Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2023 i F-Series Builder's Guide

The word “grateful” is an adjective. When you look it up in the dictionary, grateful is defined as “warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received.” Well, I can’t even begin to describe how grateful I am for the life I have. I think it all comes down to being grateful to GOD for always being there for me when I needed him. That is the only thing that could explain all of the blessings I feel like I have. It’s strange to write something like this, but I feel like this magazine and this column specifically are where I can express this. It doesn’t make sense to me why I deserve my family, friends, the trucks I have, and so much more. Yes, some will say it’s hard…

LONE STAR THROWDOWN, HELD ANNUALLY IN Conroe, Texas, is one of those events that is hard to explain. The show is cool, the trucks cooler, but that isn’t the reason most people come out to LST. This show is all about the people—the enthusiasts who love their trucks and have such passion for the lifestyle. Show promoters have to cap the registered show vehicles at 2,000, and for this year’s show, they sold out in less than a week. That was back in August 2022 when they opened the show for registration. That already gave them an indication about how much love people have for this show. Enough glorifying how awesome it is. Enjoy seeing all the coverage photos below! I hope to see you all out there next year!…

THE 1967-’72 F-SERIES Bumpside trucks are one of the most popular trucks to build. We wanted to join in on the action and bring you guys something different and fresh. So, we picked up a half-finished 1968 F-100 single cab shortbed with its original Sahara Tan paint. It already had some of the main work done—a Gen 2 Crate Coyote swap, a Tremec six-speed—and it was sitting on QA1 front and rear suspension. It was safe to say this truck was a diamond in the rough, but it wasn’t so rough when we began. We wanted to have a yin-yang build-off with our other 1968 F-100; this was going to be the fancier of the two. We started with what most people value most on an original-paint truck, and that…

OLD FORD CREW CABS: THOSE FOUR words already mean so much to so many people. Robert Phillips never planned to become the unofficial spokesperson for OFCC. It just sort of happened. Getting his 1974 F-250 4x4 gave him the bug, which inevitably made him start the Instagram @OldFordCrewCabs, which most of us have come to really enjoy. Three years ago, a bunch of us OFCC enthusiasts were talking, and we realized we needed to get together with our buddies more often and have fun. Robert got in touch with Goodguys Rod & Custom Show and asked if we could crash the party. They were more than willing to have us come out, and that started what is now our annual hangout/meetup on the West coast. The 2023 meetup in Scottsdale,…

HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BUY A 1967-’72 F-Series truck but not blow the bank while making it happen? We thought the same thing, so we went out and picked up this 1968 F-100 longbed with its OG Holly Green and Wimbledon White paint and sporting its original 360 V-8 with a four-speed. We knew it was the perfect truck for this—especially because we got her for $5,000 from our buddy Chris Swenson (IG: @BumpingUglys). Once we got the truck, it was go time. Knowing that reliability is the most important thing, we dove into the engine. We put on a Sniper EFI setup with MSD ignition, which really made her run and drive that much better. We installed a complete Painless Wiring kit. Dakota Digital RTX gauges were next…

WITH THE COST OF JUST about every popular custom truck model rising, enthusiasts are starting to branch out to other production years that haven’t quite caught fire among builders just yet. Those who actually prefer these later-model 7th generation F-150s to other models are in luck because they are currently ultra affordable to purchase and are readily available. Others may find themselves shopping for a 1980-1986 Bullnose Ford truck sooner rather than later due to being priced out by other sought after models that sadly just don’t jibe with everyone’s budget for a truck project. I truly believe that people are sleeping on these Bullnose Ford trucks…” As the years fly by, we are currently seeing the ‘classic’ truck spectrum widen model-by-model, generation-by-generation.” “I truly believe that people are sleeping…

THE FIRST-ANNUAL SOLO’S BEACH Bonanza presented by Factory Fab USA was a huge hit! Taking place at the beautiful Gilbert’s Resort in Key Largo, Florida, this show was one that we knew we had to get in on the action. Solomon Lunger has always wanted to throw a show of his own, having helped with several shows and being connected through F-100 Builder’s Guide and Ford Era. “It’s always been a goal to put something like this together,” Solomon says. “Where all my buddies and fellow like-minded truckers can just get together and enjoy a relaxed weekend on the beach with their friends and trucks!” When it was time to put pen to paper and turn his dream into reality, Solomon immediately knew he wanted this venue. An all-encompassing resort,…

