Many wonderful memories surround the first vehicle that we own, whether they date back to high school days or later in life. For Otto Vega, his first vehicle was a ’55 Ford pickup, but he wanted to do more than just reminisce about it. So when he found the perfect 1954 Ford F-100, he brought it home to his garage with big plans in store. After sitting in the garage for a few years, Otto got in contact with Dave Kindig of Kindig-It Designs. Before he knew it, his full-sized pickup was on its way to the Kindig-it crew for 12 months of custom tailoring work.
What came of it is something truly spectacular. From the pristine taupe-colored interior to the shiny exterior components, this 1954 Ford F-100 is truly something to behold. The truck is definitely nice to look at, but there’s a unique element to it that you probably won’t notice unless you actually get behind the driver’s wheel yourself. It all has to do with Otto Vega’s regal height of 6’4″. These trucks are not originally made very well-suited for the tall among us, so this is where Vega wanted to put the crew at Kindig-it designs to the test.
To make the truck comfortable for Vega to drive, they actually stretched it in a very clever way. “We modified the Ford to fit [Vega’s] 6-foot-plus frame, and we had to do it in a way that didn’t look like we simply stretched the truck in overall length, which would have looked odd and disproportionate. Instead, we got the extra length we needed by moving the firewall forward and stretching the wheelbase 8 inches overall: 4 inches through the doors and moving the axle forward 4 inches in the front gave us the extra room we were after.” says Dave Kindig.
On top of spaciousness, Vega wanted to be able to drive his 1954 Ford F-100 fast and hard. So under the hood they installed Bowler Performance Transmissions’ 4R70w transmission to make good use of the engine’s 625 horsepower. This was combined with a Roush Performance Ford Coyote 5.0L engine. The crew at Kindig-It Designs describe the finished product of Otto’s 1954 Ford F-100 as somewhere in the “farm truck meets supercar” category, and we’re loving everything about it.
