Making the Old New Again
- Cassidy Goldman
- Dec 12, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 12, 2020
Here in Jacksonville vehicle reconstruction and remodelization is not incredibly popular within the young adult generation, but two University of North FLorida students are hoping to change that.
Alec Gunn is a junior in the Civil Engineering program at UNF who recently finished reconstructing a 1964 Ford F100 to be drivable again. After purchasing the truck in it's bare bones, he rebuilt it from the ground up.
"I got some school refunds, I sold stuff, I had saved up money, I did odd jobs like pressure washing and just kind of shopped around and found good deals on things," said Gunn when asked about how he got the funds for such a big project.
He explained how even when he had the money it was sometimes difficult to make progress due to the scarcity of some of the parts he needed.
"Getting the right parts takes time. The rear axle was one of the most difficult to find. I ended up not even finding the one I wanted. I found one that was the previous generation vehicle so it was close enough," said Gunn.
He informed me that junkyards are one of the best places to find old car parts, amongst Facebook groups.
Since the truck was made prior to 1966, Gunn did not need, or want, to install seat belts, but his girlfriend, Carly Kilbury, strongly encouraged him to anyway.
"With antique vehicles you don't need seatbelts, legally, but with my dad being a firefighter there was no way that I would be able to ride in that truck without seatbelts in it. Especially since it doesn't have airbags either, so I got him to install two seat belts for us," said Kilbury.
Gunn said he now plans to work on the little things like hooking up the heater since it is getting cold and replacing the window seals to avoid rain leakage.
Noah Gryboski, an incoming Mechanical Engineering student at UNF, also loves working on his truck. While his truck is not an antique from the sixties, he has done an incredible amount of remodelization to his 1999 Ford F150 the most striking of which being the camouflage paint job.
"I have a buddy who does a lot of graffiti work downtown. So, I did all the prepwork sanding it down and taping off and then took it up to his shop and he did it by hand," said Gryboski.
Gryboski is very proud of his truck and said he always wants to have the most stand out vehicle in the Walmart parking lot.
The collection of items that make his truck stand out is not slim. Along with the camouflage paint job, he has a Hella light strip on a shelf above the truck, Christmas lights weaved within the grill for the holiday season, the head of a Barbie doll on the radio antena and a stack of what appears to be around 120 air fresheners hanging next to the front passenger window.
"Cause it looks cool," is Gryboski's reasoning for most of the extraordinary accents that can be found in his truck.
He also said he likes to use the distinct accessories as conversation starters.
"When people ask how they are conversation starters I say, 'Well, we're conversating aren't we?'" said Gryboski.
According to him, it has been a long process of waiting for paychecks, changing something, saving up more paychecks and changing something else.
Gryboski said he is asked all the time why he avoided painting the tailgate and his reasoning is that he did not want to lose his stickers since they mean so much to him. One of his favorites is the one he had made of his Instagram handle that sits in the upper right corner of the tailgate.
Gryboski hopes to continue to remodel vehicles post graduation. He said his dream career would be to work for his favorite company, Ford, designing vehicles. He aspires to make an impact like Carroll Shelby and have a special vehicle named the Gryboski.
Gunn and Gryboski have become friends through Chets Creek Church and their passion for fixing up vehicles. They like to go to junk yards together to see what they can find and help each other by lending some extra muscle to whatever the current project is.
Comments