1948 Ford F4 build thread

Thanks OahuEli! I'll take some pics when it's daylight outside and post 'em up here. I would greatly appreciate any photoshopping help you can provide.

 

The lights look good but when they stick out so far back beyond the chassis my concern would be them breaking. Can you mount them any closer to the suspension ?

 

HOTFR8 - yeah, I see what you mean. I was wanting to utilize the hole in the frame rail to run the wires through but I believe there are a few things I could do to move the lights closer to the suspension. I'll try a few things and see.

 

As to the positioning of the tail lights. Is he going to run a bumper of any sort or even just a hitch which would stick out a bit further than the frame?

 

Hivolt why not wait until the box or flatdeck is on the frame before deciding where to mount the tailights . What seems like a good place now may not look right when the deck is down . Just a thought !!! Andy..

 

phat rat - honestly, I'm not sure.

aw1950 - you have a good point there. I was hoping to have the bracket to mount the tail lights attached to the frame before powder coating but your comment has a lot of merit. Unfortunately I can't fit the flat bed framing on top of the truck frame while it is in my garage. I just don't have the room.

Descisions, descisions....

 

Sounds like you may have to hold off mounting those lights just yet.

 

Hi volt just mock up a flat deck frame in 2x4 lumber . That will give you the same result . Then you can position the bracket where it would look best . Another 2 cents added LOL ! Andy..

 

The taillights look great, nice job!

 

You guys have really got me thinking which is dangerous! haha

I'll talk with the owner and see if he can round up a few guys one Saturday to bring the flatbead over to my house. We could then position the frame so that the flatbead could be mocked up. I don't have the wood planks which would be sandwiched between the top of the frame rail and the flatbed but I could figure out something to use. Then I could try different taillight positions, take lots of photos and maybe get some photochopping help.

Speaking of the flatbed, I tell you what, it is a thing of beauty! A guy on a Ford Truck forum created a blueprint of an actual Ford script flatbead he has and posted it on his website. I downloaded a copy and gave them to the owner who then sent them to his brother who made a brand new flatbed for him. The only thing it doesn't have is the Ford script on the back but I was going to paint that on there.....eventually.

 

cool build man. nice work your doing

 

Thank you GreenGrenade!!

 

I've done a little bit more work recently on the frame. At the suggestion of a friend I went ahead and had the frame sand blasted before I finished all of my work on it. I think there are definitely pros and cons to that decision. The areas where I filled in the holes blend in nicely with the blasted frame and it's nice to see the condition of the frame. The only draw back is not touching it. Wow, the surface rust pops up quick where you do. But, I should be done with the prep real soon and I'll get it powder coated, hopefully by the end of the week. Here are a few pics.

After 4 years of being in my garage, it was weird not having the frame there.


Got the frame back and positioned it upside down so I could work on the bottom of the frame.


Keeping in mind the frame is upside down, here's a pic of where the steering box pokes through the frame. I filled in about 5 holes in this area (check one of my previous photos of this area). I think it turned out nice.


I also took the time to weld the back side of the motor mounts, areas the installer of the mounts didn't weld up.

 

Looks good to me . I wish I was sandblasting my frame at this juncture . Still a while away for me . It will start to come together for you now that thats all cleaned up . Andy..

 

Thanks Andy. Yeah, I've been following along on your build; you definitely have some tough decisions ahead of you regarding the chop but I know you'll get it all figured out. You've come a long way on your car that's for sure.

 

OahuEli, could I get your help with a different kind of photoshopping? Here are some pics of a F4 I saw at the Moultrie, GA swapmeet last year and I was wondering if you could photoshop some color schemes for me.

1 - Can you make the cab, fenders, hood a maroon and make the grill a cream (almost white but not quite)?
2 - Make the front bumper gloss black
3 - Make the rims gloss black with silver along the edge where the tire bead sets (like the back rims are in the pictures)
4 - with the body, grill and bumper the same as above, can you color the rims maroon with the sliver lips?

thank you!

 

No problem, but give me a few days. Got a bad flu and don't stay out of bed much. I do like your color ideas

 

I hope you feel better soon OahuEli.

 

I got the frame back from the powder coaters!! WooHoo!!! Forgive me, but I'm just a little excited. This is the first vehicle I've ever restored so I'm enjoying these "firsts" if you know what I mean. Definitely learned a few things, found some areas on the frame I wish I had paid more attention to but overall I'm very pleased. The powder coater told me it took him 2 hours to coat the frame. Seventeen feet of steel....oh yeah. Took six guys to hang and unhang the frame from the powder coater's stand.

 

Now the fun begins . Looks good to me hivolt .

 

Fun part is putting it all back together.

 

Hivolt I'm feeling better and will get on your photoshop pretty soon, haven't forgotten you. Eli

 

.great thread, keep em comin;..here's a 48 F4 I shrunk...

... into this

 

Looking good David. Wish I'd powder coated my frame. Don't mind my asking . . . how much?

 

You guys got that right! I can't wait to starting putting it back together. There are still several items I need to get sand basted and powder coated but I'm getting there. I'll be posting pics along the way.

 

Glad you are feeling better and thank you for your help!! The biggest thing I'm trying to decide is on rim color; black, maroon or a cream color to match the grill. I think each has its own merit.

 

wow! what a great looking F4! err I mean F1!!

Out of curiosity, do you still have the remains of the F4??? There are some pieces I could use if you still have them.

 

Thank you so much! I don't mind you asking at all. The cost for the powder coating was $600 plus tax. I know there are benefits to painting and benefits to powder coating. With painting I could have filled in all of the divots from the rust and really smoothed out the frame and that was my original plan. However, the more I thought about it, the more I was concerned about being able to get rid of all the rust and get paint in all of the crevasses. As I mentioned earlier, I definitely learned a lot from this experience.

 

...still have some pieces, what do you need?...chassis/box is gone, made into farm dump bed trailer.

 

I hope you left a part of the chassis bare metal, otherwise when you come to wire it getting an earth will not be easy with powder coating.