104: THE LONG GAME

— HALF-BUILT F100

Are you building something in your garage? If you are, you can almost certainly relate to Neville Geoghan — the owner of this ’56 Ford F100 — as you can probably relate to most of the owners of cars featured in this magazine. How? Well, Neville’s journey began in the way that most do, although it didn’t quite pan out the same. “I always wanted an old-school truck that I could upgrade the running gear, chassis, and suspension [of],” he states. As he’d soon find out, that’s a lot easier said than done, which is why the F100 has hardly even had its running gear upgraded, and is yet to undergo any real chassis or suspension work. Yes, you read that right. Neville’s plan was always to go for a supercharged Boss engine and transmission from a Ford FG Falcon, with some sort of aftermarket chassis and suspension set-up. As such, he figured that the best starting point would be with an original, unmolested F100 — with genuine patina, if possible — but he couldn’t find anything that suited him. “Finding a good one has been harder than I first thought, as these have become very popular over the last few years, both here and in the States,” he says. “Any good one was not cheap, even in the States, and they don’t last long and get snapped up pretty quickly.” It was on one of his many online expeditions that he found this one. “It was advertised in Atlanta, at a reasonable price and had also had some work done on it,” he explains. “Thinking I would be saving money by buying it with all the upgrades already done was not a good idea …” As Neville was soon to find out, New Zealand has vehicle standards that very rarely align with those of the US. Most of the existing upgrades would need to be redone before the truck could even get on the road, let alone have Neville planning those upgrades of his own. However, he knew that he wanted to be driving the thing before he began to stockpile parts for the big makeover — a plan that, with hindsight, has worked out well. Arriving here with a T5 five-speed manual box,

Neville decided to swap it out for a C4 auto to go with his plan of driving the thing for a while before pulling it off the road again. He didn’t skimp on some greasy Trade Me special, though, opting for a Hughes Performance Street-Strip transmission and converter, with a Flat-O Products bellhousing adapter for the old Y-block. For all his dreams of big power and wicked handling, Neville had no problem sticking with the old 292-cuber — for the time being. It’s a good-looking engine that suits the theme of the truck; goes well enough; and, thanks to an Edelbrock carb and Smithy’s mufflers, sounds like an old-school V8 should. More pressing were the many issues that had been identified on arrival into the country — a list that included the replacement of front and rear brakes, the steering box, headlights to suit New Zealand roads, minor work on suspension brackets, and the replacement of fasteners throughout the truck, to name a few offending items. Neville knew better than to try to tackle these in his garage, so, after working through the long list of requirements and getting the car complied through a company on Auckland’s North Shore, he contacted Mark and Paul at Alpine Panelbeaters in Auckland. Mark and Paul were able to finish a few final items as well as inconspicuously touch up several existing blemishes in the jet black paint. Luckily, any cosmetic issues were strictly limited

to the exterior and are more than likely to be for the rest of Neville’s ownership of the F100 — take a look inside, and you’ll see why. It’s a tastefully modern environment that hasn’t sacrificed any of the F100’s authentic ’50s style. The standard bench seat has been reupholstered and an iconic ’39 Ford banjo wheel tops the column, but the Lokar floor shifter, Auto Meter gauges, No Limit cluster, and Vintage Air climate control bring its practicality well into the 21st century. So will what Neville ended up purchasing while Mark and Paul worked their way through the small items left on the to-do list. As he explains, “In the meantime, I’d bought a supercharged Boss 335 motor and trans out of a hail-damaged 2016 Ford Falcon FG-X in Adelaide, with only 10,000km on it. The plan was to put it into the F100 once we’d found the right chassis to put under it.” He eventually settled for a Revo independent front suspension (IFS) chassis, which he is currently in the process of ordering. “The project will probably take a few more years, but at least I am able to drive the truck as it is, until the time comes to take the body off and drop it over the new chassis,” he says. He might have started this project in a way you can relate to, but Neville’s patience in not jumping straight into the deep end has paid off in a big way. He gets to drive his dream truck for a wee while before turning it into his real dream truck. And this is it in its ‘sensible’ guise; you just wait until it’s where he wants it to be — our advice would be to watch this space!