By Rob Fortier – Images by NotStock Photography
Of all the vehicles I’ve owned, the ones that end up getting sold the quickest were the ones with shiny paint. Why? Because I hated the responsibility of caring for and ultimately constantly worrying about damaging the costly finishes. For me, primer/suede or good-old patina were the keepers—especially the latter. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing like a show-quality paint job, and that’s exactly what Ken Sensy wanted with his 1950 Ford F-1 … or so he and Scott’s Hotrods ’N Customs thought.
After a couple local body shops left a rather bad taste in the owner’s and builder’s mouths—and the sheetmetal subsequently taken back down to bare metal to start the whole process over again, the decision was made to go the opposite direction instead … in Scott’s then-new in-house paint and body shop, which was created to avoid any further outsourced paint nightmares. As you can clearly see, that decision also included doing a “fauxtina” finish as well—something I agree with 100 percent!
It all started with a pile of parts back in 2020; by the summer of 2024, with but a mere 30 miles on the Dakota Digital VHX’s odometer, Ken’s F-1 made its maiden voyage from Knoxville to Nashville (for the 2nd annual Triple Crown of Rodding) and back, without a hitch … literally.
Beneath the F-1’s refined sheetmetal (by Kenneth DeKiserre), the array of custom CNC billet (by Ian Kinzler) including the OE-looking grille and hood emblems, and the aged white paintwork (by Steven Mancini and Jason Fox) is one of Scott’s Hotrods’ proprietary coilover chassis complete with 12-inch Wilwood brakes and 18/20-inch Hot Rods by Boyd “Columbus” billets. Power comes by way of an owner-supplied 351 Windsor, which is backed by a TREMEC five-speed and a four-linked Moser Truetrac 9-inch. The bed, which is repop box from Dan Carpenter, has been filled with a fresh Bedwood & Parts oak floor with smooth, aluminum strips, while the bumpers have been tucked in and Holley RetroBrite LEDs more than adequately light the Tennessee nights!
Inside Ken’s pickup, before Pro Auto Interiors by Steve Holcomb did their thing in two-tone leather, Scott’s freshened and moderned up the dash with the aforementioned Dakota instrumentation and Vintage Air controls and registers (in a custom sheetmetal valance, all wired with an American Autowire harness by Mark Melton), and an Ididit column with a Sparc steering wheel. An Alpine touch screen display and custom billet shifter (by Scott’s to match the pedal assembly) fill the adjoining center console.
After its maiden trip to Nashville and a quick nut-and-bolt check at Scott’s, Ken jumped back in the F-1 and headed straight to the F-100 Supernationals in Pigeon Forge—and we’re sure the readout on his odometer has been adding up ever since!
Check out this story in our digital edition here.
