Its time to get back on this project again. New house, more garage space, and my son is rapidly getting to the age that he needs dad to have an old truck for dad to ride him around in.
I found a new piece to purchase that kinda changed the direction of this project. On a ford f1 "buy sell trade" facebook page, a gentleman in Albany, Georgia offered up for sale a 1948 ford F1 frame, setup with a ford 9" rear out of a big block mustang and motor mounts to run a small block chevy with a turbo 350 automatic transmission. As it were, my old man has a chevy 350/ 350 turbo trans in the barn, that many years ago was pulled out of a running yet rusted out box chevy that got junked. Complete with an electronic igniton and qudrijet 4 barrel.
I gave the seller a deposit for until I can make it down to pick it up and bring it back to Ohio. It is about 4.5 hours south of my in laws in Chickamauga, so the next trip down to visit (whenever this travel ban lifts) I'll rent a uhaul and bring it back.
This is a neat turn of events for several reasons. First, the F1 parts market it much more flush than the (basically non existent) F2-F3 market. Sheetmetal specific to the F2 and F3 is basically impossible to find, and though it isnt free by any stretch, less a cab, you can buy almost any sheet metal for the F1... Most of it 2 hours away at midwest specialties in Springfield Ohio.
The other benefit will be that, while it will still likely never be a road trip vehicle, it will play much more friendly to going down the highway with the 350/350 combo than the 226ci straight 6 with crashbox non synchronized 4 speed granny gear trans. Plus, the f1's just plain look cooler.
The bad (er sad) is that it kinda takes a bit away from the old farm truck. It won't be full on "this is my grandfathers axe. My father replaced the handle and I replaced the head.", but it will be along those lines. It will retain the most solid condition pieces of the truck, the cab and hood (and vin plate + title). The flip side is it will be a more solid and usable truck than the f3 wouldve been.
So anyhow. Heres to moving again on the "Old Red Truck"