We know you hate it when you see super-flash rigs in magazines that cost more to build than a small apartment building. Sure, we’ve run them in the past and we will run them again in the future. But we never pretend that building such a vehicle is within the realm of possibility for every Joe-lunchbox. Rather, we often highlight these vehicles to show you the innovative tech and attention to craftsmanship that goes into making them. Then, if you feel inspired, you can take whatever information you gleaned from “big-daddy-dollar” and apply it to your own project.
What follows on these pages are three such projects. They were all built on a budget, in a garage, and by regular, ordinary people. These guys drooled over high-dollar, technically intensive rigs, aspired to have one themselves, and then made it happen. There were no plasma cutters, TIG welders, or components of unobtainium. Just good, solid real-world stuff like hand- operated tube benders, 110-volt MIG welders, and a whole lot of grinding and hacking on D.O.M. and welded-seam tubing.