“I’m a GM guy at heart, but I have always thought that Ford got it right when they designed this era of truck. When the opportunity presented itself during the build, I decided to go with what I know and rebuild my Ford project truck with the Chevy performance components I have had experience with,” Shutters states.

Like all great builds, this one has an interesting story to tell. Strangely enough, it all started with Shutters’ ’51 Ford coupe project car. It was a ride he had in his possession and had wrenched on for several years. “I like to build my own cars because I can do most of the work myself. The one thing I am NOT good at is bodywork. I had gotten to the point with the Ford that the next step was body and paint. I usually tend to get rid of them at this point,” Shutters says.

During this time, his good friend, Brian McCutcheon, was working on a pretty cool project himself: a sweet ’60 Ford F-100 pickup. “[McCutcheon] is really good at the aesthetics, and luckily for him his truck needed very little metalwork and massaging to get it into a fresh coat of Ford ‘Intense Blue’ paint. He did this first before he worked through the mechanicals on the truck,” Shutters states.

Then one night something unexpected happened. The two friends came to the realization that they both coveted each other’s rides. After some conversation about their current situations they decided to help each other out. “He liked my coupe and I liked his truck, so we decided to swap rides. This was great for me as it fast-forwarded me through the paint stage. It also helped [McCutcheon] out because he could concentrate on the body and paint on the ’51 Ford,” Shutters says. This was a game changer, as it now freed Shutters up to do what he really loves: a full mechanical makeover of the newly skinned Ford.

After getting to work on the truck, Shutters quickly realized that working on a freshly painted project can be a harrowing experience. “I don’t recommend doing a full vehicle rebuild after it’s been painted, as it’s quite stressful. I prayed a lot while working on it and tried my best not to damage the paint in any way.” The frame was the first thing that he worked on, throwing in a 3-inch notch to help get the stance he wanted.

As far as the suspension, Shutters looked no further than Chevy’s high-performance juggernaut. “The suspension is all ’86 Corvette, front and rear, with a conversion kit made by Flat Out Engineering of Orange, California, to tie it all together,” Shutters says. One deviation was the use of Aldan American coilovers on all four corners, instead of the stock transverse leaf springs from the donor car. “The Flat Out Engineering kit requires the use of coilovers. The ability to adjust preload and compression in addition to making minor ride height changes make coilovers a great addition to the suspension package,” Shutters states.

Motorvation for this truck is handled by a stout 5.3L LS built by ATK High Performance Engines out of La Prairie, Texas, though getting to this point took some trial and error. “I learned a few lessons along the way, and the most important was buying the engine. Initially, I purchased a junkyard 5.3L and cleaned it up and dropped it into the truck. Upon getting it fired, I found there was an oiling system failure and had to ditch this ‘money-saving’ 5.3L and pony up for a rebuilt motor. I won’t buy another used engine again unless I know the history behind it,” he says.