KEN KERL IS THE OWNER OF this amazing 1953 Anniversary Edition F-100. A true lover of hot rods and a drag racer in his earlier years, Ken has been retired for some time, enjoying his hobby of building cool custom vehicles. His current collection includes a half dozen high-end customs at his summer residence in Cuba, New York, with this F-100 maintained at his home in Ocala, Florida. Ken originally found this truck in Florida and had it shipped to New York for most of its customizing process. It was already in good shape, so the adventure began as a series of discussions with his customizing team, characterized by “How would this look?” “Do you think this would work?” And, “Could we add this here?” Working with Ford’s famously aerodynamic-adjacent…

IT’S ABOUT TIME SOMEONE TOLD those C10 guys who’s boss—or at least showed them that the F-100 community is building just as many badass F-100s as there are C10s while dealing with a more limited aftermarket support system. The F-100 Takeover Tour is just what it sounds like: an attempt to take over the show scene from the C10 crowd. It started in 2022 at the F-100 Grand National show in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, as a way to get all the F-100 guys together outside of the show grounds. The “Takeover After Dark,” as it was called in Tennessee, was the brainchild of Kyle Howard of Outcast Autoworks and Daniel Houston of Huey Fab, who brought on several F-100 product companies, including Soulless Innovations, John’s Rods Drop Beams, Fat Fender…

WHEN YOU’RE A WELDER BY TRADE, YOU can kind of just cut stuff apart, add some other stuff, and then weld it all together to make new stuff. And while it’s great to get paid to do it, it’s even better to have some downtime every now and again to put those skills to use on personal projects. Let’s take Sergio Cueto and his ’60 F-850 as a prime example. When he decided to tackle another build to replace his previous ’59 Ford dually, he wanted to make sure that it would have more than enough room to carry the whole family this time around. Sergio loves ’57-’60 Fords, so he went on the hunt for a crew cab version to build his latest dream truck. It turns out that…

THE GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER Show’s tagline is “The Grand Daddy of Them All,” and that is as true as could ever be. In 2022—the 72nd annual—we got extra lucky because promoters wanted to celebrate 50 Years of Truckin’. Once we heard that, we knew we couldn’t miss it. They sure did pack the Fairplex in Pomona, California, full of trucks. I saw so many trucks that I recognized from when I was a kid. Fat Jack’s F-100 and Chip Foose’s F-100s were so iconic to me in my youth. Being able to see them and so many other timeless pieces of truckin’ history was astounding. Then to bring it to the modern age, we had Classic Car Studio’s incredible Fat Fender crew cab on display that they recently finished up.…

What he envisioned is marrying the façade of a classic Ford pickup with the prowess of a Raptor…” WE’VE ALL DAYDREAMED about how cool it would be to combine the modern comfort, reliability, and performance of a new truck with the timeless, nostalgic look of a true vintage pickup. While this idea isn’t exactly groundbreaking on its own, successfully executing it is the epitome of today’s standard of a customized classic. In the last few years, an influx of builders have acted on this same exact dream and fabricated some incredible builds—but nothing quite like what we’ve seen from Sweet Brothers Restomods out of Upton, Wyoming. Dan Hart of Sweet Brothers has championed the concept of combining old and new, but his approach that has made all the difference in…

OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, FAT Fender Garage has quickly become the leader in the custom classic truck world. In fact, building some of the most bespoke and innovative trucks earned them Street Truck’s Best Shop award three years in a row. So, it goes without saying that when you build up that kind of reputation, it’s nice to give back a little. Owner Jason Noel and his team wanted to do exactly that. When they heard that all us Old Ford Crew Cab guys were coming into town for the Goodguys show in nearby Scottsdale, Arizona, they decided it was a great time to host an open house—and so they did just that. This now makes it the third year they’ve hosted the shindig, and boy oh boy did…

WE HAVE A HIGHBOY, AND WE WANT better brakes. That is what started the crew at PRD Design down the path of developing a brake upgrade kit. Overall, the current brake upgrade market for ’67-’79 F-250 4x4s is primarily made up of part swaps for later-model OEM axles, like the disc brake Dana 44s from 1976- ’79 F-250 trucks. There are also options to swap in late-model Super Duty axles. While these options work, they either require a fair amount of chassis and suspension modifications or, even if they bolt in like the 1976-’79 Dana 44s, still leave you with 1970s technology, leaving many owners wishing they could go the next step to modern brakes. We faced this dilemma for a customer and his 1969 F-250 4x4 receiving a new…