Some people enjoy buying a vehicle and rebuilding it to suit their needs. Others will get a car or truck and slightly modify things. Then there are those that decide to build something from damn near the ground up. Check out this unique Ford truck inside.
The architect
Meet Al Schoffelman, a crane operator from Tea, South Dakota, that took his knowledge from cabinet making and spent seven winters in his shop making a wooden Ford pickup. This one of a kind creation started life as a 79 Ford Econoline van frame, engine, and three-speed auto transmission that Al received after a family member passed away. After stripping the van down and junking what he didn't want, Al cleaned up the frame and bumped the engine and transmission closer to the center. The engine was pushed a bit forward along with the rear axle to meet his needs also.
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Use what you know
After those components found a new home, the frame was shortened to keep the proportions intact and new cylinder heads were installed. The truck looks very symmetrical but Al never used a design of any sort. The design for the 4,300 lb truck came straight from his imagination. All of this that you see before you was cut, sanded and nailed together to match what Al saw in his mind. “I had a rough idea what I wanted to do,” Schoffelman said. “I would stand back in the shop or sit on the bench and see if it looked right. If it didn’t, I would take that off and start with something different.” At first, Al just drove the cab around but then came the bed which took him a whole nother winter to get just right.
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One mistake and it's back to the drawing board
The dashboard was an effort of precision since the instruments gauges had to be cut out of the panel. If a mistake was made here it would mean the job had to be started all over again with a new box. However, since the area was a small one it wouldn't be as bad as if the same mistake was made at the gas door where the box was much larger. Check out that wooden steering wheel, if it looks kind of familiar it's because it's from the Econoline van. Al took the steering wheel out and busted all of the plastic off of it before wrapping the steel shaft with red oak and installing it. The majority of the truck is made from red oak except for the firewall, subfloor of the box, and subfloor of the cab was made with plywood.
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Frustration, sweat, and tears
Al's biggest challenge with the truck was crafting the top and back of the cab since he wanted the wood grain to match. After that, the headliner needed to be sanded and in Al's words the manual labor needed really "took a toll on the old body." He further remarked “it was hours and hours of sanding. I built stools to get to the right height, but the angle was just tough.”
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The craftsmanship is beyond this world
The wood ball hitch is held on by four wood screws and Al precision cut the emblems on the front and rear of the truck. Al will often take the truck to car shows if the weather permits it and gets a fair amount of questions on the custom vehicle from attendees. He says that the most asked question he gets is how on earth did he get the idea to come up with this creation? “I was at a car show in Rock Valley, Iowa and there was a gentleman parked next to me. He had a Diamond T Ford with a flatbed box on it and lumber on the sides,” Al remarked. “I thought to myself, I would have done it a little different. That was 10 years ago, and it more or less snowballed into what this goofball can do.”
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If you see Al, say "Hey"
The quirky truck doesn't have driver or passenger side windows but is completely road legal with lap belts inside the cabin and the title still as a 1979 Econoline van with insurance to match. Al says he still has plans for the truck and that it will probably never really be done.
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For help with service of your truck, check out the how to section of Ford-Trucks.com
