(Photos by Charles Wickam) – From 1961-1963 Ford produced a truck that is commonly referred to by hot rodders today as a “uni-body” truck. While this isn’t entirely accurate because the truck did have an actual frame under it, it does properly describe the fact that the entire body of the truck was one piece. Originally conceived as body a styling upgrade, bed space upgrade, and production efficiency upgrade, the trucks quickly fell out of favor with the driving public when stories of their bodies flexing under load started to make their way into the public consciousness. By the middle of 1962, Ford was scrambling to get a production line running for traditional “cab and box” trucks. They were so desperate that they sent the late 62/early 63 trucks out into the world with the same bed used on 1960 models! Ford quickly ceased production of the one piece bodies and that was that. Sadly, they were known to rust faster and worse than “regular trucks” and relatively few exist today. Of those “relatively few” we have seen some awesome examples of “uni-body” Fords turned into cruisers and customs, but this one built by Missouri’s Ryno Built Hot Rods and Customs is our favorite by a country mile. Charles Wickam shot these photos recently and we wanted to share them with you along with some additional information on a truck that Ryno himself built virtually all aspects of….insane panel paint included.

Technically speaking we’re looking at a 1961 Ford F-100 with a 1962 grill. After that, we’re looking at a whole lot of work and man hours of fabrication, paint, and massaging to get this truck to look as it currently does. Built in 2011 and 2012, Ryno found the truck cruising the internet shortly after he had worked on another one for a customer. A deal was struck and he got it back into his shop where he decided to go with a Mustang II style front end, 3-link style rear with 9″-axle, a full boxing of the frame, which he also Z’d on both ends to completely and utterly nail the stance, along with raising the bed floor, and working on custom crossmembers to tuck the driveline so it could lay out as you see in the photos. He went with 14″ Truespoke Supreme wheels front and back, a hot little 289 that has pushed the truck down the drag strip at nearly 100mph, air bags on the corners, a Mustang fuel tank, and the show stopping paint job you see in the photos below.

The best part of this truck for us is that it is used and used often. Ryno has cruised it thousands of miles since building it, including one nearly 1,700 mile trip to Austin, Texas and back shortly after construction and paint were completed. As you’ll see in the photos and captions below, we’re in love with the panel paint job. Creatively, it takes an appreciation for color and design to pull one off and have it look as good as this one does. When panel paint is good, it is great. When it is bad, you want to dump chlorine in your eyes to burn the imagery out of them. From the panel painted cooler to the use of the red Mustang buckets in the truck and the 289 under the hood, this is one of the neatest custom trucks we have had on the electronic pages of BangShift ever.

We’ll stop yapping now so you can see the photos and details below. They really are something else and Ryno’s craftsmanship shines through on this truck from end to end. His shop does everything from stuff like this to pro touring builds, to whatever a customer can dream up. He’s a talented dude and one we hope to run into at an event soon (because we want a ride in the damned truck!),

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