At first glance, you may be wondering, "What the heck kind of truck is that?" Don't worry, that response is normal and we completely understand the instantaneous bewilderment. Talking with the truck's owner, Matt Jackson, he told us, "The team at After FX spent countless hours trying to build a medium-duty truck unlike no other." Mission accomplished team. This '07 Ford F-650 is the culmination of three years laboring over the most minute details and with more than $400,000 spent, it's no wonder Matt nicknamed his Ford "Piggy Bank." Designed to make jaws drop on the ground, you may never see a more custom big truck than this lifted, custom-painted, and audio-stuffed F-series.
The words "small F-650" are oxymoronic, but when Matt took home his F-650, he didn't feel it was big enough. As the owner of After FX, in Plainfield, New Hampshire, customizing cars and trucks are his passions in life, so it only made logical sense to have his talented group of guys work on his little truck project. Keeping much of the modified suspension under wraps, Matt did tell us both the front and rear setups use King off-road coilover shocks, the rear uses larger airbags, and the overall lift for both the front and rear allow for ample clearance of the 46-inch-tall Michelin tires mounted to Alcoa 22.5x14-inch aluminum wheels. Powering the monstrous Ford is a Caterpillar C7 turbo-diesel producing more than 800 lb-ft of torque. Huge 5.29 gears get the F-650 moving and the Allison 3000 tranny makes quick work of the shifts. Mounted under the hood and in the bed, a total of six Stinger batteries were installed to help support all of the audio/video planned for the truck.
Specializing in all things audio and video, the After FX team really went crazy with Matt's project. Inside the cavernous four doors, each seat was removed, the cabin covered in sound deadening material and a huge center console/back seat was fabricated out of fiberglass. That rear seat combo is home to two Critical Mass 12-inch subs, a DirecTV Tracvsion satellite TV digital box, and XBOX 360. Looking down on the audio is a custom Louis Vuitton-covered headliner fitted with four Alpine HD amps powering the Critical Mass mids and highs in each door and two 10-inch fold-down monitors from Accel. Each door panel is now made out of fiberglass and custom painted with airbrushed murals of dragons. The front doors house multiple Critical Mass speakers and the rears house 17-inch Accel monitors. Two-tone leather front seats from Superior Seats are supported by air, while the rear buckets are carved from the fiberglass enclosure and covered in matching Louis Vuitton material.
All of these interior mods by themselves would be worthy of a neck-snapping ride, but Matt and his After FX crew were only getting warmed up. Moving to the body of the truck, the headlights, emblems, door handles, and taillights were shaved. Up front, HID lights from a Mercedes S500 were grafted into place, a '69 Roadrunner hoodscoop welded to the hood, and LED taillights frenched in. A sheetmetal front bumper with PIAA foglights was handbuilt and out back, a Sir Michael's roll pan adds a touch of class to the burly bed. With the body straight and ready for paint, Dale Flewelling coated the entire F-650 in House of Kolor black. He then followed that up with front-to-back, top-to-bottom airbrushed real fire, murals of dragons, and post-apocalyptic city scenes-all in Kandy Purple. It's hard not to be mesmerized by the paint and sheer scale of the talented work.
A bass massage is courtesy...
A bass massage is courtesy of two 12-inch Critical Mass subs mounted in the center console/rear seat combo.
Wild dragons and real fire...
Wild dragons and real fire were airbrushed all over the F-650 by Dale Flewelling at After Fx.