I recently had an enquiry on here by another Aussie member who had just imported a 52 from the US, and was just looking for a RHD dash.


Down Under here, it's a LOT easier to do your project RHD, just like every other car on the road. Unbeknownst to most, Ford only bought F3 and bigger trucks into Australia new.....think about the for a second.....ZERO beds, tailgates, small truck front fenders, rear fenders at all, etc, etc.


The few that made it here were farm trucks, and thrashed within an inch of their lives.


Now my main truck, I brought over from the US 15 years ago - GEEZ....PRE internet!!!


A few years ago, someone who knew the rare beast living in my garage rang me from a swap meet, "there's a bloke here with a 3 legged dog who's got a cab and fenders dangling off the back of a ute, and will take it to the scrappies if he cant get his spindoolies for it today".
Needless to say, 4 hours later it was behind my garage and the 3 legged dog could now afford that surgery he'd been waiting for.....


This is what it takes to get your hands on a RHD cab, to then consider chopping it up just to get a dash out of it.........


As a young fella, my taste has always been a little more kustom, and in this internet era, I have been able to hone my taste in on approx. 1962.


I've had ideas for my dash for many years now, but today, I took lemons and made rocket fuel - Moon rocket fuel!!


Just take a 57 Ford F500 RHD dash, cut and shut it, then insert your favourite 59 Pontiac gauge cluster and BINGO!!!

 

 

I like where you are going with this. Think outside the box. What is: Cleveland goodness?


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...lt-thread.html

______________________________________
1946 Ford Tudor - Lightly toasted
1948 Ford F1 - Darkside

 

Other than your pictures being backwards, that is looking good. That cluster unit will really stand out.




Ok, the backwards thing was a bad joke.

 

I really do like where your heading.


I've tossed around doing a rhd 70's ford truck for years. I am a big fan of being different.

 

The Rolling Stones sang "You can't always get what you want", but they had never met a real truck guy right? A real truck guy can always make what they want. And that is exactly what your doing. Way cool.

 

Oz52f1 what makes you think that we only had f3's brought into Australia ?
I personally have had both a 48 and a 52 RHD f1 size pickups .
And although neither had pickup beds on them when I got them they were definitely orig pickup size trucks and not f3's .
I do know that our later f100's had unique Aussie pickup beds on them , as my 53 had an original Aussie pickup bed on it that is totally different to our US friends .

 

Show us more of this truck, dammit! You can't leave us with just a dash pic! (which looks very interesting, mind)

 

 

351 Cleveland Goodness.......

 

Does she look in a bad mood??

 

This is how you get the back low.....

 

Specs:


Full chassis by Ian Hardy
HZ Holden (Camaro) IFS w PS box
leaf spring rear based on Valiant ute springs and hangers
fully boxed - all holes filled - all threads double depthed and re-tapped
full tubular crossmembers featuring drop down battery tray with sideways Optima battery.
underfloor XB master cylinder & booster coupled to stock 52 pedal.
rebuilt hinges with rebuilt stock latches etc.
currently weighing up value of electric vs. windup one piece windows.


Awesome patch panels fitted - supplied by Kevin Lewis on here from half way around the world, and fitted effortlessly by my local welding buddy!!!


VL Commodore radiator turned sideways
351 Cleveland, FMX auto, disc brake 9 inch 3.25 LSD (sweet donor P6 Ltd)
reused SS exhaust from some 80s show car XC Falcon (some mods req)
HZ Holden panel van fuel tank mounted in rear chassis kick up.
Combo HZ/HQ/Torana column shift steering column plus safety mounts
XF Falcon ute/taxi "bench/bucket" seat plus seat belts on reinforced mounts.
Jag/Mini cable driven wipers.
Ltd 3 speed intermittent wiper switch coupled to repro Valiant chrome labelled Lights & Wiper *****, coupled to 52 Ford switch surrounds.
Mazda underdash heater fitted allowing full cowl vent motion.


Oh......plus the 59 Pontiac dash cluster, supplied to me, for FREE, when I was living in Japan, via a chain of HAMBers, culminating in hand delivery by a visiting HAMBer during a night that looked something like.....

 

Which led to.......

 

Wow! Some party! Great pics! There's a story there!