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F-100 XL Drag Pickup

This interesting truck was built by Dearborn Steel Tubing in
1963 and raced successfully in the B/FX factory experimental class.
Dearborn Steel Tubing, as you may know, had a hand in many of Ford's racing cars
of the '60s including factory lightweight galaxies, thunderbolts, and even
rally falcons. They even offered this as a conversion package from DST for
$3400, but it appears unlikely that more than one was ever built. If
you have any information, pictures, or stories of this truck in it's racing
days, please e-mail me.
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American Rodder Article 12/64 Pg. 1
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American Rodder Article 12/64 Pg. 2
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American Rodder Article 12/64 Pg. 3
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American Rodder Article 12/64 Pg. 4
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Jack Whitby Ford Ad.
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Marketing
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DST Conversion Marketing
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Photo by George Cureton
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Vintage Photo
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Popular Hot Rodding Article 8/64 Pg. 1
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Popular Hot Rodding Article 8/64 Pg. 2
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March 15, 2005
In an utterly amazing internet story of the right people talking
to the right people who knew the right people, the lost has been found!
And it's in amazingly great shape! A fellow from the Slick 60s Ford Truck
forum tracked down the original F-100 XL in the eastern united states. The
current owner wants to remain anonymous and not deal with the many offers to buy
the truck. I will relate what I know, which isn't much, and let the
pictures speak for themselves.
"The guy who owns it bought a thunderbolt and drove it until the
truck worked its way though the dealer owners on some deal from Ford. If you
notice one of the rear fenders in the original post had STU WILSON on the rear
quarter. Anyway there is a long story of how it came to be the current owners.
He even told me where the original owner is in the picture Jack Whitby.
He ran a best of 11.97 at the track and has street driven this truck with a
cammer which is going back in it! The ladder bars are F800 tie rods! Depending
how the truck reacts he would give the appropriate bar a turn, loading that side
and make it go straight. The truck has less than 3K on the odometer and is in
excelent shape. The rear sits on top of the spring pack. The front has 2 or 3
inch spacers. Lots of weight transfer and wheels off the ground which some of
you have already experience I believe. I had a great day as this just came to be
this afternoon and I will update everyone as to its progress. Glad its in tact
and survived! "
I'm so glad that it has remained in tact all these years and
will be put back on the street and track some time soon. Especially with a
cammer in it, this has got to be the most valuable '61-'66 Ford Pickup ever.



August 13, 2005
Some momentum is growing in this project. The owner has
vowed to get the truck back together and on the road and displayed. He was
recently contacted by a magazine who wants to do an article on the truck. To
enable that, several Ford truck enthusiasts helped the owner wash up the truck
and move it into the light of day for the first time in many years. Pretty
exciting stuff! I can wait to see both the article and more progress made on this
historical truck. Note the front end is about 3" higher than it would be with an
engine in place.





December 17, 2005
On December 10th I was lucky enough to get to visit the truck in
person and meet the owner. What an incredible experience that was.
The truck is amazingly well preserved. The owner was even more interesting
than the truck, I was there for 5 hours and heard countless stories of his
exploits in the truck. The plans continue to be to do a preservation
restoration on the truck, trying to make it look like it did in '63 while
maintaining as much of the original paint and graphics as possible.
I can't wait to see progress being made on the truck and it's eventual display
in restored form. Since the trip a great deal of information has
been verified / discovered with the help of the fine and knowledgeable folks at
www.fordfe.com . I can't thank those
guys enough for their contributions to the project.
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I even got to sit in it! |
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Door Tag - DSO starting with 84 indicates "Home Office Reserve" |
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Signed by Paul Hatton of Garden City, MI We will try to contact Paul to help with the restoration. |
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The vinyl top is in great shape, the texture is called "Cobra Vinyl" and was an option on Thunderbirds of the same era. |
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Less than 3000 miles on the clock |
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With the original 427 the tell tail on the Stahl tach on at least one occasion saw 8200 rpm! |
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Knocking down this flange was the only mod necssary to install the 427 SOHC (cammer). |
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Frame Mods - Originally there was a tubular cross member installed behind the cut crossmember with the motor mounts, but it was removed so you could pull the pan with the engine installed. |
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Holes cut in the core support for T-bolt style ram air hoses. |
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To maximize weight on the rear axle, a large battery, rear mounted fuel tank, and an unusually heavy spare tire (filled with water) were used. |
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Axle over leaf spring, and traction bar mount. |
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Rear traction bar mount and adjustment. |
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