’ve been a professional repair and refinish technician for over half my life. I love my career, and how cars and what they represent are intertwined with family memories from a very early age. My family is from western Canada, south-central British Columbia to be exact, and we grew up around cars. My uncle Herb Pinske’s antique auto wreckers, A&H Used Auto Parts, sold cars and parts from the 1920s up to the 1970s, with a vast array of makes and models. My brother, Blaine Tetz, and I grew up around these cars and learned life lessons along the way.

My Cousin Wayne Pinske was here in Tennessee for a visit earlier in the year and we were reminiscing about childhood memories, cars, tall tales, and family get-togethers. We (possibly over adult beverages …) hatched a crazy plan to drag my youngest cousin Allan’s truck (that he got from his dad) down to my shop to throw a quick paintjob on it and have a family get-together. Ultimately, that plan escalated over the summer and ended up in a weeklong event that started with Cousin Allan’s ’56 F-100 making the 2,400-mile/36-hour journey on an open car hauler with his brother, Wayne, their nephew, Brandon, and Shane Dacosta (Brandon’s brother-in-law) on board.

My brother, Blaine, and Wayne’s son Steve flew in and met us in Nashville just in time to attend the Triple Crown of Rodding, which is an amazing car show! Once we saw the sights, had a nice visit, and got reacquainted, we got down to business.

We had a six-day deadline, so it was GO-TIME! What makes it a little easier is that we used all-new Auto Metal Direct (AMD) fenders, bedsides, braces, and patch panels to complete the repairs and get us beautiful parts that, aside from cab corners and rust repairs, only needed to be scuffed and painted for installation on the truck. This is a snapshot of a once-in-a-lifetime build thrash. It was an adventure that got our family back together again after decades apart and kicked out an outstanding F-100 refurb at the end of a six-day/500-hour week!

1. Here’s our subject, 30 years ago right after a full restoration. Period-correct sawblade chrome wheels, Volare front subframe, 302 Ford engine, and shiny single-stage paint make it a great-looking and handling show driver! But time always takes its toll on a vehicle, and this one needed going through.

3. After the 2,400-mile/36-hour trip, we unloaded the truck into the Paintucation shop and made a game plan and playbook … a goal like this won’t be achieved without a solid plan.

5. A look at the inner cab shows oozing filler and lots of crud … not a good sign! We have an opportunity here to correct the prior repair with a new AMD panel.

7. Using a cutoff wheel, the cloud of filler dust was a clue as to how much bog was used to make the corner. When this truck was last finished, there were no AMD re-pops for the cab corners.

9. The new inner supports (PN 480-4548 L&R) are E-coated and ready to be installed. The fit was excellent, so we used the stamped shapes to locate the inner panel properly.

12. We use a high-quality zinc weld-through primer for all metal repairs where there could be a corrosion opportunity. Zinc is a sacrificial coating that draws corrosion away from carbon steel.

14. The cut is made with a 1/16 cutoff wheel just ahead of the drawn line. This gives some adjustment room for a final fit.

16. Steve Paul (Wayne Pinske’s son) steps in to finish the bodywork on the cab corner while Brandon jumps on another patch. This was a coordinated project, with many workstations simultaneously moving forward, so we all took on many jobs to move the project ahead.

19. The front corners were suffering as well! We replaced left and right with AMD cowl repair panels (PN 376-4553-2 left to right) to fix the front corners. Some of the inner structure had to be replaced, and we used scrap flat-stock 18-gauge to repair the inner structure.

21. With all four corners now rejuvenated and ready for another 70 years of service, Allan made new pressure relief covers out of aluminum for each side. AMD, here’s an idea for a new product? Let’s discuss!

23. The bed assembly took about six hours total to get an accurate fit. This involved cross-sills (PN 716-4553-3), bedsides (PN 721-4553), new front panel (PN 715-4551), and fenders (PN 80-4553), while integrating the original (custom) tailgate. We had to slot a few holes and make minor adjustments along the way to the bedsides, but nothing unexpected. We also used a complete fender bolt set (PN 15783).

24. With mockups complete, we had parts in the booth by day two! The rear fenders were lined with U-POL Raptor bedliner (PN UPO KIT-0822-4-GUN) in black for impact protection inside the fenders. We sanded them with 320, which gets them ready for a Nason XL sealer to spray the color onto.

26. The color Allan chose was a mid-’90s GM truck color named Indigo Blue (code WA9792), which looks great on the fat-fendered body of this truck!

28. The bed assembly looks like a million bucks! We could have bodyworked and rust-repaired the originals, but these stampings were amazing. We saved dozens of hours by spending a little money on new AMD panels here.

30. The Nason XL base color covered in three coats, and we used a SATA 5000B 1.3 HVLP gun, and a total of 5 quarts to spray the entire job. Once you add the (2 to 1 ratio) reducer, that makes 240 ounces (1.75 gallons) of sprayable color. That also left Allan almost a full quart of color to spray the running boards (that we forgot to order from AMD) once he got back to British Columbia, Canada.

32. It’s inevitable that there’s a little dust that falls into the paint, so we nibbed with 2,000-grit paper and used my Griot’s Garage BOSS polishing system to repair any surface defects.

34. Seeing this truck come back to life was an amazing thing to be a part of, but it’s so much deeper than that. The last time we were all in one place we were kids, and some of us hadn’t even been born yet. This family reunion was long overdue, and such a wonderful way to catch up, get reacquainted and bond again over what we all share deep down: a love of classic cars. The cars we love are amazing, but even more beautiful are the memories we associate with them.