Moonstruck

Cher's '56 F100

When Cher bought a 1956 Ford F100 pickup, she knew it wasn't perfect, but after reading an issue of Custom Classic Trucks, she wanted to know how to get the truck to look like some of the beauties she saw in the magazine. The truck was in decent conditon, it had independent front suspension, a 460 V8 engine, a tilt steering wheel, shaved door handles and black primer finish. Except for the front suspension, most of the workmanship was marginal, and the engine was ready for a rebuild. Problems were either apparent or ready to surface.

She called Peterson Publishing and they agreed to steer Cher in the direction of quality work and parts. They recommended Baker Restoration in Van Nuys, California. This company, headed by Scott Baker, has a solid reputation for quality work and really knows classic trucks.

It took only a few days to break Cher's truck down into pieces. Baker sent out the pieces and frame to be stripped at the Painting & Stripping Corporation of America in Santa Fe Spring, California, so there would be no hidden surprises under the primer. Cher decided that she wanted the truck black, totally black. We're talking black frame, black suspension, black body, and black interior, so the body had to be flawless.

Bigger is better, right? How about 7.5 liters of fuel injected muscle ala '95 Ford? Ford Motorsport supplied the engine, which Cher also had painted black. Baker put in a sophisticated electronics system that includes the ability to limit engine performance to any speed the owner selects, that way when Cher lets her son Elijah drive the truck, he can't get in over his head. A '95 A4OD (automatic 4-speed overdrive) transmission was bolted to the engine and a narrowed 9 inch rearend was used to allow for the super wide tires. In terms of mechanics, the truck runs like a '95 model.

The black leather custom interior was done by Richard Stark, owner of Hollywood, California based Chrome Hearts. All the upholstery buttons, power window controls, light frames and crosses, which Stark embedded into the leather interior, are formed from sterling silver.

To install the sound system, Cher selected Los Angeles based Electronic Entertainment, where owner Howard Becker over saw the installation. Before work on the interior and sound system began, the cab was sound proofed using V-Blok sound dampening material and under carpet pad by Cascade Audio Engineering. The series of layers not only provides additional sound dampening, it also protects the wiring for the sound and security systems. Then over that, Baker layed the specially ordered wool carpet.

Because song demos always come in cassette format, Cher requested a cassette head unit. So Becker put in a Nakamichi TD/9 am/fm cassette, which is located in the dash. Additionally, should she want to listen to CDs, a Nakamichi MB-7 music bank 7 disc changer was installed under the seat. For the mids and tweeters, Becker used AVI MX-130 5 mid range speakers and HF25V tweeters, also from AVI.

Other features include power steering, a tilt wheel with air bag, stainless steel transmission, fuel, and brake lines, a reverse tilt hood, a completely digital dash, temperature controlled digital dash, power windows, doors and seats. This is probably the only '56 in the U.S. with an airbag.

Additionally, the truck contains a 15 gallon NASCAR fuel cell, which is accessed through an aircraft fuel inlet, flush mounted into the cleared and polished oak wood bed.

Baker Restoration

Revised: 9/17/98