Out of sight, out of mind, right? This may hold true for many things, and the engine compartment is one of those. But one of the nice things about a truck versus, say, a street rod is that we can shut the hood and no one is the wiser as to what's underneath, whether it be good, bad, or indifferent. Most of us would like to be proud of what we have under the hood so we can show it off, but what if you had more to show off than just the powerful, gas-guzzling V-8 between the fenders?
That's exactly what the team at the Roadster Shop was thinking when they wanted to give the sheetmetal surrounding the World Product's big-block in Mike Crimaldi's '53 F-100 a facelift. The Roadster Shop has put so much work into the rest of the truck, why should they stop now? They had already made a virtually new firewall, one that curves forward ever so slightly with a nice concave recess for the motor, not a sunken box that looks like it took two minutes to bend up in the sheetmetal brake. In fact, there might not be a single sharp corner anywhere on the whole truck! So now they needed to make the inner fender panels and surrounding areas match the firewall's grace, followed by fabbing a custom-made crown-or an air cleaner, if you want to get technical-for the mighty Rat motor.
Of course, such an undertaking requires special tools and the skill to use them, like an English wheel, a planishing hammer, shrinking and stretchers, etc., but that's why places like the Roadster Shop are in business, right? So check out what should be our last installment of this F-100's build, because we are booking our plane tickets to the Goodguys show in Des Moines, Iowa, and driving from there to the Roadster Shop in Elgin, Illinois, to shoot the finished truck for a full feature before driving to the Goodguys PPG Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. Enjoy!
Here at the Roadster Shop, they are working on remodeling the rather plain stock engine bay on Mike Crimaldi's '53 F-100. One of the best places to start when it comes to building custom sheetmetal pieces is by making a paper template of what you need.... | 
...Once the basic shape and size of this inner fender panel is figured out, the template can be traced to a sheet of 18-gauge cold-rolled sheetmetal, cut out, and shaped to fit. |
With the new inner fender panels in place, Jeremy Gerber got to work on the pieces that will curve around to meet the back of the radiator and join the panel that will mount the two 16-inch Zirgo fans. Because of all the different shapes and contours, notice the separate pieces that will soon be welded together, and the trick flared hole for the radiator hose made with a dimple die. | |