Darren Pelacchi has always been a Chevrolet guy, and he loves his Corvettes in particular. “I’ve got a C4 ’Vette and was president of the Corvette Club,” he says. That’s all well and good, Darren, but given we can all see the immaculate cab-over-engine Ford truck on these pages, it appears you’ve been swayed to the Blue Oval dark side. Care to explain?

First published in the November 2024 issue of Street Machine

“Fourteen years ago, I saw a YouTube video with a COE [cab-over-engine] rig just like this,” Darren begins. “That was it – I just had to have one. Everyone thought I was crazy!”

To scratch his newfound itch, and keen not to betray his allegiance to The General, Darren initially purchased a Chevy COE. In his heart, though, he knew it wasn’t 100 per cent what he wanted. He decided instead to go back to that initial video with the Ford COE that had so captured him, poring over it frame by frame. Using clues visible in the background of the vid, he was eventually able to track down that truck’s owner, Chad Key, of the North Carolina, USA workshop Rusty Nuts. However, despite a very earnest offer, Darren couldn’t convince Chad to part with the truck, so he was forced to look elsewhere.

After a frustrating two-year search, Darren eventually unearthed this primo 1955 example in Arizona. “A couple of decades out in the desert had essentially sand-blasted all the paint off,” he recalls. “But it had good bones, was virtually rust-free, and was screaming out for resurrection.”

To retrieve the new acquisition, Darren and his wife Sam headed Stateside on what wifey was led to believe was the “holiday of a lifetime”. More accurately, it involved thousands of miles of driving in a large U-Haul truck filled with parts, towing a car trailer loaded to the hilt with the well-weathered Ford COE. “We did do most of Route 66, but for some reason, she’s still a bit pissed at me, despite it all happening some 12 years ago,” Darren says.

The ’55 still had its original 256ci Y-block Ford V8, but it was toast. Darren thought it best to make the truck driveable in the US before its long journey home, so he commissioned Razors Hot Rods in Arizona to rebuild the mill. While it’s no powerhouse, the vintage V8 now pushes the big rig along quite nicely.

Rather than stick with the original five-speed crash-box, Darren opted for a tried-and-true TH400. Speed Gems in Wisconsin supplied a custom adapter for it, complete with flexplate and starter to mate the GM ’box to the classic FoMoCo bent-eight. Overseeing gearbox operations is a dash-mounted Powertrain Control Systems electronic push-button controller.

Another of Darren and Sam’s ports of call in the US was Rusty Nuts, where an oversized rear bed and custom side-steps were fabricated for the Ford.

After many more stops and even more parts buying, the truck’s body was rattle-can undercoated before the whole kit and kaboodle was loaded into a 40-foot container and set sale across the big pond.

Once back in Australia, the build of the C600 progressed at a snail’s pace for quite some time before eventually rolling into Classic Fab & Finish in Bayswater, Melbourne. “I was pretty much their first big customer,” says Darren. “We’ve all spent many hours on this thing, but without the team at Classic, this masterpiece wouldn’t exist today. They were unbelievable!”

Although the truck was relatively rust-free, having lived a life as a workhorse, every panel was beat to hell. The Classic team spent countless hours massaging everything back into shape, modifying just about every panel in the process. This included welding the multi-piece grille into one solid structure and neatly integrating it into its surroundings. The front valance was also lengthened and lowered, while the bumper was smoothed and tucked.

With all the bodywork finalised, Johnson Car Restorations had the honour of laying the customised Mazda Soul Red Crystal on the truck to a show-quality standard. This even involved painting the truck’s entire underside, with the whole job consuming enough paint to do about four cars! It was worth it, though, as the C600 now looks like a neon light driving down the street.

The truck also had a massive altitude adjustment by Gary at Page Chassis Works, which involved weeks of heating and bending to drop the front I-beam four inches. Spicer Springs also took four inches out of the front leaf springs. In addition, the front guards and the rest of the cab’s sheet metal was lowered 100mm. In the rear, Pro Street Development notched the rails, and the Spicer Springs team removed a full 10 inches from the factory leaves.

Bringing the mighty beast to a stop are factory 13-inch drums all ’round. Given they were designed to stop a fully laden big rig, it’s unsurprising that they do the job more than adequately. Darren also added a towing hitch for his 31-foot Airstream caravan.

With the ’55 C600’s basic cab similar to that of an F100 from the same year, Darren was able to source brand-new repro glass from the US, which was fitted by On-Site Windscreens in Melbourne.

The cab’s interior houses a deft mix of old and new. During the US trip, Darren picked up a full interior out of a near-new 2011 F150, but in the end, only its 40/20/40 split bench seat was used. The seat, one-piece hoodlining and repro armrests were trimmed in grey leather by Stitched By Riley, while KustomKraft fully restored the original gauges to better than new to keep Darren informed of the truck’s vitals. Classic Fab & Finish did such a nice job metal-working the inner doors that Darren decided to just paint rather than trim them – just as they would have been in 1955.

“I wanted to keep it kind of era-correct,” says Darren of his now immaculate truck. “My vision was for it to be like an oversized ’55 F100 – as if Ford had built a huge F650-style truck back in the day.”

Considering how many people stopped and stared during the C600’s debut at this year’s Meguiar’s MotorEx, we’re confident the 50s Ford engineers would have given it the big thumbs-up.

DARREN PELACCHI
1955 FORD C600 CAB-OVER-ENGINE

THANKS
Christian, Wally, Charlie, Roddrick and the team at Classic Fab & Finish; Ayden at Bespoke Coach Works; Chad Key at Rusty Nuts; Leigh Walker at Pro Street Development; Razors Hot Rods; Gary at Page Chassis Works; Johnson Car Restorations; Glass 4 Classics; On-Site Windscreens; Xavier at Clean Hands Auto Detailing; Willarn Constructions for the MotorEx display; Inner City Floorworld for the carpet; KustomKraft; Spectrum Towing; my friends, including Scott, Dave, Frank, Robbie and Jack; most importantly, my family, my wife Sam and daughter Grace.