It's fair to say that the AF Projects Fleet has been beefed up significantly this year, after all, with plenty of pandemic restrictions in place for most of the season, that's just what you do, right? Start planning the next build… especially if you happen to be James, the boss of all things Auto Finesse.

Still, it has to be said that this little Honda Ruckus - or more specifically a UK-spec Honda Zoomer - and now a fully modified Metruck - came as a quite the surprise to many of the team. You see, we've had a busy few months here. And, while the factory has been in full swing (getting hundreds of thousands of products produced and shipped), and the Detailing Academy flat out on professional training and building our new VW pickup, little did we know - until it turned up on the AF stand at Ultimate Stance - that James had collaborated with Lee at Ruck Style UK to put together the ultimate scooter. It even perfectly matches the impeccable style of the recently finished Caddy V2.

So, what is a Metruck? Well, it's actually a modified mashup of a Honda Ruckus and the thoroughly retro-looking Honda Metropolitan. Obviously, in this case at least, there's a whole lot more besides, too.

Of course, putting one of these together not quite as simple as it sounds though, and a far cry from simply bolting the Metropolitan plastics onto a Ruckus body. While the two little Honda scooters look like they should be extremely compatible, they're actually very different when it comes to the placement of wiring, batteries, fuel tanks and the like. This leaves something of a nightmare to get it all together and running.

The UK Zoomer has fuel injection for starters, and the Metropolitan doesn't. Throw a new engine, along with a whole load of custom parts, into the mix and it's actually a huge job that takes some serious skill to get right. The good news is that Ruck Style know these scooters inside out so creating that long, stretched Metruck look just wasn't a problem. So, with the ultimate scooter fully built up - and delivered to us at Ultimate Stance - the next thought on everyone's mind was simple; when can we take it out for a spin?

Yes, trust us when we say that everyone immediately wants a go on this one. So much so that quite a few of the senior management team popped into the Detailing Academy just as soon as we unloaded the transporter. And, you know what? We can't blame them either, the whole point of this little street slayer is maximum smiles per miles - and that's exactly what you get. In fact, it could well be one of the most all-round fun projects we've ever had come through our doors.

But, what about the actual spec? Well, as you can plainly see, it's impressive.

What started out as two scooters becoming one is merely the tip of the iceberg here. And, while we'll reveal every last element soon in our full Project Focus feature - after a few more AF touches and a full detail no doubt - it's clear that only the bare essentials from the two donor bikes were used in the final build up. This includes the frames and the plastics of course, but not before they were all sent off to Old Bones Fabrications for a lick of the same Porsche hue used on our Caddy V2. Actually, with that in mind, the custom orange seat is a particularly fitting and no less jaw-dropping touch, too. The combination of these elements really ties both vehicles together.

Everything else is either fully custom, CNC machined, or some of the finest aftermarket parts available. From the solid-centred wheels, to the disc brake conversion, the drop handle bars, lowered seat and all the billet alloy goodness in between, this little bike has more trinkets and bare metal finery than plenty of big-money, chromed-out custom choppers. For a scooter, that's not an easy trick to pull off, either.

And, as you'd expect from one of our builds, it's not just about the aesthetics. The original 49cc engine has been ditched in favour of a fully built 171cc GY6 unit… and when we say "fully' we mean it - this little lump has a big valve head, race exhaust and even a race cam. Yes, unbelievably you can do all this to a little point-and-shoot scooter engine, and we have to say that it all adds up. This one shifts along at quite the pace.

So, that's our collab build and, naturally, a big thanks goes out to Ruck Style UK. We guess that the only remaining question is; what other touches do we have in store the new Auto Finesse Custom Metruck? Well, don't worry, and you'll be finding out very soon.

In the meantime though, you can check out Ruck Style UK, and maybe even dream up a build of your very own, right here.

#Honda #Ruckus #Custom #Moto #Bike