This unique 1958 Ford—nicknamed “Carlos” by its owner—started its new life as a cutting-edge hauler on the drawing board of Eric Brockmeyer before Korek and his Korek Designs crew in New Berlin, Pennsylvania, began taking concept to reality with the F-100. Art Morrison Enterprises handled the initial platform by constructing a custom 2×6 boxed-‘rail chassis complete with their proprietary GT Sport IFS, coilover four-linked Strange 9-inch rear, and beefy-diameter Wilwood binders—the latter of which are now neatly tucked behind Mike Curtis–milled Curtis Speed “twin” five-spokes with 35/40-series Continental Pro Extreme radials. Vintage Motorsports took on the task of repurposing a late-model F-150 Coyote 5.0L and 6R80 six-speed overdrive for the cause—with its Aeromotive-fed, Whipple-supercharged induction producing somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 hp!

Above the top-shelf underlying components you see the resulting three years of hard work on behalf of Korek Designs. As Dan describes it, “Each and every body panel was massaged/modified in one form or another”—from the hood, with its added scoops and extended character lines flowing into the filled cowl, to the clever integration of 1970 BMW 2002Ti door handles and custom-made tailgate latch and hinges, the custom grille to the roll pan rocker panels and shaved driprails—he’s not exaggerating! Korek himself applied the PPG Envirobase (ozone-friendly!) custom-mixed Blue Ice Metallic, while Advanced Plating handled the chrome accordingly and Billet Badges created the one-off F-100 emblems. The bed now features an abbreviated custom white oak tongue-and-groove wood floor flanked by handmade wheeltubs accommodating the 20×11 wheels with those meaty 315s.

After the cab’s base interior (dash, floor, and so on) was finished up at Korek, John Miller Interiors took on the final major phase of Carlos’ construction. Using Relicate Leather, the upholstery was done in a perfect contemporary style, with Snowden bucket seats, one-piece hardform headliner, and custom center console. An ididit tilt column—equipped with a Billet Specialties wheel—replaces the old three-on-the-tree, while a Dakota Digital cluster does the same for the old mechanical gauges and stock insert, and Vintage Air added in the absence of original A/C altogether!

For their efforts, Carlos was honored with the 2019 Goodguys Truck of the Year Early, a title it just may end up wearing till 2021 by the looks of the 2020 summer event season so far! Congrats to all!