Eric “Edog” Michaud’s 1965 Ford F100
By Rob Fortier – Photography by Tim Sutton
In a world where patina has never been more prevalent and so in vogue, it’s more than just a breath of fresh air to see the exact opposite: over-the-top custom paint—whether it’s a completely flawless single-color paint job or, in this case, the exact opposite—an “every color” custom job by the master, Eric “Edog” Michaud.
A plumber by day, Edog has spent the last couple decades of evenings and weekends perfecting his true craft of custom painting and car/truck building (every aspect, from chassis to metalwork and literally everything in-between). His latest, this amazing 1965 Ford F-100 short-slab, was originally bodywork and painted for a fellow club member back in 2015; by the following year, after the truck had earned itself a “Best Lowrider Truck” at the 2016 Grand National Roadster Show, he took full ownership of the F-100 truck and proceeded to rack up the miles himself.
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By late 2018, however, is when Edog got the itch to completely tear the truck apart and redo pretty much everything underlying beneath that elaborate custom paint job he’d done a few years prior (and even that would receive some updating as well).
Starting with the Ford F-100’s chassis, he fabricated a new four-link rear suspension (the front had already been clipped with a Camaro subframe) and installed a custom hydraulic system (the 15×6 reverse-offset Rocket Racing Wheels with 5.60-15 Firestone bias-plies remained “a roll”); the existing 302 small-block was freshened up and mated with an AOD transmission and disc brakes added with all-new plumbing. Body-wise, all the glass was replaced with new seals and weatherstrip, power windows installed, and all the chrome was redone. As Edog put it, “I basically rebuilt the entire truck inside and out.”
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As stated, his already-impressive paint job was further elaborated with a complementing full-custom roof job, after which the truck was re-cleared, cut, and buffed accordingly. All in all, as Edog listed on the tech sheet provided when our pal Tim Sutton shot these amazing pics, “every color” was used in the process of creating the House of Kolor/Roth Metal Flake–based custom paint job. Along with the aforementioned restored Rocket five-spokes, Edog custom-fabbed a period-style tube grille to complement his array of underlying custom bodywork (smoothed/filled seams, shaved handles/emblems, and so on). In similar era-correct fashion, Blind Stitch in Whittier, California, created the pearl white vinyl tuck ’n’ roll with blue loop pile carpet.
As we’re about to take this feature to press, Edog is in the process of finishing up his next full-custom personal hauler project—a laid-out second-gen Chevy Squarebody truck that will, of course, wear the proper Edog custom attire. Stay tuned!
