1949 Ford F-3 "old red truck"

[Hurco550]

Don't forget to start lifting weights in your spare time. That'll make the Armstrong steering system easier for you to handle.

That light bulb over the battery reminds me of the stuff we had to go through w/ our vehicles when I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska. In addition to the freeze plug heater we had heaters in the radiator and heater hoses, a heated pad under the battery, another heated pad glued to the transmission pan, and sometimes another one glued to the oil pan. In that climate a light bulb would have just sat there and shivered.

Man, after a few days of moving this thing around, either from the farm- to the house - to the school and many combinations of all 3, I am reminded of that country song that says "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was" lol horsing these chassis to and from the trailer by hand at my house takes more of a toll these days than it woulda 14 years ago when I got this old truck haha.

The bulb socket may stay right where it is on the firewall, if not just for nostalgia sake..

 

[pidjones]

Seems like an obvious place for synthetic oils. As I remember Northern Ohio winters....

 

[Hurco550]

Seems like an obvious place for synthetic oils. As I remember Northern Ohio winters....

Story goes that in the final years that this thing was in service, it burned so much oil that it did not get oil changes but rather it just got topped off. Most of the time with "STP" oil additive instead of oil itself haha I'm afraid putting real oil in it may break all the clearance filling goo out and cause it to start knocking haha

 

[ridesolo]

Story goes that in the final years that this thing was in service, it burned so much oil that it did not get oil changes but rather it just got topped off. Most of the time with "STP" oil additive instead of oil itself haha I'm afraid putting real oil in it may break all the clearance filling goo out and cause it to start knocking haha

I'm sure that much of the clearance filling goo has drifted south and is no longer filling clearances! I wouldn't be surprised if the old gitl knocks louder than an Avon Lady or a process server.

 

[Brodie]

If you do decide to convert to 12v there is always the option of adding electric power steering. I have seen a few mods done with the units and control boxes from early Toyota Prius.

 

[Hurco550]

The old frame is back in black. It'll likely be the nicest bit on the truck, and also the part that Noone will ever see haha. Hopefully it'll help the frame last another 73 years though. I've gotta say, I'm pretty impressed at how nice the rustoleum laid out with a roller and a brush. Makes me think the body may get a similar treatment. I think there were several roller and brush paint jobs on it over the years...

 

[ridesolo]

Looks good man! If you are serious about roller and brush work on the body you need to get w/ my buddy Herb... now your friend, too. He can't do any kind of spray stuff and has become a master at making auto body work look beautiful with unorthodox methods. I know you aren't going to try for anything close to a concourse look, but there's no reason it can't look great for the next 73 years. All of his results that I've seen have been amazing and very serviceable.

 

[pidjones]

Roller-and-brush (I think mainly 4" brush) seemed to be the standard for farm trucks where I grew up. Although, there were those few that took the body off the big stake trucks for a beauty treatment every few winters - along with running gear refresh. Their 40-50 year-old trucks looked show room even loaded down with soy beans. Just their thing. Their pickups looked like Big Red, though.

 

[Hurco550]

I had a pretty productive weekend of working on the truck. On Saturday I was able to pull the cab off of the OG chassis and get it put on the recently painted "new" chassis with fresh cab mount rubber. It took every bit of a 12 hour stretch to get it done. I ended up having to use an acetylene torch on all but about 3 of the fasteners to get the job done lol On Sunday I was able to get the engine and trans pulled. At the very least it will get a gasket set and re seal this winter. I'll likely pull the heads and check out the bores to see if it has to have a bore and hone before running, but I'm hoping I can get by with just some fresh gaskets and seals for now. With as much oil as has been slung everywhere, Im guessing a clutch will be in order as well. I don't see how this one could possibly NOT be saturated in oil at this point.

Now to get ready for Barber.....

 

[Rider52]

Starting to look like a truck. I wish I lived close enough to give you some help.

 

[Hurco550]

Starting to look like a truck. I wish I lived close enough to give you some help.

Man that would be cool. I don't have many wrenching buddies around. Dad helped me out some over the weekend, and we did the bulk of the work in his barn, but alas, he's recovering from knee surgery and didn't want to over do it (very understandably)... My close buddy Nick just got married a few years ago and has a 1 year old, so he's not much of a player in this game currently either. So per the norm, I'll crank the tunes in the garage and work on this thing solo haha

 

[ridesolo]

And yiu didn't call @ridesolo ?????

 

[Hurco550]

And yiu didn't call @ridesolo ?????

Lol you will likely get a call before this is all said and done haha I like you too much to have called ya during the cab pull. I was sore, covered in dirt, rust, 70 year old caked on grease/dirt/ pasture mixture, and ended up pulling this gem of rust from my left eye (yes i had safety glasses on). I'd have asked my enemy for help with that job, not my friend lol

 

[ridesolo]

I've got little going on, mostly, until 30 October. On that day, some time before daylight, most likely, I and my crew (or should that be Krewe?) are headed south. Will it be running when I get back in March???

And, yeah, just call if you need an extra hand... only one, though...

 

[Redbird]

While you have the engine out and freshening it up, consider throwing a set of OEM spec crank bearings in. I've done this with every 'used' engine I've installed. It can be done without necessarily pulling the crank, but pulling the caps and lifting the crank just enough to push the old bearings out and the new bearings in (this works on SBC's, not sure about old Fords ). Basically, this splits the difference in the 'wear and tear' gap created over the years. Giving you a little less play in the bearing, and a little better oil pressure, without going through a full rebuild of a perfectly good crank.

 

[Hurco550]

I've got little going on, mostly, until 30 October. On that day, some time before daylight, most likely, I and my crew (or should that be Krewe?) are headed south. Will it be running when I get back in March???

And, yeah, just call if you need an extra hand... only one, though...

I'm in full on Barber mode until I get back on Tuesday. After that, I will likely try to hammer down on a few things on the truck, one of which is a full (yet simple) re- wire. Most of what's on the truck is the O.G. cloth wrapped stuff from 49. It is a bit worse for wear, and right now is the perfect time to do it, even with the 6v pos ground, I will still be able to retain most of the circuits even when/if i switch to 12v at a later date. My current plan is to pull the entire main harness, maybe make some sort of nail board in the basement and just copy the entire harness. I need to track down some multi color wiring to get my circuits usable, and go from there.

While you have the engine out and freshening it up, consider throwing a set of OEM spec crank bearings in. I've done this with every 'used' engine I've installed. It can be done without necessarily pulling the crank, but pulling the caps and lifting the crank just enough to push the old bearings out and the new bearings in (this works on SBC's, not sure about old Fords ). Basically, this splits the difference in the 'wear and tear' gap created over the years. Giving you a little less play in the bearing, and a little better oil pressure, without going through a full rebuild of a perfectly good crank.

That's a great idea! This entire project has been a exercise in "where to draw the line".. Like the engine is tired, but it "ran when parked" and while it may be nice to do a full top down rebuild, it doesn't likely have to have one right now. On the flip side, It leaks so bad from literally EVERYWHERE that it will get torn down enough to get a full gasket and seal job, then I think "if its down that far, might as well just rebuild the whole dang thing"... Then the money side of things hits. I will tell you while the parts are not impossible to find, everything for these old 226 I-6 flat heads is anywhere from double to quadruple the cost of the same part for a SBC...

Gotta love ADHD haha