Looking Back: Ford F-100's Patina Hides Modern Performance

Nebraska

Jon Unick has never owned a car. Oh, he's owned plenty of vehicles but those vehicles have all been trucks. Growing up on a farm in Kearney, Nebraska meant weekends full of internal combustion-powered fun. From circle track racing to tractor pulls, from mud racing to nights spent cruising the local strip, Unick's free time was spent watching, driving, or building things with engines. The story of this build starts with Unick deciding to scratch the '50s Ford pickup itch he'd had for as long as he could remember. Long enough in fact that the concept was pretty well fleshed-out in his mind: he wanted a take-no-prisoners chassis and drivetrain, tucked neatly underneath a body that had earned its years and looked all the better for it. As he told Hot Rod, "It’s one thing to slam it to the pavement, it’s another thing to make it handle like it’s on ’rails with a smokin’-hot V-8 underhood." 

Photos: Hot Rod

Chance Meeting

So how did Unick find the F-100 you see here? eBay? Craigslist? A free weekly car trader mag (do those even exist anymore)? No to all those. He drove by it. It was parked under an overpass. Unick did a little legwork and found out the owner lived in Florida—and wasn't interested in selling. The owner liked the pickup's patina just as much as Unick did, and was hoping to someday retrieve it, and get it running. But Unick was persistent and won the owner over via a deal to return the rolling chassis and driveline, and a promise to not paint over the body they both so loved. 

Framing it Out

Having worked with Randy Lofquist, owner of Dynamic Rides in Kearney before, that's where the F-100 went straight away. Unick and Lofquist agreed on what was to be done, and the Ford came apart in preparation to accept a platform that would handle anything they threw at it. They selected a Big 10 chassis from No Limit Engineering in Dandridge, Tennessee to serve as the basis of the build. The Big 10 features their No Limit's own super-rigid 10-inch tall center X-member and came complete with custom front and rear cross members. 

Belt and Suspenders

To that substantial base, Dynamic Rides fitted No Limit’s trailing arms in the rear, connected to cantilever-style links and RideTech billet coilover shocks, and located by a Panhard bar. The set-up suspends a Currie Enterprises 9-inch rear end with 4.10:1 gears, supporting 31-spline axles. Up front a full No Limit Wide Ride IFS is fitted, featuring No Limit's tubular upper and lower control arms, Z.G. 2-inch drop spindles, a Dynamic Rides splined anti-sway bar—and more RideTech billet coilover shocks. Braking is by Wilwood power master cylinder, 12.88-inch rotors and six-piston calipers up front, and 12.19-inch rotors with four-piston calipers out back. The biggest external clue to the decidedly not-old nature of the truck's running gear has to be the handsomely understated Forgeline Model RB3C wheels, wearing Toyo Model R888 tires.

Big Small-Block

Now with a rolling chassis up to any task, Unick added a 427ci Crate V8 from Ford Performance to the team. The 427 features a forged steel Scat crankshaft, forged H-beam connecting rods, and Mahle pistons. Heads are Ford Performance aluminum “X” heads, topped with a Holley Ultra Street Avenger 770-cfm carburetor, on an Edelbrock Performer RPM Air-Gap intake manifold. Headers are stainless GP items feeding a custom 2 1/2-inch stainless exhaust, with Dr. Gas Boom Tubes and MagnaFlow mufflers. All together, the combo makes 450hp at 5,600 rpm and is engineered Ford tough.

Making Moves

The big small-block is mated to a Bowler Transmissions modified Ford 4R70W automatic tranny, connected to an aluminum driveshaft from Denny’s Driveshafts. Remember, Unick's directive was that the pickup should handle as if on rails—this meant shifting the engine rearward by seven inches and dropping it to lower the truck's center of gravity. To accommodate the new engine and tans location, the firewall was strategically recessed three and a half inches, and while they were at it Dynamic Rides fabricated new inner wheel wells, as well as new radiator and cooler mounting provisions, and the hood was modified to tilt forward.

Patina-ready

The new engine compartment panels, as well as the cab's interior, were painted in a custom mix of PPG Meadow Green and bronze that are the perfect complement to the truck's eye-catching external patina. Adding to the custom look without taking anything away from the classic presentation are the tucked bumpers, custom rear wheel tubs, and clean fuel tank treatment. The mix of old and new showcases the best of both, and the way the patina was framed beats those rats that settle for spraying clear gloss over rough rust.

Inhouse

Contrary to the ammo boxes and perforated everything found in many rats, the interior of Unick's '56 is a happy place to be. The dash sports simple and inviting Dakota Digital VHX gauges, and an ididit tilt steering column topped with a Budnik steering wheel that suggests the performance at hand. Conditions are kept cool with a Vintage Air A/C system, and an American Autowire Highway 22 wiring loom made connecting everything painless. Though the 427 may have something to say about the number of stops required, Glide Engineering seats—covered, along with the door and kick panels, in gray leather—make soaking up the miles easy, and the green square-weave carpeting soaks up the sound and screams "drive barefoot." Urick's take on the patina-ed pickup shows that a little weathering around the edges isn't incompatible with smoothness everywhere else. Just don't leave it in the barn or else the mice, and rats, might get to it. 

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