Hello everyone.

I just got my 52 F-1 and I'm very excited about restoring it. It was my father's day present this year, and I think it will last me a few more father's days.

I've been reading the different posts in here for the past couple of days, and I've gotten a lot of ideas. I have also come up with ALOT of new questions. I'm not going to post them in this thread, but please have some patience with me I don't know a whole lot about restoring and even less about modifying trucks.

I have posted in the gallery the few pictures I have so far. I'm sure you will enjoy poking fun at my lack of knowledge, and I will enjoy it too.

I'll just say hello everyone again, and I hope that I can contribute some ideas to the board someday.


'52 F-1 (John Henry)

Tim

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...?&albumid=4582

I hope this is my gallery. LOL

 

Well Tim, looks like a great Father's Day present! I've put together a few notes about restoring a truck that's not too different from yours. You may find some useful stuff there. Just click on the link in my signature block below.

The most important thing is to figure out what you like to do and what you would like to do with the finished truck. If you really like hands-on, you've got plenty of opportunities with your project. If you just want to get it running, have some of the tougher jobs done by a shop. Either way, it will be your truck so enjoy!

 

Nice 215ci inline six. Does it run? My '53 has one, too. It was frozen solid but we managed to get it apart without destroying it despite our best efforts. I also have a web site documenting my progress though I'm not nearly as far along as George. You'll find a lot of helpful folks here.

Enjoy your truck!

 

What a great fathers day gift!! Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to watching your project progress!

 

Hey Tim, Welcome to the board. You just found the best place on the web to come and chat and ask questions about ole' fords. That looks to be a very fun project! Don't worry about not knowing everything, heck I'm not very mechanicaly inclined yet but I'm trying. Anyways, feel free to post as many questions as you like and we will try to answer them, -4speed

 

hi tim

great to have you on the forum. don't pay any attention to anything anyone tells you ( just joking)

these guys know it all and don't mind shearing all that know how.
ask all the questions you wont, the only dumb questions are the ones onbody askes.

your truck looks like a great project, and it sure was a great fathers day present ( i got a card ).

 

Tim,
You must be some kind of Dad! Congratulations and welcome! BTW, I got a leaf blower.

Good Luck,

 

Hey Tim, decent looking truck there. Don't worry about lack of knowledge -- as you can tell from the posts most of us are here for enlightenment...

 

Tim,
Just got thru looking at your pix. You needn't be so humble, you've got a lot of nice truck to work with there. Many have started with less! I won't speak for everyone, but if you didn't already figure it out, a good place to start is from the ground up. Frame is usually first, attacking rust-thru's, patching panels and floorboards, etc as needed. From there, mechanical: engine, trans, rear end, brakes/suspension. Then electrical, yatta yatta... you get the idea.

That's a great year to restore or build as a modified. Look forward to sharing your progress and again, welcome to FTE!

Daryl
'59 F100 that had a warped 4'X6' piece of plywood as a bed, no tranny left per se, and req'd 6 months in body/paint. See what I mean?

 

Welcome to the forum Tim. Looks like a solid start for a project. I am jealous of all you guys from the Pacific NW and all the vintage iron in restorable condition.

 

Tim

Great father's day present! Good looking truck from what I could tell from the pics a great project. Welcome to FTE. Lot of guys here that have a lot of knowledge and are willing to share it.



Bill

 

Wow i think i'm going to like it here lots and lots of friendly people. I'm trying to work my way down to the frame to start with then the questions will come hehehe. First though i have to bandage my arm up tight from the cutting wheel getting away from me once. That hurts a little bit. Long sleeves(sp) from now on.

Thanks for all the welcomes. I'm hoping this project will go well, and i don't loose too much skin off my bones.


Tim

'52 F-1

 

Tim,

If there is one thing just about everybody doesn't do well enough (including me) it's documenting EVERYTHING you take apart. A couple of us are photo nuts and have more than 300 pictures of the disassembly process. Now that I'm putting stuff back together, I wish I had taken about 900 pictures of the disassembly. For instance, I took about 6 pictures of the engine from, what I thought, were all angles. Guess what? I've already run into 5 things that are not on any of the photos. They are hidden, not clear enough, or too small in the photos I have. Can't stress this step enough. Take a deep breath every time you go out to take stuff apart and stop every 10 minutes to take pictures of what you are doing.

The other thing that helps a lot is to tag and bag EVERYTHING you take apart. Generic brand zip-loc bags come in sizes up to 36" x 24" and up to 8 mils thick. Label the bag and put all the stuff from, for example, your water pump in it including fasteners, washers, gaskets, etc. Do that for every subassembly - starter, leaf spring mounting hardware, etc. Stuff that's too big for a bag gets one of those paper tags with the strings.

If you do a great job of documentation your disassembly, you'll only be short 50% of what you wish you had done when it comes time to put it back together again.

You're gonna have a great time with this gift.

 

Yeah, you're going to fit right in here!