We saw a stack of new rigs at Rockynats last month, but one I was primed for before I stepped off the plane was Mitch Murphy’s Ford F-250.

As we are both Sunshine Coast locals, I had seen the F-250 a couple of times last year at the local Motor Mornings Australia cars & coffee meets that Mitch runs. Back then, the truck was in its bone-stock form, complete with the factory EFI 5.0-litre. I thought the Effy was a cool as hell as it was, but Mitch had other plans!

Namely, to restore ‘Fred’ the F-250 from the ground-up, swap in an ex-Mustang Coyote V8 and six-speed in just 77 days and then debut it at Rockynats!

In the video, Mitch takes us through the finer points of the build, including getting the six-speed to work with the factory column shifter, the neat electric handbrake and the lengths Mitch went to in order to make the Coyote sound great. The F-250 was named after Mitch’s grandad, so there is a cool family connection in the story too.

I was treated to a drive of the beast and man, I’m hooked! It had all of the charm of the an old truck (something I’m super-familiar with) with out the ‘character building’ aspects of old truck life.

And stay tuned, because the next time we look at this rig, it should have a Harrop blower strapped to the top of the donk.

You can check out more of Mitch’s work here.

Thanks:

Brian at VMech Solutions; Steve at East Coast Performance Coating; Jared at Butler’s Auto Electrics; Aaron at Regal Rover; Al from Allied Performance; Zade from Modified & Driven; Michael from Tyre Power Kunda Park; Zaaron at the Beadlock Guy and Nick from Zed Performance