COE Salvaging a 38 Ford COE

What a nice project! Being a Ford guy I just wonder if late model Ford ch***is and axles would have worked? I keep picking up COE bits for a future project. Bob

 

Great project. Here's a pic of a later Dodge to give you an idea what the periscope looked like back in the day.

 

I have one of those out at the ranch and need to get the engine out. Tractor with a loader is pretty much all I have access to, thinking about taking it out the bottom. Got any pointers? BTW, great work. Loving this thread, makes me want to drag home one of those 5 ot 6 old coes setting around.

 

An E-350 van is the same up front. I dropped the engine and tramsmission out of my old one, with a floor jack and blocks. I think using a loader is cheating. Bob

 

We ended up cutting the cab in half right along the floors. Since it was an open cab, no roof or back structure. Just cut from outside rocker to engine on each side. Not sure if that was a good wy to get the motor/trans out, but it was quick.

 

Most any ch***is will work if you have a fire axe and a welder. Most people seem hung up on GM but Ford or Dodge ch***is' are about the same.
Check out all the build pictures on WillysBills site. Lots of ideas there.

http://ozcoetrucks.freewebhosts.com.au/Index.a.html

 

Thanks for the picture of the periscope. I found out more about the history of this truck. As others have said, it did in fact have an add-on crew cab. It had a p***enger door on the right and a bench seat. Left side no door. It had an utility box for a bed, that was open in the middle and storage boxes on both sides. It had a huge 30" cable drum in the bed to control the boom. It also has a canopy over the drum and bed. I was told there is a picture of my truck on the Buck Hills Falls web site, but I haven't been able to find any picture.

Anyways, I have been mocking up the floor to get a feel for the pedals with the engine in. Looks like I will have the same amount of room as it originally had. I may be able to even use the stock doghouse?

 

Replaced the econoline C4 with an AOD overdrive trans. Then I salvaged a driveshaft from a 1994 Ford F-150 because it had the right front yolk for the AOD trans and could be shortened enough. Again, I am trying to use as many old parts as possible on this build.

I measured and cut down the tube, pushed in the rear yolk, found a hydrid rear ujoint I needed and test fitted in the truck.



Checked and tweaked rollout within 0.004" and tack welded the rear yolk. I will pull it back out, remove the ujoint and weld it all the way around. That completes my drivetrain.




And my crude pointer to check rollout before I tacked it in.

 

Since this thread is back to the top, I see your steering intermediate shaft is 93-95 or thereabouts. You might see if you can score the rubber tube that goes over it to keep the elements out of the cardan joints (U-joints). They can go bad with time, but the ones I've pulled out of the later ones with the tube look like brand new even after 120,000+ miles with winters in New York road salt. It should snap right onto the steering box, you may have to mess with the top to make it fit up to where the steering goes into the cab.

Or maybe you have it already and just aren't that far along yet?

For anyone else following along, this is the shaft with the joints on each end in the steering column. The later shaft is longer than the earlier ones (91 and back), but otherwise appears to be the same. By the looks of it, it can be shortened if necessary, although you may lose the anti-rattle spring clip in the process.

You could probably also rob the joints to use in other ways, but the factory distresses the splined ends so it would take some careful grinding to remove them.

 

Good eye. The steering linkage is from a 1992 G20 van. It had the rubber bellows around the linkage as you know. I do have it and will use it once I finish up the floor. That boot kept these parts looking new, even though they have seen 20 Chicago winters.

 

I think I will subscribe, this is a cool build, nice work.

 

very nice work, keep it up!

 

keep up the good work .....

 

Very cool Thread. Can't wait to see this done

 

really nice work!

 

Driveshaft finished.



Making my own floor braces and flooring. Just mocking up with 1/2" plywood for now. The finished floor will be made with 5/8" DryPly plywood.



I also centered the brake pad on the pedal ***embly.

 

subscribing. I love these coe trucks. Just to bad my shop isn't tall enough for a build of this size. Keep it up.

 

Do your feet straddle the steering column?? Right foot for gas...left foot brake?? That would take some getting used to as I seldom use my left foot in my daily driver.

 

Yes, my only other option is to put the brake pedal on the right of the column and the throttle in front of it. That is the original setup like in Sander's truck.

 

Since I started making the doghouse, I realized I needed more room for the throttle. My boot would touch the steering u-joint when I lift off the pedal.



With the column centered with the cluster, it just didn't give me the needed room.



Thanks to a few HAMB members, I found out the Ford originally offset the column to the left of the cluster. This is what I needed to do, but still keep the column centered with the cluster. Time to start cutting.

I moved the cluster over 1 - 1/16" too and added a filler piece to the right side.



Now I am happy with the throttle pedal room. That little bit made a big difference.




I still need to metal finish the welds, but you get the idea.



Now that I am happy with my right foot and throttle position, I am wanting more room for my left foot. I need more room to the left of the brake pedal to rest my foot while driving. It just doesn't feel right resting in front of the brake pedal. I want my legs stretched out in a more natural position. Let's see what I can do about this?

I think I can cut out some of the inner wheel well arch, widen and flatten that area out for a foot rest. Maybe...

 

I am also planning out the 1938-1939 Holmes wrecker bed for my truck. I will build one from scratch. This way it will fit better with my wheel base and truck frame. The bed will look like this HAMB members truck.



My plans are like this. Bed is 60" wide and 90" long and 36" high. I will be using either the 1935-1937 ford pickup rear fenders or the 1940 ford pickup rear fenders. Don't know which yet.



I will be using 12ga. sheet. Because I don't have the proper tools to roll the front corners of the bed like I want, I am having one of the company's we deal with at work to fab this up for me.

 

Awesome build.

Love these old COE trucks.

Will be watching from now on, keep up the excellent work.

 

I am thinking about doing something like this just so I have a place to rest my left foot. Not enough room to rest it to the left of the brake pedal right now. Doesn't feel right resting my foot in front of the pedal, too cramped feeling that way. These trucks had to be uncomfortable for the poor guys that had to drive them all day.

 

I info on the narrow rear axle is great! You won't need to have the rear fenders or bed be as wide as most I have seen.

 

I have the Holmes bed sides and bulk head sized and formed up. Now I can start building the replica Holmes 440 wrecker.









Stay tuned as this is the easiest part of this salvaged COE.

 

Super nice. I like what you do with that cool COE and salvaged parts. I had a 48 COE here in Switzerland. But sold it stupid I was. Never saw one again. Wondering how yours look when finished. Good luck.

 

very cool build. I like the narrow rear and short frame.

 

Great build thread!

 

Coolist build thread haha

Sent from my SPH-L710 using H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

More work on the Holmes bed.

Here I transferred a template of the back of the cabs body line to the bulk head.



Then I trimmed the top of the bed to flow with the body lines on the cab, punched a bunch of holes for plug welding a 3/16 x 3/4 bar along the edge.



Then I welded the bar on and finished up the welds.







Just so you understand where I'm at with this, here is an original Holmes bed. You can see this bar along the top edge.



And I'm still a true cabover. Swapped out the iron intake for an early Edelbrock F4B and salvaged some aluminum Ford valve covers.



To be continued...