder Jeremy Bumpus, whom you might know from MotorTrend’s CarFix, got a hold of this 2022 Maverick and decided to give it the full works via his Hot Rod Shop.
The idea was to bring the compact truck (by the way, here’s a 2022 Maverick SUV rendering) as close to the ground as possible, but your average air suspension wasn’t going to cut it, since the truck also has to jump. So, on top of hardware such as the dual-tank, four-compressor air system, serious fabrication was required—for instance, the front end received custon control arms and wheel hubs.
The 20-inch rollers are enough… for now
Speaking of air time, you’ll get a brief demo in the YouTube clip below, which shows the build before this received its 20-inch Billet Specialties rear wheels seen in the image above. However, Jeremy notes that the future will bring 22-inch units for the back, while those 20s will migrate up front.
Seeing the truck leaving the pavement at the touch of the old-choold switchbox brings back memories from decades ago, but if you’re into that, the custom paintjob of the truck is what you really need.
Mixing about ten shades in its 90s graphics trip, the paint of the Maverick also goes beyond the factory areas (i.e., the headlights have been replaced and now feature one-off, color-coded areas).
“We get to build a lot of cool stuff, but I have to say this has been the most fun I’ve had in a while,” Jeremy writes on Instagram. And that’s quite something when it describes modding a FWD truck with a turbo-four…
