Projects 1948 F1 rattle can rebuild

real cool truck. i love the way youre going with it. the interior looks nice. I also love the color and amount of patina on it, looks like it could belong to an old farmer. I personally think trucks look better when they look like theyre being used for what trucks were built for.

Cant wait for more progress

 

I agree. I've regretted installing a new oak bed kit ever since I did it. Have to cover it with a blanket when hauling bikes, canoes, stuff, etc...

 

Nice truck. Keep the updates coming please

 

I like that two-tone dash. It really gives the interior a polished look. I may - uhm - borrow that idea myself.

 

Those bed kits are expensive, holy crapola! I wonder how much a sheet of aluminum diamond plate would cost instead? Good traction for stuff you throw in there, wipe oil, and antifreeze up easy etc. My '56 had one in it when I bought it, already kinda beat but it helped keep stuff from sliding around.

 

Never looked at pricing on the bed kits but I'll bet it's a toss-up with the diamond plate.

Most 1948-1950 have a wall to wall stamped metal bed floor with simulated bed strips. They also have 3/4" thick wood under the metal. I was lucky and mine was in pretty good shape.

 

Today's progress.

Finally got the radiator and shroud in. (3rd time is a charm) The shroud needed more cut, weld, grind. Noticed the fan on the engine is offset about 1-1/2" to the driver's side.. That's goofy...

While waiting for the paint on the remodeled shroud to dry, I cleaned up the Chevy truck front bumper and mocked it up.

 

The bumper came with all the original brackets but they'd need lots of modification to work. I scratched my head and went to the parts stash looking for something that would work.

Ended up with a pair of rear spring shackles from a Chevy S10.



Cut them up and welded to the F1 frame horn with no modification to the frame. They bolt to the original Chevy bumper bolt holes.

The piece with the vice-grip was a temporary holder for the bumper.

 

While is was looking for bumper brackets, I found a pair of bumper guards that looked like they might work. I think they were off of a '55-'57 Ford car but don't remember for sure.



You can see how the top one was modified some. I cut off some of the bottom end and ground it to better match the contour of the bumper.

 

So got the brackets built for the 'fog lights' (really they're turn signals) and got them installed.

I tripped over a piece of chrome tubing I scavenged from some old clothing racks and made a towel bar for between the bumper guards.



Drilled a 3/8" hole in the side/top of each guard, made a bushing for inside each end of the tube. Ran a piece of all thread through and put a nut on each end.

Tomorrow.......
Tail light wiring.
Maybe finish pulling the running boards off parts truck.

Clean up rear bumper, figure out some bumper brackets and some kind of trailer hitch. I have a receiver hitch I was going to use but the Chevy back bumper came with a hitch that looks period correct for the truck. It might work with some beefing-up.

 

just found your build im digging it !!!! need more pics please go back into the garage...seems like eveyrtime you come back out and post its something cool

 

every time i see ones of these trucks it reminds me of my retarded pit bull with his golf club in his mouth.

i love these trucks though and your especially, keep up the great work

 

Great job so far man! *thumbs*

 

I like the guards - In fact, I just added a set to the bumper on my F1 - kinda the reverse of yours - Chevy guards on the Ford bumper rather than Ford Guards on a Chevy...

 

Still cool.

 

Very nice front end treatment.
We'll keep the Ford and Chevy guys guessing.



Time for me to head out to the garage......

 

Finally got a chance to read this thread all the way through,and I must say,very nice work,I think it is turning out great.Keep up the great work!

 

You have good taste and common sense, this built is facinating.... a Great looking built!
You're a genius with a spray can and an inspiration to every guy with limited $$s.
All they have to do is follow your lead and think before they do somthing they will regret, and have to do over!
KUDO's

 

Thanks for the compliments!!

Yesterday / last night's progress:
Nothing exicting or worthy of pictures.

Ran the wiring to the back for the tail lights. That went OK. Got all of it in corrugated conduit/sheathing and got it all clamped down. Added a couple clamps to the brake line.

While doing this I'm just looking the bottom of the truck over in general. I see a piece of coat hanger tied around the frame. It's hooked to the clutch return spring.

