DERELICT DONE RIGHT | 1951 Ford F-1

Wagner Tuning’s F-1 Gets the Stone Treatment

LET’S GET SOMETHING out of the way right from the start. Sure, patina is overdone these days. Sure, it might be considered as the “easy way out” for some. BUT, and that’s a big ol’ but (fat fender pun intended), when it comes to this particular F-1 specimen there was NOTHING easy about this build. Wagner Tuning came to Jacob Stone of Stone Fab in Fresno, California, to build them not just an average “showpiece”—they wanted something to shock the senses. Something downright dirty. Weird, that just happens to be Stone’s specialty!

Over the years, Jacob Stone and crew have turned out some badass builds. Full custom chassis laid flat to the floor has become the daily output for the team at Stone, but this build was something quite different. A derelict calling card, something that would mix and match a thrashed farm truck body with a brand- new drivetrain ready to throw down at a moment’s notice. So, Stone plotted and planned and came up with a killer concept to get this build the attention it deserves.

Opting to keep the majority of the original F-1 cab and truck “as they were” not only allowed time and budget to be shifted elsewhere but with a few slight changes, it combined for the perfect stark contrast they were all after in this build. Getting down to business, Memo, Jacob and James tore into the 1951 Ford F-1 and quickly junked the original frame to make way for the Stone Treatment. A custom chassis was designed and built to actually allow them to remove 1 inch from the bottom of the truck all the way down. Striping the front and rear of the bumper, and the new vertically challenged stance made all the difference. Even visitors to the shop who first doubted were amazed the moment the body touched back down to the pavement atop its freshly fitted Stone Chassis.

the final nail in the coffin that this entire build centered around was stuffing a new 3.5L Twin Turbo V-6 Eco Boost in the engine bay and keeping the 6-speed automatic trans…

The next drastic change came in the way of really pushing the limits of “stance.” An extremely aggressive wheel choice came in the way of a 20/22 combo from flotiform finished in copper with massive rear offset Just assaulting the senses in all the right ways. Now granted, this build was meant to piss off the purists  at every turn and this is definitely one of those wild builds that garners the “love/ hate” stigma—quite rightfully so. As if the extremely grounded stance and wild wheel combo weren’t enough, the final nail in the coģn that this entire build centered around was stuģng a new Ç.}L Twin Turbo V-6 Eco Boost in the engine bay and keeping the 6-speed automatic trans (this was the first build to feature this wild swap). Thanks to a custom wire harness from Dave at Resurrected Autoworks and tune from Mike Thornhill at More Power Tuning, the swap didn’t fight the Stone Fab team as much as they anticipated, although one big headache came in the way of the powersteering system they had to  customize quite heavily. But it was nothing the Stone Fab crew couldn’t handle.

With the haggard exterior, more contrast came way of a full custom and painted interior, frame,engine bay, and the rest of the underpinnings. There was no stone left unturned with a fully detailed undercarriage and badass custom interior. A host of Dakota Digital, Ididit, Billet Specialties and flockford goodies round out the creature comforts for one wild, yet reliable ride. While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, we surely hope you can appreciate the well-laid plan and time and effort put into this build as not “Just another patina” truck—this derelict is certainly done right. We love creative and well thought out builds, and we can’t wait to see what them Stone boys have up their sleeves for the next one. Stay tuned.