Article and Photography by:
 Bryan Fross
 Model: Katie Rodemeyer

   There are projects that take longer than expected and there are even projects that get finished early although it doesn't happen often. There is another type of custom vehicle project that over time, develops into a decade-long chapter in your life. This 1967 F-250 that has been intertwined with a 1999 F-150 4x4 is one of those projects. Chris Begley of Riverside, California purchased the '67 F-250 as a Senior in high school when he lived in Colorado. For a while it was driven with a lift kit on 42-inch super swamper tires. After moving back to Southern California, Chris began building off-road trucks and sand cars for a living as well as making frequent trips to Glamis for some fun in the sand. He then decided his daily driver needed to have long-travel suspension and 46-inch tires. Since that day, this truck has been built solely by Chris with his friends help and only saw work at a shop when it came time to do the stereo.

   To begin the transformation, Chris started work on a custom designed/built 3-link, 5-foot long lower trailing arms with Delrin bushings and 1 1/4 FK heim joints. He used 4130 chromoly tubing which was TIG welded for strength. The upper arm is a wish-bone design with a 1-inch uni-ball and Delrin bushings. The front suspension uses Fox 2.5 16-inch two-stage coilover with 18-inch triple bypass shocks and 2.0 4-inch bump shocks. This allows the front up to 20-inches of travel. He replaced the steering with a 2.5 full hydraulic double end ram power steering by PSC which is connected to Velocity high steer arms. Also added were a pair of limit straps by Kar-Tek and a sway bar from Speed Way Engineering. Moving to the rear, Chris built and designed another 3-link as well as 6-foot long lower trailing arms. This time the shocks are 14-inch Fox 2.5 coilover mounted in the middle of the arm with a 2.0 4-inch Fox bump shock. This achieves 28-inches of rear travel. The upper wish-bone arm and lower arms use 1.25-inch FK heim joints with Delrin bushings. The rear sway bar is also a Speed Way Engineering product with Kar-Tek limit straps. All of the axles in the Ford are Dana 60 with Poison Spyder differential cover. The axles are geared to 5.38 ratio to compensate for the big 46-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Claw tires mounted on 20x12 XD Series Wheels by KMC. Trail Ready 20-inch bead locks help keep the tires clamped to the wheels.

   Considering that the vehicle is unrecognizable from it's original 1967 F-250 starting point because the exterior has undergone so many changes, the 1999 F-150 cab from a salvage yard with Trailer Products fiberglass front and rear fenders looks pretty good to us. The front grille is a T-Rex Grille and the fiberglass fenders received Ford Lightning headlights. A 32-gallon fuel cell and spare 46-inch Mickey Thompson tire are mounted in the bed. The truck was painted with Volkswagen Tangerino by a friend. The last piece to be added was a recovery hook from Alpha Hook.

    On this inside, the cab was already gutted so Chris added three Off-Road Kar-Tek suspension seats mounted inside of a full roll cage. each seat has a Crow 5 point seat belt. Also installed is a Hurst shifter for the C-6 transmission, a carbon fiber dash from Fiberwerx and Auto Meter gauges. The truck is kept cranking utilizing two Optima yellow top batteries with the help of a Painless Performance Products dual battery electronic controller. The steering wheel was replaced by a Momo wheel with a quick disconnect. Keeping everything in the electronics department running is a Painless Wiring 20 circuit universal wiring harness.The audio comes by way of a Sony double din with 8 Rockford Fosgate speakers installed by Wave Lengths Audio Solutions.

Powering this beast is a 408 cubic inch Ford engine. It has been highly modified with TRW aluminum forged pistons, Edelbrock intake, Holly 850 double pumper carburetor, custom headers, ported heads and RV cams. The transmission is a C-6 3-speed auto with a shift kit. There is a drive shaft from the transmission that goes to the divorced NP 205 transfer case and then goes to the front and rear drive shaft. Drive lines where made by JE Reel. The Ford has a 5.38 ring and pinion with spool
and chromoly axles by Superior Axle and Gear.

   Chris would like to thank all of his sponsors that helped with the build including: Painless Wiring, K&N, Optima Batteries, T-Rex Grilles, Velocity Off-Road, Superior Axle and Gear, Poison Spyder, Mickey Thompson Tires, Trail Ready, KMC Wheels, PSC Steering, Alpha Hook, Wave Lengths Audio Solutions, FiberWerx, JE Reel Drive Lines,and TJM. He says the truck would not be where it is today without the friends and family that helped along the way. Special thanks to John Szablewski, Drew Mersereau, Kyle Vargus, Brandon Murray, Jason Begley, and Frances Begley.