El Diablo

Feature

InTheGarageMedia.com

BY Fuelish Media

PHOTOGRAPHY BY the Author

The Devil’s in the Details

W

hat first started out as a basic “restore” project eventually turned into a true all-gas no-brakes redesign and build on Fred Bishop’s 1971 F-100. This truck once belonged to his wife’s uncle who was an avid camper, fisherman, and Ford fanatic. Every outdoors trip began by packing the F-100 with all the necessary goods he’d need while roughing it in the wilderness. Fred remembers riding in the truck with Uncle Dave back then when it was bone stock. Now that he was blessed with the opportunity to give the truck new life, he has tried to make the most of it—no matter what came up throughout the three-year build process.

Feature

InTheGarageMedia.com

BY Fuelish Media

PHOTOGRAPHY BY the Author

The Devil’s in the Details

W

hat first started out as a basic “restore” project eventually turned into a true all-gas no-brakes redesign and build on Fred Bishop’s 1971 F-100. This truck once belonged to his wife’s uncle who was an avid camper, fisherman, and Ford fanatic. Every outdoors trip began by packing the F-100 with all the necessary goods he’d need while roughing it in the wilderness. Fred remembers riding in the truck with Uncle Dave back then when it was bone stock. Now that he was blessed with the opportunity to give the truck new life, he has tried to make the most of it—no matter what came up throughout the three-year build process.

Uncle Dave was the F-100’s first and only owner until he passed the keys to Fred about six years ago. What was once his celebrated daily mode of transportation and adventure had slowly deteriorated into a sad shell of what it once was. Dave parked the truck in his backyard and there it sat for years on end. It remained untouched, unloved, and still packed full of all his camping gear. Fred felt it would be a great disservice to Uncle Dave’s memory to not only get the truck back on the road but to hopefully do something special with it. “I think Uncle Dave would be proud of what his old ‘fishing truck’ has turned into,” Fred says.

With Fred being a car guy and hot rodder, the idea of simply knocking the layers of dust off the F-100 and performing a quick tune-up didn’t last for too long. The plans for the truck evolved quickly from an entry-level “clean and cruise” affair into a somewhat conservative street truck build. To get started, Fred took the truck to his good friend Willie Davis’ shop—Big Willie’s Garage in Grand Junction, Colorado. “My proposition for [Davis] was to piece together a Crown Vic suspension along with a 4.6L and transmission out of a 2008 Crown Vic sheriff’s car, which I thought would be pretty cool,” Fred admits. While this goal seemed like a solid path to take with an old F-100, something still just wasn’t right.

With Fred being a car guy and hot rodder, the idea of simply knocking the layers of dust off the F-100 and performing a quick tune-up didn’t last for too long. The plans for the truck evolved quickly from an entry-level “clean and cruise” affair into a somewhat conservative street truck build. To get started, Fred took the truck to his good friend Willie Davis’ shop—Big Willie’s Garage in Grand Junction, Colorado. “My proposition for [Davis] was to piece together a Crown Vic suspension along with a 4.6L and transmission out of a 2008 Crown Vic sheriff’s car, which I thought would be pretty cool,” Fred admits. While this goal seemed like a solid path to take with an old F-100, something still just wasn’t right.

Fred pressed Davis about what could top the whole Crown Vic thing by a lot, leaving very little room to want for more later on. What turned out to be a solid Plan C ended up being just what Fred was hoping to hear from his pal. “[Davis] and I talked about my end vision, and with his creative input we landed on a custom air-ride chassis to support a highly modified but ‘stock’-appearing body. We also ditched the 4.6 for something much more exciting.” Starting with the foundation, a Heidts Mustang II system was used with a rear parallel four-link, RideTech ShockWave air springs, and Wilwood 13-inch brakes. The guys figured a Ford Motorsports Coyote 5.0L engine would be worth the extra money, as would a Whipple supercharger on top of it as well as a 6R80 transmission behind it. At this point, they figured why settle for anything less than what was high atop Fred’s wish list for the project?

With momentum building, both Fred and Davis were quite aware that they were smack in the middle of creating a very noteworthy high-end custom bumpside Ford pickup. The two had started talking about making the truck look like a large-scale toy—a Hot Wheel truck that kids of all ages (adults included) could truly appreciate. With this in mind, Davis began massaging the truck’s surface into shape. The guys still wanted to maintain that factory look, which was largely gained by modifying stock components, such as both bumpers, hood (with heat extractors), one-off steel grille, wheeltubs, core support, fully welded body seams, one-off tailgate, and side-exiting exhaust. Much was streamlined and made to appear simpler and smoother than Ford’s original design. The style of the exterior even extends inside the cab with a custom all-steel dash. Out back, the entire centersection of the bed floor was designed to lift up to reveal the rear chassis and suspension components, which works great for show as well as general maintenance.

Once the metalwork was done, the guys gave lots of thought into what color would be best to paint the truck. This phase of the build directly affected how the entire rest of the truck came together from here on out. Davis recruited friend Charlie Cutts to finalize the prepwork before spraying a custom-mixed PPG color they had all agreed upon, which they started calling Diablo Red. It had a nice ring to it, and the guys absolutely loved the hue so much they ran with the idea of going with all-red everything. “Once the exterior was painted we started getting ideas together for the interior,” Fred says. “We brought in Tracy Weaver and his team at The Recovery Room to get everything inside the cab in order, which of course would include pushing the ‘dipped in red’ theme we planned on implementing.”

The bench seat is a completely frame-up build that was designed to fit the confines of this truck specifically. The foam was cut and shaped to resemble a ’60s Ford Galaxie, which gave the truck a welcomed dash of vintage style that goes a long way inside the cab. But Tracy Weaver and the crew didn’t stop there as they also fabricated custom door panels and a center console (that holds the Vintage Air controls, Lokar shifter, and Air Lift air management controller) as well as Vibro Solution’s dampening material on under the carpeting and an audio system that leaves the F-100’s cab space dripping with an elevated sense of style that calls out to Ford’s heritage styling.

When the dust finally settled, Fred was in complete disbelief that the truck he once knew as an old fishing truck is now worthy of being featured in a magazine. The vision of creating a life-sized Hot Wheels toy really did come through right down to the “redline” stripes on the 265/30R22 and 405/25R24 Pirelli P-Zero tires that cover the 22×9 and 24×15 Intro Vista billet wheels. “The project did take a little longer than we had anticipated,” Fred says. “[Davis] closed his shop of 15 years and started his new business (WW Speed and Customs) in the middle of the build, but I kept the truck in his hands because of his vision and determination to turn the dream we had of ‘El Diablo’ into a real thing.”

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