1956 Ford F-100 - Building A Better Effie

Notice the two fully welded gussets in the foreground. Mike applied a similar artful weld to the seat-belt bracket. Having seatbelts fastened to such a beefy bracket means they won't be ripped out of the floor in an accident.

With the cab/accessory mounts all in place, the No Limit crew put the BeBop's cab on the chassis. We would have helped with the heavy lifting, but someone had to take the photo.

Through the holes in the new gussets, Rob drilled openings in the cab's floor and steel inner structure to accept the additional mounting bolts.

As you can see, the bolts that will anchor the seatbelts go into the cab's steel frame and are fastened to the new bracket on the chassis --safe and secure.

Dan Carpenter also supplied 4-inch-wide wheel tubs. Rob held each in position and marked where they'd need to be massaged on the tub's front corners to clear the bed frame.

Utilizing the die grinder, Carlos cut the wheel tubs.

Drilling the bed frame mounting holes came next.

Rob removed the bed frame and used the reciprocating saw to clearance the modified wheel tubs.

While Rob temporarily Cleco-clipped the wheel tubs into position...

...Mike drilled the bed frame mount holes in anticipation of welding in reinforcement sleeves.

On the workbench, Mike welded the reinforcement sleeves.

When the wheel tubs were Cleco'd in place, Rob traced around their outer rims. With the tubs removed, he freehand-drew the cut lines.

In a smooth, precise arc, especially on the second bedside, Rob wielded the plasma cutter to form the wheel-well openings.

Check out how clean the roughed-in wheel tubs look from the outer bedwall perspective.

By getting a custom bed from Dan Carpenter that's 1.5 inches wider on either side, the unfortunate view of the outermost reinforcement rib in the back of the cab (stock pink color F-100) is hidden from view by the wider bed...

...In addition, the radius of the cab's corners flow into the contour of the bedwalls more aesthetically.

After hanging the Dennis Carpenter-supplied F-100 rear fenders, the crew wheeled the 2006 F-100 SuperNationals '56 Ford F-100 out into the evening sun for some photos. In about 8 hours, No Limit Engineering performed all of the fabrication documented in this article. We have 490 additional time/date-stamped digital photos archived to prove it. Stay tuned for the next installment of the Ford Racing-inspired '56 F-100 giveaway truck in CCT.