2010 Barrett-Jackson

These are some "interesting" photos from the 2010 Barrett-Jackson show. There were tons of high-dollar, beautiful cars... but I chose to share some pictures of the interesting ones, or ones with stories!

Here's one of Dale Earnhardt Jr's NASCAR cars. They happened to come by and fire it up while we were standing there looking at it... now I know why those NASCAR pit crews all wear ear plugs and have hearing protection!
This is a shot of an interior that I really liked. Note the clean look, and especially the extra piece of dash that he installed (under the original dash) to house the A/C vents. I also like the custom center console to house the radio. Very clean.

The boys loved this one... the Batmobile! It had working .40 caliber machine guns that popped out of the fenders, and is street legal!

" Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!"

This is one of my favorite cars of all time... '55 Chevy. What more needs to be said?

John Dillinger's escape car... still has a bullet hole in the back. Was recently used by Johnny Depp in his latest movie.

Lamborghini... smokin'!!!

Interiors -- planning for the future

I went through some of our photos from the car shows, and pulled some pictures that show some different options for the interiors. Check out all the little details:

--bench or bucket seats?

--fabricate some type of center console to house radio, A/C, etc?

--floor or column shifter?

--location of A/C vents, radio/speakers, etc?

--dashboard controls and instruments?

--color schemes?

--etc etc etc.

We'll need to figure out what we like/don't like, and begin making plans for how the interior of our truck is going to look. Feel free to post comments below if you have any thoughts/opinions!

This yellow one is a '53, like ours. Note the painted column, original window wings and ashtray, etc. A/C and stereo mounted under the dash, floor shifter... I don't like that too much, makes it look cluttered.

This is a '54-'56. These have bigger dashes, with more room for gauges. This one looks pretty stock.

This next one is hard to see b/c of the glare, but it's also a '53. Nice, but looks a little cluttered.

Another '53. This one is my favorite so far--very clean, color-coordinated, etc. He fabricated a center console to go with his bucket seats. Nice, but we want a bench seat so we can seat three people. Still, the center console is an option--we could mount both our A/C and the radio in it. Notice also the stereo speakers in the kicker panels. I really like the blue with chrome, including the billeted instrument panel and Classic Instruments gauges (in white). Would've looked nice if he painted the steering column to match the blue. Very, very clean interior! Notice the minimal amount of knobs in the dash. He also has the window wings and the original ashtry. I like this steering wheel, too.

Update 1/9/10 -- Prepping for Powder Coating

Saturday was a productive day: we pulled the rear end off the frame; removed the cross-members, leaf springs/mounts, and transmission crossmember; removed the engine and transmission; removed the power steering pump; and disassembled the entire front end (all suspension and steering components and linkages).

Next up: Mike's contact from Lou Grubb Ford will disassemble the internals from the rear end, as well as remove the bushings from the suspension components. This will allow us to powder coat those pieces without the extreme heat causing damage to the non-metal parts.

Once that's done, the entire chassis, as well as lots of individual parts and pieces, will be taken in for the powder coating. We've decided on a mild semi-gloss black, so that it will be easy to do touch-ups on any parts that need repair in the future.

Pictures below. Thanks to Jerry Hackett and my boys, Bryce and Caleb, for the help!

'53-'56 Trucks, Good Guys '09

I'm showing these first two cars because of the paint colors. The blue really jumps out in this first one. The truck was an overall "best in show" winner.

Here come the '53-'56's. The first two were award-winners.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Andersen Family '53 Ford F-100 blog!

We'll be updating our progress as we go, but for now, here's the story on how we got to where we're at...

My dad (Mike) and I bought a 1953 Ford F-100 on July 10th, 1992 (almost 18 years ago!!!). We were looking for a truck that we could rebuild, and being "Ford" guys (my dad has always been a Ford guy, and worked for Ford for many years), we settled on the Ford F-100 body style of 1953-1956. We found a nice, clean '53 locally through the Auto Trader, plunked down about $3,500, and our project began!

When we bought it, the truck originally looked like this:

The truck was functional at that time, and we had a lot of fun driving it around town. But the fun didn't last long... one evening, while Mike was taking it out for a drive, the electrical system shorted and caught on fire! The truck had to be towed home, and at that point we knew we had a bigger project on our hands than we originally estimated--we were going to have to take it all apart, and build it back up again from scratch.

In March '93, we began to disassemble the truck with two projects in mind--replacing the old, straight-axle front end; and rebuilding the motor. We began by starting to pull the body parts off, so we could get to the front-end pieces:

Next up was replacing the old front-end assembly with an updated front-end. The two popular front-ends used in these trucks were the Mustang and the Volare models; we chose the Volare model. Our specific front-end came out of a 1978 Dodge Aspen, which was grafted onto the original frame. The new front-end installation was completed in June '93, and gave us the upgrades of disc brakes, power steering, and independent front (torsion bar) suspension:

While the front-end was being completed, our good friend Larry Freeman was rebuilding the motor. The engine is a 351 Windsor, which is a small-block V8. It was bored .40 over and upgraded with new parts from Edelbrock, Holley, Competition Cams, etc.

Finally, the body parts were taken to the bead-blaster. All the old paint, rust, oxidation, etc. was blasted off, and the body parts returned as clean as they'd been since 1953!

And that, unfortunately, is where we ran out of time and money (mostly money!). For the next 17 years, the truck sat and waited. During those 17 years, Mike ended his career in the clothing business and worked for Lou Grubb Ford. Chris finished his master's degree, began his counseling career, got married to Becky, and had two beautiful boys, Bryce and Caleb. Life went on... unfortunately, the truck was neglected.

And that brings us to now, January 2010. We are finally working on the truck again, and hoping to have the rolling chassis (or more) done this year. Some work was completed in 2009, which will be highlighted in our next post.

Thanks for joining us on this F-100 Journey!