Projects Shepard's Pie '34 Ford Pickup build

We are just finishing up a build of a '34 Ford pickup that I think is cool and hopefully worth sharing the story.

The owner of the pickup, Gene Fernandez just celebrated his 80th birthday at the end of last year. He's owned the pickup for over 50 years & drove it regularly including a move from Texas to the Northwest. He parked it due to an unknown power train failure & it sat in his garage ever sense.

He contacted my dad & asked if he be interested in restoring the pickup for him so he/we agreed to come check it out. We got there and where amazed at how complete and in good shape the pickup was. He mentioned it was the first time it saw the light of day in over 20 or 30 years. We talked about the build and picked it up a few weeks later.

The theme idea behind the pickup was just an old simple looking farm truck with a hot rod vibe. Gene is a Sheep farmer/Shepard for a living so that's where the name comes from. There was a few details that we knew we wanted for sure and some that where up in the air.

The pickup is not 100% traditional but it was emphasized. Hope you enjoy the build. I'll try and upload as many pictures as i have time for at a time.

 

Cool old truck. Hope the old timer is enjoying being back behind the wheel.

 

50 years ownership and still uses it thats fantastic good on the old fella

 

cool story...cool truck too

 

I'm not able to post pictures because it's saying I need a security token? I've never had this problem before? what do I need to do?

 

Security tokens are $50 payable to CTFuzz............how many do you need?
Great project no matter what you do to the truck. Hope the old guy gets many more years out of it.

 

Hey thats a nice truck as it sits.

 

We tried to talk him into just making it mechanically sound and drivin it but he always envisioned having a nice painted pickup.

 

The tear down.

 

Sweet! Subscribed!!

 

This is the reason it was parked! mystery solved.

 

awesome build. Truck looks really clean.

 

awesome story and build , man that gear is gone lol ,

 

After blasting the ch***is and getting it set up on the jig we started mocking up the Motor & trans. We using a 59 AB flattie with an S-10 5 speed & hydraulic clutch. We cut up the center cross member to make room for the 5 speed sense we wanted to use the stock un-split wishbone.

 

We used 8BA pumps because we're using a late ignition so we made up some simple mounts.

 

I'll be following this one closely!

 

Good for him.

 

Nice! I'm digging it! Any shots of the pedals? Is the pedal mount something you fabbed up, or is it commercially available?

 

It's a Pete and Jakes piece. Nice stuff. Locates the pedals in the stock spot.

 

This will be sweet. That looks to be a real nice body and those rear fenders are rare as hens teeth.

 

We flattened out the rear cross member to lower the pickup roughly 4". We also had to modify the one bed cross brace to clear the cross member.

 

Pretty cool!
Sounds like the old guy knows what he wants.
I would love to be involved with a project that had that kind of heritage.
I'll keep watching.

 

We fabbed our own ladders bars and cross member. They seem to work well. There is a few things i'd change next time.

 

Thanks for all the positive comments so far. The Ch***is was the funnest part of this build.

We fake riveted the cross members in by cutting the rivets short and plug welding them in from one side. It gives it a little character and kind of a stockish look I think.

 

Next up is plumbing. Here is where things get a little "none traditional" so ripe away. All the hard lines are in stainless with AN fitting used on the brake system & compression on the fuel. The Exhaust is all mandrel bent steel & will get ceramic coated.

 

Sorry it's taking so long those of you who care. Here is the rest of the plumbing pictures.

The driver side header had to be fabricated to clear the vega box. the rest of the exhaust is just a bunch of cut up bends tig welded back together. Lots of time and work but worth it. You Can also see the fuel system in some photos.

 

Here is the Ch***is all mocked up. Lots of little work that you'll never see but lots of fun. I personally like the ch***is Fab stuff.

 

That ch***is is real well done. You've given me some good ideas and some inspiration. As far as not being 100 % traditional, that's OK in my mind. Going to a Borg Warner 5 speed is a good improvement over a 39 Ford transmission, especially if the rod is to be driven a lot. The transmission in my 34 sedan is always popping out of second gear and driving me nuts. That and the engine racking up to many RPMs when I try to drive at highway speeds. Keeping the Flatty is a must, though.

Question on the 8BA motor mounts: Wouldn't truck motor mounts have fit with the later distributor? Did you keep any templates for your home made mounts? Got any scale drawings?

I Like the "Fake rivets" in your ch***is too.

 

Question on the 8BA motor mounts: Wouldn't truck motor mounts have fit with the later distributor? Did you keep any templates for your home made mounts? Got any scale drawings?

Yea, your right. They would have worked but we just wanted to try something a little different. we also wanted to raise the engine a little so that helped. I might have some templates but no drawings.

I'm glad you like it.