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What is a Custom Cab?
Before the small truck makers gave us what we wanted....
1985 Toyota "double cab" in Asia
Before the 1990s, it was rare to see a "double cab" pickup in the USA.  If you did see one, it had been brought up from Mexico.  For some reason small truck makers didn't think there was a market for small crew cab trucks in the US.  Even after a great deal of writing in the automotive press in the 1980s about how small trucks were replacing cars as the vehicle of choice because of their low-cost and great gas mileage.  But, when you search the web for "double cab" you can find 4-door small trucks going back to the late 1970s in every country but the US.  Why?
The  Custom Cab is Born
Ad for 1977 Custom Cab
  In the late 1970s domestic truck makers like Ford and Chevy were cranking-out 4-door crew cab trucks with 350 cid and 455 cid V8 engins.  Although Chevy offered an in-line 6 cyl, the word "econmical" couldn't be used to describe the gas mileage.  Seeing a niche market that needed to be filled, a company called Fabco licenced out a Toyota-approved process for making extended cab pick-ups that could seat 4 to 5 people.  The trucks were bought at a local dealer, by a customer, and then the dealer would send the trucks to the "stretch shop" to the tune of $5000.  A mighty expensive option when you consider that the truck's original cost was between $8,000 to $12,000. The modification called a "Custom Cab" was performed on Toyota regular cab trucks from about 1976 to 1988.  In 1989 Toyota intrduced an extended cab pickup with forward-facing rear "jump seats" that was cheaper than the Cutom Cab option.  It would have also required Fabco to re-tool for the new model.
    The truck would be put on two trolleys that sat on rails.  Everything connecting the cab half of the truck to the bed half of the truck was disconnected before the frame was cut.  Then the two halfs were rolled, on rails, apart from each other -- this is the same way a limousine is made.  Then a piece of frame was welded into the gap and the back of the cab is cut out.  Finally a platform, roll-bar and, a fiberglass  cab extension is attached.  Then the whole thing is repainted -- often with a "brown rainbow" graphic that was popular with car makers in the day.  My truck was built by Custom Fab in Hemet, California, according to the D.O.T. permit on my truck.  Sadly, Custom Fab is no longer in business at Hangar 3, Ryan Field, Hemet, CA 92313.  They may be under a different name now.

    But, it wasn't until the late 1990s before Nissan would finally bring the small truck 4-door crew cab to the US with everyone else close behind.  "Oh, the people in the US want small crew cab trucks too?  We didn't know," said the small truck makers -- both foreign and domestic.  After full sized crew cabs had been a staple offering in the US for nearly 20 years, and small crew cabs had been offered around the world for 20 years.

I'll get off my soap box now.
1982 SR5 4X4 LongBed Custom Cab
1988 SR5 4X4 Custom Cab
My 1985 Toyota Custom Cab 4X4
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