In the heady world of hot rodding, no car is off limits—not even a utilitarian Ford Ranchero. Part car and part truck, the quirky body style was a fitting choice for the custom build offered here, rife with features that flout convention. In 1960, Dave Puhl and John Malik began to radically transform this workaday Ranchero into a marketing tool to promote the services of their new shop, Trend Automotive, opened that summer in Lyons, Illinois. They completed the build in 1961 and called it the Trendero, a combination of Trend and Ranchero. The radical showcase of their customizing talents would garner multiple awards and magazine spreads.

With the front extended by six inches, the back lengthened by four inches, and the roof chopped by 4.5 inches, the proportions alone make it difficult to identify the car as a Ranchero upon first encounter. The front clip from a 1959 Ford Thunderbird, with its gaping, grille-less maw, combined with quad motorcycle auxiliary lights deeply inset within recesses perhaps most disrupt the familiarity. The headlights appear to float within their cavities, backed by Lucite panels and topped with decorative “beaks” frenched into the fenders. Long slender nacelles with protruding antennas extend along the front fenders.

The chopped roof is its own novelty, with a small windshield visor upholstered in “tuck and roll” white Naugahyde, which tapers to a strip that extends across the roof, down the covered cargo bed, and onto the fully blended tailgate, terminating just above the license-plate recess. The hooded-beak floating-light layout repeats at the rear, with deep recesses housing five, conical center sections from 1958 Mercury taillights, each capped with chromed bullets. Like up front, there is no bumper at the rear; a simple rolled valance holds its place. All exterior adornments are likewise absent, including the chrome trim, badges, mirrors, door handles, and even the rear fender fins. The car sits six inches lower at the front and five inches lower at the back. It rides on 14-inch reversed and chromed steel wheels.

The back portion of the cargo bed houses a minibar and is lined in white Naugahyde, as is the fully revamped interior, equipped with swing-out bucket seats, a steering wheel from a 1960 Oldsmobile, and bullet-shaped bulkhead-mounted headrests. The most fanciful cabin details are a television in the center of the custom dash and a rotary-dial telephone on the center console.

In an attention-grabbing touch, the car’s suite of Stewart Warner gauges is mounted in a tidy row along the upholstered firewall within the open engine bay. The Y-block V-8, sourced from a Ford Thunderbird and bored to four inches, features Hilborn mechanical fuel injection, a Vertex magneto, and numerous chromed components, including engine mounts, custom headers, and exhaust pipes, which exit through the front fenders. A January 1962 cover spread on the Trendero in Car Craft magazine says the engine was originally fitted with an Isky Racing E5 camshaft, JE pistons, and Grant piston rings.

The Trendero was refinished from its original Candy Flake paint to Yellow Pearl for the Car Craft feature. It was later returned to Candy Flake, as presented today. The car was popular on the show circuit, winning awards for Best Judged, Best Paint, and 1st place in the Radical Division at the Spring-O-Rama Rod & Custom Show in Rockford, Illinois, in May 1963, according to the online custom car archive Kustomorama. It made the cover of the November 1963 issue of Cars—The Automotive Magazine. Its last show appearance is said to have been at the 1965 New York World’s Fair in Queens, New York, after which the Trendero disappeared until being rediscovered in Florida in 2004.

The Boeckmann Collection acquired the Trendero in 2011 and had Galpin Auto Sports cosmetically recondition it, though its Candy Flake paintwork still wears the patina that emerged from its years of being cloistered away. This outrageously unique Ranchero hot rod has been back in the limelight on display within the collection ever since and is now offered to a new caretaker, who will become the keeper of its interesting history and ensure it continues dazzling enthusiasts for years to come.