My 42' restoration! - back to the good old days!

tombowman12 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-19-2012, 04:14 PM

Hi! My names Tom! I'm 22 from Devon, England!

Me and my dad picked up a "43" ford half tonne truck! Saw it on eBay for £5500, and knocked them down to £4250

Here it is when we got it back to our garage -

I'm a panel beater/painter and my dads a mechanic! So together we should be able to sort it out

The engine is seized, the transmission is stuck in neutral and there's a million bodywork jobs to do! But nothing that can't be fixed!

Today (Monday march 19th) I started breaking it down -

It was surprisingly easy to take apart! English cars of that age fall apart, but this thing is solid!

Will start on the front later on this week!

ChiefM · #2 (**permalink**) 03-27-2012, 12:37 AM

That is awesome, keep up the work, can't wait to see the results !!!!

fordman75 · #3 (**permalink**) 03-28-2012, 03:34 AM

Looks like a solid start for a project!

tombowman12 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-29-2012, 12:43 PM

Thanks for the replies guys!

The truck is fairly solid, just beaten up! It's been very abused all it's life!

I finally got it into my garage this week and started breaking down the front!

Touchdown

Redneck bumper off! That think could of done serious damage! Solid 1" steel bar!!

Say hi to mater!

ChiefM · #5 (**permalink**) 03-31-2012, 08:28 AM

It must have taken you a while to do that, I see 3 different cars on the rack behind you, a different one each picture.

Hi Mater !!!!!

I wish i could find something that solid, but I have enough projects to get done. It is going to be sharp when you get done.

tombowman12 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-31-2012, 11:25 AM

I wasn't working on it all the time, I had a few cars in my side of the garage in various stages of paintwork! So it took me a while!

I'm gonna book a week for me to work on the truck! I have a few parts I found on eBay, all coming from your side of the pond!

My deadline is march 2013, as long as I knuckle down, I should make that deadline!!

kedwinh · #7 (**permalink**) 04-01-2012, 05:03 PM

Man that looks like a real nice project you have there. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Customcab · #8 (**permalink**) 04-01-2012, 07:55 PM

Are you guys keeping the drive train or thinking about upgrading? Keep up the good work; great to see overseas rust-a-holic at work.

tombowman12 · #9 (**permalink**) 04-02-2012, 01:18 AM

We're putting it back to completely stock!

The engine is currently seized, so it doesn't run, the gearbox was stuck in nuetral, but that now selects all 3 gears and reverse!

The engine block appears to be green, isn't that a 30s colour??

Customcab · #10 (**permalink**) 04-02-2012, 07:46 PM

Going to be nice I'm sure; don't know about that era's engine color choice's. My guess any color would be nice. I like Massey ferguson grey on old flat heads along with some silver and black details as well.

tombowman12 · #11 (**permalink**) 04-05-2012, 01:13 PM

I had a little more time free to work on my truck today! I won't bore you with words, I'll just throw up some pics!

Front end removed

Right Rocker cover removed

I had wd40 down the plug holes from when we got it back, tapped the top of each piston with a block of wood and a hammer, put a socket on the end of the crank, leant on the breaker bar and over it turned!

Super happy the engine isn't stuck solid! I love American engineering!!

Customcab · #12 (**permalink**) 04-11-2012, 06:26 PM

Mighty Good; that the engine turned over. Now your heading down stream.

tombowman12 · #13 (**permalink**) 04-27-2012, 03:53 PM

Haven't had a lot of time to work on my truck recently, but I got to play today!

I don't have any pictures, but I'll get some next week!

I got the steering column and box out, what's left of the exhaust out, the gas tank out and wires/cables disconnected! Now I need a few more hands to lift the cab off!

I did take one picture, I found these IN the gas tank when I shook it upside down! Anyone shed some light on these?? I think they're $5 phone cards!

tombowman12 · #14 (**permalink**) 04-30-2012, 01:30 PM

My job for today cancelled, so I had the whole day to work on the truck!!

Started by getting the cab off, disconnected all the cables and got the pedals outta the way, got my staff and some buddies and off it comes!

NOTE: - this is a rare moment to see my dad ACTUALLY working on it, and not talking about working on it!!

I put the cab into my storage unit, alongside my boat and a 57 GMC

Some other parts out the way, and my dog!

Then we I set to work removing the motor and transmission, I love how simple this truck is, why can't everything be this simple!

There's one of my mechanics working on removing the transmission, I forgot to get a separate shot of that!

A engineless, bodiless chassis -

That's all I got done today! Hopefully continue to work more this week!

tombowman12 · #15 (**permalink**) 05-02-2012, 03:54 PM

And then there was nothing but a bare frame (turned upside down in the picture)

And I just spent $1700 on parts from MACS,

Anybody have any other recommendations for places to buy parts??