Words: FUELISH MEDIA
Photos: DALE MARTIN
There’s hardly an American cinematic hero more memorable than Rambo, right? He’s rough. He’s tough. And there’s really not much out there that can stop him. Well, if you were to build a truck that encapsulated everything about Mr. John James Rambo (bet you didn’t know his middle name), what would it look like? Surely, it would be big, beefy and have quite the ’tude, but in order to get a better picture in mind, we wanted to take a closer look at a certain renegade of a Ford pickup that was recently finished.
Jeremy McMill was just as curious as you were about visualizing a rig good enough for the big screen’s most memorable badass, but he actually went through with enlisting his ’19 F-350 (or his “F3Fiddy” as he refers to it) for action. Yep, he reached out to Chis Pate of the Level 7 Network to do what he does best -assembling all-star teams to build the craziest heavy-duty trucks on the streets. In no time at all, the guys had a clear- cut objective in front of them and were willing to bulldoze through any barrier to get there.
The first order of business was to address the F-350’s suspension system. To get the truck high up in the air, a Stryker 10” Identity Series lift kit was brought in to get the job done. Not only were these kits designed to provide a solid suspension lift, but the components themselves are also fabricated to look equally rugged. To capitalize on the truck’s newfound ride height, a set of 26”Amani Forged Rogrosso wheels and 40” Fury Country Hunter MT/2 tires were assigned to active duty. The Ford took on a beastly demeanor in no time at all.
The rig was coming along quickly, and riding the momentum from the suspension overhaul, the crew ran with a full traditional camo wrap for the truck. Hey, if you’re going for the full Rambo theme, you can’t skip out on the fatigues and the color palette of the remainder of his wardrobe. To further outfit the Ford’s tough-as-nails façade, Road Armor bumpers, RackTec roof rack, an Overkill Fab grille and a ton of LED lighting from Twisted Pro All-Terrain would ensure this truck could do its work, day or night.
Inside the cab, a fresh set of Katzkin leather covers were used to quickly and easily update the Ford’s interior. The all-black upholstery with diamond-stitch center panels balance nicely on the line between elegance and sporty sophistication. A starlight headliner has also been added to give the appearance of moving stealthily underneath the nighttime sky.
Thanks to Jeremy and his band of brothers in the build, you can now get a clear idea of the kind of truck Rambo would be mowing his enemies down in. It’s not all too entirely clear whether or not Rambo would be a Chevy, Ford or Dodge guy, but for the sake of closing this story out right, we’ll just say he’d pledge his allegiance to the mighty blue oval. Bad guys, beware!