Daily Slideshow: 1951 F-1 Wins Over Another Convert
Ray Corn sold his Super Street drag race car and finished building this Pro Street-themed 1951 F-1 pickup project. Warning: he skipped the part where a Ford engine goes in.
The Truck of the Beholder
With all due respect to F-1 owners and lovers everywhere, the first F-Series is not the most popular pickup truck Ford ever made. But you know how, once your family member or friend owns a vehicle, you see it, sit in it, ride in it, and maybe even take a road trip or race someone in it... how it then sticks in your head. You start to notice them everywhere, even when there aren't that many around? You start to see the good in them and are blind to the less-good? Well, that's what happened to Ray Corn, though not at first. "It started when a friend I worked with was building a ’52 F-1 pickup. I thought, ‘How could anyone put so much time and money into such an ugly truck?'" he admitted, talking to Custom Classic Trucks. The friend he was talking about was his buddy Tony Henehan, and the truck was Tony's custom chop-top 1952 F-1. Well, the F-1 somehow lodged itself in Ray's subconscious and the next thing you know he felt the need to add a custom truck to his collection, an old one. Ray sold his Super Street drag car/trailer to make room for a pickup and wouldn't you know it—his F-1 owning pal Tony clued him in about the truck you see here, which at the time was an unfinished Pro Street project.
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Body
Ray snapped the truck up and recruited Tony to help finish it. Tony started on the bodywork, replacing the firewall and chopping two-and-a-quarter inches out of the top. He smoothed out the cowl and straightened all the seams, fabricated front, and rear roll pans, added flush-mounted LED taillights below the tailgate, and laid wood into the Mar-K Quality Parts bed.
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Paint
The F-1's body was test-assembled to make sure everything fit, then completely disassembled, stripped, and sent out to Alamo Customs in Alvin, Texas who prepped and painted the panels in PPG Candy Brandywine with ghost flames before being returned to Tony for final assembly. The cab and panels were then reunited with Ford's factory frame, which had been fully boxed-in for greater rigidity.
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Interior
Being a '51, the dash was sprayed in candy color too, ahead of receiving a complete update. The update included all new Classic Instruments gauges, an integrated Vintage Air A/C system, and an in-dash DVD player/flat screen. Custom I.S.S. seats were installed, as was a Billet Specialties steering wheel. The whole interior was then upholstered in Snow White Ultraleather with ostrich inserts by Murphy, Texas-based Cook’s Auto Top & Trim.
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The GM Part
Sadly for fans of fully-Ford builds, there's no flathead V8 lurking under the F-1's sizable hood—but remember, Ray bought this as a Pro Street project, not a barn find or original unrestored item. Plus, nothing is forever, especially including built big-blocks, so if it makes you feel better to think of the 502 cu in GM RamJet in the '51's engine bay as a place-holder. Said fuel injected place-holder was built by Street & Performance in Mena, Arkansas, and pumps out a mild for its size 510 horsepower.
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The GM Part, Part 2
Ray told Custom Classic Trucks, "I wanted something that would keep up with the latest trends and styles." The style he gravitated to was chrome. Every square inch of the engine and its associated components was either polished or plated or both. Ray is running Flowmaster mufflers, and power goes to a 700-R4 transmission, then on to a Ford 9-inch with 4.11 gears.
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Rolling in the Years
That 9-inch is linked to a four-link suspension in the rear, while the front suspension has been replaced by a Mustang II independent set-up. Both front and rear suspensions benefit from Chassis Engineering anti-sway bars and Aldan coilovers. Pro Street style prevailed in the choice of Aerospace Components brakes and Intro's Matrix Twisted billet wheels, 18×8 front and 20×15 rear, wrapped in Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R radials.
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Reeling in Awards
Unless and until you raise the hood of Ray's '51, the most arresting feature remains the candy-colored paint job over the thankfully lightly-altered body. The show crowd seems to like it just fine too, with the F-1 winning six Best of Show awards in seven appearances, including Outstanding Truck from the Houston AutoRama. Six out of seven ain't bad, you can't win 'em all—at least not without Ford power underhood.
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