1961 Ford Econoline Pickup - Resurrected

An Econoline Emerges From Under 25 Year's Worth Of Dust To Get A New Life From Kicker

By Staff

Photography by Courtesy of Manufacturer

From a pipe-hauling plumber's rig to a tow truck for a drag racer, Rick Kirk's 1961 Econoline had seen its fair share of transformations. Parked for 25 years in Kirk's garage, it might have avoided another one if Dan Jobin, Kicker applications manager and a friend of Kirk, hadn't dug it out. "It had years of grime on it," Jobin states. "When we rolled it out of there, there was a perfect cat skeleton underneath."

In addition to the dust, muck (and skeleton), the boys at Kicker saw a perfect blank slate for an A/V installation worthy of show floors. Toby Lewis, John Myers, Randy Botts, Sean Murphy and Jobin tested their skills, and their patience, with this install. "This was the first vehicle that our team had done from the ground up," Lewis reveals. "We started with a truck with no motor, rear suspension, wiring and absolutely no interior. This may sound like a dream come true for many installers, but we had well under a year to finish and many other projects were mixed in during that time."

Starting From Scratch
With the cab completely bare, the installers laid down an all-encompassing base coat of Dynamat. Although sound damping was a no-brainer, figuring out what to install and where to put it posed more of a challenge. The Econo offered limited space, especially with the engine jutting into the cab from behind. The game plan included fabricating the dash around the new, sound-quality friendly center drive.

1961 Ford Econoline Pickup Custom Amp Headliner

The custom headliner consists...

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Originally, the installers intended to place the two sets of 6 1/2" SS component speakers in the kick panels, which would have extended into the dash. But, given the already miniscule amount of legroom, the front speakers moved up to the dash's lower edges. Fabrication started with an MDF frame that was covered in fleece and reinforced with chopped fiberglass and fiberglass-reinforced body filler. Custom-cut MDF rings hold the array of Classic Instruments gauges with Kicker faces. To perfect the fit and shape, "the dash was probably in and out of the truck a hundred times," Lewis explains.

Rather than presiding in the usual dash location, the Clarion DXZ945MP head unit stows overhead along with the Clarion VS735 DVD player in custom fiberglass pods. Between them, where the rearview mirror used to be, Kicker's SXRC remote allows for easy fine-tuning. Clarion was also the choice for monitors, with two 10.4-inchers flashing from the rear pillars of the cab and the third in the bed.

Back in the cab, the guys worked out how to plug in the bass from the pair of 12" SoloX subwoofers. They decided to build two 4ft3 enclosures out of 3/4" MDF. Due to the limited space and the protruding engine, the enclosures had to be built in the cab and painted when the truck was painted. "They are a semi-permanent part of the truck," states Lewis, "meaning we would have to destroy them to remove them."