1949 Or 1950 Chrysler Town & Country Roadster Pickup
Do you want different? Do you want exclusive? Then you want a Chrysler Town & Country two-door! But, you're a truck guy-so create the cargo-carrying vehicle that Chrysler Corporation never produced-and make yours a drop top. First, find a '49 or '50 Chrysler coupe and start slicing. By the '50s, Town & Country bodies were not completely built from wood; they simply had wood framing over steel panels. So you can add the wood framework to the newly fabricated steel body and you're there. I left all the factory trim in place to complete the illusion of authenticity. The Chrysler wire wheels with Coker wide whites help as well. Are you wondering about the customized '56 Chris-Craft wooden boat? It uses the same 392ci Hemi that powers the Town & Country. But here's my favorite part: it turns out this popular-model Chris-Craft wooden boat was called a utility!
1961 Ford Galaxie
In fairness, I have to credit the source of this idea to an early-'60s Rod & Custom magazine photo of a model car built using this basic light-truck theme. While that model had wild rolled pans, front and rear, and less trim, I opted for more of a resto-rod look to keep the ruse intact. It's unfortunate that Ford only built 1/2-ton Rancheros until the late '50s then stopped full-size pickups until the Fairlane Rancheros were reintroduced in the late '60s. (Those Rancheros in between were on the Falcon chassis.) For this too-cool custom I stuck with a single trim strip and simple full-wheel covers from a '55 or '56 Ford Thunderbird or Customline sedan. However, the radical lowering and dual exhaust are pure hot rod.