This 1997 Ford F-250 brings bespoke style to the overlanding scene - David Conwill @Hemmings

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The originally diesel-powered F-250 was almost too nice to disassemble, but its clean state also aided in getting the project underway without a lot of repair work. The ease of getting it made the team think “yeah, we’re supposed to be doing this.”

Design by committee doesn’t work, but that doesn’t mean that a large team can’t come together and build something spectacular. In the August 2021 issue we introduced Project Artemis, this 1997 Ford F-250 crew-cab pickup whose ambitious build was undertaken by 41 partners, including Hemmings. Wisely, most of the detail choices were left to the discretion of Crystal and Kurt Lawrance at KTL Restorations in Danville, Virginia. They’re not big on titles at KTL, but Kurt is owner and president of the business that he founded with his late father, and Crystal is his wife and enthusiastic business partner.

KTL is just now expanding into overlanding builds from the muscle-car restoration and restomod field, bringing a fresh sensibility to what has become a rapidly expanding market. Partnering with KTL in this capacity was a decision that paid off, as the company’s vision pioneered not only several technical developments in the off-road/overlanding field but has sown the seeds for an expansion of that field into 1992-’96 (and early ’97) “Old Body Style” (OBS) Ford trucks.

That expansion includes both OE-style reproduction parts, notably from Complete Performance (aka CP Addicts), in Jasper, Texas; and in modified (by Kurt) off-the-shelf pieces from places like KC HiLiTES in Williams, Arizona, and Clackamas, Oregon-based Warn Industries

Thanks to minimal rust and damage, no panels were replaced on the clean, three-owner truck. Instead, to prepare for paint, a few small patches were installed, some minor cleanup was done, and some dents were pulled out using Spanesi Americas equipment.

*This is just before Lizard Skin was applied to the bottom of the cab. A pure show build would have simply used paint, but functionality demands something tougher.*

*The graphics took a long time to nail down, but the end result (executed in paint, not vinyl) reflects the ‘90s nostalgia meets 2020s technology theme perfectly.*

Body

In case you hadn’t noticed, 1990s-’00s nostalgia is hot—both among the millennials who lived it and the Gen Z kids who wish they had. There was no question that the classic OBS elements had to stay in place among the state-of-the-art overlanding bits. Thankfully, the crew-cab F-250 was found (“on a little bitty car lot in North Carolina”) with almost preternatural speed. The dry, Southwestern truck needed minimal bodywork and was treated to BASF Glasurit paints in pearlescent white and two shades of blue. The underside was sprayed with blue-tinted Lizard Skin for a durable, yet attractive, undercoating. The mountain and stripes graphic package was initially conceived by Crystal’s 16-year-old daughter.