Projects Refreshing 1948

Started doing a little repair work on my buddy's 48 Ford pickup and as usual it turned into a project So I thought that I would share it with y'all. This is my first attempt at a project thread so please excuse me while I fumble through this.



This is Calvin at the world of wheels Chattanooga Tn. (he took first in his division)


The problem started last year when the thermostat stuck and it started overheating. Someone attempted to change it and placed too long of a bolt into the water outlet and cracked the head. OUCH!!!

So like a good friend I said I would fix it! And so it began. We hauled it to my shop and started assessing it. Well the left head was cracked in the rear bolt hole (he pushed the bottom out of the casting) so we decided to buy a new set of heads and just fix it. So off came the hood and then, I saw all the runs in the paint on the firewall and some questionable wires, and some funny looking hose connections, and so on and so on....so I said lets freshin it up a bit while were at it ok? and Calvin says ok! He says I always wanted a set of Offenhauser heads, they look cool. so I started removing stuff.

 

And a couple of thousand later we'll have it back together lookin better than ever! Been there, done that. Have fun, thanks for helping your friend. Tim

 

I love doing projects like this- not a full build- but a great sense of accomplishment when you get it done
Keep posting pics and info for us to follow along please !

 

cleaned up the motor and gave it a shot of ford red


sanded and cleaned, cut off extra studs. I wanted to fill and grind the extra holes but didn't want to pull the interior so I used some electrical knock out plugs and seam sealer to fill the big ones.

 

Looking great. Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks for the positive comments.

I will post more pics soon, but for now we are off to the F100 supernationals in Lebanon Tn.

 

got all of the sheet metal sprayed with a satin black, thought that would be a little more forgiving on the wavy sheet metal
View attachment 2908251

then we started on the heads





we had to sand all the fins before paint to get the pits smoothed out.







got some help from my brother-in-law............I think it was help

 

The truck radiator had some rot in it so we took the radiator out of my 50 sedan and did a test fit. The sedan radiator is 4 1/2 inches shorter than the truck radiator and fit well so when we order the new radiator it will be the sedan unit.

 

The radiator sets much lower now

 

Those heads look great, would like a set of those for my truck
Ian

 

we used these flex pipes because we had them in the shop and at 3:00 am we wanted to hear it run. when the new radiator arrives I will have a set of stainless pipes bent to fit and clean up this problem.







we used a distributor from Jim Linder at Bubbas hot rod shop (an alliance vendor here on the hamb. and a Man I took classes from way back in time, he is a good guy)
The distributor has 27 deg. mechanical advance built in and no vacuum advance, sometimes vacuum is hard to maintain on a flathead. It worked well.

It's hard to see but we used stainless wire looms for an early flathead with crab type dist. They were tough to get around a few obstacles on the front of the motor but with a little trimming they fit.

 

Thanks Ian the heads are from Speedway, they were $599.00, the stud kit was more expensive than the heads.