It’s Friday and the first of May-that means we get five Freak Show Fridays this month. Yeah! This week’s Freak is a special one. That’s because it takes two relatively classic vehicles and abandons any sense of respect for them. And the result is perplexing at best. But at least the wheels match. What we have is the front half of a 1948-54 Chevy pickup and the back-half of a 1960 Ford Thunderbird. Those arbitrary hash marks on the quarter panels tell us it’s a 1960. The “Squarebird” body came out in 1958 replacing the cool two-seater T-Birds.

This week we’re blessed with three views of this Freak Show

We are blessed this week with three views of the strange pickup/T-Bird coupling. Normally photographers can only stomach a single shot of these freaks before running away in terror shrieking. So let’s have at it, shall we?

As much as you would like to think this was a completely unplanned union of two dissimilar vehicles you’re only partly right. Yes, these are two dissimilar vehicles joined forever. But no, this was definitely planned. Here’s why.

These truck bodies are too tall to seamlessly flow into a T-Bird quarter panel

First, those Chevy truck bodies are tall in stock form. So this body has been lopped off at the bottom to line up at the bottom of the T-Bird quarter panels. If you left the front fenders attached in their stock locations and just chopped them off, you’d be left with not a lot of fender. So, the front fenders have been raised a bit. How much? What, do you think we’re human tape measurers? Who knows?

When you raise the fenders up then you run into the problem of the hood not fitting. So the bottom of the hood has been modified so that everything ties together in a nice, neat bow. Or some may choose to call it a knot rather than a bow. 

What about that T-Bird spear?

OK, so that takes care of the mods up front. Notice the spear detail in the door? Those doors don’t come this way. The T-Bird has the spear. So whoever the builder is grafted the spear into the Chevy truck doors to tie it all together into another neat bow-or knot. 

At the rear, the builder didn’t want to lose that cool sloping rear end so he or she kept it leaving a little less open bed area. But who cares about carrying 4 x 8 sheets of plywood when you can keep the sexy T-Bird rump? It’s like a 1950s concept car. 

And those fins! They end so nicely just behind the truck cab. It is like it was meant to be. Don’t you think? Then the whole thing is finished off in a sort of patina/antiquing red and black combo. Striking! At least it all matches. 

We’ll take a guess and say this Freak Show is riding on an S-10 or Crown Vic chassis

If we can take a wild guess we think that this is probably on a newer chassis? Maybe an S-10 pickup or Crown Vic? You know, something that gives a more modern ride and sits closer to the ground than a 1950 Chevy pickup. It’s just a guess. They do get used as the underpinnings for a number of updated projects because they’re sturdy, easy to find parts for, and really cheap. Those are all of the makings for a Freak Show. 

Thanks to Gordon McGilton for the heads up. See ya until next week’s Freak Show Friday!