When the F-series pickups were introduced in 1948, they were revolutionary in many respects, but the most noteworthy feature is that they were the first light-duty Ford trucks that weren't built on a passenger-car frame. And when the second-generation F-series debuted, Ford really hit a home run. With some of the most styling sheetmetal ever hung on a truck, the '53-56 F-100s became instant classics.
Although F-100s are great-looking, classic truck enthusiasts love to tweak even the best designs to improve and personalize them, and one of the most frequent modi- fications is to reduce the ample altitude of these early trucks. But while a slammed effie does look cool, oftentimes changing one thing makes something else look out of place. A case in point is the F-100's fender opening. In stock form the space around the tires in the wheel openings is fairly uniform-there may be way too much of it, but it is uniform nonetheless. however, when these trucks are dropped and the tires are up in the fenders where they belong, the space around the tire seems out of proportion and the opening looks too long or big.
Someone once said, "For every problem there's a solution," and that's certainly true, even though you may have to go out of your way to discover it. As if to prove that point, we found this F-100 fender fix in Castelmaine, Australia. It seems as though F-100s are as popular Down under as they are here, and we were lucky enough to catch kelvin Waddington and the crew at Waddington street rod & restoration Centre massaging a pair of F-100 fenders. Take a look at the following transformation to see if you agree that closing up the F-100's fender openings is a step in the right direction.
