1967 FORD F100

Over a year ago, I stumbled upon a rendering of a black F100 on Instagram sitting on a set of gold Forgeline GX3 wheels. My interest was immediately peaked. As a fan of the ProTouring mindset and the not-so-common classic Ford pickups, I was all over it. I asked Derek for some extra photos of his truck and the friendship began.

Now came the real story behind the truck. Derek was also a big fan of the ProTouring movement, but didn’t want to have another LS-powered first gen Camaro. He decided to go his own way not only by building a truck, but a Ford truck!

He’s always been a fan of the black & gold look as seen on the Special Edition Pontiac Trans Ams of the late 70’s, but he was more of a Ford guy at heart. After meeting Wes Drelleshak and his 1959 Apache he appropriately calls “Project Long Shot,” Derek decided a Ford truck was what he wanted to build.

The first step was finding the truck and he truly struck gold in this department. He bought a 1967 Ford F100 from the original owner with the original black paint and 71,000 original miles. Rarely do you find a unique survivor like this truck, so he decided to cut it up and ruin its long streak of being just as it came from the factory.

First up was the chassis; the basis for any capable ProTouring ride. He went to Fat Man Fabrications and purchased their Builders Special chassis as a base then built onto that with a custom Trans Am style three-link rear suspension. He modified the front to fit the fat 315 Falkens. The brains of the suspension are RideTech’s TQ triple-adjustable coilovers at all four corners. These 1,000,000-mile warranty coilovers make all the difference and fully utilize the suspension design’s capabilities.

One of the major handling issues with a truck is the high center of gravity and front weight bias. There are a few ways to fix this issue and Derek tried them all. First off, a lighter motor. He went with a Boss 302 5.0L V8, but that wasn’t enough to cure the truck’s front weight handicap. To get the majority of the weight closer to the center of gravity, they moved the firewall and engine back a whopping 7 inches and lowered the motor 4 inches from the standard setup. Since he had the custom suspension out back and had to get the truck as low as possible, he raised the bed floor by 4 inches to allow plenty of clearance. Many people put a hump in the bed for axle clearance, but Derek didn’t like that idea.

Behind that Coyote is the quintessential ProTouring transmission of choice, the T-56 Magnum. While not a standard Magnum, his was equipped with a Centerforce clutch and Tilton Hydraulic throwout bearing. The beefy drivetrain continues with a Speedway Engineering Floater 9” rear end with an Eaton TrueTrac limited slip differential with 4.10 gears. This combination gives him a bulletproof driveline with plenty of low end gear and still highway cruisability with the T-56’s high overdrive.

While he has the suspension sorted out, he also had to have proper brakes to avoid fade on long autocross and road course sessions. While most people are running Wilwood or Baer, Derek decided to take a different route. He installed beefy 13″ rotors with Brake Man F4 calipers. Derek has a lot of friends with brackgrounds in NASCAR and Trans Am, so these racecar brakes would work perfect for his street-driven race truck. If these brakes are enough for cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Busch series, they should be plenty for his truck.

He got the truck lower, the center of gravity lower and the bias centered, now he needed grip. He accomplished this with a set of square Forgeline GX3P wheels measuring 18×11” square wrapped in Falken Azenis RT615K 315/30R18’s! That’s almost 12 and a half inches of rubber on all four corners.

Derek not only has one of the coolest Ford trucks out there, but he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet! He’s built a total monster on the autocross and road course that can go cruise down the road with cold A/C. We’re big fans of this type of build and loved spending time with this awesome Gearhead! Stay tuned for more features as we meet our fellow gearheads on Hot Rod’s Power Tour next week!