Silver Bullet | 1964 F-100 Coyote

The Ford F-Series is an undoubtedly popular truck, especially for custom truck enthusiasts, but then the question of which generation makes the best hot rod arises. For years the aftermarket has leaned heavily on the ’53-’56 trucks, but with changing trends come new ideas for later bodies. For as long as Randy East can remember, he has wanted to build a fourth-generation F-100 into a street machine with modern flair while keeping traditional lines. He has owned a few mid 60s trucks in the past, but none were overly built. So naturally Randy wanted to see what he could do on a new build and push it a little farther than he had in the past.

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Randy started by pulling the truck out of a local salvage yard. It was a pretty plain truck, but that didn’t last long. As he began to plan out his project, he knew he would have big modern power pushing this old iron down the road, and so the chassis needed to be upgraded to handle the task. Taking the truck to Fred’s Old Fords Inc. in his own town of Rockmart, Georgia, was the first thing he did. Freddy McFall began the task of modernizing the chassis for its new drivetrain. Freddy made a call to Fatman Fabrication in North Carolina to supply him with the Mustang II independent front suspension, then with a four-link rear suspension to handle the torque and finally adding the QA1 coilovers at each corner to handle the dampening of this ride.

When it was time to work the body panels and lay the finish on the F-100, Randy trusted Tony McAlister with Mac’s Hot Rod Shop, another local guy, to do the job. Randy was adamant about keeping the sleek original body lines Ford had constructed, but he did want to smooth things out a bit. They started with the stake hole pockets in the bed and removed the rear bumper in favor of a much smoother and streamlined rear roll pan. They then smoothed the front bumper, trimmed up the edges and finally tucked it in nice and tight to the body to eliminate those ugly gaps. To conclude the overall smooth look, they opted to remove all the factory badging from the body and prep things like the front grille and bumper for paint to give the truck an overall uniform look.

There’s just something so right about a Coyote stuffed into a classic Ford truck engine bay.

After hours upon hours of rust repair, metal work and body prep, it was time to pick a color. Randy stated he wanted a bright blue Ford color, but he trusted the professional opinion of his painter and went with a modified BMW silver. To add a little contrast to the overall look, they painted the inner fender wells black and gave the bed floor a textured liner. Additionally, the grille was painted a darker color and, to break up the large metal canvas, Tony painted a custom stripe on the lower body and included the word “Coyote” to entice the wondering minds.

What are we wondering about, you ask? The powertrain of course! Randy did what he had wanted to do for years and wedged a Ford 5.0L Coyote from Aroson Motorsports in between the frame rails. Then backed it up with a heavy duty 4R70W automatic transmission from Performance Automatic, which also supplied the computer controller to get it dialed in to the Coyote V-8. A custom driveshaft ties the power to the Ford 9-inch rear end via the Currie Enterprises-built third member, carrying a stout Detroit Locker with 4.11 gears and custom axles. Not to be overlooked, Randy knew with this kind of power, an equal amount of stopping power would be needed. So, Freddy installed the large diameter brakes from Wilwood, utilizing a six-piston caliper up front and a four-piston on the rear, each with a cross-drilled and slotted rotor to help with the heat dissipation in those heavy braking applications.

To cap off the look of this silver Coyote, Randy selected a set of Coy’s five-spoke wheels. Matching the paint, the wheels have a silver center and machined wheel lip, running 18×8 on all four corners. Trusting all this acceleration and road contact is a set of Bridgestones in a staggered width to give a little more bite on the rear axle.

Finishing off this project is the custom interior. Not to be held back at this juncture in the project, Randy spared no expense here as well. Mac’s Hot Rod Shop smoothed the dash and added a lower skirt where all the control knobs would be housed along with the A/C vents. Then they coordinated the dash’s color with the same two-tone silver as the exterior with matching stripe reading “Coyote.” Using seats with a center console from Glide Industries, Wilson’s Upholstery covered them in black leather along with the door panels and Billet Specialties steering wheel. To make things more comfortable, a tilt column was added along with a ventilation system from Vintage Air. The dash is filled with modern electronics including the Classic Instruments Nostalgia VT series gauges and the Kenwood sound system.

Randy learned a lot during this project.

“There is definitely a difference between putting a project together and putting a project together to use,” he says.

I would agree that there is a prodigious difference between the two. He has discovered that without spending the right money on the right parts, you leave yourself with an unfinished product. Additionally, Randy would be the first to state that maybe this project went a little too far, but I would argue how do you know if it is too far if you never get there? When you realize there are no shortcuts and it isn’t right to do anything just halfway, then most of the time you can count on building something others would think is overdone. Well, we don’t need that kind of negativity around here! Keep on building those dreams.

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Randy East
1964 Ford F-100
Rockmart, GA

Chassis/Suspension