There is a 1971 Ford F-100 in Los Angeles, which looks like it has already battled a zombie apocalypse and came out alive. The over-half-a-century-old pickup truck has been through several engines and transmissions, but the one who built it kept the body covered in peeled-off paint and rust. Looking like that, nobody expects it to be that fast!
Craig Lopresti is the one who built himself a Ford F-100. After eight years on the internet, people started calling him TheCraig909, which is the name of his YouTube channel. That is where he documented every step of the build.
He took a 1971 Ford F-100 and converted it into a wild machinery, which looks like it inhales fires and exhales smoke. The F-100 was Craig's very first vehicle, the one he learned how to drive on. It is also the one he built on his own, with assistance from his father.
The F-100 is powered by a small-block, two-barrel 302. He used to drive every day to high school. "I wanted my first car to be something I kept," he explains. And he still has it today, after all those years from graduation.
His dad helped him on the build. None of them had any mechanical background, but his father got involved because he wanted to make sure the vehicle would be safe for his son, who would drive it to school and back home. That is where Craig's career in engineering started. He is now a mechanical engineer, so he might know a thing or two about engines.
Photo: Autotopia LA | YouTube
He blueprinted the power unit and got the power he targeted out of it: over 500 horsepower with a stock crank, running on 91 octane, with no power rotors. It's got, in fact, 507 at 7,200 rpm.
The engine is mated to a five-speed manual box and a clutch that can withstand 1,000 horsepower. Craig knows the engine can make three times more than it does right now. But the truck already has so much power and torque that the wheels spin on the spot when he floors it.
Craig retained the stock frame and painted everything underneath, but never repainted the body. He wanted it to look like the old vehicle that it is, not something just taken right out of a hat through a magic trick. It wasn't magic that he put into it, but a lot of work. The Ford looked just like that when he was in high school. Over the years, it only got a different engine and was lowered a little bit.
When Craig pops the hood, Sean from Autotopia LA is surprised. He wasn't expecting to see a chain dangling from it. Craig explains that the F-100 comes from an era when thieves were targeting car batteries. So, people had to chain them to the vehicle to make sure they would not wake up in the morning ready to go to work and notice that it would not start because it lacked the battery.
Photo: Autotopia LA | YouTube
Craig also has the "Small block killer" message written under the hood. It is an engine that he built in five days, working around the clock, to have it ready in time for a car show that he wanted to attend in Arizona. He couldn't miss it for the world.
It is a truck, but Craig enjoys going sideways in it as if it were a sports car. With all the raw driving features, the F-100 is a handful. You can't text and drive in this vehicle, the owner says. You must have your eyes on the road and your hands on the steering wheel and shifter at all times. This ain't no FSD-equipped Tesla!
The good ol' F-100 rides on 15-inch wheels with disc brakes on the front axle, replacing all four drums. He can now lock up the front wheels manually and go have his fair share of fun.
Craig installed a Black Widow exhaust, which makes the truck gloriously loud. It sounds like the Shelby GT350 that belongs to Dave Tous and runs on race gas, feeding a 289-cubic-inch (4.7-liter) engine converted into a 302 (4.9).
The cabin is all business. You won't find useless equipment in there. The truck features a very rare option: 1968 Ford Mustang seats. All that Craig did was reupholster the original seats with black vinyl.
Photo: Autotopia LA | YouTube
In fact, he did everything on board as well. The gauges, the pedals, the headliner with the American flag have his name on them. He actually bought another truck, a totaled one, just for the gauges. He had to have them!
Craig has been working for about eight years on his 1971 Ford F-150. He had about four different seats, a bunch of engines, and three transmissions, but the body has always stayed the same. And it looks like he has finally found the perfect setup.
This zombie-like pickup truck is a brute on the road. It looks like it eats crossovers for breakfast and bites the pavement for snacks. Craig takes Sean on a ride in his truck and wows him. He hasn’t seen a vintage pickup truck like this one before. The door opens during the ride, but well… they are dealing with a vehicle that rolled off the production line 53 years ago, after all.
This is definitely not only a straight-line beast. It does burnouts and powerslides as if it was born on the drag strip.
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