Home-Built HEROES | The Best Reader Ride Ford F100 Trucks!

Garage Build Showcase

Olivia Wootan

Shelley, Idaho
’61 Ford F-100

Olivia Wootan and her father Shane share a passion for classic Ford trucks. They did a frame off on this truck in the garage together for some quality father/daughter time. They added a full bright red paint job with white stripes, boxed the frame, and installed Crown Victoria axles front and rear. They powered the resto with a 351W and a 4-speed SROD from a Fox Body Mustang. It has Vintage Air A/C for comfort and RetroSound upgrades for fun. They used Cragar chrome wheels to give it that old-school class, and Olivia had the interior done with some diamond tuck patterns. She drove it daily to high school as a junior and senior, and she cleans it up for shows on weekends. Her plan is to buy another truck to drive in the winter while she continues to build this one for more performance.

Kyle Delfel

Snohomish, Washington
’66 Ford F-250

With quite a few truck builds under his belt, Kyle Delfel is a Ford crew cab enthusiast to say the least. This last-model-year Slick Side marks the second year of production for the factory crew cab and the first year it was available for non-government use. The original owner special ordered the truck for logging, hunting and camping with his family. It sat in the same barn every night from the time it was purchased up until the day Kyle bought it in 2019. The ’66 has a 300 straight-six with a T89 4-speed manual transmission and a Dana 60 rear axle 410 gear ratio. This original paint crew now lives its life in a small town as a daily driven lunch- and parts-getter with the occasional weekend out as a family cruiser.

Devan Ence

Idaho Falls, Idaho
’78 Ford Bronco

Devan Ence from F-100 Talk is currently working on an extremely custom ’78 Ford Bronco build. It might not be for everyone, but Devan wanted to build something just a little different. Yes, it’s hammered to the ground on air-ride featuring custom FLO Airride dual billet tanks, but there’s definitely more to this Bronco than just extreme lows. He is running a Coyote out of a 2014 F-150 as the drivetrain, and it has a custom-built metal interior along with engine bay and other modifications. This thing has a bunch more work ahead, but Devan is extremely excited about the direction the build is headed (and so are we!).

Ed Barczy

Monroe, North Carolina
’74 Ford F-100 Ranger XLT

Ed Barczy built this truck from the frame up using parts that he gathered over the years. His goal was to build something he could drive and something to be proud of—to be able to say, “Yeah, I did that.” The engine is a Ford FE 352 with a stock rotating assembly and a lot of tricks done on the inside of the block, a “Big Mutha Thumpa” cam with 390 GT heads that flow really well with the old school Edelbrock Cross Ram X-F66. The transmission is a T5 that has been built to handle everything else. The rear gear is a Detroit Locker out of a Winston Cup car with 4.00 gears, and wheels are American Racing Salt Flat two-piece 18×8 and 18×10 with 5×5.5 bolt pattern. Ed lowered the truck using DJM 3/4 drop and took out a rear leaf and installed a big front and rear sway bar that really helps the truck to handle well in the corners. The interior is TMI bucket seats with a newer F-150 center console and dark jade green carpet with everything matching the Ivy Glow exterior paint, which is an original color. As a driver, Ed’s favorite additions are the Vintage Air A/C and a JL Audio system that made it easy to clock more than 10,000 miles over the past two years.

Dave Lando

St. Louis, Missouri
’75 Ford F-100

To be honest, this truck was not built by Dave. Dave and his wife, Jennifer, were looking for an older truck for Jennifer to drive and Dave to tinker with. They looked for several months before Jen found this purple Ford truck. Dave said, “It’s a Ford and it’s purple,” and dismissed the truck. They kept looking at truck after truck with no luck. Jen kept coming back to this old purple truck and, well, Dave likes old Ford trucks. His dad drove one when he was a kid, but he knew they were a little more difficult to build. After doing some research, Dave found that not many people were building these trucks, so they decided to buy it. Dave tinkered with it here and there for a while before Jen decided she didn’t really want to drive an old truck that lacked modern conveniences. So, Dave decided he would take over on it and ended up falling in love with the Purple People Eater, as they affectionately call it. The truck has a 302 and AOD transmission out of a newer F-150. The truck has drop I-beams and a four-link riding on air all around. Dave is now planning a Crown Vic swap and looking into a coyote swap to get some more modern reliability. Dave would love to take the old purple truck to some local road course and timed parking lot races just to see people shake their heads. People either love it or hate it, but in Dave’s case—he loves the old girl.

Mark Johnson

Grand Rapids, Michigan
’68 Ford F-100 Longbed
NO REGRETS

This truck was owned by Mark’s father and uncle since the early ’80s, back when they worked in the fields and orchards. It was parked when the motor locked up and left to sit. After Mark’s uncle passed away in 2007, his dad vowed to never get rid of their truck. It sat out back all the way up until 2016, when he finally let Mark start working on it here and there. The project quickly spiraled, and Mark vowed to make his uncle proud with a complete build. The stock chassis is long gone and in its place are a second-generation Camaro front clip with McGaughy’s drop spindles and a third-gen Camaro rear axle sporting 3:73 gears. The new 3/4 custom fabricated chassis along with a one-off rear wishbone 3-link suspension setup and Air Lift ‘bags meet with a Slam Specialties manifold fed by an EDC. All the air-ride is tucked under a custom bed featuring beadroll work and a wooden access panel. A custom stainless fuel cell sends the juice to a 300 straight-6 backed by a C4 transmission. The paint was done by Andy McBrian; the patina on the truck from years of use as well as neglect has been left untouched and simply clearcoated over. The roof, hood and tailgate feature a beautiful silver base, flaked and candy-painted serape blanket and other patterns. We’d say Mark has done his uncle more than proud with this build!

Travis Wilson

Ridgeley, West Virginia
’53 Ford F-100

Travis bought this truck after years of dreaming about owning a fat fender Ford. After looking at photos of trucks for years he finally pulled the trigger on this gem. He found this classic at SouthernMotors.com. This ’53 is a complete frame-off restoration from a speed shop out of Tennessee. It’s equipped with some nice amenities like power disc brakes, but it has manual steering to keep the nostalgia of a ’53 and sits on a Mustang II frame to give this truck the perfect performance stance. It’s powered by a 351 Windsor that is paired with a 3.55 rearend and sits on 20-inch American Racing Salt Flat Special Gray wheels. The PPG Single Stage Currant Red finish is a nice touch to this classic resto. The interior is done in a two-tone black and gray leather with the Ultra Classic bench seat finish. Travis plans to take advantage of the sunny days in the mountains of West Virginia to go cruising with his wife Britni and 4-year-old daughter Nora, who lovingly refers to the Ford as the “date truck.”

Justin Jenkins

Dayton, Tennessee
’66 Ford F-100

Justin Jenkins has been building this ’66 F-100 to his liking for a couple years now. Sitting on a 2010 Crown Vic full frame, floor, firewall and drivetrain, Justin opted for the complete Vic swap. Body dropped and ‘bagged on 22s, this beast certainly lays flat out now. Running the Air Lift 3P air management, two Viair 485s and a 5-gallon tank. Future plans include building a fuel cell and a full raised hidden bed floor. Justin also wants to restore or build a full custom interior, and just continue to enjoy it along the way.