1953 Ford F100 - Jay Leno's Garage

this motors got torque all over the place good and smooth delivery - I kind of like it let's see what you got episode of Jay Leno's Garage the featured vehicle today 1953 Ford f100 kind of a restomod hotrod whatever you want to call it you know when I was in high school what a lot of interest in trucks because you could pick up 32 Ford's or 40 Ford's for three or four hundred bucks you know pretty inexpensive and as those kind of went through the roof and then people started looking at trucks again so it's fun to see hot rod vehicles like this one it's still a truck it's just been made better faster stronger as they used to say the man who built this his name is Noah Alexander he has a show on philosophy called speed is the new black see back in my day that would have been the name of a drug show but now speed actually means going fast but that it's a cool show we need air out of st. Louis and this is just another example of his work no come on in my friend good to see you thanks for having me on very nice thank system bringing this all the way from st. Louis who really appreciate it I love the color it it's a dark green right it's a dark green and then it'll flop to kind of like a purplish black okay you catch it at the right angle okay but it's beautifully done I imagine in st. Louis vehicles like this where in Missouri I probably got more prevalent than they are in Los Angeles was this a family heirloom did you find it by the side of the road what's the story well we didn't find it by the side of the road but it kind of look like it might we built it for a customer his name's Rob he was a farm boy growing up and grandfather father everybody was in the Ford truck so he decided it was this time to build one so I mean was this something in his family it was not he found it it looked like it had been underwater I'm not sure I'm not sure where where he drugged it out of it looked like it came out of a pond so in fact looked like I had some barnacles growing on it moldy weird I haven't seen anything that bad in a while so was it running when you got it it was not running it did have the motor in it and it started out is actually an f250 but the cab is the same size so you know he wanted an f100 he found this truck fairly solid in some parts but other parts horribly rusty so in the end we using the cab and a lot of new parts okay so what is what are you using for an engine we've got a Ford Racing 302 they call it the boss 302 not to be confused with the original 302 makes about 345 horsepower very nice it's got a nice sound it's reliable we like to build something that our customers will drive get out and use it will build you something to show quality but it's important that you've got out and drive and try to break something have a good time and a proper gear bunks got a proper gear bus five-speed Tremec yeah Ford nine-inch in the rear end 350 gears I'm trying to see what we've done obvious been lowered yes okay you've check out the gutters drip rails are going the vents in the side are now going alright okay we've taken the running boards and we've narrowed them just to kind of give it more of a sleek look it's literally a running board now it's just like one board just one board you know the kind of the main idea is with this truck as we we get so many people that want to add so many options these days it's cool hot rod world's a big place now but we want to build something that was simple you know I wanted to do some cleanup work what I like here is this sort of it's I know it's not pewter but it right it's sort of a dull as opposed to a flash sure Chrome it it just got a nice soft warm appearance to it yeah what is that so we were kind of you know big-picture going for kind of an earthy look because he's a good old farm boy and he kind of liked some colors we threw down for him so that's actually a it's a metallic bronze okay with a flat clear over it which gives it an interesting effect so it still has a nice pop to it but you know it stands out as a an interesting kind of part so if you look around the truck there's a few places where we've replaced that those little accents the wheels right the mirrors which are actually did you make these wheels or is this a wheel that you've modified a standard wheel you I mean a custom wheel you modified with the Centers and how did that work Chris Coddington made these wheels for us and after we got our measurements done we sent him out and they came back so there are 20s in the front and 20s in the back and after we got him in they were wiill but we painted them to match kind of kind of fit in with the theme on the rest of the truck no it's nice it has a nice just gives off a warm sort of glow which is what I like it's not some something at SEMA it's all flashing and they you know the chassis is all chrome and also kind it's just enough bright work right so it's subtle details yeah it still looks like a track right we like the design of the original truck so you know we went in like let's take let's take these original lines which I think of aged pretty well we're a big pickup truck people that we build other stuff and kind of clean everything up and clean up we spent you know I've got about 500 hours and bodywork so these were utilitarian trucks you know these were meant to be you know bashed around farms and driven so the lines aren't that great the gaps aren't that great but we've got a lot of time just making stuff flush and and I love the interior as well I like that again it's that muted right it looks like it's been sat on even though it's new I mean it has it