Back when I was a kid, pre driving age, my aunt and uncle bought this truck from the original owner. My uncle taught me how to drive it when I was around 14 years old, so I could haul junk around his property and work at cleaning up the place.

After years of great patience, and many attempts to get my aunt to sell it to me, she finally agreed to arrangements that allowed me to become the current caretaker of the truck, on the conditions that I wouldn't make a "hot rod" out of it. (I kind of ruined her thoughts of my automotive tastes with my flamed '40 Ford coupe!)

Anyway, here's a few shots of the '40 Stake Truck, for those of you who may be interested.



With my aunt, the day I picked it up and hauled it to SWMO


A "taco stop" on the way home.


Another "taco stop" after getting it on the road


Coming home from a day of work in Branson, MO


A recent pin-up photo shoot in Lebanon, MO


The stake truck and the coupe

The truck still runs the stock 221 Flathead, 3 speed and rear axle, but I put a Posies reversed eye front spring in the front, and the rear spring out of my coupe in the back, to get it to sit right. I also changed the exhaust, to a set of duals with 14" glasspacks.

 

Beautiful truck!!! But if you sneak any more mods, I'm gonna call your aunt and tell on you! Is that a ford script bed? I always add a leaf or two to make them sit right !

 

Very nice truck. In my opinion the only thing to make it nicer would be to raise it up a bit....

 

VERY Nice truck! BTW you just live down the road from me!!!

 

Very nice truck indeed.
I think the stance is perfect.
I see it has original windshield glass, the cloudy edges are showing , probably time to replace and store the originals .

 

Hey GB,

Yes, that is a Ford script bed. In fact, it's all the wood that it rolled our of the factory with. Also, my aunt is aware of the "tire change" that I did, so that I could drive it on the highway.

I get a kick out of the "raise it up" comments. Had I changed out the rear end ratio and just ran 235/70/15's out back, I'd probably have a dropped axle in front and a reversed eye spring out back.

The Posies spring, after it settled, dropped the front about 2", and the 40 coupe spring, in the rear, dropped the back about 3 1/2". Payload isn't that big of a deal to me, and it's got enough to haul an engine and other assorted car parts. ;-)



Way cool, Chris! I haven't been "to" Neosho, in quite some time, but work for the cable company. Maybe next time I wind up over there, I should give ya a head's up!

 

That would be great!

 

Wow beauty of a truck! The coupe is pretty awesome as well.
I'm a little north of you in the big metropolis of California, MO.

Show us some more pictures of the coupe.

 

And pics of the flatbed from a couple of different angles. I have 2 old Fords with original bed wood. I'm like the bed wood **** when my employees are loading anything onto them, and have awoken more than a few nights to an unexpected rain, prompting my running out in my bathrobe and pulling the truck into the shed. My wife just rolls her eyes.......Yours is one of the nicest original trucks I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of old fords.

 

Thanks, GB. I'm very fortunate to have my name on the title. ;-)

That was a heck of an ordeal. I have the original title, issued 4/25/40, hanging in a frame on my wall. The original owner had signed the back, but my aunt and uncle never transferred it into their name. I didn't have a bill of sale, or any other records, so the state of MO would not issue a title to me. I had to go through the legal process of filing a suit for a declaratory title. The original title excluded the 18, at the beginning of the VIN that is stamped into the frame, so I had the new one issued with the 18-XXXXXX.

I posted this shot in my photo album, as I realized that I didn't have a rear angle shot in the thread. This one demonstrates the "rubber rake" that a set of 235/85/16 creates when matched up with some 215/70/15's!


Hooker Cut, Devils Elbow, MO. At the time it was completed, Hooker Cut was one of the deepest cuts made through rock of any road in the country.

The truck left the factory with a single tail light, and the previous owner made a bracket and hung a hardware store tail light on the passenger side. When "freshening up" the truck, I chose to keep the mismatched tail light, even though I bought a new "stock" one for that side, just to keep with the theme.

While I still have the original seat, the plywood base is extremely de-laminated, causing it to be extremely uncomfortable. I have a "temporary" seat in it, now, which is a Dodge van 3rd row seat, bolted to a plywood base, sitting on the stock seat riser. Way more comfortable, but not as cool as having the stock vinyl covered seat in it.

 

Very, very nice truck!! You live just up the road from me. Went thru your area to pick up my son at the Springfield Airport about a week ago.
Love the script stake bed.
Mark

 

Thanks, Mark! Shoot me an e-mail, or a PM, and let me know what part of north central AR you are in. One of these days, when I'm passing through, we may catch up with each other. I work for a company that has me covering MO, AR, and LA, so I make the trip, southbound, several times a year.

 

You don't indicate any previous body or paint work done to the truck, but in any
case, I have to say it's one of the best survivor trucks I've seen. Great color
combo; and how neat to have the complete history to boot!

 

Nice! My favorite year of Ford pickup! You really nailed the rake. Mu RPU is also running a third row van seat until I find something better, they are just too easy.

 

Very cool!!