1965 Ford F100 – Olie G.

I purchased my 1965 F100 Flareside when I was retiring from my GM position in the auto parts industry.
A regular customer named Jimmy overheard me talking to another customer about a 1954 Ford Truck that I was looking into. Jimmy told me that he had a 1965 Ford F100 junked on his 8 acre property and he would sell it to me for $3,200.
The next day, I was looking at my future truck and falling in love with the body style. We towed it to my house and I immediately began tearing it down piece by piece down to the chassis. I completed all the work myself including the garage paint job. Four years and over 18k in parts later, I had a beautifully restored truck. I bored out the 390fe engine into a 402 cu in., 6.7 liter engine. The frame was restored with a 1974 twin Ibeam suspension, front disk brakes and power steering. Stainless headers, custom stainless steel dual sided exhaust to allow room in the rear for a modern spare tire hoist which I fabricated. The old Ford had some other modern conveniences added like, 3 point safety belts, heated bench seat, Forever Sharp custom steering wheel, vintage looking radio with bluetooth & hands free capabilities.
I painted the truck with TCP’s Single Stage Pearl Fire Red urethane adding a wet look hardener additive.
The bed of the truck was completed with fresh cut lumber mill ⅝” oak boards trimmed in polished stainless steel. I then polished the original muscle car wheels to a mirror finish on my All Terrain 255-70/16r tires for safer driving in our North Georgia mountains. I added extra emergency LED lights hidden under the chassis as well as creating a custom made trailer hitch. My final project was the headliner, my first attempt was not acceptable to me so I tore it down. My patient and lovely wife Tammi had a crazy idea, why not cover the headliner in wood?
Wood it was! Very difficult due to bends and shape of the headliner, I used a thin cut cedar and then trimmed it with some distressed leather belt making straps. Looks great, but I wondered if I have to get the truck tented for termites in the future, just kidding?
The restoration took me longer than expected due to multiple major surgeries and a heart attack that kept me from working on the truck at times. My wife took some funny pics of me working on the truck just after a heart stents, shoulder, 2 hips and knee were replaced.
Hard to keep a man from his old truck!