looks like it it came with patina right kind of funny yes so the leather we want we wanted a really natural-looking leather to kind of go with the bronze and the green so we chose something that is kind of like an original like it looks like the leather on a baseball glove when you were a kid and kind of has that smell as well yeah that's probably the best example can we open the hood let's do it looks like absolutely Oh what articulates out a little bit does it come comes out a little bit and you know these were kind of interesting hoods from the factory because they never opened that that high so they almost will hit the window almost almost immediately yeah if you wonder where a lot of 50 few fold owners have back trouble it's um this is this is why we just we just found out from doing this and boy nicely done and again you you've continued that theme of the sort of what did you call this bronze you have at the bronze with the valve covers even the alternator and the air conditioner I love the fact you've got the steering box reason to be clear of the headers I'm all is amazing these guys that have the steering gear either going through the head of the column gets so hot you wanted to boiling the grease in the box and driver side header is always a pain the ass injure side is a you know breath-of-fresh-air pretty easy to put in so you even distributor cap you did in the bronze which looks great all bronze you know we like to build a motor that kind of looks like it may not run we tuck away all of our wires and you know throwback to the early Ford yeah air cleaning from the 60s a big 427 had that member used to have a Thunderbird emblem on the front you got you got it seven you can build a real crazy over-the-top air cleaner but we you know sometimes it will we'll also do some kind of throwback stuff to just kind of tie in some other areas that we're fond of so yeah we built custom interfund errs for it sometimes nice having air clean it just cleans the air yes you know you know one job to do yeah I'm always amazed that guys that come by here with cars with functionally they don't work you know like chrome rotors can we drive it no cuz the rotors are chrome well so you press the brake you're peeling off oh it's over it's over doesn't make any sense no nicely done I imagine when you work on this you just must take the hood off because it I mean you just break you now you've got a we are we have very sensitive lower backs we don't want to mess that up so the hood does come off and that makes it a lot easier and you know something I really find interesting is this obviously it's a metal hole essentially from here to here as opposed to just running the the rubber hose all the way interesting a little bit cleaner in the road go to the coin it goes that that angle kind of looks kind of looks a little strange let's close the hood now I want to ask you about the suspension there you go real low to the ground does this raise up at all so well I do like air ride we built this this is a static system TCI chassis so we could have mustang two style front end right for link in the rear so nice stable ride actually handles like a little go-cart which would blew us away so we love the way rides we want our customers to drive this stuff so it's important that it rides well so it's still very smooth the springs are not under too much compression right and it's it's smooth and it's got the stance as well the other thing about the statics this you know system is that the alignments always right right you know once you go with an air ride type scenario it's it's good at a point but it's nice when you drive something you get in it every time it's the same it's precise it's tight and it drives on like a pickup truck ever drove it's it's it's fun and what's your horsepower 345 horsepower oh that's good nice reliable it's there when you want it and that's an honest number I'm so tired it's got about six hundred and ninety driving going this isn't 600 that's 345 you know that's a real nice I I imagine people think us it's a truck it's heavy but of course there's no steel door guard beams there's no air base so you're probably looking at 3,500 pounds yeah I think it's right about 3400 we put it on the scales when we aligned it and so it's not heavy at all ya know old old vehicles were simple as much stuff so cars haven't gotten a whole lot lighter over the years and how long did it take to build some way I mean the guy brings it to you did you find the car the truck for him that he'd find and bring it to you I prefer to find vehicles for people it's easier that way and cheaper for the customers in the end so he found it brought it in yeah we stand blasted it down and it was kind of a nightmare so you know we spent it was a little bit but about a year and a half to build yeah you know and customers call you you know I just you know fixes therapy no just I think you're ready to go you know everything's any anybody to bring something in it's always it's always really straight and yeah nice and rust-free it ran when park it ran it ran when was parked you know that was 20 years ago but so you know it's it that's kind of a trick bag but we once we get something in a bare-metal then we can kind of come up with an actual game plan for the restoration and how'd you come up with the title of your show speed is the new black I did not come up with that title oh they didn't come up with somebody else that was that was given to me I was giving it but you're not throwing tools in each other which is what I like shows like they feature the build and so you can understand the process and