Indholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2019 i F-Series Builder's Guide

MAN, OH MAN. ABOUT TO get a little personal up in here for a second with ya’ll. That’s right, I just said ya’ll! This month is quite hectic for me and my family as we’ve decided to finally make the move east. We’re heading out to Oklahoma, moving shop and house, and starting a fresh new chapter. So, the fun part, I definitely forgot how UN-fun moving is. The packing, the purging, all of it is a ton of work—on top of an already overloaded schedule. But, packing up both home and shop, and moving everything 1,300 miles east is a whole different animal that I wasn’t quite prepared for. To make things even more “fun,” add in a 16-month-old and a 4-year-old with closing two escrows, coordinating stopping and…

WHEN DISCUSSING THE FORD F-100, most conversations tend to start with the mid-’50’s body that has been done successfully time and time again. However, custom builds are slowly trending more toward the trucks that came decades later: the bumpside and dentside bodies. These now-popular forms span two generations for Ford, and we find ourselves with a prime example of both gracing our special dual Gateway Performance cover this month. For a “static low” concept with performance and pro-touring style in mind for this issue’s theme, we couldn’t think of a better pair of restos to show off to the world, and these two really hit the target in more ways than one. Let’s start with Nick Alfano’s 1973 Ford F-100 Ranger XLT; Ford’s sixth generation F-series happened to be introduced…

EVERY YEAR AS THE ICE STARTS TO THAW, there’s a “little” gathering of trucks from across the country that all converge centrally in Conroe, Texas. What’s now known simply as LST began quite a few years back with a couple hundred trucks hanging out in Texas at a little gathering called Lone Star Throwdown. Since then, the show has gained massive attention and has blown up to the point of almost 3,000 trucks, with pre-reg spots selling out months before hand. Per usual, we made the trek east from Southern California to hang with our buds and see the baddest trucks all gathered in one central locale, however we definitely weren’t prepared for the “storm of the century” that had swept the Midwest, leaving us caught in quite a few…

POPE’S HOT RODS IN SMYRNA, Tennessee, has quickly made a name for itself as one of the best-known F-100 shops in the country. In 2006 Brian Pope took his hobby public and has been cranking out customs to the market ever since. With the rapid development of the F-100 market, Pope’s continues to create beautiful builds that satisfy the taste of buyers from around the globe. With this, its 1960 F-100 known as Puddin’, Brian waited for the perfectly patinaed candidate to pop up. The truck makes a strong case for the “less is more” philosophy. It favors original parts and minimalistic updates for a true driver’s machine. It is everything that identifies Pope’s style. The 1960 chassis was modified using tried and true techniques. In front of the cabin,…

FOR TOM RISCH, IT WAS inevitable that he was going to put together a killer hot rod. Being raised by a father who was in the car business his entire life leads to long nights in the garage tinkering with endless projects. Tom began his love for cars at a very young age when his dad would let him to drive an old Plymouth coupe around the property; needless to say, he was hooked and that was the beginning of Tom’s lifelong addiction. When it was finally time for Tom to put his efforts into a full build, he turned to a truck he always had an affection for, the 1951 Ford F-1. Tom quickly began his search and found himself making a deal on a truck in Iowa, where…

WHEN THE BOYS AT CON2R COULDN’T FIND instruments for their PH100 pickup, they created their own—and this launched the company’s custom SuperStock line. The design standard they first followed was to “make them look like they have always been there,” and it still applies to each and every set built to date. CON2R wants to bring custom instruments to the masses and the company does so with a high-end quality product. For example, the designers mold the rear faces of their housings to capture the texture present in factory designs and replicate the layers and windows found in the originals. When they add functions, such as tachometers, and replace idiot lights with gauges, it is always guided by the “make them look like they are supposed to be there” mantra.…

WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD trucks? Every year hundreds and likely thousands of beloved custom cars and trucks are damaged beyond repair. It doesn’t seem fair that in a world full of Prius-ridden highways, people’s projects should be taken off the road. But it’s not a matter of why. Instead, it’s, what are you going to do about it? For Derrell Perkins, it was never even a question. The Oklahoma native lost his later-model F-100 to a treacherous tornado. The F-5 storm swept through the town of Choctaw, ravaging the lives of thousands. But rather than backing down from devastating loss and the risk of another, Derrell moved on. He acquired a new truck and set his sights even higher. Over the course of five years, he built…

WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU PUT A modern Ford 5-liter into a worn-out farm truck? Well for starters, a whole lot of fun. But what happens when you throw an entire 2016 Mustang GT into the mix? That’s exactly what Phil Lehart wanted to find out. “Phil has been around the world of custom cars and trucks for more than 20 years. He’s no stranger to building special projects.” Phil has been around the world of custom cars and trucks for more than 20 years. He’s no stranger to building special projects. In fact, when he purchased his 1964 F-100, the truck spent some time on the sidelines while his attention was turned elsewhere. This long-awaited build was two years in the making before boasting any movement. But this…

IN HONOR OF OUR STATIC LOWS dual cover shot titled “Gateway Drug,” we compiled a little ProTouring buyer’s guide as the latest and greatest for performance-minded classic truck restorations. There are, of course, a million things on everyone’s shopping list, but we tried to narrow it down based on different budgets from entry level to best of the best while keeping in mind the theme of performance suspension and pro-touring style restos. So, browse this guide and start dropping hints with the significant other by accidently leaving this magazine open to the page with a big circle around that one part or chassis you just can’t live without! 1 QA1 1965-1972 F100 REAR SUSPENSION Not just another four-link, this completely bolt-in system adds unprecedented adjustability to your truck with no…

FOR A LOT OF HOTrodders, there exists that one build that got them hooked, a special project permanently embedded in their head. And romanticized or not, the ghosts of customs past have a tendency of reanimating. This was the explicit case with Barry Pope. Well-known in the industry, Barry and his family have been around custom trucks for as long as anyone, and Barry had one of these undead memories: a family friend’s laid-out ’56 F-100 finished in primer black. As time and life permitted, Barry set his mind on recreating the classic truck he knew so well as a young man. “The ’56 flare-side is an uncompromised custom classic. Technology is changing the industry more quickly than most can keep up. It is exceedingly refreshing to see a classic…

BIGGER AND BETTER. Year after year. Build after build. If that sounds exhausting, well, it is. It’s clearly a difficult task to continue to push the envelope and deliver something timeless yet stunning over and over, time and time again. But Mike Alexander and the team at FLO Airride continue to do just that. How, you might ask? Well, we sat down with Mike to get the skinny, and when asked “How” he shared his secret formula: Just do the work, consistently. “Vision meets faith,” Mike says. “It takes vision to see the end result beyond the problems and daily headaches that we all run into when trying to create anything extraordinary. Putting out fires and solving problems as they present themselves are all just part of the game. “But…

CON2R IS A FAMILY-RUN OPERATION OUT OF Beaverton, Oregon. It makes some of the highest quality and most customizable steering wheels on the market. Its wheels offer the most design choices and options for your build with more than 1,500,000 variations available on the custom wheel builder. We have been fans of the guys over at CON2R for years now and when building Ol’ Red our 1961 Ford F-100 Unibody, so we thought running one of the CON2R steering wheels would be a perfect match, which also lead us to create our own set of custom gauges. (Check out that story on page 108.) Just like the custom instrument builder, there are unlimited options to customize your own steering wheel to perfectly match your unique style and build. We went…

THE “TRUE BLUE” SAGA CONTINUES. IN Issue No. 4, we announced the start of our 1963 F-100 DIY project with promises to keep our readers updated each issue, no matter how slow the progress. As we all know, life happens … so in this issue, we bring you part three. What all have we accomplished since part two? We got down to the bare necessities, removed the entire wiring harness and sent it out to the guys at MiTy Motorsports to shorten it up and customize it for our particular use. We also moved the build into Solomon’s backyard so all the neighbors don’t have to watch the madness that will ensue. Next, we removed all the bolt-on panels, fenders, doors, trunk lid, etc. Then we whipped out the trusty…