I decide to make a rod to replace the coat hanger. Pull out the wire and discover the clutch linkage needs adjusted (spring was holding the pedal to the top)

Then it turned into "one of those days"....
A 20 minute job became a 1/2 day job. Of course the cotter pins are rusted into the cross pins that go through the clutch adjustment rod ends. Of course the cross pins are rusted to the clevis on the adjustment rod. Of course one of the two pins is up behind the pedals.

When the truck was new and on the assembly line there must have been some guy with wafer thin arms and teenie weenie baby hands to get those cotter pins in.

Anyways, got it all apart, cleaned and lubed. It's ready to go back in but I'd had enough of that for one day. It's now on the 'to do' list for tomorrow.

Then I moved on to fixing the missing spring for the secondary hood latch that I never noticed was missing until the first time I closed the hood. Some idiot used a slot head screw and a square nut instead of the original cross pin with a cotter pin. Of course it was rusted together. So after a couple hours leaning backwards over the grill header panel, I got the old crap out and the new stuff in. Success!! Now the hood lactch works like it should.

IT'S DONE..... everything in the engine compartment is finished with the exception of installing the battery and soldering on a battery terminal.

 

Lowkat just read your post love the rattle can paint job's looking great...Rod..

 

Steering on the wrong side..haha...

 

Excellent work!!

Gives me lots of ideas for mine

Bobby

 

Thanks for the links. I finally got the intro done and posted a bigger pic of my truck in the thread you mentioned.

 

Not much truck time lately. Life gettin' in the way. Job going haywire, Mother-in-law's back surgery (doing very well), youngest son graduated college, oldest son left for Chef internship in Anacortes, WA. Dog needs.....

Getting the Chevy back bumper mocked up but no photos yet. Garage is so small, can't get far enough away. Bumper will work well but wish it was in a little better shape.

The Chevy front 'outer' bumper brackets are going to work in the back. Gotta turn 'em around backwards, flip over, shorten 6" and drill a new bumper bolt hole.

Truck frame had a bunch of 'farmerized' goober welded aftermath where the old trailer hitch(s?) were. Torched and ground that stuff.

Replacing a brutalized crossmember and adding 2 more to support the old school hitch and spare tire.

Tryin' to get something done this weekend.

$5 swap meet door mirrors I'm probably gonna use. Truck had 'peep' mirrors on it but you can't see shit out of them. The shape of the cab blocks 1/2 the view. I'll be able to see out of these and will occasionally tow.

Yea, they have pits n' tits but still shine up and look period correct with deco ribs and hooded lenses.


Truck had farmer mirrors on it 'back when' with repairs you can see through the 70's paint. New mirrors will cover the old repairs. Gettin' there.......

 

Nah!
Only the mailman has right hand drive here. You guys are upside down, besides driving on the wrong side of the road.

I think now, it would take me a long time to learn left hand shifting, especially a 4 speed.

 

Just one word,, COOL. Liked to read this tread, lucky you!! Nice work!!!

 

nice work that truck is looking good.. i think your 8 track is really a 4 track and the riverside is a 4/8 track either or............way cool job of updating them i think im going to do the same thing to my 4 track .............thanks for the idea...

 

I got so tired of trying to fold/unfold the cotter pins when adjusting my clutch that I put in clevis / hitch pins. MUCH easier! And re-usable. Still a PITA!

 

Worked on the rear bumper and trailer hitch last night.

I used outer brackets from the 48-53 Chevy front bumper.



Oh.... these are made of spring? steel. A sawzall wouldn't make a dent. I had to torch them and had to carefully torch the bumper bolt holes because of the steel's hardness.

One of the 3 holes for the frame lined up with the truck's frame holes. Needed a hole added in the end of the bracket for the bumper bolt. No bending necessary.

After a trim.



Bumper mocked up.


Here's the old trailer hitch that came with the rear bumper. It fits through the slot in the bumper.



Had to add 2 crossmembers to bolt the hitch to.
Will have the hitch, bumper, spare tire stuff done today.

 

The 8 track I'm using was also a 4/8 track but I had to loose the switch because it rattled too bad after gutting the machine.