It’s about 1:30 a.m., and I’m sitting here pounding the keys about yet another extremely killer custom that recently rolled out of The Drag Shop. This shop might be small, it might hail from a little town that doesn’t even make a blip on the map in the wild and wonderful state of West Virginia, but as you can see, they continue to do big things.
I could go on and on about what an amazing experience it was to have Brandon Perry, owner of The Drag Shop, build my Blue Steel Tacoma project that later was driven all the way from back East to debut at SEMA 2012. Or about how it was one of the Top 10 featured trucks right here in Street Trucks and clocked thousands of miles driving cross-country multiple times to shows near and far. But no, this is a tale of Brandon Perry’s own latest build, his daily driver and shop truck. This is the tale of an ’05 NBS (New Body Style) Nissan Frontier that was destined for greatness from day one.
A few quick facts about Brandon to help set the stage:
Brandon is the owner/operator of The Drag Shop
He is also a full-time police officer for St. Albans, WV
He is completely covered in custom tattoos from various artists
He refuses to drive anything stock
He is the father of two and always works hard to find time for his family between building trucks, going to school, becoming a police officer and busting bad guys
Now that you have a clear picture of who we’re dealing with, to say that Brandon is a dude of many talents (and probably very little sleep) would be an understatement. We’ve had the pleasure of becoming close buds with Brandon throughout the years, but his love for trucks began nearly two decades ago, when he attended his first show in 1994. Since then, he’s built multiple cover trucks, including his other Tacoma build, Chump Change, a laid out dually, and other projects that piqued his interest along the way. After knocking out a few big jobs for friends and customers, Brandon turned his sights to building a fully functional shop truck for The Drag Shop.
As always, he wasn’t looking to do what everyone else was doing, so finding the perfect platform was easy when he realized how few NBS Frontiers had been body-dropped. Even fewer V-6 NISMO trucks were kissing Mother Earth, so Brandon devised a plan to build the perfect Nissan Frontier shop truck and daily driver capable of driving state to state hauling dirt bikes and the family, and look damn cool doing it.
With help from a few close friends, The Drag Shop spent about 10 solid months bringing the Frontier to fruition. Starting with a stock-floor body drop using 2 x 3 box tubing, and with the help of John Norris and Casey Hardin, a new suspension and stance were carefully crafted. Custom spindles and control arms were needed to rework the front suspension, and using Custom Connection components, the rear suspension came together quickly.
Before long the crew was able to tuck the massive 22-inch KMC wheels into the wheel wells and set the Frontier flat on the floor. To say the stance was awe-inspiring would again be an understatement.
Next it was time to work out the rest of the bugs. It’s no easy feat to lay this type of truck completely flat and retain factory amenities, but that was the plan, so Brandon stuck to his guns and continued to push through the challenges as they arose. Much was relocated and/or modified to keep the stock hood, the factory six-lug setup, the A/C, etc., but in the end Brandon said, “It was all worth it that first cruise at 80 mph down the highway blasting the A/C with my legs stretched out….”
With the truck finally on the ground and functional, Brandon worked out a Storm Trooper theme with a satin white exterior, black accents and some custom tattoo-inspired hand-painting from his buddy Kevin Adams throughout. The Drag Shop handled the paint and body with help from Jimmy Cross. Chrome bumpers, satin white exterior and black accents add to the menacing stance and really complete the function and form that this slammed Frontier embodies. Tying the exterior to the interior involved custom stereo work, more white paint with hand-painted Kevin Adams’ artwork and a custom Dakota Digital air monitoring setup. Retaining factory cruise control, stereo controls and other luxuries is definitely the icing on the cake for this very capable hauler.
A true multipurpose daily-driver and shop truck, the Frontier has been taken on trips more than six hours one-way. Dirt bike hauling, undercover drug busts, hauling steel to the shop, family cruiser, and all-around bad-assery on the daily describes both the truck and its owner to a “T.” It’s no lie, we really enjoy seeing purpose-built trucks in action. Real world builds of this caliber motivate us to start hunting our own next daily project. The way Brandon Perry has been keeping busy these last few years, don’t be surprised if you see his name pop up again with something over the top to “wow” us in the near future.
Owner
Brandon Perry
2005 Nissan Frontier
St. Albans, WV
Relaxed Atmosphere
Engine/Trans:
2005 Nissan V-6
Stock components relocated to clear stock hood
Motor lowered 2.5 inches to clear stock hood
Pick up tube and oil pump sectioned by Casey Hardin
Engine cover hand-painted by Kevin Adams
Custom 2-inch exhaust with all cats and sensors
Suspension:
Shop: The Drag Shop
Stock floored with 2 x 3 box tubing, Z’d front clip by Brandon, Norris and Hardin
Custom front spindles built by Brandon and Hardin
One-off upper control arms and modified lowers
One-off suspension with components from Custom Connection
Slam SS7s airbags
Custom-mounted shocks
Eight SMC 3/8 valves
All suspension components painted white
Relocated two Kinetik 1200s under the bed
Relocated stock gas tank
Relocated brake booster and factory wiring
Wheels & Tires
22 x 9 KMC painted by Jimmy Cross and Kevin Adams
255/30 ZR22 Nexen Tires
Body/Paint:
Shop: The Drag Shop, Cross and Wheeler
Flared fenders for deep-dish 22-inch wheels
Chromed bumpers pulled in for tighter fitment
Accents painted satin black
Entire underbody coated and painted satin black
Custom removable splash shields built for front and rear wheels
White with satin clear
Factory emblems
Scorpion bedliner
Interior:
Shop: The Drag Shop/David Withrow
Hand-painting by Adams
Custom blue LED gauges
Gray interior with blue neoprene inserts
JVC double-DIN with iPod and Bluetooth
Polk Audio components
Two 10-inch JL w3 subwoofers with Hifonics amps built into custom fiberglass box
Dakota Digital airgGauges
Special Thanks From Owner:
Special thanks to my wife and kids for putting up with me working on another project, John Norris from Getbored Designs and Auto-Fix Collision for all of the help and the use of his shop and tools for that really long weekend, Casey Hardin of Casey Who? for all of his help with everything, Mike Alexander for the truck and parts hook-ups along the way, Lil’ B for all the help as always, Jimmy Cross for the incredible paint work on the wheels and body and all the help through the years, Kevin Adams for all of the hand-painted wheels and interior, Rick at Spring Hill Frame and Body, Danny Wheeler, Dorsey Cross, Eric Nash, Ricky Doors, my mom and dad, Austin and the guys at A&E Service Center, Kenny at Quality Exhaust, David Withrow for all of the audio components and the help, Jacob at The Custom Connection for all of the suspension components, Eric at Kinetik for the batteries, Slam Specialties for the ’bags, Brandon at Lowered Addictions for the Dakota Digital gauges, Brandon Burrell at Burrell Images, Street Trucks for the support of the build, Black Eagle Tattoo, Greg Chandler at Greg Chandler’s Frame and Body, Brian Butcher, Hanz, Brian Goude from Grinder TV, Darrell Poe, KP Concepts.com, and anyone else I forgot – Thank YOU ALL for everything!
Text by Mike Alexander and Photos by Brandon Burrell