Customs 49 Ford truck full custom. Updated info

Once Ford had a good design, they stuck with it.

 

Yep. I’ve got one from a f600 with full gauges.
I’ve been saving it for a similar style center dash gauge cluster

 

Lift blocks instead of lowering
And traction bars


paperwork says Dana 60. 5 lug Dana 60s exist but rare. Dana 44?

Dropped axle?
Dearched springs?

 

Looks like a Dana 60 to me, I have a five lug one in an old ford pickup parts truck

 

Ford trucks and mopars is where I’ve found the 5 lug non floaters.
The blocks being used to raise the truck was odd. But if the springs were de-arched in the first version, the blocks were probably added after the 6 inch channel.
The axle stabilizer is kinda cool.

 

Nice hauler…I wouldn’t be upset if that ragtop was sitting in my garage either

 

It’s for sale.
Not sure what the owner wants for it

 

Looking at the earlier pics of the truck. The wire wheels aren't right for it but the turbine style isn't either. What wheels would look right on this truck? Chrome reversed?

 

This thing is so sweet! I think the wires would look great with thin whitewalls. Otherwise nice deep chrome reverse or chrome slot.

Re. the axle, didn't these come stock with a Dana 44? That's what it looks like to me anyway.

 

You could be right. I never think about hubcaps because I always threw the ones on my cars away. Wonder if someone could photoshop those onto this truck?

 

I like the wires and skinny white walls.
But chrome reverse would also work

 

Dang! I neeeeed that truck....like a hole in the head, but I sure do love it! That interior is the bomb!!!!

 

Holy ****, it's Rebel John. Listen, I'm at work. Have we got stories to tell on this dude... I'm gonna get Anthony White in on this one too. Legendary stuff

 

Please do. I met him a few time here. Crazy guy
He inspired a friend of mines dad on a crazy custom build. If I can get some pics I’ll post em.

 

In all reality, there really should be a separate thread solely on Rebel John himself and his cars. The stories around him, Phil, Bob Nitti, Manny Bastio, are seemingly endless and the stuff of local legend. We were kids when my friends and I started hanging around these guys, and many of them sort of mentored us (so to speak) in the custom and hot rod world. None of the stories I share are intended to be derogatory or meant to slight these guys. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm just sharing fond memories of guys I knew growing up, and letting the world know what a colorful cast of characters they were.

John was a thin guy of average height. He looked 80 when he was probably in his early/mid 50s. He had long, white hair and long white beard like ZZ Top, except for the area immediately around his mouth, which was yellow from smoking. At the time John drove a truck for ShopRite, a major supermarket chain, for those not familiar with our area.

THE place to be if you were a guy into hot rods and custom cars was the Dunkin' Donuts on Westfield Ave in Clark, NJ.

On any given night, weekday or not, you could usually find at least a few guys with rods and customs hanging out well into the evening. Thursday nights especially, following a pretty big local cruise, this would be the spot. On a lot of nights, it looked like a car show was going on here. Guys laughing, joking, cracking on each other, talking cars, etc., and the guy who had the best stereo would usually pop the trunk open and play some tunes. That was especially the case when Don K. Reed would be on WCBS for the "doo wop shop". It was a GREAT time to be into this stuff, and this was the epicenter of it here in NJ. There should probably be a separate thread on this place too.

Anyway, John lived down the street in Rahway. He'd pull into Dunkin' after his work day was done and meet up with us young guys for a while. He was driving "Whispering Sorrows" a slammed, chopped shoebox coupe named after The Nutmegs' song with wild extended quarters, 56 Packard tail lights, a moulded Olds grill, and a slew of other great custom work. He would saunter over to the QuikChek in the adjacent parking lot to get "fountain soda", a favorite of his. And he'd come back with the most enormous Big Gulp drink they had, where the cup was like the size of a paint can and had to be made out of plastic to safely hold the volume of liquid. He'd chat for a few, crush the entire cup of soda, and throw the cup in the backseat of the car. One day I looked in, and the entire inside of the Shoebox was filled with empty Big Gulp cups. **** was hilarious.

That's honestly just the tip of the iceberg here. What a dude

 

Story I got was he was at a show with his shoebox. Some guys asked if they could chop it.
supposed to be the shoebox chopped in this book

I’ll ask one of his friends here if he has any pics of Johns rides

 

"Whispering Sorrows" is still around and in Pennsylvania, if memory serves me right. When he had it, it was maroon and white, broken up with 55 Pontiac trim. He was running a 429 BBF in it too. Last I saw it, it was For Sale on FB Marketplace for a very reasonable asking price. Might have been a couple years ago.

I'm not sure on the chop. I'll defer to Anthony White on that one, who I just messaged on IG and alerted him of this thread. Whoever cut it did a great job, it had a great look, which IMHO is difficult for a shoebox coupe.

Edit: found a few off of FB.

 

That’s it.

 

1950 Ford, I've got the same cluster in my Model A.

 

Please keep the stories coming, Joe!

 

This could get fun!

 

I have never owned a rig with TruSpokes on it. I had some Appliance fine wires on a custom vette in the early 80's. Some vehicles were made to wear them. This truck may be one.

 

@57JoeFoMoPar
Here is the article. The flammed car isnt it. Just used for the article header.

His is the primer car being cut.

 

Rebel John bought a 57 Ford in the northeast at an auction or meet, forget whether it was Atlantic City, Carlisle...whatever. He was going to drive it back to Alabama. On the trip, the generator dies on him. Instead of fixing the generator or swapping it to an alternator out on the road, the crazy ******* bought 7 batteries and just kept swapping them out as they would die and kept going.

 

One of his friends in Bama said a guy named Bob ? from NJ came down here and chopped a car with him. Said the guy owned a shop in NJ
A 51 ford with 57 ford qtrs

 

Rebel John also had this radical convertible shoebox called "Wild Child". It had these big grafted fins, I think and Olds or Pontiac Dash, and a 6 carbed Cadillac 365 that was totally chromed out. One night at Dunkin he invited me back to his house to see it, since it wasn't on the road and I had never seen it before. I jump in my 57 Ford and follow him down to his place. The car is amazing, but what I'm most impressed by is this wall of his garage that is covered in intake manifolds. It was like nothing I've ever seen before. Insane multi-carb intakes for any engine you could imagine, FE Fords, Cadillac, Olds...whatever. The guys used to bust his balls that he didn't like cars, he just liked intake manifolds.

Man, I wish you guys could hear his accent.

"Dat theya is 6 carb manifowd, Fowud 390"

 

Probably Bob Nitti, former owner of Barris' "Aztec"

 

1957