1995 Ford F150-Russell H.

It was a labor of love that started in January of 2015 when Mason was just 14 years old. He bought the weathered 1995 F-150 truck with grand plans of how it was going to look once he finished with it and plans of showing off his new ride on his 16th birthday. Little did I know then that this was going to be the last father/son project we would have together before he passed away much too soon this March at the age of 17. He was almost done with the restoration of the truck too, just some finishing touches that needed to be completed. Things I then needed to do in his memory instead of doing with him by my side.

In the spring of 2015, Mason started his efforts on the truck by doing all the necessary bodywork. He sanded and buffed, hammered out dents then sanded and buffed some more. My good friend, Troy Gehman, did the paint job bringing it back to life with a shade of dark green like a forest on a sunny day. Once Mason got it back after it was painted, he painstakingly put it all back together piece by piece, mostly on his own and with many parts from LMC. It was so great to see a young guy hustling and busting his butt on a classic truck to bring it back to life. He took as much care with the small details of the restoration as he did with the big components. He had the drive to do this and to do it well.

Mason died suddenly in March of 2017 and since then I have been working diligently to finish what he wanted to complete on the truck. I did my best to follow his vision and feel as though he would be excited with the end result. I took it to a car show in June for Father’s Day and feel such pride in showing it with the memorial tailgate dedicated to Mason. He put so much time and effort into restoring the F-150, he became a part of that old truck and now I can continue to share that piece of him with generations of other people.