1967 Ford F100 - Trusty Test Mule

If you own a shop that has anything to do with building cars, trucks, or hot rods, you gotta have a truck or two to haul parts, steel, scrap, and new projects home, right? What if your business is building parts (and lots of 'em) for all of the above? You couldn't survive without a shop truck! Brent Van Dervort was in the market for a newer and cooler shop truck for his company, Fatman Fabrications-you might've heard of them-and found a restored '67 Ford F-100 at the '04 F-100 Supernats. After negotiating with its owner over the course of the show, a deal couldn't be agreed upon, so the man left with his truck, and Brent left with a vision.

At the following Supernats in '05, Brent saw the same truck, again with a for-sale sign in it. Needless to say, the negotiations went in Brent's favor this time, and he brought back a new member of the Fatman family to North Carolina. Brent knew he couldn't have built this truck for close to the money he spent on it since it had recently undergone a restoration that led to a powerplant upgrade. The '67 started life as a base-model six-cylinder Styleside that spent most of its rust-free life in Danville, Virginia. When the previous owner decided to restore it, the job wouldn't be too hard, but laborious nonetheless. He substituted a 390 FE motor and a Ford Top Loader four-speed trans for the anemic stock running gear. The 390 is mild-mannered yet stout with its COMP RV hydraulic cam, Edelbrock intake, and Holley 750 double-pumper, and it feels good grunting through the stock 9-inch rearend.

The bodywork and paint on the bumpside are as nice as they should be given the fresh resto. The color caught Brent's eye the first go-around, and he knew it would be a smart idea to leave it alone and concentrate on the suspension. Even the interior was left alone. His main reason for buying this truck is that he wanted to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that his Fatman Mustang II IFS kits for the '61-79 Fords worked well and would not only stand up to daily use, but to the abuse a shop truck endures as well.

To raise the bar even higher, they were going to prove it with Air Ride's ShockWaves at each corner, since Air Ride and Fatman work together on many projects. Controlling the ShockWaves would be Air Ride's new Level Pro system coupled with Chris Alston's single-adjustable VariShocks inside. Ditching the twin I-beams made Brent breathe easier as their 2-inch dropped spindles were paired with their stainless steel A-arms to help complete the transformation. The steering was brought up to date with a '79-93 Mustang power rack-and-pinion unit hooked to a CJ's tilt column and a Grant steering wheel. While the 12-inch ECI/Wilwood brake combo is just on the front at this point, as soon as the shop can afford to have the truck down for a few days, the same disc brake combo will be hung out back. Fatman employees Mike Craig and Pete D'Orta did all this fab work, as well as installing their Prolink bolt-in four-link with a C-notch to match to secure the 9-inch.

Upon arriving back in Charlotte from the '05 Supernats, a set of Wheel Vintiques 15-inch steel wheels and stainless Ford truck hubcaps were ordered to replace the too-edgy billet wheels, a process Brent described as "newer-looking older instead of older-looking newer," and somehow it works!

Since all the upgrades only took about three months, the F-100 has been driven lots and driven hard over the last year and a half as the lowly abused shop truck, and it's yet to miss a beat. Between trips to the metal yard (with gouges inside the bed to prove it), the '06 F-100 Supernationals (where it was driven to and entered in the show), and the Putnam Park Road Course in Indiana (where it got a severe flogging around the track by yours truly), the Fatman philosophy has persevered.