Hey All, I brought my '52 F3 home today! I am planning to drive the truck while addressing the most urgent issues, and slowly restoring it. I posted pictures under my profile - so you can see them there. I am not able to post them directly to this post for some reason.

The truck is unrestored, but mainly unmolested - runs and drives nicely! The truck was built in California, and ordered by the Weyerhaeuser Company with no box, only the cab and bare frame. I do not know if they built the box themselves, or had it built - I have never seen another like it. The steel used on this box is heavy-duty! I have no idea how heavy it is, but it's gotta weigh a lot. I am wondering if anyone has seen another like it?

After retiring from Weyerhaeuser, a long time employee bought the truck from them. He sold it to the P.O. four years ago, who promptly rebuilt the braking system (stops well!) and added the Mexicali seat treatment.

I have more questions than I have answers, and am hoping I can get answers here!

 

Welcome fellow F3 owner.

 

That's a great looking truck, and the bed was made to work. I love it. Glad to have you hanging around, and glad to see another F-3 on the forum. Plus, you owe the p.o. a debt of gratitude that he replaced the original "widow maker" 17" wheels with what look like later 16" F-250 wheels. Stu

 

First off welcome to FTE . Nice looking F3 you have ther.. As for the bed, It looks like sumone put an old dodge pickup box on.. Iv'e seen a few F1's that people have putt Dodge bed's... Ive yett to find a 48 F1 bed for my truck. But I may also go and putt a 1949 Dodge B truck bed(since I can buy one from a junk yard dwnt the road from me) on my F1' after looking at your pics of your F3. I kinda like the looks of the dodge box

 

Looks good!

Welcome aboard.

 

Welcome to the madness. Looks like you got a great truck and that seat looks great
You can get answers here, there are a lot of guys here that really know a lot about these trucks. I am not one of them but what I know came from here. You might get several different opinions about some things, but when you need help you will get it.

 

Thanks everyone for the welcome - I gotta tell you, I generally hate BB's, but this one is different - seems like genuinely good folks here! I have been reading posts for 3 days, and do not see much if any flaming. Congrats to all of you!

As for the P.O. - no, I owe him a more than just a little thanks! The wheels on the truck are 16.5's, but the truck also came with 16's that can carry hub caps. I live in an area with some pretty impressively steep downhills - the brake job the P.O. did is solid.

I am not sure that the box is from a dodge - though that'd be fine with me as it was mounted back in '52, so it is a period mod. I like it because of the stripped down, quasi-military look. I have been warned that the box will hold water, so I am planning a bed cover of some sort - I'd like to eventually put a military style canvas cover over the box.

Here's a question: I am 6' tall, and driving the truck requires me to really lift my foot high to get on the brake - nothing I could do quickly. Are the pedal positions adjustable in any way? I am not that tall, so I gotta think that there are others out there who have dealt with this issue. Any ideas?

 

I also own a 52 f3,proud the factory brakes work well,i am planning on rebuilding mine for now.Mine shows 73000 miles.

 

I agree it's not Dodge, it's custom. There's no pedal adjustment short of altering the pedal arm. It mounts solid to the m.c. bracket. You could cut and weld on a new shorter upper pedal arm I guess. Stu

 

Welcome to FTE. Always good to see another old Ford back in the work force, especially an F3.

Doug

 

Pictures of your truck






I like the hoist and would leave it in. It adds to the character of the truck.

 

Thanks 51PanelMan for posting my pics here in the thread.

Stu - you wrote: "...Plus, you owe the p.o. a debt of gratitude that he replaced the original "widow maker" 17" wheels with what look like later 16" F-250 wheels."

The P.O. had a second set of wheels that had been on the truck when he got it, they are 17.5" diameter and look to have a locking ring of some sort? I am not sure where they came from as there are no serial numbers or codes that I can find (though they may be obscured by paint). I know that these are not WM's but what are your thoughts on these, oh wheel sage? Any reason not to use them? Are they tough to find tires for? The 16's on the truck look too small to me.





I'd prefer to have wheels that can hold a hubcap, but these have the nubs on the outside, so the caps would be big and not look period. From the mounting hardware on the side of the truck I am guessing this originally had 19's on it - are they difficult to find?

Thanks for your patience with all of these questions.

 

Ford installed 16 inch wheels on F-2s and 17 inch wheels on F-3s. The only difference between the F-2s and F-3s were the wheels, rear springs, and rear brakes.

Large 16 or 17 inch tires help fill the fender opening a bit. Remember the same front fenders were used up to 2 ton trucks so there will be extra clearance on the 3/4 tons. Here is a picture of my F-2 with stock 16 inch wheels and 7.00-16 bias ply tires.

 

Welcome to the board!

Great looking truck. I agree, I don't think thats a Dodge bed. It's either a custom made or might have been from a small dump truck or something. Its definately heavy duty!

Enjoy the ride
Bobby

 

You're right that the pictured wheel is lock ring style, not a widowmaker. But it's not a 17.5". Probably a straight 17" tube type. Any wheel or tire having the xx.5" sizing is a tubeless wheel or tire. I'll link below a chart that compares the design having what's called a 5° profile next to the design of a tubeless truck wheel having what's called a 15° profile. The 5° design has the more upright rim lips and was/is used on car/light truck tube type or tubeless wheels as well as on multi-part truck wheels. The 15° profile is more angular and is used exclusively on tubeless truck wheels of all sizes.

When you explained that your current wheels/tires are tubeless 16.5s I thought, but didn't say, that they'll be pretty small for your truck both visually and functionally, assuming it has a stock rear axle ratio. As you'll see in the chart, a tubeless size is 2.5" taller than its equal tube type because the tubeless has a drop center that moves the tire bead out from the center. The tubeless side wall is shorter which yields similar outside tire diameters. Therefore, a 16.5" tubeless truck wheel is more equal to a 14" car wheel. A 17.5" truck wheel will be the equal of a 15" car wheel, and a 19.5" equal to your stock 17" widow maker.

You've seen that CarlH has the 8-17.5" bias ply tires on his truck. They look right and will have about a 32" outside diameter. That's about the same as the stock 16 tires that came on F-2s. Tires get wider as they get taller which I think explains why that tire size is probably taller than a normal 15" car tire. To get your truck back to a 34" tall tire to match its stock 7.50 x 17s you'll want to find a set of the 19.5" tubeless wheels and mount 8-19.5" bias ply or 8R19.5" radials. These are the Budd #71410s that were optional on later F-250s and have been discussed here a number of times. The wheels are unfortunately very hard to find. Both the 19.5s and 17.5s have the "innie" hub cap nubs and will accept your stock hub caps. Stu

Edit - as 38 Coupe shows, you can get back to a normal look by finding a set of the 16" F-2/F-250 wheels. These too accept stock hub caps. Stu