10 Cylinders with Twin Turbos – John Lamb’s 1961 Ford Unibody with Tin Man’s Garage
John Lamb has been a car guy as long as he can remember, from racing a ’55 Chevy with his brother, George, at Oswego Dragway in the early-’60s, followed by a Mustang in Super Stock later in the decade. Even as his family grew, there was always a project in the garage, though John proudly put his family and work before any garage time or new parts. John’s passion naturally spilled over to his son, Jeff.
Early in the new century, John was stricken by a 1961 Ford Unibody pickup at a local cruise night and asked the owner to contact him if he ever wanted to sell. It took a couple years, but John finally scored the truck and wasted no time making it his own by installing a Fatman IFS and a Triton V10 with Jeff’s help.
Eventually, the project came to include Brian Limberg of Tin Man’s Garage (TMG) to help with a transmission tunnel, firewall, and floor, which ultimately snowballed into a 10-year custom rebuild full of custom touches that witnessed an overwhelming amount patience by all involved and the shared desire to do the job once and do the job right.
The chassis work expanded to include a No Limit Engineering four-bar rear setup and Wilwood disc brakes. The Ford Triton V10 engine was rebuilt, bored out to 420c.i., and equipped with twin 55mm turbochargers. The unique powerplant is managed by a HalTech EFI system and surrounded by custom flush-mounted panels and smooth metalwork topped by a trick one-piece core support cover with integrated intercooler plumbing and air intakes.
Inside, TMG cleaned up the factory dash and fitted in a set of Classic Instruments and Vintage Air before turning the truck back over to John and Jeff to handle the install of an American Autowire harness and to wire the entire ECU and controller mounted behind the seat. Schober’s Custom Hot Rod Interiors stitched the custom seat, door panels, and headliner using maroon leather and suede.
The Ford sheet metal was thoroughly modified, smoothed, nipped, tucked and straightened by the team at TMG with the final bodywork and paint completed by Adam Krause of The Refinery. Every panel on the truck has been modified, including a custom roll pan, tailgate, tonneau cover, a pancaked one-piece hood, custom bumpers, altered cab roofline, and more before the body was bathed in a PPG Mercedes Mountain Gray Metallic.
In the end, the truck was certainly worth the wait. It was a contender for the Slonaker Award at the Grand National Roadster Show this year, and just became a finalist for the Dakota Digital Truck of the Year Late as part of the Goodguys 2024 BASF Top 12 awards.
Photos: Damon Lee, Todd Ryden
