OUTSIDE THE BOX

OUTSIDE THE BOX

Why did you build a truck? They are traditionally seen as the step brother to cars and I mean any car! They are the daily work horse and not cool cruisers. Hauling your friends around meant everyone called for shot gun because no one wanted to ride in the bed like yesterdays left over baggage. Carrying friends in the bed may have been cool at some hay rides but then again, well you know. If you know about the problems with steering wheels when making out at the local Drive-In, then you know the lack of a back seat was very un-cool. Your girl friend always wanted her friend or was it her ride along security and a truck didn't allow for that, which did force some of you to ask dad for the keys to the family car (now how un-cool was that?).

When your friends said, 'a truck' why not a 50 Mercury or 32 high boy or 56 Chevrolet? You wished you could give them a beautiful line of BS explaining your vision of a cool cruiser but, more than likely you accepted their taunting and continued with your build. For some of us building a truck was an affordable way out because no one wanted an old work truck, consequently trucks were cheap to get and relatively inexpensive to work on. To have seen something special within the sheet metal of a truck that the vast majority of others failed to see was imaginative but still not cool at cruise nights. 

Trucks are not open to easy customization but you knew that they were front heavy and having mostly open air to work with in the rear there were few options to pick from. Likewise they were not easily hot rodded because a little thing called weight to power ratio. Never mind that way back when, but not so long ago some automotive engineers in Michigan decided that sculpted body lines were out and straight, square box designs with big, no check that, huge open grills were preferable to the soft and supple body lines of yesteryear. That threw a monkey wrench into things. We were all left asking, so how do you customize a cube? Lines were eventually drawn when like everything else one generation moves on and another comes along each having their likes and preferences based on what they grew up with.

 Where some saw the cube as beautiful, my generation and my piers choose to build, customize and generally restore either with original parts or custom after market parts trucks, those personify the fifties with all their excess chrome and full body lines. Nothing was spared when these trucks were designed by Detroit, so no imagination, no thought and no part can be devised that is too much to be considered when restoring or customizing these representatives of true Americana. From the suspension, to the cab, and bed nothing and I mean nothing has been spared the manufacturers attention.


Anyone wishing to build a 1956 Ford F100 can do so without purchasing one part from Ford. That's right, not one part! Wheels to motor, or cab and interior to rear view mirror all parts are available from after market parts houses and the same can be said for the Chevrolet trucks. Yes Fred, there is a huge market for these trucks and it's growing. Magazines, parts houses and speed shops are falling all over themselves to get more and more involved, and clubs are there to support truck owners as well.  In today's market, trucks are quickly becoming the choice for collectors and the money is growing with the demand. I don't care if it's a 55 F100 or a 57 Cameo or 69 C-10 your choice to customize a truck is thinking outside the box. It is said that he who laughs last laughs best. So when everyone else kept saying trucks would never be cool you just smiled, trophy in hand and cruised down the boulevard with your best gal at your side.

Keep on Trickin'
Dan
The Music Man