I just bought a 1956 F100. It is generally in good shape. I want to do a near-restore.

The big things are all there, but I'm going to need a lot of little things--everything from steering wheel to oil bath air cleaner to original turn signals to bumpers to door handles.

Where do I get used parts like those? I'd like to find one or more sources here in the Deep South where I live, to minimize shipping expenses, etc. Are there any salvage yards around that you all know of which have a lot of junked '53's to '56's where I could pull parts? How about used part locator websites? Any leads or other help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Welcome to this end of FTE. It would help if you put your approximate location in the upper right hand corner of this screen, near the date.
No better source for parts you mention than the forum members, several of whom part out these old trucks. This site has a classified section with search feature. Not that much difference in shipping cost unless you get into freight items. For reproduction parts, there are Dennis Carpenter, Mid Fifty, LMC, Macs and others.
BTW, I have an extra oil bath air cleaner from a 272 of that vintage.

 

You need to get a Mid-Fifty's catalog. Excellent source of information on these trucks. Also a great company to deal with when buying parts.

 

I went to my profile and hopefully did the right things to have my location (north central Florida) appear. I'll know after I post this. ha. Thanks for the info.

Thanks, too, for the heads up about the classified section. I haven't been a member long enough to check out most of the features of this Site, and that is one of them. I'll probably post my want list soon, after I've compiled a complete list of all that I know that I'll need.

I know about all of the suppliers that you mentioned and probably all of the other usual suspects, too. Thanks. In fact, I've got a couple of repro bumpers headed to me from one of them right now. Can't wait to get them installed. It will help the looks of the truck tremendously.

Being new, I don't know if we are allowed to make deals on a thread like this, or if we must do them in a PM (Private Message). But, if we can deal in the open forum, how much would you want for the air cleaner? The truck's got a 6 cylinder in it now, but I have a V8 that I'm going to drop in it one of these days.

 

I've been known to sell a few parts now and then, I'll send you a message so you can contact me directly

 

Got the catalog some time ago. I remember that a catalog that I got from one of the suppliers had a lot of helpful info, and that may have been the one. I'll have to peruse it again soon.

Thanks for the info about them being a great company to deal with when buying parts--price is definitely not everything and I want to work with a company that is pleasant to deal with.

 

PM sent. Will be glad to help you out.

 

There's no one who knows of a junkyard in the southeastern U.S. that has some '53-'56 wrecks???

 

Okay, I'm going to answer my own question. Well, at least partially.

Before I do that, I want everyone to know that I have no financial or any other kind of relationship with the outfit that I'm about to mention. I've never even bought anything from them (yet).

One salvage yard that I found is Flashback F-100's. It's in Reidsville, North Carolina.

This really is more of a salvage yard than a junkyard it seems. Their website is really a mess IMHO, but I get the impression from things said on it that there aren't vehicles out in the yard where you can pull your own parts and those kinds of things. I get the idea that they do the dismantling and have the used parts from the dismantled vehicles ready to sell to you. Which is fine with me, I'm just interested in sources for the parts, although I admit that I do love walking through junkyards and taking a gander at all of the old cars and trucks.

One of their specialties, it seems, is going out west and bringing back rust-free F100's so they can have rust-free parts to sell to folks. Cool.

They do sell some new parts, too. They offer a catalog for $4.00, which I suppose has to be for the new parts that they sell only. It would be really interesting, though, if they did list used parts .

Hope someone (else) can get benefit from this information.

 

whitesautosalvage.com
N of Winston-Salem, NC

Even went for a ride with their junkyard dog....don't know what they have in 53-56 trucks though. They are good a getting back to you.

I've found a lot of stuff for my 54 in NC and VA on craigslist.

 

Thanks. I've bookmarked the site, and know that I'll be checking with them at some point.

Yeah, I'll sure check Craigslist. It's a great tool--wish that it had been around in the mid 70's when I was a teenager trying to build a '56. I found the '56 that I have now in central Texas (I'm in north central Florida) doing a national search of Craigslist, manually eliminating the rusty states or the humid parts of states. Got one fairly rust-free doing that.

Evidently the junkyard dog isn't as mean as Jim Croce let on. ha.

Thanks.

Eric

 

Both of the above yards are reasonably close to me if anyone needs parts or trucks checked out I may be able to help.

 

Mighty nice of you. I, for one, may try to take advantage of your offer one of these days. Just depends on whether or not I'll be able to find everything without needing to check with them or whether or not they give me all of the information that I need to know. I inquired of FlashbackF100s about one part already and they were pretty good about getting back with me. Thanks.

 

In Arkansas where I live, all it does is rain here (almost every other day the past 2 months) So even though we don't salt the roads, these cars and trucks that sit outside a lot will eventually rust. Really sux.

 

One good thing about Arkansas is that it is next door to Oklahoma. I don't know about all of Oklahoma, but they have a lot of low-rust vehicles in some places there, at least. There's a fellow that I know in the panhandle of Florida who goes up there and to Kansas on a regular basis buying old F-1's and F-100's and brings them back to Florida.

I love Florida, but it's pretty hopeless here, too, r.e. finding low-rusters. For one thing, in some parts of the state it rains probably an average of 365 days a year (because it will rain two or more times a day in some times of the year). Along the coast, you've got that problem plus the salt air which does a number on metal.

Thankfully, there is no problem finding replacement body parts, and patch panels for the typical rusted-out areas of a lot of F-100's. Maybe for the '48-'56's especially.