1953 Ford F100 - Worth The Wait

Jeff Freitas from Redding, California, was introduced to fat fendered Fords at age 15 by his older brother Jerry. Jerry had already owned two '53 Blue Ovals. Wanting to buy a '56 and still keep one of the `53's in the family, he offered one of them to Jeff. Jeff purchased it from his big bro and the rest is, well you know.

In 1989, Jeff attended the F-100 North & South show held in San Luis Obispo, California, with his '53 Ford F-100. Truckin' magazine was there covering the event, but to his surprise, when Truckin' came out on the newsstand featuring the North & South Show, his '53 wasn't anywhere in the show coverage. Of course, Jeff must remember at the time of the show his truck was in primer with a plywood bed; not a real editor magnet. After the '89 F-100 North & South Show, Jeff decided to rebuild the truck.

During the early `90's, Pro Street was very popular among trucks and cars. Jeff decided he was going to build a topnotch Pro Street machine. Nine years later with the raising of a family and involved in his career working for IBM, there was little time to devote to the truck.

Jeff was introduced to Sonny Siebert of Sonny's Old Cars through his hot-rod father-in-law, Whitey Palmer. Jeff and Sonny created a list of what they wanted to accomplish on the '53 Ford. The first thing was to build a Ford in a Ford and it had to look fast while rollin' down the road or sittin' parked. The '72 Chevelle front clip welded to the original Ford frame rails in '83 was left unmolested. The framerails were boxed for added strength and appearance. An Air Ride tubular Strong Arm front suspension kit with Shockwave air shocks were installed. A '75 Ford 9-inch rear end housing was narrowed to 54 inches, then stuffed with 3:50.1 gears and a Richmond posi-unit complete with Somers Bros. 31 splined axles. The same Air Ride tank and compressors that were used to activate the front and rear suspension are also responsible for the tilt-bed action. The rear suspension is a triangulated four-bar set-up. Its vertical action comes from a pair of Air Ride Shockwave pneumatic shocks. An 8-inch ECI power brake booster provides plenty of brake pressure to the front and rear ECI disc brake calipers and rotors. After everything was fitted properly, the wheels, tires, brakes and suspension were all removed to expose the bare frame. The frame was then sent out and painted a Moonglow pearl gray. It was later reassembled. A pair of Foose 18x8-inch Nitrous Legend wheels with 28x10.00-18 Mickey Thompson, rubber were mounted up front. Out back, a pair of Foose 20x14-inch Nitrous Legend wheels were wrapped with massive Mickey Thompson 31x16-20 meats.