History is littered with failed attempts at auto production. Whether it’s Packard or Pontiac, Studebaker or Saturn, great ideas of their day don’t always stand the test of time.
That’s why Bodie Stroud Industries is re-manufacturing a 60-year-old model, making production customs of tried-and-true 1956 Ford F-100 pickups, for which bodies and parts are still readily available.
“I’ve done so many,” said Stroud, founder and namesake of the Sun Valley-based company. “I’m so used to building them, I can make them cool for a low amount of money.”
What makes them cool is the nostalgia-trip body reworked with a chopped hood, larger rear window and tubbed bed. Whether it’s “low” cost is, of course, relative.
Stroud’s BSI X-100, as it’s called, starts at $139,000 for a naturally aspirated 5-liter Ford Racing Coyote crate engine nestled into a custom chassis upgraded with a suspension of Stroud’s design and modern wheels. A $179,000 Deluxe model runs with a supercharged Ford Racing Aluminator and an interior upgraded with leather, Mercedes carpet and high-tech goodies including WiFi and a touch screen.
It was a 1956 F-100 Stroud built in his spare time for his father-in-law that planted the seed for the new venture – long before Stroud made a business of customizing vintage American iron or building a clientele that now boasts multiple celebrities.
“I’ve always had a drive for anything that rolls on four wheels or has wheels,” said Stroud, who started “tinkering around with cars, jacking ’em up or slamming ’em,” 20 years ago but didn’t formalize the business until 2006. “I was always building the craziest stuff you could imagine to look cool.”
Crazy, cool stuff like the “Scarliner” 1960 Ford Starliner upgraded with a monster 2006 Ford GT engine and Porsche brakes to match the coupe’s original epic proportions, and the “GMonster” 1957 Chevy Bel Air that wipes out the identifying emblems and beefs up the back end.
Now 45 and married with three children, Stroud heads a team that works on as many as 20 cars at a time.
Bodie Stroud Industries recently began crafting its own line of parts, including a suspension Stroud debuted at the SEMA show in Las Vegas last November on the GMonster he built with an Orange County customer. His shop has also digitized, for easier manipulation, the factory chassis for Chevy Tri 5s, as well as the Ford Mustangs from 1965 to 1970 and the new BSI X-100.
Stroud’s personal taste runs pre-1970.
“After 1970, everything seemed to turn ugly,” said Stroud, lamenting the era’s preference for tan, brown and “puke” green. “I don’t know what happened, but they came out with some crazy ideas. They lost their lust. The lines weren’t the same – 1970, 1971, 1972 I still do; 1973 is the cut-off point where it got really bad. That’s when they came out with the Esquire station wagon and a square box and wood paneling and you’re like, ‘What do you do with this?’ You’re not going to look cool in that no matter what you do.”
Stroud grew up in Sunland, where his father drove him around town in a 1957 Chevy and took him to the now-defunct GM factory in Van Nuys to watch Camaros being built. A photo in his office shows him wrenching a tricycle as a toddler.
His personal collection includes a 23-Window VW Microbus, 1950 Bullet Nose Studebaker, 1941 Ford sedan and 1950 Ford F-100, none of which he has the time to work on.
On any given weekday, his shop hums to a soundtrack of oldies and a pneumatic wrench, as his staff of 12 works on builds including a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner and 1957 Chevy Convertible.
Stroud’s celebrity clientele includes Tim Allen (whose backfiring Shelby Cobra was being fixed), Johnny “Jackass” Knoxville (and his 1972 Cadillac Eldorado), Miley Cyrus (and her 1969 Ford Mustang) and other, even bigger names he said he’s not at liberty to discuss. Even the office attached to his 13,000-square-foot garage bears evidence of his business dealings with Hollywood royalty. His coffee table is made from the engine he pulled from a 1951 Mercury owned by actor Johnny Depp.
“You’re not taking it back to what it was originally because you can’t find parts for it or some guy comes to you and says, ‘I want to rebuild my dad’s car,’ and I say, ‘It’s in really, really bad shape and will cost you $1 million to make it drivable. I suggest we do something else,’ and I turn it into furniture for his man cave,” said Stroud, whose TV resume includes stints on the shows “Rock My RV” and “Hot Rod TV.”
“It should be cool because I won’t have to make it run.”
Making it run is a tricky business, as anyone who’s ever worked on decades-old vehicles already knows.
“It’s a lot of work,” said Stroud, who, as a case in point, was recently driving a 1965 Ford Mustang GT 700S, the speedometer for which had started making noise.
“People every day say, ‘You’re driving the car, so it’s ready.’ No. There’s so much to do to dial it in. When you’re tuning these things, there’s a million variations. You’ve got to pick the right one. It’s like finding the combination.”
Contact the writer: scarpenter@ocregister.com On Twitter: @OCRegCarpenter
