This 1961 Ford F-100 was probably on its way to the crusher, ready to uncomplainingly meet its end: turning into a flat pile of glass and metal, looking like a crushed juice can. However, someone saw potential in it and restomodded it back to its former glory.
Ford started building pickups back in 1948, but they were based on the same platform as the passenger cars. Five years later, Ford came up with a new entry-level version, the half-ton Ford F-100, for the second generation of the F-Series. It was positioned below the F-2, F-3, and F-4. The F-2 became the F-250, while the F-4 turned into the one-ton F-350.
What we have here is the 1961 F-100, which left its entire life behind to become this premium model with a V8 engine, a leather interior, and a monochrome body in stealth grey that can be tagged as anything but boring. Everywhere you look, you run into something customized.
The team fitted it with a custom grille with a black finish, flanked by custom headlights, turning classic muscle into a modern premium vehicle. A custom hood, custom bumpers, and fenders are also on the menu.
The gloss black-painted aluminum bed and leather-lined tailgate with a handle confirm that this truck left its workhorse life behind, like in a Cinderella story. The floor of the bed had to be raised to make room for the new gas tank underneath.
Photo: Vanguard Motor Sales
The frame, floor, and inner fenders have been painted in black, making the Ford look clean as a whistle, as if it just rolled off the production line. However, the vehicle kept its original door handles.
When grey is not boring but charismatic
Just in case you thought that grey had no personality, well, guess again! This truck breathes charisma through every single pore. A thin red strip splits the doors and fenders in two.
And speaking of breathing, that 5.0-liter Coyote engine exhales through a Borla exhaust, ending with Corvette C7-style powder-coated four exhaust tips, bringing along all the drama of a V8 sound, because nothing sounds like a Coyote, even if you are barely touching the accelerator.
The F-100 drove out of the shop of the Roses Rod & Customs team in Ohio back in 2020. The experts took out its original engine and transplanted a 5.0-liter Coyote V8. A six-speed Tremec manual transmission.
Photo: Vanguard Motor Sales
The vehicle is built around an Art Morrison custom chassis and sports a Ford 9-inch rear end and a four-link coilover suspension. It rides on Budnik Chicane 19-inch wheels with Wildwood disc brakes and Michelin Pilot 4S tires, measuring 225/45/ZR19 at the front and Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires at the rear, measuring 345/30/ZR19.
The interior of the 1961 Ford F-100 is also custom, made every inch as the former owner wanted it. Black leather with contrasting red stitching and diamond pattern covers the seats, dashboard, and door cards, matching the black knob of the shifter.
The 63-year-old truck still retains the aura of the vehicle it used to be, but it is living a totally different life. It came into the world as a workhorse, but now it is none of that. The restomod experts fitted it with everything that would make it comfortable in 2024.
New Dakota gauges replaced the old analog ones, yet kept everything simple. There are climate control and air conditioning on board to make the temperature cozy on board regardless of the weather. A Pioneer touchscreen displays the navigation.
The Ford F-100 looks like the grandfather of today's F-150
The model has also been equipped with front and rear parking cameras, a push-button start, power seats, and power locks. That button is the only one in the center console wrapped completely in black leather. The rearview mirror is actually a display that shows the images captures by a rearview camera installed underneath the rear bumper.
Photo: Vanguard Motor Sales
Vanguard Motor Sales owns it and is selling it, claiming that it is ready to win car shows and labeling it as one of the nicest F-100s on the planet. However, whoever wants to go winning car shows will first have to pay $224,900.
On the used car market, such models usually go for prices ranging from $7,500 to $16,000 if they are really low-mileage, well-maintained trucks. It is, by any means, a first step towards turning the F-Series the bestselling truck in the United States. And it has been like that for 47 years.
A Ford pickup truck rolls off the production line of the Dearborn Truck Plant, the Michigan Assembly Plant, and the Kansas City Assembly Plant every 33 seconds because the automaker needs to keep up with the demand. The F-150 is currently in its 14th generation and it looks like it is here to stay.
Vanguard also offers financing at $1,879 over 20 months. Once the truck starts winning, that should become easy to pay. The seller can deliver it anywhere in the world.
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