how long it takes these things where people build something in an hour and a half and and you know they want to fighting with each other and it just attracts from from the integrity of the show it's low drama yeah we've got so much talent in the shop yeah I wanna be able to showcase that yeah show how we do it teach teach people something inspire the next generation yeah you know and it's been good so it's been been well-received and we do awesome bills they're full builds we're not cutting corners when you have a shop like yours how many projects can you have going at the same time like a custom brings this in so it's the whole shop boom concentrating the miss let's go or do you have you know two guys in this and three guys and three projects would you have going in that's a good question so we do everything in-house and we got there because we wanted to control everything and bring the quality there and make it more efficient you know when we when we have you don't want a car that has to go out for interior for a year and everybody else is you know slowing the interior guy then it you know it just kills the the deadlines so we do everything in-house we have about 20 projects going at a time wow that's quite and we're able to balance that you know some of us hurry up and wait you know get it stripped down get in bare metal send all the pro mail whatever that might be but you know while the car is getting Bodyworks our interior guys working on the interior okay and the parts guys thing up the part so when the mechanics hop on it it's set up ready to go and like I said it's not this is not an efficient process it's hard it's never the same but yeah we try to streamline it as much as possible let's open the door and take a look inside see we're talking about very nice now I know everybody does it it's just a pet peeve of mine I don't know why you hate adjustable steering column so they always it detracts them like whenever I get one I have a car with one I don't know I put the wheel straight right it it's always weird to me it cuz cuz I always want to believe it's still at 53 even though I know it's not yeah but I mean to most people and when you have one of these it's probably very help but it's one of those things that just drives me nuts for some I don't know why it's not right you gotta have something I don't know why cuz it's a track I love the fact that you've kept the original style pedals we did and the original clutch and brake and and the shifter looks appropriate you know we don't want anything to stick out and you know kind of kind of when we approach these builds it's got to look like a completed vision you know random afterthought that just doesn't do it for and what is that steering wheel from that looks familiar but yeah it's like we real is from a 40 Ford it's a 44 it looks so small did you cut it down it is shrunken so beyond the adjustable steering column we want the smaller wheel as well which says you know what these things it's like you hop in them and I don't know who they built them for but I think they were all teeny people my size now there's no sound system was it hidden somewhere there's a sense it's all tucked in and I wouldn't went one little modern touches all Bluetooth so you can run it off your phone oh that's great and also as air conditioning yeah but we have events here yeah we actually worked them into the the kick panels because you know you don't want this nice clean interior then you've got a vent just hanging down off the bottom of the dash see I love the fact that still looks and feels like a 53 Ford right I sometimes they don't want to get an old car and it's got a totally modern digital dash with me and I go where's the feeling of nostalgia you know you want to have that old tight speedo or steering wheel you know whatever and you've captured that and I said let's move back towards the rear of the vehicle let's come around back here again a lot of subtle changes now I know the floor has been raised has the bed been lowered at all the bed's been lowered a little bit can't lures up you know just just stuff that you're like oh that might have been done so yeah the floor is up five inches or then we've got some mini tubs in the back because the wheels are 15 inches wide in the back and I love your exhaust system here yep very nicely done I see integrated again using the bronze it just looks like it's chrome that had mellowed over the years sure from from exhaust gases sure we've got the tail lights are actually 39 Chevy taillights okay I'm gonna say they I thought maybe I'll sit forward but no yeah those like now and of course you kept mr. wills the script here got it we got to keep that you know try to we try to try to keep as much original and stuff as possible on it we don't want to yes ray too far away from the original but well see Harold wills he was Ford's metallurgist he was the real genius behind the Model T he's also one that designed that logo right and Henry Ford liked it somewhat they kept it to this day you know the blue oval he designed he was a graphic artist as well a real genius guy he built his own car Koba will saint-clair him one of these days well have one of those on the show they're really kind of cool what else is different okay down what's happening here so after we were finished with the truck obviously driven on the street we we needed a place for the license plate which became an afterthought at that point and so clean we just couldn't find a place to really you know got us excited or didn't ruin the back of the truck so we we made a little electric slide so it'll actually slide out