I am interested in collecting more information on the F-1, seems little has been written on them. I have caught a couple of different brief compositions on-line but nothing substantial,......still looking for original brochures and sales info to glean more info from.

A couple of questions:
One article I read stated that the Long Beach plant produced about 262 units per day, mine was #517? Another writer suggested that each plant did their own thing with regards to the build code stamp. Maybe they worked a 2nd shift on this day.......Any thoughts?

Another article stated that the light duty 3 speed floor shift was deleted in mid 1950 in favor of the column shift, my F-1 was made in August with the LD 3 speed and seems to be unmolested. The model a ford had service bulletins to track changes, were these done for the F series too?

Thanks, T.

 

Hey T

There are a couple of related sites:
The Old Car Manual Project
Old Car Brochures Gallery
Vintage Car Brochures - Vintage Cars - VintageCarsAmerica.com - Vintage American Car Classic Ads and Brochures

The timing of feature introduction is an interesting question. There is a thread on this site (use 'Search this Forum' option shown on the right side of the blue bar) that decoded VINs and attempted to isolate the sequence numbers that distinguished the 49s from the 50s. It is a fairly long thread that certainly touches on a number of sub-topics as it evolves.

DW

 

Think how much valuable info we could have gotten if the internet had existed in the '70's, when there were still a lot of guys who worked the BonusBuilt Ford assembly lines alive.

A lot of historical data was lost in the '60's (?) when Ford had a fire in their archives dept. All paper copies...

 

Were the service letters specific to passenger or commercial or were they combined?

 

I haven't seen any service letters that weren't specific to a component, not to vehicles. Like some on engine/valve problems or changes. I've only seen them for Cars, and only '40's cars at that.

As to your transmission, are you saying it is a floor shift, late-50 production? I'd assume they just built floor shifts until the stock of them was gone.

Where are you getting a production number of 517, and why do you think it was the number produced that day? You can post your serial number info in this thread, and read thru it to see the variations that occurred: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/4...n-cut-off.html

"Mid-'50's" changes included a change in the bed-sides, rear fenders, tailgates, and the shifters.

 

I will also add that "mid-50" is a generic term applied to running changes to the truck, not an actual date or time. We've seen some fairly late builds (Sept?) with floor shift 3 speeds and raised panel boxes. It's my thought that with all the changes for the upcoming '51 model year, Ford was just getting a head start with some of the easy stuff. The changes likely occurred at different plants at different times, so there's no exact answer.

 

My truck is an August, 1950 build with a 3 speed floor shift and flat panels on the bed. I agree that the factory probably introduced new designs when they ran out of the old stuff.

 

I'm assuming that you are getting that 517 number from the firewall stampings. I am curious to where you got the 262 number from, that would be a pretty low number of units for any plant.

 

Especially since the unit number was not just F-1's in that month, but all F-series produced at that plant.

 

262 trucks built per day is one about every 5 minutes around the clock. It doesn't seem that low, to me, given the manufacturing technology of the 1940's. If there were only running 2 shifts instead of 3, it would be more like one every 3 minutes.

 

Take a look at www.fordmotorhistory.com I found the information under the Long Beach assembly plant, "Temporal and Technological Changes". As you read through you will find the articles I gleaned the numbers from, they do not cite their sources.
It is inferred that they were working an 8 hour day at the LB plant.
Plant history for several other's are listed in the index, I have not read through them yet....

I went back and looked through the Ford Motor History website and could not find any credits. Nice collection of photos and information, worth a look......