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!