photographer: Scott Killeen, D. Brian Smith
The NASCAR circuit has many avid fans around the country. One passionate pair of race fans is Susan and Randy Jackson of Commerce City, Colorado. The Jacksons are the proud owners of this Real Red '39 Ford pickup, purchased from the Wyoming Forest Service in 1992. Over the next decade, the Jacksons struggled to complete their street rod pickup, but were delayed by the usual responsibilities of earning a living and raising a family. When they met Russ Tilkes of Just Dream'N (Full Service Rod & Custom) in 2002, the project picked up speed and was finished three activity-filled years later.
CCT gave readers a preview of the Jacksons' '39 Ford pickup in the July '05 issue, when the Just Dream'N crew (Golden, Colorado) installed the big oval '04 Mini Cooper projector-beam headlights that were grafted into the round front fenders of the Ford. The crew also sectioned the grille several inches to make room for a functional air dam below the grille and fenders.
The '39 Ford grille is quite often less appreciated than the '40-41 design, which has a greater relationship to the passenger-car grille. As a result, the Jacksons and Russ Tilkes themed the project pickup as Fast & Ugly. From that point, the idea of a vintage NASCAR truck was born, and the name NASTRUCK stuck. Steve Haugen of Victory Illustration rendered the red truck (July '05, page 80) as a vintage race truck.
The small shop in Colorado pulled out all the fabrication skills they possessed to create a vintage truck capable of 150 mile-per-hour speeds-and not just capable, but safe as well. The solid chassis foundation is a 2x4-inch rectangular tubing frame from Art Morrison. It was originally a '40 Ford passenger car chassis that the Just Dream'N crew then altered to fit the truck by cutting and modifying the front and rear framerails. Cab and bed mounts were built to accommodate the variations in design.
Trudesign Wheel owner Jim Lyon was contracted to create a new wheel design-the spoke wheels are actually 17-inch billet aluminum Arrow-look-alike wheels mounting Z-rated Goodyear rubber that look like NASCAR tires. The tinted door glass was installed and the tinted windshield glass was V-butted by Vance at Showtime Auto Glass.
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A balanced and blueprinted Ford SVO 392ci V-8 has aluminum heads and wears a Holley carburetor and MSD ignition. Mandrel-bent stainless steel tubes measuring 2 1/2 inches in diameter were used to fabricate the custom HPC-coated exhaust system that flows rearward through Flowmaster mufflers. |  |
Tan leather covers a TEA's Design bench seat, headliner, and the custom door panels. Vintage Air A/C keeps the compact cab cool. Other interior details include power windows, a Gennie Shifter trans lever, and a tubular roll bar in the cab. Lokar pedals add some bright detail to the sanitary interior. | 
Painted Dreams' Don Diltz of Elizabeth, CO, performed paint and body prep. John Pugh performed the pinstriping and graphics. | 
Tough double diamond plate panels were fabricated to create a shiny bed interior that can take any kind of load. The fuel-filler door is hinged and almost invisible when closed. |