So, you’re looking at your old rusty 53-56 Ford F100 cab and thinking: How the heck am I going to fix that front cab corner that looks like it sat in salt water for most of its life? Well, one word – Fiberglass. Not cheap Fiberglass, but a good quality reproduction fiberglass 56 Ford F100 cab from Bebop’s Glass Works. Granted the 56 cab is different than the 53-55 with the slant window style. If you’re like me, when I built my first fat Ford truck, I couldn’t find a good 56 at the time that was reasonably priced. The 1956 F100 is the nicer looking (my opinion) of the 2 versions of cab. I bought a 53 and a 54 because of availability, quality and price. I love the 53-55 F100’s too, but I favor the 56.
So, along comes Bebop’s with a new fiberglass cab. You can literally build the entire truck from aftermarket parts if you wanted to now. Depending on your situation and what you want to build, you could buy a new frame with updated running gear from TCI, Fatman Fabrications or No Limit among others. Just about every other part is available through resto parts or hot rod parts.
Fiberglass – hmm…
I know what you’re thinking. Plastic (at least in the back of your mind). This Bebop’s cab is not the light or cheap feeling fiberglass. The cab is engineered with a steel frame that holds key areas of the cab rigid and the fiberglass is great quality. When you shut the doors on a truck with a fiberglass cab and doors, it isn’t like the original steel, but it’s not as hollow as you think.
The going price is $5,600 at this time, plus shipping. While that may seem expensive, let’s take a closer look.
The 56 F100 fiberglass cab is more than just a cab.
The 56 F100 cab includes doors, one piece door glass, power windows and bear claw latches. Plus, you can get the 56 fiberglass cab with the BIG BACK WINDOW option. I haven’t seen a big back window truck for sale in a while that wasn’t already restored/modded pushing the cost to at least $20,000. Really nice professionally built street rod trucks are much more than that – like double. So, IF you can find an original steel big back window cab for sale, I’m guessing it will cost you at least $4,000 – if you’re lucky. That’s a big “IF YOU CAN FIND ONE!!!” That doesn’t mean that that is the end of the expense on the steel cab though. If the cab corners or floor need fixed, you’re talking more investment in the steel cab. A good set of doors will run you minimum of $600 (again, unless you’re lucky). Add in the one piece glass in the doors to add to the value. So, the Bebop’s cab isn’t as expensive as the sticker shock that I got when I first saw the price. Of course, if you don’t want one piece door windows and power windows, then the value starts to go away.
In a perfect world, the fiberglass cab would be offered in steel and all Effies would have big back windows – I think they’re much cooler!!! This world isn’t perfect, but at least we have Effies to make it closer to perfect!
Contact F100Central.com for a shipping quote if you’re interested.
