Ivan Stewart`s '78 Fillmore Ford Restoration

[Mark Stahl]

Hey Everyone,

I'm Mark Stahl and welcome to my new thread. After competing in this year's NORRA Mexican 1000 with Rory Ward and Jeff Furrier in my restored Chenowth 1000 I got hooked, again. We had such a good time, on the way home from La Paz the wheels began turning... I met Rory at Ivan Stewart`s auction and he told me they knew where my old car was and they hoped to buy and restore it. Once he told me they got the car we talked and emailed each other quite a bit. After they knew they were going to have the car done for this years NORRA race they asked me to drive the first leg and I jumped at the chance. The race went well and we won our class with little trouble and had a great time. Before the race I went to Rory`s shop to help him do some final prep and set up on the car. That was the first time I saw my old car in 29 years. I got to drive the car a few times that weekend and I was amazed at how small the car is and how low you sit in it. I have a Ranger prerunner and its much easier to read the terrain when you sit up a little higher.

My restored 1977 Chenowth 1000, 3 time Baja 1000 winner, twice overall in '78 and '80 and Class winner of The 2011 NORRA Mexican 1000

On the way home from the race I started thinking about how we could do this next year. My old single seater was great but I wanted more people to be able to enjoy this experiance and I thought I needed a truck so more people could ride along. I had been been racing Ford stock cars in Winston Cup and ARCA since I stopped offroad racing in 1981 and I have a lot of parts and experience, so the decision was easy. I needed a old Ford Class 8 truck. After about a month of searching with a wanted ad on Race DeZert a fellow called me and said he had a 1978 F-100 that used to be the Fillmore Ford, CoCo Corral, Ivan Stewart prerunner. The truck was located in the San Luis Obispo area and I knew there was no way I was going to go up and look at it so he sent me some photos and info on it. I knew I wanted it so we worked a deal and here is what was delivered to my front door...

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[Bajated]

Cool project. Did Cal Wells build the truck for Ivan?

[powderman]

Ive been waiting for this, super cool project. Cant wait to see more pics as progress is made. Should be fun.

[Pete from Houston]

A friend of mine sent me a link to some old photos from Riverside Raceway, circa 1979. I found a few shots of the Fillmore Ford:

http://flic.kr/p/4PZPe3

Here is the link to the whole gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/3rdstla...7605179920652/

[Mark Stahl]

Ivan has been to here to look at the truck and says CoCo would take a truck off his lot, put tires and wheels and make a few other improvements, and use it for a prerunner. This truck started out black and has the Fillmore Ford purple, orange and yellow striping under the other layers of black paint. Ivan said this thuck was sold to Marv Schmidt and he had many improvements done by Walker Evans that included a 9 in. Ford floater with a Detriot locker, reinforced front beams and front spring buckets, 3 shocks per wheel, Mogi C6 trans, 3 in. engine setback, roll cage, and other mods. The registration says this truck is a '78 and I think LMC trucks show rectangle headlights for a 1978.
You will have to bear with me on this thread. I`m still learning how to post pics so they come out full size. Rory Ward has been a big help but he is busy with his Mickey Thompson Challanger restoration and other projects. In case you didn`t know he has a great t-shirt with my Chenowth 1000 on it. Email him at [email protected] to purchase some. He has many other great shirts also and the more he can sell will help him with his project.

[squirelmurphy]

Should be an awesome project. It looks like the down bars from the cab to the bed cage have been removed. Has there been other mods since the original build? Any pics of the interior?

[Wild bill]

Are you sure its a 78? 79 is when Ford went to square headlights.

[Quailhunter]

Mark, I'm very happy to see that you've had time to start this Restoration Thread. I can't get over how much work you've done so far. You know I have great intrest in your project and I'm here to lend help in any way I can.


Pete From Houston: What a great collection of Riverside pictures......I was able to spot myself in one........Hay, I'm in Houston right now.... please turn down the heat!

[Kolman]

VERY cool...cant wait to see the progress! keep it up

[toddz]

Great thread, Mark. Looking forward to watching this one progress.

And as for the headlights, the rectangular headlights were available on the higher trim levels (Ranger, Ranger XLT) in '78 so I'm sure they're correct.

Todd Z.