I found the truck on Craigslist, it was a fire victim of the California forest fires the summer before last. So, as you can imagine, it was burned top to bottom and required a lot of work to rescue this torched truck. Then, a friend asked if I was going to 4 wheel drive it, my immediate response was no but then, I got to thinking and exploring the web and came to the conclusion that putting a AWD 5.0 Explorer under it would be the way to go. So, I picked up a 2001 AWD 5.0 V8 Ford Explorer and cut the body off, keeping from the dash down, then fitting the ’56 on to it. As you can imagine, this project required a whole lot of metal shrinking, hammer & Dolly, cutting, welding, fitting and adapting but it turned out to be a real pleasure to drive. LMC Truck was my go-to place for all the shinies such as the interior and exterior door handles, window cranks, bumpers, hood and grille emblems, etc.

Thanks for the help, Clay.