Hi guys, Great site, been lurking a while whilst awaiting the arrival of my truck, it's here and I've registered with a view of (hopefully) gaining some info from those obviously more knowledgeable than myself.

My name is Pete and I live in a City in Australia called Toowoomba. Toowoomba is in the state of Queensland about 1.5hrs west of the Capital Brisbane at the top of a mountain range.

The truck was given to me by my father and was owned from new until a few years ago by the Southern Riverina County Council - Electricity Supply Dept. Apparently two such trucks were purchased in 1954 when an American engineer working for the SRCC was sick of breaking "those god-damn useless bedfords!"

Firstly heres some pics;






First question, what is it? (it is as short as an F100 and has 20inch wheels and a huge diff.

Kind regards,

-Pete.

 

Can you post the VIN? That'll get the most info... Welcome to the board, truck looks like great fun. This place has the smartest, nicest bunch of folks around...

 

Hey Stewards68,

There is no VIN "plate" so to speak. The are some no.s stamped on the pass side of firewall and that's it. Some things I forgot to mention are that it is flathead powered (apparently not uncommon for '54s in Australia and Canada) it has 8RT on one head and EAC on the other. Also the handdbake is a "drum" on the d/shaft.

-pete.

 

My '53 has the plate inside the glove box door, then has it stamped on the top of the right front frame rail just behind the radiator supports. I bet even if you can't find any numbers, somebody smart will be by with some insight. Can you make out the numbers on the firewall and post those?

 

Welcome to FTE

Glad to have another Aussie on the site, you folks have a way with coming up with some unusual vehicles as well as some different ways of tackeling problems.
I'm not that familier with the new Trucks like yours, other than the great Flathead.
A mishmsh of parts on the Ol Trucks is not uncommon given their age, especially the engines. The 8RT would be the correct engine for a Truck in 54 in Canada, South Africa, and Australia.
All 8 series Ford engine parts from 48 (Trucks) to 54 are interchangable, the Merc engines use a different rotating assemble and have to be maintained when switching from the Mercs to the Fords.

Jump in, hang on and enjoy the ride.

 

I think its a 54 F600, but we cant be sure until you find a vin # Was it still on the frame rail in 54

 

OK,

I've on, in, under and everywhere on this truck looking for a VIN.

Numbers stamped on pass (left) side of firewall read:

B A A D

8 1

1 9 3 8

whatever that means, I can post a pic of above if it helps.

No plate, no numbers on the rails.

There is a Ford Australia plate inside left door jam that just has a warning about overloading and overspeeding.

It say the trucks "Gross vehicle weight 11000lbs (total vehicle and load 98CWT)"
It also says model 3040.

-Pete.

 

That is a neat truck, an F600 looks and sounds about right but keep it alive no matter what size it is.

 

Another thing I forgot to mention, if you look in the first pic you might make it out, the diff housing has square axle tubes, in the manual I have, the only housing like that is shown in an exploded view and titled "banjo housing Hypoid Axle-Disassembled-500 series shown"

So this, combined with the only vehicle in the manual with 20x6.5 inch tyres are F-500, C-500, B-500 and P-500.

The wheels are five-lug by the way.

I'm going out on a limb at this point and saying it is a short F-500 (I'm sure there are wiser people then me out there-but this is my best guess until someone can help further).

-Pete.

 

If the total GVW is 11000 lbs, the truck can be no larger than a F350.

The rear axle on a 1954/55 F350 (Timken B150) is rated at 7200 pounds, the front axle is rated at 3800 pounds. 7200 + 3800 = 11000.

The rear axle on a 1954/55 F500 (Timken C100) is rated at 11000 pounds alone. That would mean the front axle would have to be rated at zero to equal 11000 pounds...not likely.

BAAD = model number? 81 is the cab style. 1938 is the numerical sequence of assembly---the 1,938th truck manufactured in 1954 by the assembly plant that built this truck.

Even though F350's came with 6 lug wheels, that was in the US, who knows what happened elsewhere? Ford would make changes then, as they still do now...and install equipment not normally used on any particular model. In the states, that is known as a Domestic Special Order. The DSO code then has 6 digits instead of the usual two.

 

All I know is it's one BAAD truck...

I'm assuming if you've been lurking you've seen Earl's World (below), and there's one other page that I can't find right now regarding big truck fenders and interchangeability.

http://www.clubfte.com/users/earl/Re...%20This%20Page

The no VIN thing is still weird. If the darned thing was made in the states, even for export, it should have a VIN. I'll try to take a pic of where mine is on the frame rail. I'd have never found it, but the DOT lady and her wire brush got right to it. It was very faint, you had to know where to look AND brush the rust off. We'll get this thing ID'd!!

 

welcome! square tubes? any chance of a military background or some government special order type thing? I have never seen square tubes like that could you post a closer pic of them? Do you have plans to paint it------a lot of people are paying big money in the states for that look , surface rust faded signage on the doors ect. Any howwwwwww welcome again have fun. byw what kind of vehicle is that in the background?

.

 

Nice truck Pete

Just a note on the VIN

My 54 came from South Africa, assembled in SA from parts made in the USA
I geuss Aus was probably the same
SA had a different system for the VIN than the USA

Oh yeah check the stroke on the flattie, mine has the longer 4" stroke Mercury crank

Steve

 

Welcome to the Adventure, Pete!

That's a nice old truck you got there.

 

Welcome to FTE great site here im sure you wil enjoy and nice looking truck you have perfect for a restoration