1975 Ford F100 – Zachary H.
Growing up, I was raised around cars in a shop environment thanks to my great grandfather and my father. So naturally I took a liking to anything and everything car/truck related (specifically Ford as dad has always been a Ford guy) and for as far back as I can remember for whatever reason, I had always wanted a 4×4 lifted Dentside Ford. Well, one day I was at my dad’s shop after school (where I typically would hang out after school) and noticed a blue two tone short bed 1975 F100 Ranger sitting in the front lot that I had never seen before. Dad had surprised me and bought me my dream truck, however it was a 2wd, I was still in love with it. Fast forward nearly 12 years we still had yet to do anything with the truck but get it running and I would drive it around the pasture at our home but I had always had plans to swap the body over to a 4wd chassis and with me now working full time I could finally afford to go out, find and purchase a 4wd dentside chassis and that’s exactly what I did. I went out and found a 1979 F150 shortbed 4×4 and towed it home. I immediately started tinkering with it and actually got it running and driving, however it was like most projects, life got in the way and it was put on the back burner as me and my fiancé at the time were in the process of purchasing our first home and planning our wedding. I then figured what better time to restore my old Ford and it be a part of our big day, so that’s exactly what we did. As always, I procrastinated until just 3 short months before my wedding to even start tearing either truck apart, but I was able to get all my friends and family together and stripped both trucks apart in basically a weekend. I ordered the majority of my parts from LMC and we tore into the ‘79, got the cab off the chassis, stripped the chassis down, painted it, replaced all brake lines, fuel lines, etc. and completely reassembled the chassis including a new 4” lift kit. Then came fixing all the rust in my 1975 F100 cab and bed to prepare it for its new home, a new freshly painted 4wd chassis. We worked on this thing day and night, most nights until 2 am trying to get it done in time for me and my wife’s big day. Well we did it, we finished up swapping my truck to a 4wd and basically a frame off restoration the Friday night before my wedding, but it made it and I seriously couldn’t be any happier that I was able to have my dream truck at my wedding for pictures that I can have and look back at for the rest of my life.
