Hot Rods Damn, what are the odds? '31 FORD CAB SMASHED

So the story on this pickup goes like. I bought this really rough '31 Ford truck cab from a friend so that I could learn my way around sheetmetal fab and not be afraid that I was going to ruin a car with my inexperience. The cab looked like an amateur hot rod from a long time ago as it was channeled with angle iron and stick welded in. There was also brazing on the cowl to hold the gas tank on and the back window was cut out and rewelded back in. Not sure if it ever was anything cool but it was gone far enough by now that I was not worried if I warped shit or oil canned anything. So I had the cab for about a month when my brother (Mikey B here on the HAMB) came down to visit as he usually does ever couple months. When he first seen it he just had to have it. He was thinking along the same lines as me and how he could hone his skills on sheet metal while also building a cool little truck.

Of coarse since he is always helping me I felt happy to give it to him. He already had a spare chassis from his '30 coupe that we could use for the backbone so he started day dreaming about what it would look like in the end. He brought his frame down to NC and a few of us started "Z-ing" his fram 8" out back and 4" up front. After that was all done he took the cab and the frame back home and started trying to bring this thing back to life.



Here is what he started with. It actually fell apart and folded when he got it off the truck back home in Buffalo, NY. All of the angle iron gave out and the cam was folded over. He braces it up and put it on the new chassis.




My brother poured his heart and soul into this truck replacing panels with the tools he had over the last 12 months. Pieces like this came out...


New floor started going in...




By now the truck was really strong and even though there was some patch panels and such to be made on the outside, the inner structure was there and the truck was coming together.

His plans for it are the following...

-327 with Edelbrock 3 x 2 setup
-Channeled 6"
-Chopped 3"
-Early 40's Ford 16" wheels
-7.50's and 5.00 Firestone black wall tires
-4" drop axle with reversed eye spring
-Flat white paint with black wheels

More sheet metal work went in and he was doing an awesome job especially since he was tackling this type of work for the first time. A roof was pulled from a caravan and welding in but not finished.



More floor work...



He even went to Main I think to pick up a bed and shortened it that same weekend. You can see here the Sedan doors that he got from a friend here in NC. He had to chop it and section it to get it to fit. Then becaus ethe bottom 10" were shot he had to reskin it with again the tool that he had. By now he's really getting stoked because it's starting to look like something cool. It's starting to resemble a hot rod!

Note: wheels were just rollers


Even splurged got a new tailgate!!!





Then on January 8th he came down for my birthday and spent the next week and a half with us hanging and working on the cab since he brought it down to do so while I was at work during the week. We started in on it right away by wire brushing the complete cab and getting just about all the rust off the outside of the cab. We then called some good friends over like Jeremy and Delton to help us thrash. Jeremy helped weld up some of the side spots and even fabed up a panel for the firewall so that we could get rid of the unused recess that was there. Delton came over a couple nights and started welding up the rest of the panels sometimes using tig rod to fill in the gaps were it was too much to bridge between panels. It was coming along awesome and it really looked like a hundred times better. We still had some panels to make but the majority of the welding and grinding was done. Here is what it looked like half way through the week before more welding and panels were put into place...

You can see the difference and how rad this thing was starting to look. Only those two panels needed to be made....


Well we got as far as we could on Saturday night and called it quits so that we could relax on Sunday before he goes back home on Monday. We load up on Sunday also so that we could double check everything twice. My brother was also transporting a 303 Olds engine with tranny to Thunderbirdesq here on the HAMB after trading for some heads. Thunderbirdesq live about 20 minutes from my brother so it was no big deal to drop it off.

Well my brother drove the 12 hrs with no hiccups and got to Andy's (Thunderbirdesq) home at about 6:20 Monday night. He unloaded the engine and shot the shit a few minutes while taking a peak and Andy's rad roadster. My brother then closed the tailgate and left to go home.

This is where it sucks....About 10 minutes away form his house the Model A truck cab lifted right out of his truck from a gust of wind at about 55mph. Two cars hit it and the cab was destroyed. The two cars even suffered damage which my brother's insurance is going to have to pick up and he also got a ticket. Luckily no one was hurt which he's very thankful for.

Who the fuck would have thought that the cab weighing in at over 300lbs would have caught enough air to actually fly out of the bed of his truck? I have driven 8+ hours with a body with out even thinking about strapping it down. The bitch is that my brother strapped it down the entire ride home until he got to Andy's to drop the engine off. He forgot the straps in the driveway and did not realize until he was already gone.

10 minutes away from home!!! 10 minutes!!!

Here's the damage sent from a cell phone pic. My brother is pretty devestated but I know we'll find him something soon.




Any of you fellers have a line on a nice 30-31 Pickup cab let me know. This thing has come to far to stop now! I just feel really bad for my brother, he put so much time and effort into this thing.

