Projects 1941 Ford truck project

Granada rotors and Camaro calipers

 

nice score keep us posted on the updates

 

Love the "Disco ****s" note written on the wood! Hahahahahahaha!

 

Anymore updates on your truck?

 

Not much. I've been trying to get the steering wheel off the shaft so I could take it to work and start fixing the cracks, but I cant get it off the shaft. I've been soaking it in penetrating oil for a week now and tried heat, steering wheel pullers, slide hammers and it still wont budge.

The other problem is I have non Hamb friendly project I'm trying to finish (66 Mustang convertible)

Thanks for asking though.

 

The bed wood pieces, the one in the front of the pic is for the rear of the bed.
Another good place for '40-'41 truck bed parts is Mack Hils Inc. in Moberly, Missouri. 660-262-7444.

 

Thanks bjinx. I'd never heard of Mack Hills before. Website looks good. I'm probably going to replace the box with all new rather than try to fix what I have.

 

My steering wheel is still soaking in penetrating oil as it is firmly seized on the column shaft so I felt it was time to move onto something different. I took my instrument cluster to work and cleaned it up over the course of several days during the slow times.

I didn't know if the gauges worked but I knew the speedometer was seized solid. I thought I'd have to re-chrome the outer ring as well. Here's how it looked at the start and the first few steps of taking it apart.

 

Once I gently pried the speedometer needle off I removed the plate with the numbers. To my surprise there were 2 notes on the back probably from when the speedo had been repaired in the past. One was from April 22, 1947 and the other March 2, 1948. In that time the truck was driven 8494 miles. The stories these old vehicles could tell.

I then removed the odometer and the plate below that which revealed the magnet that spins drawing the speedo needle around, the faster the magnet spins the more it draws the needle around. Not knowing where the shaft was seized I removed the magnet.
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Found the horizontal shaft wasn't the issue, it was the shaft going through the rear of the unit. On the back of the speedo there is a small br*** cap that has a felt under it for holding oil to keep the shaft lubricated. The felt was bone dry. An hour or so of penetrating oil down the hole where the felt was free'd up the shaft. I oiled up the felt again and reinstalled it and the cap again. Next clean all the gears and apply new grease. The odometer fell on the floor and when I picked it up all the digits had slipped to read 99999. How convenient.

***embly is the reverse of removal. Ford put 2 little springs in the upper right and lower left corners of the plate. I'm trying to find someone you reproduces the speedometer label but no luck so far. I may just make my own with different font for the numbers. A quick coat of paint on the needle however I painted it white which I don't like now. I think I'll change it to tan sometime later. I have to take this apart again because I'd like to incorporate turn signal lights in the panel as well, but that will be in the future.

 

Now that the speedo was working it was time to turn to the rest of the gauges. I set up a 6 volt power supply and used a variable resistance decade box to simulate the senders for each gauge. The fuel, oil pressure and temperature gauges all worked. I couldn't test the ammeter but I think I'll replace that with a voltmeter anyways.

Since I only could find the resistance value of a Ford fuel sending unit on the internet I'll post what resistances I got for each gauge to get them to read. Keep in mind this is at 6 volts. Even a half volt difference made some difference in what was indicated. I'm going to build a constant current 6 volt power source for the gauges when the truck is done since obviously I'm going 12 volt.

Fuel:

Empty 54 ohms
1/4 36 ohms
half 26 ohms
full 15 ohms

Temp (it is normal for the needle to read hot when at rest, no power)

cold 15 ohms
normal 29 ohms
hot 85 ohms

Oil pressure

0psi 80 ohms
20 psi 29 ohms
50 psi 15 ohms

Final ***embly and a little cleanup and she was done. I managed to get all the crud off the chrome and it polished right up.

One last test of the speedometer and odometer and everything is at zero.
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This was a nice find! and you did what looks to be an awesome job on that cluster!
I am so glad you posted this because I bought what I believe to be a 41 Ford Panel off of a HAMB member. No ***le and I just have photos that are in my profile. I have searched the internet comparing dashes.The cluster in my photos looks the same as yours but worse shape. I will be picking it up next Saturday when his friend brings the front clip so I will know more then. I am really looking forward to seeing your progress on this build......this I am sure will be an awesome truck when you get it done. Thanks for sharing!
Dan

 

Nice project. I see that you have tested your gauges and re-***embled, I don't know if you want to maintain the original look (patina), but if you want to freshen up the face, several companies make the gauge face decal kit. Keep us posted on your updates.

 

I haven't fully decided on what route I'm going. I sort of like the patina look but it might not fit in with the rest of the look of the truck. I'm sure I'll change my mind 10 more times before the truck is done.

 

I picked up a steering wheel from a fellow Hamber. The chrome ring cleaned up good but had some pitting so off to the chromers. The center cap cleaned up with a little polishing. Fixed the cracks in the wheel and gave it a fresh coat of paint. What do you guys think?

 

Picture 8 wood is for bed. Picture 9 wood is in correct order-skinny end at firewall feet,thick end at back of cab. Use shims to adjust doors to cab bodyline at rear of door opening with dovetails removed. Just finished doing mine and they close like ****er.

 

I decided to give the grill a cleaning and polish it up as best I could. Internet research shows this is a repro that was made in Argentina and isn't the greatest quality but since I already own it I'll probably end up using it.

 

hello men, from argentina? this grille.

 

It has a stamping on it that says Cavila Argentina.

 

if the company CAVILA also manufactures grills models I know

regards