I'm entering crazy-town once again, and may need a vehicle to transport equipment for my business. My DD is a '50, but I'm looking at a '51 Panel to provide the enclosed transport.....

Here are some picts of the '51....









The Owner stripped a Camaro and put the 305/700r/10bolt/steering/ifs under it about 10 years ago. It was his DD for about 7 years but he started driving about 100 mi/day and bought something gettin' about 40mpg. It got parked about 18 months ago.






When he bought it it had wide tires on the back and the tire wells and floor were redone.

New skins, disc brakes all around. Rear right door solid, left needs some help (but solid except for bottom center. ) Bottom rear panel looks rough, but may be just pulling bondo. The same applies to the lower rear fender area as well as the front left fender seam. (Other fender is glass) Pretty solid running boards and truck cab floor also solid. Both doors solid (incl. bottoms). Missing hood trim and door insp. panels.

There is a gap between the rear metal floor and back lower panel and there appears to be a wood floor. Did the PD's have a wood floor covered by metal like the P/U's ? The owner said it needs air in the tires, the battery connected and I could drive it home. Said last time he ran it was about a month ago. He wants $5000, which seems reasonable.

WHAT DON'T I KNOW ABOUT PANELS ?????????

Not afraid of a little work....



Your thoughts are welcome, but don't jump me in line for a week or so...

 

It's your money and I'd like to see the happy grin you'll have on your face when your sitting behind the wheel. The panels are a lot rarer than the pickups and nice to see kept on the road. Now if I could just get mine to that point I'd be smiling too. At any rate it looks to be a fairly nice panel and you seem happy enough with the price, maybe you could talk him down a bit and be that much happier with the deal. So I'd say go for it.

 

Yeah.. Is $4500-$4800 a fair price, considering I might be able to drive it 40 miles home?

 

If it were near me, I'd beat you to it. But I'm a 51, so maybe it's different.

Panels of that era had plywood floors, no metal over them except strips(experts chime in). Wicked taper on the underside of the front IIRC from replacing the wood in my 52.

It appears to have the correct rear bumper (dif from pickups)! $5000 right there!

Too bad about the 305. If you're going to the dark side, at least a real one would be good. But, if it runs down the road...

The tubbed rear could be a pain to reconfigure. Is the frame notched for clearance between the fat tires? If so that might be the weakest structural piece.

Do the rear doors latch properly at the bottom? That section of the rear apron is important, the relatively flat section below is easy enough to fix.

You may as well consider rear doors irreplaceable. Check thoroughly that those can be repaired, and that all the latch mechanism is there.

Between what looks like wood paneling on the inside, at floor level to the outside skin there should be metal panels, with weatherstripping at the outside skin. Common place for rust in the outside skin. You could see looking up from below. If those are rusted away or otherwise missing all sorts of crap gets up in there. From a front-to-rear horizontal wooden piece (hidden by the paneling) at the level of the top of the wheelwells down, there should also be metal pieces front and back of the wheelwells. I'm not 'splaining this well. I'm sure you can find pictures of the stock interior.

Oh - it looks like it might have a relocated gas tank (I see maybe a filler door left rear?) The original was inside the left frame rail, fed by an inlet behind the driver's door. Made exhaust work a real pain. I would check the new installation thoroughly.

I'd grab it. 'specially since you're not afraid of a little work.

 

Here are a few other areas to look at since I am doing my panel, I notice some problem areas.

1. There is a structural brace that runs behind where the bench seat sets or is part of the mount for the seats. Mine had rust holes in the floor pan under this brace, will be evident if you look under the panel.
2. under the rear doors below the floor the structural brace check its condition.

Good luck!!!

 

just missed out on one of these that sold at auction yesterday. it was a 52 with the v8, magic air and factory radio. i had to work so i sent a friend, he bid it up to my limit and the other guy got it. probably wont say what my number was, dont want to get yelled at. i sent Stu some pics so if he still has them and chimes in, maybe he could post them. imho, buy it, there not making anymore!

 

5 Star Deluxe cab trucks (and Panels) didn't have inspection plate covers in the doors like in regular cab trucks. Instead, they had the trim panel sitting in the frame around the bottom and side perimeter of the door. The Panel also seems to be missing the upper door trim (metal) panel.

That bondo all over the Panel truck scares me. There's probably tons of rust underneath. I'd offer $3500 and would walk away on anything over $4200.

The Panel has potential, but it's a lot of work to bring it back to presentable shape. The big tubs in the rear take up more than half of the real estate in the back. The whole reason for a Panel is to have open space in the rear.

 

The tubs don't bother me too much as I plan to "shelve" the sides about 16". The bondo stuff isn't as scarry as you warm, dry weather folks think. Out east, we call it "patina". Typically if bondo is over a spot where there isn't solid metal, it collapses inward. Bondo "bubbles" where it is placed over fairly good metal which was not treated before primer. Moisture from the untreated deep rust restarts and more gets in and freeze/thaw causes it to lift, but the paint holds it in place (until it cracks). A slight push on the "bondo-ed" areas usually will tell the story.

My '50 hand a bunch of that (but little areas) which I repaired about a month ago. Got solid, but dented and surface rusted metal behind. A little phosphoric acid, a little por15 (or your choice), some good primer, a leveling coat of filler and prime-paint. Probably good for another 20 years. Have to do the same on the inside if rust is through, although I'd probably weld in that case.

Out east here, "field finds" are goin' for 3/4 of this price. mostly cause there are not many left (they turn into little piles of iron oxide)

Local guy around here goes out west every year and brings back a trailer full of '40 & '50 truck carcasses and gets 2500-3500 for them (JT's Trucks). Probably 1/3 of his price is transport. So the ask price is not that scarry around here (Pittsburgh).

I guess it's a case of "you got to buy the truck, to see what's in it!" The owner probably doesn't want me grinding and screwdrivering his truck

 

Looks to me like you're more interested than not. If you're confident on the shape it's in and are not afraid of getting into the details; I say go for it.

If you think 5K is a good price, I'm sure 4500-4800 could be even better.

It's a panel, you know?

 

did you buy it ?

 

What year is the black truck?

 

It's a 42-47. However, production stopped, or was very minimal during WWII.

 

Well John's signature says 1947 1/2 ton.

John, It sounds like you have the skills to take care of any issues under the bondo. As long as you go into it eye's wide open, you should be good. (if you have the funds to fix it up.)

By the way, asking us whether you should by an old Ford is like asking a plastic surgeon if he thinks any woman could use a tuck here or there.

 

I need to get myself one of those...

 

Yea.. it's a '47. Next to the '50 (48-'50 same) so what a difference a year makes!

And, yes, I'm going to bite tomorrow (11/04). Seems I don't get to negotiate the price (except maybe against myself). Since I'm borrowing for this, if I borrow $5k or above, interest is 7.4%, $4.999k or less, 12%. Full amount of check has to go to owner. So if I go down to, say $4700, I end up paying about $7 more per month (all interest). Besides, the owner got it ready for me to drive home. (Put in new battery, fixed leaking brake fitting (from sitting), fixed a sticky hood hinge and a couple other things.

I think he still luv's the truck, but wants to find it a good home. (Didn't hurt that I showed up in the DD (the '50)). Wish me luck, I'll post some picts when I get it home, then maybe I'll start a Project thread (like I have for the '47, which will really be pissed at me for bringing this home {It likes having all the attention, and is still a little mad about the '50, but I keep telling it the '50 is just a parts chaser! })

Wish me luck gettin' it home !