A Lifted PT Cruiser Is Horrifying Social Media: ‘What in the Cinnamon Toast F*** Is This?’
“This is an abomination.”
“I hope that pt was free”
“Let’s shoot it.”
“What in the cinnamon toast f— is this?”
The trolls of social media are not big fans of Kentucky Kustoms’ lifted, 4×4 PT Cruiser. But I’ll be honest: I dig it.
I have a confession. Once upon a time I graduated college, moved to California, and decided to work as an Uber Driver. Unfortunately, the rideshare apps are against you doing airport pickups when your first car is a 1964 Dodge Dart. But Craigslist came to the rescue with a clean $2,000 PT Cruiser. It had four doors, it was a Chrysler product, and mine even had a stick shift.
I ran that poor thing into the ground. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten more miles per dollar out of a vehicle. And ever since then, I’ve had a soft spot for the so-awkward-it’s-cute grandaddy of the crossover.
So, when I saw Scott Jr. and Scott Sr. of the Kentucky Kustoms YouTube channel had bought a second PT Cruiser, I was all about it. Their first Chrysler was the lowered and widened “PT Bruiser.” And as they say, from there you can only go up.
Scott Jr. admitted, “I can’t stop buying these cars.” And to make matters worse, “Dad here can’t stay off Facebook Marketplace.” So when the two discovered a lifted, frame-swapped PT Cruiser they knew they had to have it.
The rig, which they nicknamed the “Monster PT Cruiser” is a PT Cruiser in body only. Beneath is a K5 Blazer frame. It’s obviously a 4WD and it has a 350-cubic-inch Chevy V8.
Scott Jr. found it in pretty good working order, but Scott Sr. wanted to give it a makeover. He thought the combo of the K5 frame and the “fancy” Chrysler was funny and decided to make it even fancier. And in PT Cruiser land, you know what that means: wood trim!
Scott Sr. did a beautiful job applying 3M vinyl wood trim to the doors, hood, and tailgate of the PT Cruiser. Instead of buying a kit, he hand cut the decals and stuck them in place. Then he attached chrome strips as borders. Scott Sr. even hunted down chrome mirror covers for the PT Cruiser. Who knew that such things existed!?
Meanwhile, Scott Jr. decided to upgrade the tires. The PT Cruiser came with a lift kit, but was slightly under-tired and with very worn rubber. Scott Jr. found that 37-inch tires would fit beneath the Chrysler body. He also realized he had some old chrome rims that were the right bolt pattern for a Chevy truck. After Scott Sr. shined up the rims, Scott Jr. took them to the shop. He wrapped them in aptly named Maxis “Creepy Crawler” mudding tires.
To finish up the refresh, the two of them scraped off all the old decals and stuck a big “Kentucky Kustoms” vinyl on the back windshield.
They posted the “Monster PT Cruiser” to their X account (which is more firearms oriented and thus named “Kentucky Ballistics”). And the haters weighed in. But that’s not all. Other commenters had nothing but love for the lifted Cruiser.
Comments included: “Smexy…”, “Goin muddin?”, and “Nice mudder.”
Kevin Brantly said, “Very sweet wagon!!”
Cory Burnett said, “That wood grain supreeeeeeme!! The stuff dreams are made of, right therrr!”
Nick said, “Let’s be friends? Please?”
And Adam DeShong concluded: “I live in Kentucky and that’s very Kentucky.”
Of course you can’t build up a rig like that and not get it dirty. So, Scott Sr. and Scott Jr. loaded up and headed for the nearest pond. They quickly found that the modified PT Cruiser still had fully open differentials. But you’ll just have to watch the video below to see how things turned out:
