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Lest not forget our humble beginnings… I had this poor old pickup in my 1950s Ford Pickup parts box. Built by some kid somewhere back in history, I don’t even remember how I came into it. It would have been easy to just toss it since I have a whole box full of this kit.. It wound up sitting on top of my model room TV where it would call my name! So I started playing and you know where it went! And she rolled off the workbench this morning! Part of this build was to have a no pressure build, and to retain some of the character the original builder put into it. Thus we kept it Desoto Hemi powered and left the hood scoop intact. We even kept the original grille the kid painted the center logo red so maybe he’d recognize it someday. The original brush paint blue yielded two more colors under it as we wet sanded it flat. That worked for our vision. The front bumper with 4 fog lights was an old broken roll bar from the parts box. We left the rear roll pan the way it was and added Pennsylvania license “REFRESH” as appropriate. We added Caddy bullet tail lights from our parts box. We did dry brush some wood grain in the box. Tool box has been banging around my workbench looking for a project. Wheels and tires came from our vast parts collection. We went to reuse the original gas cap and noticed the kid accidentally used the back side of the alternator, so we used the custom one from the kit. The truck had no suspension at all so we hit the 53 Ford parts box for all new stuff. The back end of chassis has been hacked up, so we cut the back end from a new chassis and pinned it together. Important to note that the front chassis and body are permanently fused together with an enthusiastic amount of glue so we left it together. We made the side exhaust from kit supplied parts. Desoto Hemi was all glued to death crooked, so we grabbed a new one from the parts bin. The engine is wired, though you can hardly see the work. Manifold and carbs again from the parts box. Interior was originally assembled without any paint. Since it’s stuck in there, we did the ship in a bottle thing and did work through the windows. Steering wheel got painted. Dash got a gauge label and detail painting. The seat got a printed paper cover glued in place. And the money shot! She fits right into the 53-56 pickup collection. This was a fun no pressure build.. anything I did would be an improvement! At times a bit frustrating and with the limitations it’s not perfect, but I’m glad to have it on the shelf!

Now I can say I like how the car looks. 1953 Ford Crestline Sunliner by CCCP Digital Studio, on Flickr 1953 Ford Crestline Sunliner by CCCP Digital Studio, on Flickr 1953 Ford Crestline Sunliner by CCCP Digital Studio, on Flickr Before: 1953 Ford Crestline Sunliner by CCCP Digital Studio, on Flickr

Here is my 4th build of a 53 pickup. I really like this kit - not the flip version (even though I did build one), but the 3 in 1. I love the custom parts and the Desoto engine in it. I have plans for another custom, a 4x4 and a COE. here are the other 3 I've built so far: This one will be the stock version. A couple of good things that should go well for me on this build. I've built two 3 in 1s so I'm fairly familiar with the kit. Although this is the first stock, for my 53 ford wagon, I built a stock engine so I also have an idea of how that goes. Cleaned up some parts the last couple of days and laid primer and some base flat black on them. Using a resin spare tire fender. Not sure on the color yet. Here are some pics: