THE UGLY DUCKLING
Wrong Bed Turned Right
Growing up, Roger was working in NASCAR running a pit crew for a well-known team. He says it was the time of his life.
ALL GREAT STORIES GENERALLY START back in the childhood years. Like many of us, Roger Altop has been playing with cars and trucks since he was a kid. Sure, back in those days it was Matchbox and Hot Wheels, but it surely got the wheels turning in his head from a young age, literally.
“The fast cars and the rush of adrenalin you get when the car comes into the pits and it needs to be out as fast as possible is an indescribable feeling,” he says.
Eventually he went on to start his own truck race team and his son was the driver. He said it was fun, but it became very expensive and when the opportunity came to sell the team he had to let it go. That was right about the time he decided to shift gears and get into the custom building.
Growing up through the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, Roger has surely seen it all, and this time he wanted to build something that was practical as well as something he wouldn’t need to baby. He wanted a driver, not a show queen. At first Roger wanted to build an all-out “Rat Rod,” but his wife Sonya talked him into something a little more refined. She was the truck influence and the
early ‘60s Fords were her cup of tea. Roger knew the old adage quite well; “Happy wife, happy life,” so he went down the Ford truck path—and as you can tell, it was definitely the right call.
The 1963 Ford F-100, also known as the “wrong bed,” was exactly what he was after. Since Ford was trying to stop producing the unibody trucks, the company needed to make the regular cab and bed trucks, but in 1963 the bed design wasn’t ready in time, so some of the ‘63s happened to be sold with the 1958 F-100 beds on them. Roger admitted that he liked the oddball bed as it was one of the things that made it so unique.
One of the most standouts on this particular build happens to be the patina exterior. Roger still wanted that “rough and unfinished look” since this would still be a driver and he didn’t want to have to worry about the perfect show finish getting scratched in the Home Depot parking lot. The weathered and worn paint job on his F-100 is one of a kind. Ozone Paint &
Body in Greenville, South Carolina, helped bring this vision to life. The truck was the original Holley Green, and they took that and went for an old service-truck look and the color scheme worked out great to make it a Sinclair Service truck. Roger loves the way it turned out.
“The smiles it puts on someone face when I drive by is what it’s all about,” he says.
Roger knows his way around a welder, so right off the back he put added the Crown Vic independent front suspension with Outcast Autoworks adjustable control arms up front but went a little more traditional in the rear ditching the factory leaf springs. He C-notched the frame, installed a 4-link and retained the factory 9-inch housing. Knowing that one of the secrets to building a custom classic truck is getting it lower to the soil, he ‘bagged it in all four corners giving him a smooth ride and a great look. Running a staggered stance with 17x7s in the front and 18x9s in the rear help a
bit more with the newly dropped F-100 standing apart from the crowd.
Under the hood, a mild Ford bored over 368ci small block with GT40 heads, AirMax intake and custom stainless-steel headers is some great motivation. It was all put together by his buddy Joey Bishop. A Fairbanks C6 transmission built by his buddy Chris Engel puts the power down. The truck is meant to be driven, but that doesn’t mean she can’t have some kick behind it.
Roger enjoys the heck out of the truck, taking it to as many shows and cruises as he can. Running with his old school car club the Shop Rats, his lovely wife Sonya sits shotgun and they really enjoy the truck together. What good is having such a fun truck if you don’t use it. The Altops say the truck is great, but the people they meet at the shows and along the journey of having this truck is really what it’s all about.
Per usual, the F-100 is always a work in progress. Driving and using the truck made him notice rather quickly that an A/C system would be the next upgrade. He is always adding and working on the truck with his buddies and we can’t wait to see what else he does to this beauty!