of the back so when you're out of show or just it's in your garage it's nice and clean and tidy but street-legal in the end so I just flip a switch it's kind of the only we don't have many modern electronic updates on it but it was the one thing that you know the electronic update helped us you know keep keep it clean and keep the original vision intact and what are these hinges from that's just a kind of a universal billet billet hot rod hinge but it was clean and there on the inside yeah you know would be all hanging down back here it is about 15 okay so it's not when these four gallon deals no you can you can hop in and drive quite away and yeah and then we've got it worked into the stainless back here yeah you know now obviously he never tends to carry it because not even any place to hook tie-downs or any yeah the farm animals we're gonna have to ride somewhere else or right and you could right inside you can wipe the leather down a lot easier than you can fix this so it's not the original back window that looks bigger to me but maybe I'm it is the original back okay but that's what I like about like when looking something to go is it oh yeah oh you know the drip rails are gone but yet you've kept the sort of the way they were right we kept we kept the line where they were cuz yeah you know some of those things were the lot I liked the line you know we all thought that looked good but just to completely eliminate it look to to flush and right away it's you know we won it was a weird balance to ride between kind of paying homage to the original lines yeah you know and also cleaning it up at the same time you know like to me if I look at a vehicle and can't guess what it was then it's kind of failed in its purpose to me it's kind of lost you know grills I always you know thought grills are important there's there's certain characteristics you kind of have to keep intact or then it becomes what is it yeah yeah so when the owner brings you this do you do your vision do you say look I'm gonna get rid of the drip rails I'm gonna do you go over each detail or do they just sort of trust you and go with your instincts it's about 50/50 and then we do we do a rendering so we always do a rendering so it's like it's clear because what I what I'm thinking and what the team a class of course to you is thinking what the customers thinking may not be the same thing you want to build something and have them say well it's kind of nice but not me it's not me so we have a rendering we build the rendering right and the renderings are done to scale so we we stay away from the cartoony type renderings because that's not what you're gonna build in the end that's not a good you know representation then that's got most of our details on there so we do one for the engine compartment the exterior and the interior so it's all planned out but along the way often you're looking at something like well I would sure look a lot better without drip rails on it we were doing all this other work so then it's a phone call of the customers say what do you think about this now the other thing I find interesting is the color because you know back in the 30s and and even in the 50s greens were very popular that's what just sort of disappeared I'd be willing to guess this is probably one of the few green vehicles I mean color green and that kind of green at the SEMA show sure and that's what I like about it it's different enough and it's a really nice green it's not in-your-face it's just like a nice would you call it forest green or little forest green it's got a nice kind of dark flop to it light metallic but it doesn't really you know it's kind of you know soothing and you know comfortable was this an existing colored you guys who mix this year so we spend maybe too much time and money mixing you know custom paint but in the end you've got something totally unique that nobody else is gonna have right and we're sitting and looking at 10 different cards and we could put that all down with the wood sample and the leather and let the customer choose exactly what they want and you know unfortunately or kind of the way it is everybody wants red red it's like the most comfortable yeah everybody wants everybody like they what color do you want red yeah well what do you think about so we usually have it what do you think about this conversation but we come to the table with a lot of different options and generally what people will go in like a more creative direction and you know you don't want to be the next guy at the car show with the rug everybody's got a red it's like being married honey what do you think of this maybe you have to suggest it you got to let them come up with the idea they are right I'm happy to let them come up with speaking of collaborating can I collaborate on driving this truck you don't have to twist my arm let's do it and I would twist his arm if I had to if that's how much I want to drive all great comfortable don't break your lease on it nope [Music] so how long you had your shop 12 years started off I went to get on a college and realized I had done nothing by the end of college and I needed to uh would you major in comment of psychology I was a psychology major oh yeah a little psychology shop a nice thing maybe just run some people through there and yeah so I I was I was kind of got out of school and I was a little lost and realized I had to make something of myself I'd had fun and I had good grades it was alright but yeah I always loved cars so I I randomly got into the car business because I I was actually waiting to go back to school I was like I kind of I