Classic Blue Oval truck aficionados know there’s an entire world of custom F-Series out there (mostly of the F-100 variety), and we’ve seen quite a few interesting examples on the Ford Era YouTube channel. But this time around, Solomon Lunger, the host of the “What The Truck?” series. has truly prepared something unique for us.
With a little help from the owner of this badass—as one Shawn Davis of AutotopiaLA fame would put it simply—1953 Ford C600 COE (cab over engine or forward control) truck, naturally. Seriously, we’ve seen a lot of fancy, vintage, lovingly restored and modified F-Series trucks on this channel.
But this thing really is something else. And that’s not just because of the cab arrangement. It combines bits and pieces from so many different corners of the automotive culture we’re still trying to recover our jaws off the floor after finding out that everything was done in the owner's backyard with no help from fancy tooling, garage professionals, or a beefed-up bank account.
Instead, all it took was a lot of love for the COE, some friends, a neighbor with a great mechanical skill set, and (probably) a lot of Corona beer—you’ll understand this reference once you see the tribute in the cabin. By the way, everything we see on this salvaged C600 has the “homemade” mark.
And it’s a lot to take in since the truck started off initially as just the cab and frame, then was married to a 1991 Ram 3500 chassis and its modern 5.9-liter turbo diesel from Cummins along with the stick shift gearbox. Now, this truck is clearly still a work in progress, as evidenced by the make-shift shifter seen towering inside the cabin, but the level of detailing is frankly astonishing.
It’s best to enjoy the footage (video embedded below), but here are the highlights. The cabin was entirely done by hand (including the “dog cage”), the left and right fuel tanks will eventually become a cooler and barbeque, while the back bumper taillights have been created out of old propane torches!
Given the Cummins swap, you’d think the main draw here would be under the cabin—we get a peek in there at the 3-minute mark before moving on to the 4:35 mark when the ride and drone footage action start. Frankly, the one thing that shocked us the most is the rear bumper, which is basically a chained piece of paper that seems to be taken directly off a light/utility pole!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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