John Mata Jr.
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July 14, 2022
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Features
Nathan Adair has been a lifelong minitruck fanatic. Since his early teenage years, he’s always had his eyes on custom compact pickups, and has never been without one to this day since 1998. When he was just 14 years old though, all he could think about was buying an Isuzu pickup and shaping it to meet his own standards.
“I was finally able to buy the Isuzu truck I wanted when I was about 19, 20 years old,” Nathan says. “There was just something about these trucks that spoke to me, and as soon as I took ownership of one, I couldn’t wait to start playing around with it.”
The Isuzu has taken many turns throughout the years, but Nathan never got too tired of it to stop making improvements whenever he could. Although he liked the physical look of his truck, he was hoping to turn it into a performance driven machine that would stand out from the rest of the crowd.
One of the first things Nathan did to his ’93 Isuzu was alter its ride height for the better. Nathan, along with friend Tommy Segler, built a custom box tube frame for it and equipped the new chassis with one-off upper and lower control arms, a rear parallel 4-link setup with Watt’s link, Slam Specialties SS6 (front) and SS7 (rear) ‘bags, along with QA1 Stocker Star shocks all around to promote the best ride quality possible. The guys even took the time to run copper hard air lines, wired up dual Air Zenith compressors and utilized SMC valves to control the air delivery.
The Isuzu was then body dropped close to 4 inches by cutting the floor, firewall, and back wall out. He then cut into the rocker panels to get it just a bit lower. After plating the rockers, a floor was built around the frame, followed by a custom firewall and back wall.
“I wanted the valance to touch,” he says.
With the Isuzu now sitting at a more respectable level, Nathan shopped around a bit before deciding on a set of wheels that were smooth and simple with an old school twist. American Racing VN327 Rally wheels nail that look just right, and to properly complete the addition, Nathan then wrapped his fresh 20s with staggered Nitto Invo tires for their elevated level of pure street performance.
Through trial and error, I was able to teach myself how to do different types of customization through research and a lot of practice and persistence.
Speaking of performance, the next item on Nathan’s agenda was to upgrade his Isuzu’s factory-equipped gutless engine. To get this done, he looked to a 2014 Chevy LS 6.0L powerplant to provide everyday reliability, drivability, as well as to serve up increased horsepower. Now, this plan was all fine and dandy, but Nathan wanted to up the ante with even more power, so naturally twin turbos were the next natural step. Even though the ability to run any type of hood instantly flew out the window with this type of engine swap, covering up that much of a muscle flex wasn’t even a concern here. Nathan continued to including even more performance adding components to the engine to create an all-out beast that not only looks and sounds aggressive, but has enough bite to back up its bark—no matter how big its competitor may be.
Even with all the Isuzu had going for it at this point in time, it just wasn’t in the cards for Nathan to stop making progress with his dream build. All exterior handles were soon deleted from the truck’s surface, as were the mirrors. Isuzu Amigo front fenders were incorporated into the restyling process, as were Amigo bed flares to balance out the look. The bed floor was then carved to better show off the rear chassis section and suspension work, and aluminum panels to the inner bed walls were added for industrial appeal.
Since Nathan enjoys going above and beyond to capitalize on his truck’s modifications, he felt it necessary to give the entire bed the ability to tilt back—not only because it makes for easy access to the truck’s chassis, but because it simply adds another trick up his already heavily customized truck’s sleeve. With all the bodywork completed, the Isuzu was in need of some fresh color on its skin, so Nathan reached out to Andy Sanchez, of West Palm Beach, Florida, to spray a few coats of Hot Rod Flatz Gunsmoke Gray Metallic paint, which ended up suiting the truck perfectly.
Although there are also a few bonuses inside the cab as well in the way of a ’57 Chevy 210 dashboard, custom Cobra style seats imported from the UK, updated gauges and steering wheel, the interior has a cool utilitarian feel that jives well with the rest of the Isuzu’s styling.
While his truck runs, drives and racks up trophy wins at just about every show he takes it to, Nathan is more than likely not planning to call it quits on adding to its list of mods anytime soon.
“One thing I would like to add would be a Tremec TKX 5-speed transmission to make the truck more highway friendly,” he adds. “Maybe they’ll read this and throw a sponsorship my way—it never hurts to try, right?”
While it took nine long years to get his Isuzu to this level, Nathan can easily say that the journey has been a beneficial learning experience.
“Through trial and error, I was able to teach myself how to do different types of customization through research and a lot of practice and persistence,” he says.
While nothing as badass and unique as this Isuzu doesn’t come with its share of headaches, there’s nothing quite like ignoring those doubtful internal alerts to give up and quit, but instead making it through to the other side.
Nathan Adair
1993 Isuzu Pickup
Lake Worth Beach, FL
No Regrets
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