It seems we’re in a renaissance of hot American truck builds, and this Meguiar’s MotorEx was a feast for lovers of modified American pick-ups. High among them was Adam Bickerstaff’s incredible 1956 F100, fresh from the maestros at Viking Hotrods in Bomaderry, NSW.

First published in the September 2024 issue of Street Machine

Greg Hammond and the Viking crew have turned out quite a few killer trucks in recent years, and Adam got in touch with them as he started homing in on the perfect blank canvas. While most second-gen F-trucks feature sloped A-pillars, the more upright look of the final-year ’56 tickled his pickle just right. “I searched for months with no luck,” Adam says. “I almost settled on a ’55, but one of the guys at Viking was like, ‘Mate, if you’re gonna build this truck, make sure it’s the exact one you want – don’t go half-arsed at it.’”

Adam’s glad to have held out, because it led him to a super-dry roller, already landed in Australia. “It popped up on Marketplace; I called the guy as soon as I saw it,” Adam says. “He imports cars, and this particular one he was keeping for himself because it was in such good condition, but he had too many projects. I bought it within an hour, sight-unseen, and he had it trucked down from Queensland to me.”

A lumpy big-block was tabled early on, but the modern blown Coyote combo proved a tighter fit with Adam’s vibe. “The Coyote went with whole the concept of a new car that looks like an old car – heaps of power with heaps of driveability – so it seemed like a good idea,” he says. The quad-cam crate mill wears a Whipple supercharger, bumping its output to somewhere around 700hp. Controlled by a Ford Performance ECU, it turns a nine-inch diff via two-piece tailshaft.

While Greg and team were in there, it made sense to put the tiller on the other side. “It’s all for driveability; I didn’t want to get in it and feel awkward, because all my other cars are RHD,” Adam explains. “Because the whole steering system was being replaced, the only extra thing we had to do was cut the dash out and put it on the other side.”

We got a peek behind the curtain at the Hot Rod & Custom Auto Expo in 2023, when Viking Hotrods showed off the artful rolling chassis. “The response was unbelievable,” Adam smiles. “By the time we did the notched chassis and what-not, the tub became quite shallow, so we figured we’d just leave the tub floor out. You can still open the hardlid now and the chassis is there on display.” It holds a Mustang II rack-and-pinion front end and a four-link rear with a Watt’s linkage.

Metal mods include shaved doors, a reskinned tub, custom hardlid, tailgate and rollpan, widened rear guards and closed-in fronts, shaved bumpers, and extended sidesteps. In addition, fitting the ’Yote required new steel in the engine bay. “The engine’s huge, so the whole firewall had to be modified,” Adam says. “Then we’d cut so much of it apart that we figured we’d take it all out and put a new one in so we could swage it and make it nice. That spread to the inner guards, and then the only bit left was around the radiator, so that got done as well!”

Steve Tabone suggested the PPG Envy paint, which slowly grew on Adam as everything else was put together. “We started to play with the accent colour, and everybody said it’d be a shame just to do it a standard grey colour,” he says of the Tonic Brown that features heavily inside and out. “With the curves and the shape, it shows so many different colours when the light hits it.”

Adam took a couple of months off work to help Greg and the boys assemble the truck in time for MotorEx 2024. “He was happy for me to lend a hand, and it was a learning experience for me, because I build houses, not cars, but I like knowing how and why things work. I know how it all goes together and comes apart, so that’s cool!”

The F100 earned Top Street Machine, Top Interior and Top Bodywork at MotorEx, along with some glowing praise from guests Mike and Jim Ring of Ringbrothers. “It looks like something we’d recognise in the States – the quality of it is amazing,” Mike said shortly after the unveiling. “Greg spent quite a bit of time with them, chatting about it,” Adam says. “They’ve done their own ’56, which I spent a bit of time looking at in the early stages. I probably got a bit of inspiration from them, so for them to give it a shout-out was really good!

“We thought we had something pretty special, but you only get all the feedback from outside once you put it in a show like MotorEx. It kind of validated what we’d done and proved we were on the right path.”

As the F100 wraps up on the show circuit, Adam and his wife Jacky can’t wait to rack up some road miles while getting stuck into another project. “The budget went pretty high on this one, so the next will be a bit less show and a lot more go,” Adam laughs. “I’ll keep that under wraps, but I’ve got two kids, so they need one each!”

ADAM BICKERSTAFF
1956 FORD F100

THANKS
Greg and the team at Viking Hotrods; Matt at Inside Rides; my wife Jacky. None of this would have been possible without them.