03/08/2025
1940 Ford Pickup…
It’s been a few years in the making but I’ve been enjoying my new Custom Shop Truck recently. Back in August 2022 I had finally found the “right” truck for me to build. After another year of collecting parts and making a game plan we finally started working on the project.
Having had the honor of restoring the Gil Ayala Wildbird for and learning more about the Ayala Bros I thought it only right my newest shop truck be inspired by their style. They had chopped the ‘40 for the House of Chrome Shop Truck so I poured myself into the 3-4 only pics of it and rendering. of helped me analyze the proportions for the chop and I made countless cardboard mockups of the side windows in full scale till I was happy with it. My great friend helped me chop it down one Saturday till we got the right “look”.
Few other note able changes include the front and rear ‘46 car bumpers and guards plus 49 Chev guard over the rear plate, deluxe ‘39 original headlight, rear drop taillights, ‘34 spare tire cover, ‘35 16” spoke wheels, baby appletons, ‘46 Pontiac gauge cluster center mounted, ‘40 car column and so on.
Kept the original frame with I-beam and Zypher drums, 70s Chev rear and on ‘50 Chev car parallel leafs, crate 350 sbc, rebuilt 700r4 and everything painted / new. Being a work truck I opted to put a pair of Monroe air shocks with a compressor, single button to lift and release ball valve for when unloaded. She cruises well at 80mph with air conditioning and a simple Bluetooth 2 speaker setup (one in the old heater box).
Thanks to the wife and kids for picking the colors! After sandblasting and patching a few rust repairs we did minimal bodywork and sprayed with single stage. I did not want a “restoration / show truck” instead a truck that looks great but shows its age and is honest in being 85 years old.
Well there’s a ton more details and info but I won’t bore you guys any longer 😅 I’ll be enjoying the truck and getting a few of the kinks out while finishing a few smaller details. Hopefully we will be driving out to some of the bigger shows soon. Thanks for reading and looking at the pics!