Ultra-Clean 1956 F-100

Art History

Sometimes building a truck is like painting a masterpiece—it's complete, not when you can't think of anything else to add, but when anything you take away will diminish the work. Such is the case, with one possible exception we'll get to later, with Harry Kelly's 1956 Ford F-100.

Like many many of us, Kelly, an HVAC expert from Callahan, Florida, (yes, Harry from Callahan, dear Clint Eastwood fans) always loved mid-'50s Ford pickups. Kelly's owned a '53 before this one, which he used to hone his skills, though he admits that his work on that truck leaned toward the cosmetic rebuild side of the spectrum. This '56 is a different animal though, and the six-year process of making the pickup you see here come back to life started when a good friend contacted him and asked if he was interested in a rust-free, but incomplete, F-100.

Commencement

Kelly's friend bought the '56, which had spent most of its life in the dry air of Nevada, with the intention of building it himself, but somewhere along the line, his interests went in another direction. Kelly was happy to take the truck off of his buddy's hands and began by rounding up most of the parts he'd need for the project at local swap meets. He also enlisted some help in the form of his brother, Sam, and his son Colton, transforming the project from a mere build into a family affair.

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Frame Job

Kelly wanted to go the whole nine yards with the '56, so off came the cab and bed and in went the Kelly family team to take care of boxing out the frame for added strength. Once boxed, they gave it a tough, vintage look by powder coating it in a Silver Vein finish. Next, the provision was made to mount a 15-gallon Doc’s Kustoms fuel cell to the rear of the frame, and a power brake booster was mounted to the frame under the truck's cab to assist in actuating the 11-inch front discs and rear drum brakes.

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Settling Down

Kelly wanted to improve the pickup's handling and drop it. So, in went a Mustang II front suspension from Speedway Motors, utilizing DJM dropped spindles and Mustang lowering coils. At the rear, new leaf springs were mounted to the Ford 8-inch rear end using repositioned perches and 3-inch lowering blocks. The pickup uses Monroe shocks all 'round, and thankfully rides on something smaller than 20-inch rims, namely 15×8-inch American Eagle Alloys wrapped in 235/60R15 Summit tires.

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Blue Oval Meets Bow Tie

Presented without comment, as they say, is Kelly's small-block Chevy engine. Jacksonville, Florida's Wheeler’s Power Products did the work, converting it from a 350 to a 383 ci stroker using a crankshaft from Eagle, Scat connecting rods, and pistons from Keith Black. The engine also features a Comp camshaft and breathes through a Demon 750 cfm carburetor and an Edelbrock Air Gap manifold on the intake side, and 2.25-inch Sanderson Block Hugger headers into 2.5-inch pipes and Hooker mufflers on the exhaust side. A GM Turbo 350 with a 2,400 rpm stall-speed torque converter transmits the motor’s 450 HP to the 8-inch.

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Meanwhile in the Bodyshop

The Kellys were also working on the body along with the mechanical work. They debadged much of the exterior to let the F-100's classic lines shine through and replaced the original bumpers with curved chrome slabs. The bed was smoothed by removing the wood-and-steel-trim bed, replacing it with painted steel strips, and welding up every unneeded hole. We might have opted not to go with silver flames for the bed floor on such a clean truck, but sometimes, a few pieces of flair can spice up a uniform. The doors now sport one-piece windows, and the truck was painted panel by panel in a stunning DuPont Salsa Red by all three Kellys in Sam's garage.

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Inside Again

Kelly insisted on genuine leather for the truck's interior, choosing Scott’s Pro Upholstery in Jacksonville to do the honors. Scott's recovered the factory bench seat in Desert Tan hide, cutting a custom headliner and door panels out of the same material. A Banjo steering wheel juts out from under the body-color dash, which holds a set of Dolphin gauges, and sits above the Lokar shifter and No Limit pedals. Kelly reports the '56 gets plenty of use showing and cruising around Florida. We're sure his son and brother get occasional turns behind the wheel as well—six years of help should buy a person a burnout as well as some bragging rights.