gotta have to go back to school I need a master's degree or something you know so right anyway but I never working for a guy he solo is a classic exotic cars I'm answering an article that newspaper was like lucrative opportunity Wow like I'm gonna take your lucrative opportunity and it was okay but that's how I got into the car business and ended up but were you always building cars in high school I was like literally deprived of all car building stuff and nobody in my family was into cars when I grew up either so I I kind of found my own way I've got had to get into the car business summer know so well you know it's funny get that like carries all the weight down below it's like sitting on the roof of a car and driving oh yeah I guess funny though with no weights down there but yeah you're sitting up higher than you normally would we got the suspension too now so it's pretty like even over even over rough roads it still rides pretty smooth you know and it's good because I think we are we're always want to over build the suspensions and cars and put racecar stuff on streetcars nothing right you're kind of like that that was fun to buy those parts what do we have now I think I'm driving up box of rocks down the road have you done any straight restorations are always modified no we do straight stuff as well so we're doing a Torino right now which is kind of cool kind of a hard kind of a hard car to restore not technically but there's no parts out for these things right right way to go Torino 70 it's fun I did an AMX last year same deal tentacley not hard but we struggled for like a years to get all the parts together on it I'm sure you see that a lot as well so I do with you know that's the great thing about 3d printing you can make yourself any part you might be even trim parts I mean it's really been a savior because there are no junkyards anymore you know environmentally you can't have it so they just crunch everything and throw it away that's kind of we recently got a 3d printer and we've been loving it yeah and in fact we we are in the habit now it's making about a part or at least prototyping a par today yeah just there's so much stuff we always need so still kind of learning the ropes but the stuffs coming out nice and it's an awesome way to test something out yeah either just put the you know the thing on file right you pull off the card press a button and you have with you exactly so we've got it and then you know we've been some of them we've kept in you know in plastic form and some of the other parts we'll just have a made out of hospice team it's good so it's been just been awesome so much of that stuff how do you find guys to work for you use interns like from I want I want you know one of the things I want to do the show is like I want interns I want those people I want to like you know it's like this I'd like to kind of like grow and build and cultivate stuff I can't though most of the builds you do from your areas around st. Louis Missouri a new stuff from all over the country all over the world actually where I think a lot of it has to do with people live in areas where there's nobody to work on their vehicle right then you know they'll see a project will do or maybe find us online and kind of identify with us maybe I always like when people can come in and visit and see what we have going on you know if it's a good fit it works I mean the saddest thing is when I meet guys who real enthusiasts and they send the car off and it sits there for six months and it gets taken apart and either people don't know what they're doing or maybe they're not crooks but they're in front of their inexperience or a nap so maybe they are crooks and parts disappear and it's you know you put you know twenty thirty thousand dollar deposit and your cars in worse shape than when you brought it in you know that's that's the worst thing it's hard to take a car like that and then do something with it also you've got a car this in pieces and maybe a bunch of work that's been done incorrectly as well so it is sad feels like about 345 about 35-40 say you're right I don't know how you work you're so close about right it's amazing how many cars show up that I have finished they don't put it reverse because we have no linkage of it look at the lights in the horn don't work it's I call this the last 10% just like at 90% I consider a car you look at it it's it's all done right are the interiors and if the lights are in it everything's good good you are like not finished because we usually do I'm trying to think 3 400 miles at least just just to shake it down and make sure it works and I'll stuff in and realign it and just there's something robbing something rattling there's one thing people always forget to do I'm gonna try it right now how many guys go yeah oh yeah yeah I gotta hook that out of it they don't know got that congratulate you or I ever done arrest they put you on the spot they look at that and or third it's my pet peeve yeah I bought it and sold a lot of cars and the horn never works and why why just you take it apart and you know they come apart it back together pretty easily this is an issue in the girl and it's easy but the funniest thing is is there anything easier to do than the horn there's there you got one line to growl one line to the horn and then you touch it and if but I mean it couldn't be simpler you're talking what 45 minutes maybe an hour at the moat everything else is so much more difficult but Lord but it's amazing how many guys just don't they don't bother with anything okay it's time you know right they skip the horn I don't know why so