1941 Ford pickup - a little rougher then i remember.

Well today i got my '41 into my garage. It was a little rougher then i had remembered. The bed rails are kinked pretty good, the rear fenders are dented and rusted pretty good. the running boards arent too bad, a little rusted and dinged but not bad. The front fenders are bad at all, just need a little hamber and dollying.

The cab is in pretty rough shape, someone had screwed galv. sheeting onto the back of the cab and that trapped water between the two and rotted the cab away pretty good. the rear corners are pretty much gone, entire floor is missing (including the framing). The roof section is in really nice shape, the front windshield is a little rusted, but i dont think its too bad.

The frame is basically non exsistant from the trans. back. rusted all the way threw the cross members and the frame rails. The flat head motor was left wide open and is trashed, the trans was left open and is locked up as well. Front end is missing, rear end is there, the shackles are all snapped.

Enough of me telling...now let me SHOW you how everything looks.

 

Its a perfect starting point...good luck.

 

I guess here i am talking about how rough the truck is... its in amazing shape for a free truck. bahaha

 

Flip it or sell the good parts and build your ratrod. here in Florida that is a good start for any kind of build.

 

It's a good start. I started my F-1 with a single lower fender, now i have three trucks. Always looking to upgrade a part.
Good luck.

 

...see, there is hope.

What I'd do is not spend a dime on anything except bodyworking the cab first, and hopefully that ch***is is good enough to make sure the replaced floor and sill will fit a better frame later.

Then on to the front fenders and hood. By that time, your skills will be better for saving the rear fenders if possible. Bedsides, if too far gone, maybe fab some if you can't find better ones. The bed could always wait to last while the rest of the truck gets built. Maybe by then you would find one.

40/41 are nice trucks for sure.

 

F&J thats exactly what i was planning on doing! Im going to start with straightening out the doors, then i'll work on the roof section/floor section. The bed and rear section will def be my last task. The front fenders are so nice all i'll have to do is grind the previous welds and prep it for paint.

 

Well, i continued to fight the heat this weekend. Got the whole cab off the frame. Its bottom side was so rusted that i had to put the doors on and ratchet strap the whole cab to hold it square. I've now got the cab onto a rolling dolly so that i can square it up and start welding some cross braces into it. Then i'll be able to start the floor pan.







Hoping to get out tonight and start welding cross members in so that i can see just what all its gonna take to rebuild the bottom half of the entire truck.

 

FREE!!!!! You gave to much for it.

That isn't so bad, it'll be work but nothing that can't be done. You'll do fine.

 

I think i could have talked the owner down a little bit more... but he was pretty stubborn! haha

 

Well, i got out tonight and cleaned the cab up some more. got the floor braced up a little bit, thursday i've got a bunch of 1x1 steel tubing showing up, so at that point i'll start building the floor framing. I've got an old washer, dryer, stove, and fridge that im going to rip the skins off of that way i can start making the patch panels as well as the floor pan.

Still gotta figure out what im going to do as far as the frame...

 

in the second picture, it shows the inside of the windshield, and the whole inner trim piece is rusted to hell, not sure how im going to patch that...

 

the hood on my truck was the best part... still had all the chrome, still had the ford plates on the sides, not a single dent on it. I've found a guy thats got several old fords here in kansas that i might rob some parts off of. see if i can complete what i've already got.

Not only did i get it for free, but it even came with the ***le, so that saves ALOT of time later down the road.

 

I could be way off base but I think I would want to have the cab properly mounted to a good ch***is before I started making and installing floor pans and cab patch panels etc etc.

That way everything would fit properly. Anyone else care to chime in ? Am I right or wrong ?

 

keep us posted with the progress

 

Good luck with the build. My old man is finishing up his 41 ford pickup. he is planning on cranking it for the first time tomorrow. exhaust shop next then it goes to upholstery. then he's gonna drive the wheels off it. i will be posting pics on here soon. he has been working on it for 3 years. by the way his frame was rusted away like that too. he had to buy a new one. good looking trucks

 

blue one, your right, typically you want to have a nice square ch***is before you start in on the floor pan, but i've got no frame or floor right now. im on the look out for a frame, hopefully i have one by this coming weekend so that i CAN put the cab back onto the frame before building the floor.

