Found a decent panel truck near my house, decent price. I was wondering what differences and similarities there are between the panel delivery and regular pickup chassis

 

Stu McMillan (truckdog62563) just provided these in another thread.

 

So the way I read this, and with a little more looking, the 8 foot panel and F1 pickup seem to be the same chassis?

 

The only difference I'm aware of is gas tank mounting location. But my hands on experience is with the bigger F-2/3s. One of the others can speak up if there are other differences. Stu

 

There are a couple of differences. I have a pickup chassis under my panel.

The one is like Stu stated, the gas tank is mounted inside the frame with "L" brackets and straps. There is also a frame extension on the back of the panel frame to hold the rear most part of the panel and there rear bumper. I think all panels came with a rear bumper, they were an option on the pickups.

The one major difference is the running boards. The panel uses the shorty boards from the flatbed trucks and also the running board brackets from the flat bed trucks which are longer than the pickup trucks. Also, there are only the two front brackets, not three like the pickups.

Also, the drawings posted are for the F-2-3 trucks, the panels are mounted on the F-1 chassis, at least that is all I've ever seen. I was told by one person he had a stock F-3 panel but I didn't see it in person and he could have had a truck that someone switched badges on. I've never seen any other sized panels other than the F-1.

 

Well I bought it for the chassis. The body is quite rough due to leaking doors, windshield etc. I didn't snap any pics, but bringing it home in a few weeks, taking stock of parts between that and my M155 to put together a M47 pickup. Now to chase down those elusive Mercury front fenders!!!

 

Aren't the Ford and Mercury fenders the same, with additional trim added?

 

they are interchangeable, but there are some minor differences, such as a small relief for marker lights. just minute stuff, but enough to be a PITA