After being on here for a couple years I've realized I don't have a build thread for my truck and it would probably be a better route to go than a bunch of "update threads" as I'm going to be having a lot of them real soon.


Most of you know my story of my truck, but for those who don't:

My truck is a 1956 Ford F600. It spent the first 50 years of it's life working in a gold mine in Montana. It was garaged and kept up, but also used and abused. Bill, a lover of big trucks, bought it at an auction and drove it home. It sat for a couple years then he listed it for sale, and I bought it. It was a good 350 miles away and makes for a long story, but the short version is he was nice enough to bring it to me for the cost of gas.

As it was when he posted it for sale:







That compressor weighed about 5,000#s and the bed was made of steel and a good 4,000#s. The compressor was well broken. As much as I enjoy good scrap metal it had to stay in Butte for the rest of the truck to make it to Sheridan. It has (or had if this post has become old, lol) a 272HD with a 5speed direct and 2 speed rear axle (5.83 and 8.11). 22.5" rims

It was originally sea foam green that was repainted dark green at the dealer and then repainted red over time. This color combo made for a patina that looked like it had leprosy. The grille was smashed and that huge bumper twisted and a slight diamond to the frame.


I shortened the wheel base and put a bed on it. Gave it a 10' paint job to keep it from rusting till I can paint it properly and to make it all one color. That compressor in the picture by the way was after I had spent all night trying to get it off of there to get it home. To help picture the size of things remember those wheels are 22.5" and the tires are 37" wide.



After a fiasco of fixing leaks, having someone hit it, and fixing all the leaks again, the truck drives just fine, bit bumpy with all that suspension though. The front bumper was replaced with a "new" one from Kevin (bigwin56f100) and the old one was fixed, flated out a bit, and turned into the rear bumper. New mirrors where put on.


I've since made side boards with my business information on them, something I always wanted on the truck, it balances it better. (I have checked with the moderators on posting pictures with this information on it. Mods if things have changed please let me know)



And up until today, this is what it looked like:



There are some extreme plans on this build, lots of work to still do, but the end result will look similar, though it will drive very differently. I am making it for a daily driver and around here that means mountains and lots of snow. It will drive in the snow, heck, it will drive in the snow when no one else can for that matter. Whole lot of little things to do it, I'll start my next post on this with what I've been up to today.


Hope you enjoy my project as much as I do! I have a whole lot of pictures but I figured having 100+ photos on the first page would be annoying. So if there is anything you would like to see feel free to ask

 

Today, after not being able to do anything I really want to on the truck, I finally did something I have been meaning to since I bought it: Round the door corners.

Well... just the passenger side today, tomorrow the drivers side, but the pictures would look the same just flipped, lol. I also finally welded up the holes the bolts have been in that held on the old mirrors.

Prior:



And after:




Thankfully the quick 10' paint job makes things look real nice on the internet, lol. I still have a tiny bit of cleaning up to do on it, but since I need to take the door off to get to a few spots, best wait till I'm ready to paint the truck. It's a tiny detail that makes a huge difference. Makes the door look carved out of the cab rather than just attached to it.

 

Did you get the fuel pump leak fixed?

 

I sure do like your truck, and the bumper looks great!

 

Looks like. Best I can figure is the JB weld shurnk a tiny bit because it wasn't really working and now there is no leak.

 

Thanks Kevin Sure makes a big difference to have a straight bumper, glad you had one even though it took me forever on that fuel filter.

 

Nice your progress, I like the results!

 

You have a good eye for detail. Very Nice.

Gil

 

Damn Stephen, those rounded corners look factory to me. I had to scroll back up just to make sure you were being honest. Looks great!

P.S., your truck has a special place in my heart for me. When I was eye-balling my F500 on Craigslist, I started searching the net high and low to find out if it was even worth buying.
That's also what led me here to this forum.

 

P.S., I remember reading about the head-on impact. From trying to shove my F500 back and forth just a couple feet, I can appreciate how hard that impact must have been. My truck was damn near immovable!

 

Nice work on the door corners. That looks great! Glad you started a build thread. I will definitely be following your progress.

 

I like the rounded door corners. Glad to see you have a build thread.

 

Thanks, much appreciated

It's getting there. A lot of this is what all I can do before painting. I'll have to touch up a whole lot of things when I go to paint, but there is no point in doing it yet since I don't have the paint I want (and removing this paint will effect it).

Today I did the drivers side, and I wasn't going to post photos as it's the same thing as the other side, lol, but I had to fix a spot, and it was a pain.

As best as I can figure the truck has the door open and it caught on something when the truck was in reverse. The door creased the cab (in a place horrible to get to that I've hammered out as much as I can without removing the dash) and beat up some stuff on the door inside. It also looks like it bent the hinges. So I spent today getting the door to sit right. It was just too close towards the front and the corner was about 1/4" lower than the cab. I still have some minor adjusting to do, mainly moving the whole thing up about 1/8" or so, but I can do that easily tomorrow, got interrupted today.

I'll need to adjust some things on this, but I needed to fit the door right first. It's a little hard to tell but notice how the corner is in and not flush:


Like I said, still need to do some shaping on this one, it was a bit funky with how things got dented, but at least it's flush, adjusting the curve just takes a little welding and grinding:



And because I thought it was a cool shot with the house we're restoring too:

 

Very nice work on the doors, and I bet it does drive like a Truck! Very cool, and I bet your sign will get you some work. Is it your house that you are restoring or a job? Looks like an interesting house. My house was built in 1907 and I have owned it since 1979 and I still am not finished with it. I hope my truck doesn't take me as long...

 

Restoring a house and building a truck and working at the same time... man you are talented and have a lot more energy than I. The doors look good. I had a truck with the same type of "reverse" door damage years ago, except I know who the idiot was who had the door open while going in reverse. Yup. I confess.

You're making great progress, and the comparison with where you are now to where you started is amazing!