Surely one of Britain's youngest hot
rodders, Jake Smith turned a tragedy into something that should make us all
proud.
Sometimes, the darkest clouds have the
brightest silver linings. This story has a couple of them, and if you're of the
mind-set that all teenagers today are hoodie wearing thugs who spend all day on
their games console and whose main skill with their hands is Tweeting on their
smart phones, you need to read this.
“I
taught myself how to weld, bought the repair panels off the internet, and
welded them in”
This 1953 Ford F100 belongs to Jake Smith,
from Stourbridge in the West Midlands. Jake has just turned 18, and, with the
help of some friends, has turned out a beautiful, yet still completely usable,
pick-up.
“In 2012, I lost my uncle, David Price, to
cancer,” says Jake. “He was part way through stripping and rebuilding this
truck, and I'd been helping him, so when he died, I decided to take over the
project. At the time, it was just a cab on chassis rails, up on axle stands,
that's it. As well as the truck, I also inherited the massive workshop Uncle
David had built at my grandparents' house, with the truck outside under the
carport he'd built around it!
An
early 2000’s Chrysler ‘Torch Red’ paint was sprayed on and an overhead consoled
was installed in the cabin to make room for an up-t0-date sound system.
“Fortunately, they only live 8ive minutes
down the road from me, but I was 15 and hadn't a clue where to start. I never
thought I'd get it done, but my Granddad got his friend Tony Gordon involved.
Tony lives up my road, is the president of the National Agricultural Vehicle
Society, and has a Chevy pick-up and a Fargo pick-up. Tony would come along and
tell me what I needed to do, I'd get the job done during the week, then the
following weekend he'd come back and check what I'd done and give me the
following week's jobs to do!
“I've worked on bicycles and motorbikes all
my life, but couldn't weld or do bodywork, so I taught myself how to weld,
bought the repair panels off the internet, and welded them in. The main
problems were the lower rear cab corners. I did the filling and prep myself,
but my friend Jim Merris did the painting. As well as the truck, Uncle David
had an unfinished Dax Cobra replica with a Chevy engine and DB9 running gear. I
sold this to Jim and he did the painting as part of the deal! Jim did the
priming and painting all over a couple of days in the workshop.
In
a scene that's packed with Chevys, we've noticed more and more Fords coming out
of the woodwork with this one in the vanguard. An icon, an unmistakeable shape,
and with that all-important V8 logo on the massive grille, it's a leader. And
this is the guy that owns it. At a time when so many of his age are seen as
nothing more than boy racers, it's inspiring to see a young man who has built
something so cool from a collection of parts.
“The chassis was absolutely fine and just
needed rubbing down and chassis blacking. My uncle had an engineering place in Kidderminster,
and they'd made the whole pick-up bed from scratch, except the tailgate. They
said they'd never done anything like the rolls on top of the bed sides, but
they tried it and happened to get it right first time! Uncle David was planning
on using it as a working pick-up and he'd lined the bed with some really crappy
wood, so I fitted Red Grandis hardwood and varnished it. He'd also bought lots
of parts for it from the States – door seals, window runners and that sort of
thing – but there was still lots left to buy. He used to go on holiday to the
States with two empty suitcases and bring them home full of truck parts. One
year, he came home with two new running boards!