that that goes into that last 10% you got to get a figure right you got a driver you're gonna use them and you get you know on off the lift a bunch of times then you gotta have something you could hop in and drive when you're the time and that's something you happen and you remember all the crap yeah what was your first bill we did the first building it was two Camaro two matching up 60 kind of approach warning mill they turned out while actually ones on the East Coast and ones that I look good indigo right yeah right not that far away from here so this really handles nicely ya know what I on the show and my customer we're driving it and he took it around like a 90-degree turn and I thought it was over for the both of us and it ate it up and just it just gobbled up the turn yeah it's responsive and you know it never you never skip over paying man it seems to suck up the stuff for you so we are right past the point now where everything's kind of been gonna work in order except for a rare condition it which wasn't blowing called a second now so I may be mixing the maybe the air here a little bit it's the owner local beer shop is he is actually a local so many people are from all over the place we did a bill two years ago for a guy from Belarus never taught him on the phone emails just emails we sent him renderings anthem specs he said okay I sent pictures of my cell phone you know Carter not great I'm so glad but what was it another Camaro store six minutes how long did it take to get your shop successful for when you decided oh there's a horrible struggle honestly are you stuff I used to waste week we're still tweaking but it wasn't until the last maybe three years it started to feel more wild in yeah you know that's after doing it for nine years so there's a lot of moving course there you've got a lot of different you gotta learn how to work with people you have to get good people you have to get the good clients you know it takes you know it took a long time to play out and how do people hear about the best thing for us what about positive experiences from other customers they they have a good time they liked it they liked the process and you know we're trying to take what works well and what did in it there you go boy this motors just got torque all over the place it's good and smooth delivery - I kind of like it after why forget you're in a 1953 car yeah very comfortable some of this stuff you build a night mate I think people get lost in like the performance and so much fun to buy all that stuff you put it all on them you're done you built a race car yeah it's hard and then it's not really like a pleasant thing to drive maybe down like a drag strip so we really try to come up with cement cars we've had you go down the road and hey don't don't turn the wheel all the way trying to go and wide it's it goes the tire is gonna hit the fender well I mean he should have done the editor you know the first day you put the put the rack in and all can we hit yes okay let's make it you know the cars painted everything's done I there's nothing like a new gearbox you know tonight sometimes you rebuild the only it's still not cheese and what this just fits nicely nothing worse than some walls linkage trim X are nice they're easy we've got 350 gears in the back and the five-speed I feel like in Paris here's pretty nicely you get a little bit more aggressive with it but I think you get on the highway and you know so where you go with the t56 but they're a little bit bigger and you know they're gonna cut away pretty good for guys everything's pretty consistent because this is the right night reliable pop in it drive it for a long distance yeah go get ice cream whatever yeah you get a lot of ice cream with that truck with the tilt-away wheel you get any all ice cream you want just keep the hip just keep tilting the we a lot about them well I want to thank the man with two names Noah Alexander Alexander no let me was I was in there knowing that says almost it changed it around I feel like I'm kind of getting tired of Noel examine the Alexander Noah good sounds more pretentious like when you started with the guy who builds it is Noah Alexander but the guy who owns it that's Alexander Alexander no it's got a better glow too but it's big congratulations on your TV show and all your success and as I said you know a lot of times when you see us go out for a short drive it's because something broke and we don't want to embarrass a guy we've been driving this thing for about an hour going up and down sitting in traffic it's a warm day here in LA and boy temperature never moving off a 195 oil pressures good not finicky at all I'm not no attitude to this thing just a lot of fun to drive and just as I'm talking to know as I'm driving just get a lot of thumbs up from people as they go by so thanks so Rath thanks for doing a great job really appreciate it thanks for having me out it's been a pleasure it's bills like this that really helped the Hobby you know I there's so many places that just do a crappy job or rip people off and if you're watching it you're thinking about getting a car done always try to find a builder who's got a reputation like Noah and you'll be in good shape so once again my friend legs thank you let's see what you got [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 574,892

Rating: 4.8818212 out of 5

Keywords: Speed is the New Black, Noah Alexander, 302, restomod, pickup truck, Velocity, Ford F100, Classic Car Studio, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: EXbO2o2l6bQ

Length: 33min 56sec (2036 seconds)

Published: Sun May 06 2018