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I am a retired Airline Pilot , While I was still flying, I had the opportunity to go and see lots of cars and trucks across the country that were for sale. On a trip to Texas I saw this 1940 Ford pickup in a parking lot close to the hotel that I was staying in. It had a for sale sign on it. After seeing it on different trips there, I bought it and drove it home to Nashville,Tn. Needless to say it was a driver, but I wanted to make a few changes on it. I decided to let Steve Legens, owner of Legens’ Hot Rods, have the truck to fix it up a little.
In short the truck has a 1 ½” chopped top, a custom grill hand made by Don Starks, smoothed off door handles and a smoothed hood to help fit it with the grill. Billet Specialties had the 18” and 20” wheels I needed. We decided to go with Pirelli Tires. The paint is a two tone By Spies Hecker .
There is a story behind the choosing of the paint. My wife and I were at the Shades of the Past Car Show in Pigeon Forge, Tn about 3 years ago when we saw Steve’s Sun Glasses. My wife thought the colors of the sunglasses were nice and asked me if I liked the colors also. I looked at the color combination and said that is it! We had been trying to decide on a color for about 6 to 8 months, but could not come up with any that I liked, until I saw Steve’s Sunglasses. So, that is how the truck got its colors.
The interior is done in light gray and dark leather. The switches for starting, lights and wipers are hidden behind a little door panel that was cut from the dash. It did not take away from the original look of the inside of the truck. Steve Legens’ Hot Rod Shop fabricated a custom console to hold the radio, gear shifter and the electric window controls.
The engine is a 350 Chevy with a Corvette Cam with a 650 cc carb. The frame is original except for the Heidt’s IFC front end. The frame has the original manufacturing number stamped on it. Steve also handmade the custom engine cover.
The bed of the truck also has one of Steve’s inventions. That is the hidden gas filler, where one of the floors of the bed is electronically raised to get to the gas tank.
I wanted to keep the truck looking as close to the original as possible , but at the same time make it a really clean and classy look. It took 6 years to accomplish that and over 6500 man hours of work.
The truck was chosen By goodguys as “Truck of the year Early Finalist” for 2007 and won The “Top 25” at Shades of the Past in Piegon Forge, Tn this past year. It really turned out to be “A Work of Art”. Jim Duffle
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