John Mata Jr. December 06, 2023 Diesel World
Those who have had a special vehicle stolen from them know that the ordeal is an emotional mixture of equal parts vulnerability, frustration, and anger. That feeling of having someone break into a familiar space and make themselves right at home can leave one feeling victimized and unprotected. Frustration begins to settle in once having to fill out all the reports with law enforcement and having to deal with insurance and all the other steps that tend to eat up time and patience. Of course, annoyance and irritability are usually present throughout the whole fiasco, which usually evolves into sheer anger at having to deal with the inconvenience of it all. The whole process sucks, and we feel for anyone out there who has had experienced the loss of a vehicle to the despicable hands of a thief.
David Garcia of Cape Coral, Florida, has personally experienced the theft of his Ford F-350 while attending one of the largest truck shows in the country.
“My old truck that I had owned since 2015 was stolen while I was out at Lone Star Throwdown in 2020,” he states. “The aggravation of having to worry about this kind of thing while I was so far from home was a lot to deal with. I had to immediately begin searching for a new truck to replace it before the smoke even had time to settle.”
The hunt for a newer model truck was in full swing. David was sorting through ads on Marketplace and Craigslist, but all the trucks in his criteria search were obvious lemons that were simply too neglected for him to want to take a chance on any of them. David’s insurance company was applying the pressure for him to decide on something ASAP because they wanted their loaner car back.
“As I was trying my best to choose the best option I had in front of me, my dad sent me a listing on eBay for a 2001 F-250,” David says. “I blew it off at first because it was a 2WD, manual Supercab longbed 7.3L. Once my father questioned why I was so adamant about sticking to a 4WD model, I started to see the light. I never went off-roading or towed much with my old truck anyway, and the F-250 in the listing was as clean as it was described. It had only one previous owner and was rust-free and still in stock condition. Best yet, it was only located a few hours from me, so I was able to make the drive to go through the truck with a fine-tooth comb.”
After a quick test drive, David was sold on the F-250. While the truck wasn’t close to anything he had been searching for, it ended up working out eerily perfect. The reception he received after posting a photo of it on social media wasn’t too hot, but David really didn’t care about that. In fact, the warm response made him like the truck even more.
“This project would give me a chance to prove how cool the truck really was and could be, but first I immediately dug into it by doing all the regular maintenance and repairs one would expect to encounter on a 20-year-old-truck,” he says.
Once the Ford was mechanically sound, David could then start on the cosmetic issues. The first modification was lowering the front end down 4 inches and 1.5 inches at the rear. Next, a set of 24×12 Specialty Forged wheels, a 2005 front end, and color-matched exterior trim were applied, and the entire truck was resprayed with factory Highland Green Metallic paint for good measure. The interior space was then upgraded with a brand-new set King Ranch seats from Richmond Upholstery, an F-650 lower dash panel capable of running auxiliary gauges, a US Speedo stainless cluster and various billet pieces, along with a painted dash and trim pieces for a cohesive overhaul throughout the cab.
Under the hood, David threw a KC300 turbo at the 7.3L, as well as hybrid injectors and a complete tuning. He even swapped out the factory clutch with a South Bend twin disc unit along with a Core short throw shifter.
“In a span of only three months, the truck evolved from grandpa’s daily work truck to a formidable performer with eye-catching styling,” David boasts. “At this point, I really began enjoying the truck and taking it out to shows and on road trips. I even made a return trip to Lone Star Throwdown where it was displayed in the Specialty Forged booth and was still in my possession after the show was over. I really was worried that something might happen again, but all was fine.”
After attending a few more shows in the Southeast and locally in Florida, the truck decided it was time to go on strike in May of 2021.
“It was putting out an excessive amount of white smoke and hesitation on the throttle, which I soon found out was a drastic loss of compression on cylinder No. 4,” David says. “With the truck parked, I sent out the spare engine I had for the most basic of rebuilds. This is the biggest lie that I have ever told myself. I listened to the devil on my shoulder, David Beach, and we soon started building a bottom end to add more power.”
Carrillo rods were quickly ordered, a T4 kit was purchased, then head studs, main studs, custom cut pistons, and a whole mess of various performance products. Since just about everything was either back ordered or delayed due to COVID, that gave David enough time to send some parts out for powdercoating.
Before David knew it, the engine was fully assembled and planted between the frame rails, and the truck was put through a rigorous, month-long testing trial before the time came to fuel up and make the 18-hour drive to Lone Star Throwdown 2023.
“Well, that was the plan anyway,” David grumbles. “The truck did get put back together but just not in time to take it back out to Texas. I was very happy to finally have it back on the road though. When it wasn’t down, it was driven every day, and I missed it terribly. While I did miss debuting it at LST, I have since taken it to a handful of other events—it even received the Best Lowered Award at Music City. The truck drove amazing. Its last few dyno pulls registered at 600 hp to the wheels and it still averages 20 mpg during road trips.”
Life on the road is good again for David, and the build of his F-250 is proof positive that the comeback is much greater than the setback.
OWNER
David Garcia
Cape Coral, FL
ENGINE & TRANSMISSION
CHASSIS & SUSPENSION
WHEELS, TIRES & BRAKES
BODY & PAINT
INTERIOR & STEREO
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