Many moons ago, my grandpa used this truck as a beet hauler on his farm. The truck retired sometime before my dad became old enough for farm work, but somehow she's stayed almost completely rust free and in tacked.

At some point the engine and trany got tired of sitting around and left and some punk kid (probably me) decided to shoot through the side windows. The seats were also in excellent shape until last year, when a family of west Texas pack rats the size of cantaloupes decided to move in. I'm not sure what else can be salvaged or not, but I'm excited to get this thing resurrected.

I am a complete newb to this and have a million questions so any advice you nicer, smarter people have will be accepted with much gratitude.

I've been reading tons of 1948 F1 projects but I have yet to find one that looked like this truck. This seems to be some sort of industrial version to the standard consumer line and I'm not sure how backwards compatible the two version are.

 

Cool project. Take your time and have fun building her

 

Welcome! Do the badges on the side say F-1? I would imagine it's more along the lines of an F-6.

I'll let someone else more versed on the subject warn you about your wheels.

 

I thought the same, but it does say F1 on the truck. I thought the Title would confirm but the Model isn't specified there.

 

Welcome! The badge says F1, but the fenders, frame, and wheels say bigger. The cabs were all the same across the non-COE versions. Either the cab was swapped or just the badge. What engine and tranny?

 

I think you're probably right. I'm wondering if my grandpa just put an F1 cab on an F5 frame for farm work. Changing the badge is also possible but the F5 and F6 cabs that I've seen online all seem to have cab lights which this doesn't have.

 

I wouldn't use cab lights as a deciding factor, frankly. The better tell might be the face of the speedo and the e-brake configuration in the cab. Any pics from inside?

Our own Bob Jones has a cross reference for F Series sheetmetal here: Welcome to Fat Fendered Trucks

 

Nice and welcome to FTE! Also tell us what the first 6 of your serial number is and we can tell ya more about it.

 

Sure, the first 6 numbers are 88RT38. Where can you look up information with the VIN? I've tried a few different places but they all the say the VIN isn't long enough.

 

post the VIN here and someone will tell you what your truck is

 

Sure, the full VIN is 88RT38828

 

The VIN should be 11 digits starting with an F. like this one

 

Not on a '48.

88RT is 1948 V8 F5/6. Nothing there we didn't already know.

It's more likely someone along the way thought it would be funny to put F1 badges on their F6.

 

Oops my bad. I thought all the VIN 's started with F. I learn something new about these trucks everyday.

 

Thanks for the information. Is there any way to know if it is a F5 or F6? I'll probably get the correct badge put on there if I can.