OH did I mention that this all happened on January 18th which was his 32nd birthday!!!!

 

Shit!

 

ALWAYS strap it in....no matter how much it weighs. Lesson learned.

 

Where do you plan to sit? I'd be interested in seeing the ergonomics...

 

Damn this is horrible man. Epic bummer, but from the ashes I am sure something awesome will rise!

 

Wow..... Sorry to hear that. My stomach is sick just seeing that.

 

Ever see a Nascar Cup car fly... Yea, it 170mph+ but it weights 3500LBS. Always, alway securely tie down the load.------------Everybody.

We had a guy killed up here a couple of years back when a trailer hit a bump and a lawn mower came out of a truck and went thru the guy's windshield.... Bad deal.

 

People have laughed at me for years for my strapping things down...it only takes one incident to make it all worth it.

So sorry your bro lost his cab, but tell him to remember it's only metal, he can do it all again, plus he has the skills he learned on the first one!

 

It was tight but he had room over his head and because he was running a Turbo350 he had leg room too. The only thing tight about it was getting in and out. More room then my T roadster. And I doubt it would be helpful to see the ergonomics of a person sitting in it now.

As for it being strapped, he did the whole 12 hrs home. This was an honest mistake of forgetting the straps back at Andy's 20 minutes from his home. Lesson is definitely learned.

 

Fuck that sucks. I just hauled a 32 cab monday for 2-1/2 hours and didn't strap it down. I never even thought about it coming out. I hope he finds something soon.

 

Ouch! that really sucks... Ya gotta tie em down! 300lbs isn't that heavy for something that large! My heart aches at the sight of this....

 

Man, sorry to hear that atleast no one got hurt. That looked like it was coming along good to.

 

Oh man that's a bummer...my buddies always get pissed at me because I strap the crap outta my stuff...hope your brother finds something to take it's place

 

Brutal, just brutal. My sympathies.

 

He doesn't really want to hear it right now because he's bummed, but I told him to cut the roof off that thing and fix it as a RPU now!!! He said, the bottom is worse then the picture shows but who knows. I know in a week or two, he'll be back in the saddle working on it or something to replace it.

 

Yup...make it an rpu and talk him into relocating to NC...

 

FUCK!

Nick.

 

I've tried. He works as a Corrections Officer at Attica and loves it there. He also gets a ridiculous amount of time off (which is good to work on cars) because he can swap and work doubles etc. He said if I can find him the same job down there he would come in a heart beat. I like having him around so that would be awesome.

 

Ratchet straps,Rope,Bungie cords.
All are cheap compared to what he now has to do to replace the Cab.
That Sucks it happened,but it's only the Cab and it can be replaced.
Also good to know no one else was hurt,it cold have been worse.....

 

That really bites, JJ! Hard lesson to learn! Just glad everyone's OK!

 

Holy shit... Give your brother my condolencies.

 

No need to tell him NOW to strap it down fellas, (Like pouring salt in to an open wound!). Sorry for your brother and all the work/time lost. BTW, a friend of mine years ago had this very same thing happen.....Only it was a 1932 Ford three window body.......

 

Man that sucks, a 3 window????? Where is your friends 3 window at now?

Anyways, like I said he DID have it strapped down but honestly forgot to re-strap it when he dropped the engine off. It was cold, dark and he just drove 12hrs so I am sure we are all capable of making that mistake.

 

Over time I've been hit twice by things flying out peoples truck, Once nailed a big overstuffed chair that fell out of a woman's truck that had all her belongings in the back and not one thing tied down, then a few years ago visiting in-laws in Arizona had a brand new in the box very heavy king size OAK bed sail out of the back of a young Marine's truck coming my way, saw it raise up and had just enough time to tell everyone to duck. Expensive lesson for your brother but hopefully he'll find another one and by sharing the tragedy others will hopefully learn from it.

On the plus side sounds like no one got hurt.

 

That blows! I always strap everything down if it may have some outside potential to blow out.

 

aint that a bitch

sorry to hear it, i say just cut the roof out and build a new roof, if its tweaked then just tweak it back, and think of the story you can tell when its done about the cab

 

Considering whats left of the trashed one. he might be be to make 1 solid cab....

 

That sucks, but things in the back of a pickup are just like airplane wings. I think he was probably tired from all the driving is why he forgot.

 

Oh man... that thing is fakked up... Dude, I felt so sick for him that night I hardly slept. I just wish I would have seen those straps lying there before he left... Even so, he may have not bothered being so close to home and after that long of a drive.

 

As told to me by several Arizona State troopers, "if something falls off a trailer or truck, and you hit it, it's your fault. Failure to control vehicle."
Thats why the gravel truck guys here never buy windshields either.