Beautiful 1950 Ford F-1 Gets Even Better

When someone tears apart a show-quality 1950 Ford F-1 for a ground-up restoration, you know that the results are going to be stunning.

In most cases, when someone performs a ground-up restoration of a 1950 Ford F-1 pickup, the truck is in rough shape at the start of the project. On the other hand, when F-150 Online member sparkplug5193 introduced the forum to his project truck – it was already show quality. Having been given this antique pickup by his grandfather year’s earlier, the OP had decided to strip the truck down to the frame and rebuild it to fit his vision of the perfect ’50 F-1.

The picture of the truck in blue was how it looked when the project started, but the OP quickly got to the pictures of the tear-down process after finding some rust in the floor.

The Tear Down

When the OP began the full restoration of the grandfather’s 1950 Ford F-1, his goal was for it to be a flawless show truck and his means of achieving that was to rebuild every aspect of the truck. He stripped it down to the bare frame and individually sanded each piece of the body, putting the cab on a rotisserie to get every spot.

He included a ton of pictures as the rebuild of his 1950 F-1 went on, but we have included only a few of them. As you can see here and in the gallery below, the body panels looked pretty solid and he appears to have done some work to the floor, but overall, the project looks to have gone smoothly. While sanding the bed sides, they cut a hole and created a gas door that opened out of the body panel.

The Rebuild

Once they had the body of the 1950 Ford F-1 stripped bare, they began the rebuild by painted the frame and the rear differential gloss black. A rebuilt 351 Windsor V8 was mounted to a 4-speed manual transmission and bolted down to the frame, right between the front coilover suspension setup.

Once the rolling chassis was assembled with the full drivetrain, the F-1 was sent off to the painter for a coat of the same color that adorned the “Eleanor” Mustang in Gone in 60 Seconds. As the shop finished different body panels, the OP would update the thread with new pictures. As each section would get painted, it would be bolted up to the truck and over the course of two years, a beautiful 1950 Ford F-1 was reborn.

Also while at the paint shop, the custom dash with unique classic gauges went in, as did the leather-wrapped, high-back captain’s chairs with built-in seat belts. The bed got a new lining of wood with chrome strips between each panel and the moon-eye wheels from the start of the project were polished up to shine like new.

Accompanying the chrome wheels is an assortment of chrome trim from front to rear. The bumpers, the front-end trim and the hood trim all looks like it could have just rolled off of the assembly line.

The Final Product

When it was all said and done, there is no question that the OP achieved his goal of taking a nice 1950 Ford F-1 pickup and creating a flawless custom show truck. The exterior retains its classic look, but the interior is just modernized enough with the gauges and the far-more-comfortable leather seats.

Again, while we have include a bunch of pictures of the build here, there are scores more, so click here to check out all of the pictures of this stunning 1950 Ford F-1 before, during and after the full restoration.

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Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

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