‘Fordite’ the 1966 F-250

Here you’ll find info on my resto-mod 1966 F-250 named “Fordite” and a collection of other projects I’m working on. Most of these feature a non-traditional approach to car restoration, involving 3D design and rapid prototyping techniques. Fordite is more of a hacking platform than a restoration. My aim is to come up with some interesting ways to ‘hide’ current technology in the confines of period looking controls. I want to enable all the creature comforts of modern vehicles in an otherwise old hunk of steel.

Fordite is a man-made gemstone, forged over many years. Seemed appropriate for the name of my truck. The actual fordite – the gem – is a sort of agate which comes from the paint booths of the car factories in Motor City. Thousands of layers of paint that built up over time. These were baked together and eventually formed giant clumps that created the gems we know today.

My 1966 F-250 Fordite is another man-made gem. There’s no telling its full history before it arrived in my possession, but it certainly has been forged by the hands of time. It is fitting of the name Fordite.