In 2023, it will be more challenging than ever to come up with something new. There are a lot of weird engine swaps and other things on the internet because of sites like ours. This makes many people’s work look more normal than it is. This 1975 Ford pickup, on the other hand, is one of a kind. Its front end was made to look like the front of old Blue Oval semi-trucks. You might not think that is a good thing, but Ernest Ellis doesn’t care. After years of thinking about it, he finally built the truck for himself. He tells me over the phone that it took years to make the piece you see here. It is made with a setback axle from the Louisville LS line. I was raised with them. “When I was a kid, my dad used to have trucks like that,” Ellis said. I was 14 years old when the new ’78 pickup came out, and my brother worked at a Ford store. The middle piece was my favorite part of the grille. Ellis wondered why they learned less from the semis that were being built at the same time in Louisville. Even though not everyone would have thought to mix the looks of those cool trucks and a Ford pickup, he did. “I started working on the truck in 1999, but I had to stop because I needed it,” Ellis said. When it was time for a new coat of paint in 2018, he chose to take the job seriously. After that, he couldn’t do anything else. “I worked on it every weekend,” he said. This brought him three and a half years. It used to be a two-wheel-drive F-250 Super Cab with a short length. He did a lot of extra work on it, like making a handmade bed with a built-in box that looks like it came from a factory but isn’t. Many parts of this car are so small that you won’t notice them unless Ellis tells you where to look. He did it all by himself, which is the best part. The black piece in the middle of the hood is the only part that came from a 1971 Plymouth Road Runner. Ellis says that none of the scrap metal from any other car was used. People say, “Oh, those are Mustang headlights and fenders.” There is nothing from another vehicle. It was made entirely by hand. That grille is a mix of two grilles from 1979 Ford trucks. Ellis cut them in half and joined the tops of each half to make what you see above. He then used his years of experience in bodywork to shape the rest of the hood out of steel and metal into something that looks as clean as Ford factory work. The hood is also moved forward by two electric motors that can hold up to 900 pounds of weight together. Even the black section in the middle can be lifted by hand to reach the 460-cubic-inch V8’s breather. You see, these details are what make this idea stand out. “When I was growing up, it was Mustangs and these big trucks,” said Ellis. It looks like a big truck and a Mustang, one after the other. Even though it got a lot of bad reviews on the internet, Ellis says it has won prizes at all three competitions he has put it in since last fall. He has a lot to be proud of, and he is. Even though not everyone would like it, the job was done well.
