Khaos THEORY

JASMINE GREEN DIDN'T LET A LACK OF BUDGET OR PROFESSIONAL TICKETS KEEP HER FROM BUILDING AN ELITE-LEVEL MINI-TRUCK ALL ON HER OWN

- IAIN KELLY

NECESSITY is the mother of invention, so the saying goes. For Jasmine Green, the need for a killer sled to haul her dirtbike led her to take a dunger ’91 HiLux farm ute and build this Top 20 Summernats stunner with her own two hands.

We often hear people say they ‘built’ their car, but Jasmine actually has. The apprentice motor trimmer and former barista handled the mind-bending amount of body and fab work, chassis build, custom suspension, LS swap, painting and trimming. And all despite not having any kind of background in the automotive scene.

“I bought the HiLux in 2012, and it was really rough,” she says. “My parents hate motorbikes, so I needed to find my own way to haul my bike. It was covered in enamel primer and had a really bad tray on the back, but it was my first car.”

Things really clicked a new gear seven years ago, when Jaz decided to blend sheet metal from other Toyota models into the Aussie ’Lux (see sidebar, p.72).

“The third-gen Toyota Surf front sheet metal I used was much longer than the original HiLux front end, and it threw the proportions way off, so this led me to extend the wheelbase of the HiLux,” she explains. “It was easier to build a new chassis than extend what I had. Then I had to cut the back wall to replace the section where the wheel arch used to be and replace it with the back of an Xtra Cab bodystyle.

“Since I was cutting up the back wall, I thought that I might as well body-drop the truck, lowering the body over the frame. This led to me needing new sill panels and redoing all of the wheel tubs, firewall and tub floor.”