Mike hadn't been driving the '66 for a month before he decided the old girl needed a little attention. Typical of a central Texas vehicle, there wasn't a lot of rust. However, she did have some rot around the cowl where the drain holes had plugged up. In the early stages, Mike just wanted to take care of the rust. Before he knew it the cab was off and his '66 was down to the bare frame. While the cab was at a guy's shop having the rust damage repaired, Mike tore into the chassis. He told us that it was about this time that he met "Uncle" Skip Porterfield, who, in Mike's words, got him into the Slick 60's club. For anyone interested, just log onto www.fordtruk.com and it's easy as pie to join.
"Uncle" Skip, "Bronco" Tom Henson, and Richard Winters were instrumental in tracking down a lot of choice parts for the truck-in addition to being around when the cab needed to be lifted on and off. Up front, "Uncle" Skip helped big-time with the front suspension and brake upgrades. In place of the stock '66 F-100 drum brakes and spindles, a set of '79 F-150 disc brakes and spindles were installed. Another upgrade that Skip swears by to help a "slick's" handling immensely is the addition of a front sway bar. In the near future Mike will be adding a sway bar and radius rods glommed from a '76 F-250 Camper Special. Out back, the '66 is already sporting an '80 Bronco sway bar tucked close to a pair of Monroe shocks. Art Montgomery at Art's Parts in Houston is a real good guy-and he's responsible for going through the 3.25:1 9-inch Ford rearend on Mike's truck.
Under the hood, Mike kept the original 352-but between the guys at Clearlake Speed Parts and USA Racing Engines things have heated up a bunch. Starting from the top down sits a 600-cfm Edelbrock carb mated to an Edelbrock intake manifold that is flanked by a pair of Edelbrock custom valve covers. The ignition is from MSD, while a Lunati cam, with adjustable rocker arms, handles the valvetrain. A set of Hooker headers dump into Flowmaster mufflers to handle the exhaust chores. Inside the bore of Mike's USA Racing Engines-built FE lives a set of eight 0.30-over pistons. When all of these high-performance parts are added up, "Miss Daisy" must have over 300 hp at the crank. For a transmission, "Uncle" Skip dug up a Ford four-speed Top Loader intended for a '69 Cobra Jet, complete with a Hurst Competition Plus shifter. The leather interior in the '66 was done by 5 Star Upholstery in League City, Texas. A lot of the new parts, including the beautifully chromed bumpers on "Miss Daisy," were sourced from LMC Truck of Lenexa, Kansas.
Pretty like a pack of Marlboros, Mike painted "Miss Daisy" her original Rangoon Red and Wimbledon White using DuPont Imron for paint. What's really amazing about "Miss Daisy's" story is that Mike did everything, including the paint and bodywork, in an itty-bitty single-car garage in only 18 months. He must be half crazy.