My other option would be to use the front half of the stock frame (looks pretty decent from what i can tell) and just cut the rear half off and use 2"x4" square tubing to re-create the rear of the ch***is. (more likely what i'll end up doing i think).

40standard, i'll keep posting updates (hopefully once a night but we all know how that stuff goes haha)

 

mr.hotrod, message me when you get some pics of his truck. I love looking at other peoples builds to get ideas (i still need alot of ideas/advice beings i just turned 21 yesterday, so im still new to the whole hotrod scene)

 

Greetings! "Northern Cl***ic Trucks, Inc", manufactures all the patch-panels you need for your truck (they even can supply an entire floor, completely ***embled), but when you add in the rusted-out windshield header and cab back panel you would be time and money ahead by purchasing a better cab. Good Luck, Mike

 

Aftermarket frames are available, but original frames under 35-40 cars or 35-41 pickups will do the trick. You know the pickup truck frame problems from the junk you have so a car frame is going to be in better shape most likely. Don't s**** the original one, you may use some mounting stuff here or there from it.

 

I will add a x2 on the "Northern cl***ics" idea....they supplied 50% of the floor and sheet metal that I put in my '45 ford, I was very happy with the fit and finish. The rest came from Howells sheet metal and a universal "hot rod" floor kit that was on the local craigslist. The howells stuff was ok and much better the the rust it replaced, it just took a lot more work to make it fit well. In hind sight, I would have been further ahead in just buying the complete floor pan that norther cl***ics sells.

 

Wow, thanks for the website guys. Hadnt seen theirs online yet. I'll have to look into buying a few of their patch panels.

Their entire floor kit (1130.00 dollars) would be ideal for my truck because it would replace ALL the rust my truck has basically. Guess i better start inquiring some hot rod funds. haha

 

haha, or for less then 500 i could buy a different cab, found a guy locally that is selling two 1941 ford cabs at 500 ea. To me, that sounds like the route i should be taking??

 

Remember the vin# that should match your ***le is stamped in the left front frame rail. Don't let that get away!

 

yep, i located that piece, im making sure everything matches as soon as the farmer brings me the ***le. he said he found it here about a month back, so he knows he's got it. Hopefully i've got that by the weekend.

The body tag (on the firewall) is completely un-readable. is that okay? is there anything on that tag they HAVE to know?

 

The "tag" on the firewall has no info you will need to ***le and license the truck. It lists the patents applicable to the truck.
I second the idea of a replacement cab. It will be very difficult to get what you have square and true enough to make all the gaps right.
dw

 

Stranger,
I shouldn't say this because it is going to make me sound like easy prey, but looking at your pics I am starting to get my freak on right here.

I have certainly built a show winner or two out of less and that is a ton for a start on a driver. I wouldn't even loose the frame a simple back half and your cruising that ch***is.

Ya know what that is all together too much work for you. I'll split gas with you and haul it off for ya.

If it makes you feel any better we built a T C Cab out of a TT cowl on a bent ch***is that we hauled out of a farmers field back in the '70s. It was work but it was fun.

 

Square tubing is just plain WRONG. No manufacturer ever did that and it adds a lot of unnecessary weight.
A new floor is not very expensive and sure looks like you know what you are doing.

 

Hey i got 2 cabs off of 46 wheat trucks if you need some thing to patch with both have floors and more metal than you do! Nice score love that hood

 

Thanks pork! sure helps having someone stand behind ya saying yes you can. This is all still a learning experience for me since the 53 i build was ALL still there and solid. This ones in alot worse shape then the 53 was.

Im kind of liking the idea of chopping the back half off of the frame and going from there. Especially since i've still got a bunch of steel that i was going to build the model a's frame with. Now i'll use it to build the back half, then box the front half in and keep going.