And who better to kick off our Legacy Series than the late Pat Ganahl and his famous ’56 Ford F-100. Pat was without a doubt an inspiration and mentor of mine—his history with Rodder’s Journal, Hot Rod, and the magazine I strived for and eventually took the helm of (before its untimely demise), Rod & Custom, served as my CliffsNotes for “blossoming” into the opinionated editor I’ve become! It’s also been a pleasure watching his son, Bill, blossom into one of the top custom car/hot rod/classic truck builders in the country, and because of his close relationship with his father, I felt it only right that he put the heartfelt words on paper to honor Pat’s legacy of an F-100.

“I’ve written about a lot of things in my life, and I think I’m generally pretty good at it, but I don’t even know where to start with this one. This is my dad’s F-100; I basically grew up in this truck. My dad owned it for almost 40 years (I’m 45 as I write this). I’ve driven to Fremont towing our Top Fuel dragster in it, I’ve crawled under the dash trying to help my dad find rattles, I’ve steered my dad’s ’48 Chevy behind it while being towed by a rope all the way across town to the muffler shop (true story), and I’ve listened to all of my dad’s mixed tapes on the old tape deck over the course of decades.

“Unfortunately, I have also driven my mom in this truck all the way home from Toutle, Washington, to Hayward, California, while towing the wrecked Ike Iacono dragster that killed my dad. To say that I have mixed feelings about it now would be an understatement. Maybe I’ll tell just a few stories about my dad and this truck and leave it at that.

“When we first started running our little Altered T, “The Lowbuck Special,” in the ’80s at the nostalgia drags, Gray Baskerville was around much of the time. My dad had a different favorite color every time you asked, but he definitely liked yellow and he wanted to paint the F-100 yellow from the get-go. He got the truck to serve as a ‘shop truck,’ but also to tow and push-start our dragster. I think [Baskerville] might have seen it for the first time at one of these early nostalgia meets and he immediately says to my dad, “That’s not yellow, that’s pussy yellow!” Clearly he thought it was too pale. So, the next time my dad repainted it (which happened a lot), I noticed it was a darker yellow than before. I don’t think he would have ever admitted that [Baskerville] had anything to do with his choice …

“My dad took me to El Mirage many times, both to watch the races and to drive my little dune buggy go-kart that we built together—which pretty much means that he built it for me while I watched! One time it was windy as all hell, and he told me, ‘Watch the door when you open it.’ Well, I know I heard him say it, but as soon as I opened the door the wind whipped the handle right out of my hand and the door swung open. It whipped it so hard it bent the hinges back and let the door slam into the front fender. I thought I was going to get disowned right then and there … but we stayed at the lake all day and the next day he started teaching me how to repair an F-100 door that swung open too hard! It’s funny how he might blow up at you over something little but be so understanding about something that seemed life-ending at the time. Dads.

“I’ll end this with what marks the end of this story and the beginning of a new one. My dad, and now I, became good friends with Lee Pratt. Both of us, like most anyone who knows [Pratt], think he is about the nicest and coolest human being on the face of the planet, not to mention a talented artist and car builder (if you don’t know who he is, Google Lee Pratt Nomad or Buick or Impala). So, [Pratt] told me the other day that he wanted to sell his late-model Chevy Silverado and get an older, cooler parts hauler/shop truck. I talked to my mom and asked her opinion and we both immediately agreed that if my dad would want anyone to have his truck it would be [Pratt]. So, [Pratt] and I made a trade deal and he’s now the new proud owner of my dad’s old F-100. Can’t wait to see what new stories and memories it has in store.”