Ford F-150 Lightning pickup with retractable top

[Peter Lombardo]

This is a Ford F-150 Lightning pickup I built about 4 years ago. Some of the panels have warped a little, like the tonneau cover, but not too badly. It sits on a wooden base with 5 motors on the underside of the top. The hood, doors and top are motorized and all of the lights work, including the dashboard lights. The tail light runs all the way across the lower back and has 20 fiber optic leads into it. I apologized for the relatively poor picture quality as I had problems with the camera. It is time for a new one. I need at least 10 megapixels next time. Anyway, I tried to post a little movie of the top going up and down, but the camera wasn't having any of it. So, out came the trusty old cell phone with no quality but at least it worked. So I apologize for the super poor quality, but I think you will get the idea of what the truck can do. This truck was pretty heavily modified. I took a pie wedge out of the nose, to lower the hood line, built the articulating top from the stock top and added smoothed sides and rear wheel flairs to the pickup bed. The wheels and tires came from the Dodge Sidewinder pickup and there are ghost flames on the hood and fenders under a HOK Razzleberry top coat. Again sorry for the poor quality, but I think it is a pretty neat build . As usual comments/complaints always welcome.

[m3m]

HOLY ######!!!!!!!!!! that is cool. you lost me at the mega pixals ! but that is a really neat truck,i have always wanted to make the lights work on a model . i would like to see that in person, a model that really moves, wow thats all i can say!!!!!!!!

Edited August 9, 2007 by bub

[PatRedmond]

HOLY !!!!!!!! Awesome !!

[Ronster]

That's amazing! Great work, and thanks for sharing it.

[Mike]

Sick! Cool concept and great execution.

[Steve H.]

Thats really cool! A great peice of engineering and something never seen before! Too bad the panels warped, with all that work in it.

[Jared]

SWEET!!!!! amazing how it really looks like a real truck in the video! outstanding job!

[RodBurNeR]

awesome work! it must have been heck to get that to work properly! i helped do that on a 1:1 S10 that took a year to get it all to work correctly. NICE WORK!

[cruz]

Very cool man

[Peter Lombardo]

Thanks guys, I really do appreciate the kind words. When I started building this truck, it was just going to be a roadster with no top, as I had seen one similar to that on the internet. As I got into it, the thought of a top kind of evolved over time. First it was a stationary top, but the more I thought about it, I figured I could make it open and close. Once I worked out the movement issues, the motorizing was the logical next step. Well, if I was going to motorize the top, the hood and doors should move too. Then, why not lights since the truck was set on a base with batteries and motors. Anyway, I built another truck ( '55 Chevy Cameo )a few years ago, but only did the motorized top because that was the thing that looked the best moving. One of these days I will get around to posting that truck. Again, thanks for the kind words. P.S. If anyone is interested, I will be happy to share the techniques (not that difficult) to do the articulated top.

[Luis Ayala]

AMAZING

I will be glad to see a "How to" tutorial!!!!!!

Really amazing job Peter, congratulations...

[scubadiver411]

I'm....... SPEECHLESS.......

STEVE

[David Thibodeau]

Very Sweet Pete!!!!

[kelson]

incredible! what more can one say!

[jevries]

I always love this kinda work with working elements! Great job!!

[kasteer]

Very cool!

Very unique!

Great job!

[Diesel Gypsy]

A.....MAZE......ZING !!!!!!!!!!!!