It all started at a pretty early stage in Bob Dillon's youth-his love of street rods, that is. Along with a few hot rod magazines and his admiration of the work turned out by local craftsmen- whose art Bob had seen blasting down the otherwise sedate Virginia roads all of his youth-he was pretty much hooked.
Back in 1991, Bob began to hunt for the right truck at the right price. His chance came when a thoroughly used '55 Ford F-100 became available for a fairly reasonable sum. Although in pretty rough shape, as Bob put it, he could see past the rust and rot that had come to define the truck's past and into its future as a full-fledged custom.
Stripping the F-100 down to the frame was the first chore in store for Bob. With a Pro Street look in mind and plenty of fresh horsepower planned, Bob boxed the frame's front three quarters and added a complete Mustang II front end kit from Fat Man Fabrications located in Charlotte, North Carolina, while adding a subframe for strength in the rear quarter.
Next, Bob purchased a Ford 9-inch Posi rearend that was disassembled and narrowed to allow room for the massive Mickey Thompson Sportsmans that were Bob's choice for traction. After fitting the modified rearend with Richmond 3.50:1 gears, Bob called on Air Ride Technologies for one of their ShockWave systems to keep the M/Ts in touch with the asphalt. To complete the rolling chassis, he added Wilwood four-piston calipers and drilled rotors for fast and reliable stopping power. He lightened the '55's steering with a Mustang II power steering rack mated to a Borgeson steering shaft, and the entire assembly was topped with a Budnik banjo-style steering wheel.
Bob's friend Tim told him about an available 460-inch Ford mill, which the pair stripped down and took to the local machine shop to clean it up and fit it with a set of Keith Black 9.5:1 pistons. In the meantime, the heads received a thorough port and polish. Once the block was back, Bob set to the task of assembling his first motor with a shop manual close at hand. Along the way to finishing the motor, a '78 Lincoln C-6 tranny found its way into Bob's garage. This, too, he stripped and had rebuilt by AA Transmission, who added a TCI 2,500-rpm stall torque converter.