I dig vintage iron. If you've followed our MDR race coverage throughout the past couple of years, you've no doubt seen a photo or two of Steve Herrera's '69 F-100 in the heat of battle. Steve's C&D-built F-100 is one of my all-time favorite trucks, and it might just be one of your favorites too. Steve traded Danny Guernsey (the "D" in C&D) a motorcycle and some cash for the F-100. He subsequently dubbed it the "Corpse Grinder" and began tearing up the MDR 1450 and 1400 classes. Vintage sheetmetal combined with 21st-century suspension is a beautiful thing to watch in the desert. There's an added bonus to building old iron, at least in states like California: Smog checks aren't needed for anything '75 or older.
Greg Gagnon of PRG Products and Rialto Off-Road Raceway fame originally picked up this project and hauled it home. A true mongrel, the truck consisted of a '69 F-series cab set atop an '80 fullsize Bronco frame with a 460/C6/Borg-Warner 1356 drivetrain between the framerails. Up front, the Dana 44 TTB front suspension held the potential for long-travel 4WD capability, and the Ford 9-inch rearend out back was a proven, rugged performer. Greg offered it at a tasty price, and I immediately began salivating. What could be cooler than building my own version of the Corpse Grinder? Perhaps the best part of all was that Greg let me keep my new prize at his place until I could start working on it.
The truck sat. Other projects successfully vied for my attention. Months turned into years. Greg put his house up for sale. I've got too many other projects and no place to store another one. All these factors boiled down to a single reality: The truck had to go.
There's still a vintage truck out there somewhere with my name on it - I'll build my Corpse Grinder someday. If your plate seems a bit full, step back and decide whether life will be better or worse if you keep that long-term project truck languishing in your backyard. Ya gotta know when to say when.
Nothing says "vintage iron" like a big, bouncy bench seat. This one was in pretty good shape: It seemed like a few spritzes of Armor All would wake it right up. Oh well. | 
The 460 was mostly complete, right down to the carb, air cleaner, power-steering pump, and distributor. The motor featured this cool aluminum oil-filter adapter for a remote oil-filter setup. Dave scores again. Mike bought the 9-inch rearend. | 
Good news! The grapevine produced a buyer for the drivetrain. Dave had recently purchased a '75 F-150 4x4, and the 460 seemed just the ticket for building a fast truck. Dave bought the complete drivetrain, and Kevin was happy. |
Outside the cab, things got ugly. This is some nasty rust. It's not merely surface rust: The body cancer has completely rotted out the roof panel, making replacement the only solution. A cursory Internet search for a repair panel came up empty. While a panel or a complete cab could be found and put into place, I've got no time to do it. The rust was just another nail in this truck's coffin. | 
I'd planned to keep the front section of the frame to use as a jig. It turned out that the frame was pretty tweaked and was only good for scrap metal. My prize? I kept the Dana 44 TTB front end, steering box, and tie rods. The TTB housings look straight, but I'll have to double-check before I put much time into them. I took the frame to the scrap yard and came away $26 less poor. Parting the truck out let me cut my losses. I got to gracefully walk away from this project. | 
The headliner looked good too. |