In the ‘80s and ’90s, street rodding received a significant boost from baby boomer wealth and a cutting-edge rock & roll video. First came vibrant pastel colors, tweed interiors, and billet wheels, followed by a wave of ZZ Top “Eliminator”-inspired machines. Brightly-colored vehicles featuring leather-wrapped interiors and an abundance of chrome in the engine compartment were suddenly everywhere.

Then came the rat rod/patina crazy, where the cars were built from scratch, but the goal was to make them look like they were just dragged out of a field.

 Bill Dinges’ ’34 Lincoln pickup belongs in a different category altogether. It splits the difference between a rat rod and a more traditional street rod. It is properly slammed to the ground, and the cabin is bare, yet it’s overflowing with fascinating, one-of-a-kind touches.

We may be getting ahead of ourselves here. Let’s go back to the beginning, which was in 2009 when Bill purchased the ’34 Ford cab. We’re sorry to disappoint you, but this is not (nor ever has been) a Lincoln pickup. There was no such thing until the odd and unwanted Lincoln Blackwood in 2002. Bill simply thought it would be funny to brand it as such and make for a good head-scratcher at shows and cruise nights.

“It was just kind of a joke I thought of because I built the whole truck myself,” Bills told us. “It’s a Ford cab, but I built everything else myself—the bed frame, everything—so I just thought it’d be kind of funny to call it a Lincoln pickup. I call it the Lincoln Instigator because they had the Navigator and the Aviator.”

Sorry to disappoint fans of the brand, but the grille isn’t off a Lincoln, either. While grilles were often the most identifying part of any car in the ’20s and ’30s, the one you see here is from a ’35 Ford.

“I cut it down to fit the truck and made the grille teeth,” says Bill.

Bill works at US 12 Speed & Custom in New Buffalo, Michigan, a shop that builds customs and race cars. He’d go in an hour early every day and stay an hour late to work on the Lincoln’s creation. It took nine years to complete, and he had help from some of his co-workers.

We think the powerplant is one of the more interesting aspects of this rod. Anyone can build a street rod with a small- or big-block. Bill went with a 1962 Ford Y-block V8 out of a ’62 Skyliner. This was the last year the Y-block engine was offered (with a meager 170 gross horsepower), but it fit in with Bill’s desire to create something no one else had.

As part of the engine’s resurrection by Gouger Racing Engines of Porter, Indiana, it was punched out to 297 cubes, stuffed with a solid tappet Isky cam, and topped with an old 6-71 Gasser supercharger. That blower is a story in itself. He got it from Darren Mayer, who makes superchargers for many of today’s NHRA Top Fuel teams.

“He got this blower when he was a kid and had it all these years. It was a ‘Sneaky’ Pete Robinson and ‘Ohio’ George Montgomery blower that they built for their Gassers back in the day, and Darren set it up for me,” says Bill. “I did some custom paintwork for him, and he set me up with this blower.”

Feeding the Y-block are three Speedway Motors 9 Super 7 carburetors. (The Speedway 9, according to Bill, is a modern take on the old Stromberg carbs from back in the day.)

“They’re fairly small and only flow about 180 cfm each,” according to the owner. Do the math and you’ll conclude he could have just used a single four-barrel, but where would be the fun in that? The vibe is as important as the performance.

He estimates the engine now makes 400 horsepower, and thanks to the open Stainless Steel custom headers with baffles; you can hear every one of them from half a mile away. Bill is trying to figure out a way to fabricate a quieter exhaust system with mufflers, but in a vehicle that sits 3 inches off the ground, that has been a real challenge.

Equally interesting? Instead of a modern four- or five-speed gearbox, Bill kept the Ford three-speed overdrive unit that was attached to this Y-block at the factory. Power continues to a legit Ford 9-inch with 4.10 gears, held in place by a US12-fabricated triangulated four-link suspension with QA1 coilovers.

The front suspension started with ’32 Ford framerails from the firewall forward. A Magnum Axles 4-inch drop axle was then added. To use the ’48 Studebaker headlights Bill liked, the shocks had to be mounted horizontally, along with the transverse leaf spring that came with the drop axle kit.

From the firewall back, Bill made 2×3-inch rails running underneath the cab and a one-off tubular frame in the rear. Instead of covering up the framerails with a bed, it was left open so the whole world could see the kind of work done at the US 12 shop.

The front wheels are 18-inch ’32 Ford wires (3.5 inches wide) with 4.5-inch Excelsior tires. In the back are ’35 Ford 16-inchers (4.5-inches wide) but with a taller tire (32.5-inches). Despite the narrow rear rims, the back tires are 8.5 inches wide.

The front brakes are 11-inch GM discs, and in the back are the original Ford drums from the 9-inch.

The color was applied by Brett Miller, the US 12 painter. It started as a BASF basecoat with a one-off mix and BASF satin clearcoat. The copper base has a combination of a couple of unique pearls with ground-up glass crystals to make it really sparkle.

The owner did the entire interior. We love the wood floors, the copper trim, and, naturally, the old-school microphone for a shift handle.

“The project started it was gonna be a kind of rat rod thing, but then I got carried away, and it went beyond that,” Bill recalls. “The interior gets more looks than anything.” For certain, it stops people in their tracks wherever he goes.

The actual build took five years, and now Bill enjoys the heck out of it. He drives his little hot rod to local car shows and cruises but has trailered it to several long-distance events, like Goodguys in Nashville and Columbus, Ohio. It’s also been shown at the Chicago and Detroit Autoramas. If you’re lucky, you’ll see it soon at a major event in your area.