Appreciating 30 Years of Chip Foose with His Family’s Ford F-100

By Tony Markovich - August 2, 2016

Recently, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles held an event to celebrate one of the most important people in the customization realm of the past few decades: Chip Foose. Foose, who was once a design school drop-out, has been a mainstay in the design and aftermarket world and helped make it what it is for the past 30 years. Alongside a panel discussion between Foose and some of his customers and mentors, three of Foose’s most notable cars were displayed: The 1956 Ford F-100, the Hemisfear, and the 1965 Chevrolet Imposter.

Here, on FTE, I want to focus on the F-100. This pickup is more of a family artifact than an art piece. Chip drove this thing daily throughout high school and early college after he bought it from his dad and rebuilt it when he was 13. Once he started up his business and eventually became a talking head on the TLC, Velocity, and Discovery Channel show Overhaulin’, the car ended up sitting for a while. But instead of letting it rot, the people around Foose came up with a brilliant idea to surprise him.

So, as part of the show, his squad took some sketches of the vehicle that Foose had drawn up in his spare time, scooped up the truck without him knowing, and built it out to how he imagined it. They debuted this truck (how it is today) at the 2005 SEMA show to a surprised and emotional Foose.

As with many of Foose’s creations, his build require quite a bit of reworking. Just about every steel panel was reshaped or cut and reformed. The front wheels were moved up, the rear fenders were widened, the hood was pie-cut, and the cab was chopped a few inches at the rear window. Then they threw a Roush NASCAR motor into it. Much of the underpinnings were from Corvettes, including a C5 subframe, the front coilover shocks, a custom rack and pinion steering from a Corvette, and the master cylinder from a C6.