I have been looking for the correct vintage Ford Script Stakebody bed for a while now for my 55 F-250 since it originally had one from the factory. Luckily, we have some really cool/good members on FTE. I want to first say thanks to Bob (Bobj49F2) and Craig (Dmptrkr). Keep in mind folks, I am in Virginia so this story is kinda fun & long.

Long story short, Bob emailed me one day and said "hey I found you a bed up here in Chicago, do you want it?" After doddling for a few weeks I finally said yes since I couldn't seem to find it on the east coast. So Bob went and picked it up for me in Chicago, and then drove it back to his home in Wisconsin. So I had to figure out how to get it all the way to Virginia, luckily Bob had another plan in mind and he called his buddy Craig and said "hey, can you deliver this guys bed to Philly, PA?" Well, 1 week later Bob & Craig loaded it up on Craig's truck, and he drove it all the way from Wisc. to Philly, PA. So this morning, I got up real early and drove up to Philly (3 hours away) and picked up the bed. It was good to meet Craig, and he was very helpful in loading the bed with me, and heck he even had coffee and freshly cooked banana nut bread ready for me when I got there. Talk about hospitality.

Anyway, I am the proud new owner of an original correct vintage 7.5 foot long Ford Script Stakebody Bed. Here are some pics.

 

Its great when Buddies work together to help each other out that's one thing I'll miss when I leave the Army. Great bed!

 

Great story and nice job, Bob & Craig!

 

I never had a great bed while in the Army.

 

So,

Girl or Boy?

Cigars?

 

Way cool...I am still keeping an eye out for one myself.

Good folks on here.

 

Tanner,

Glad everything went as planned. We were lucky Craig was able to help out. He's helped before in a couple of my parts runs. It's always fun to arrange the logistics in doing these. A few years ago I arranged pick up parts in PA, again with Craigs help, delivery to MN for a board member and more parts and a truck pick up in MN. That was fun, I was able to meet a few new people, some of them quite strange (none were FTE members)

To tell the truth, I had the truck sitting in my shop for about a week and every time I looked at it I started to think of what a cool truck it was. The cab has a bad floor but everything that is rotted is being reproduced. Fortunately, my wife isn't a big fan of my hobby and she kept reminding me I had to get rid of it.

Yesterday I started tearing the rest of the truck apart. I pulled the brakes and it looks like some one must have put new brake shoes on before they stopped driving it so now I have the badly needed shoes for my F-2. I'm rebuilding the wheel cylinders with the new NAPA rebuild kits I bought last year on the 'Bay for $10 so all I have to do is jack the F-2 up pull the wheels and install the new parts. The radiator looks pretty good so I'm going to have it tested and use it to replace the one in the panel that has leaks in the core and to cracks forming in the upper tank. It also has a perfect hood that's going on the F-4. The doors are also pretty decent so they're going in the junk pile, at least that's what the wife calls it, I call it inventory. There are some other parts I don't need and I'll be selling them to try to recoup some of the cost of the truck.

Unfortunately, the flat V8 has two cylinders that are caving inward so the block is junk. I just might gut the engine, put it back together and paint it up to make a display in the shop.

 

Sweet news....Congratulations!

I picked up my 6.5 today too. Had to drive from Houston to just outside of Austin to get it.

 

I guess bottom line though, is that it is nice when you can work with folks on the internet.

Of course the wife is now saying WTF, "you haven't finished the truck, why did you get a bed already". My response is always "timing sucks", and the bed popped up and I got it, end of story.

Bob, its funny that only one board on any of the stakes actually has the original routered/coved piece of wood, and the rest of the side wood seems to be replacement 2x4's from years past. The bedfloor wood seems solid at the moment, but it needs to be replaced just for good measure..

 

My wife's the same way when it comes to getting parts ahead of time, and also keeping extra parts. I had the same discussion with my wife when I got the bed for the F-4. As soon as I decided to keep the truck I put out feelers looking for a bed. I figured if I put it out then that I was looking for a bed at that point maybe I'd find one by the time I needed it but I got a lead within a week of a really nice bed about 100 miles from house to $200. My wife couldn't, wouldn't, accept the idea that this could be a one time opportunity and didn't see why I wanted to get it then since the truck wasn't being worked on yet. I ended up getting it but it's always a battle.

I try to have enough parts to almost completely rebuild my trucks. My wife doesn't understand why I need an extra set of front fenders for all of them or why I keep some old rusty part. I try to get her to understand that if something was to happen to one of the trucks where am I going to find the part? You just can't go down to the local junkyard and pick up a piece of sheet metal for a 50+ year old truck. Also, many times I've been working on a truck and found a part that was broke, or that I broke, and I was able to rummage through my "junk", as she calls it, and find the part. I've also done the same for others that need an obscure part that no one reproduces.

She wasn't happy about me buying this last truck but so far I've saved myself the price of brake shoes, around $150 to have the old ones relined, and the hassle of having to take them some place and waiting a week to have them done. Plus all of the other "junk" I can use or sell.

I've gotten to a point where it's easier to just get what I want and ignore her complaints. It always blows over anyways. I some times think she just likes to crap so I try to make her happy once in a while.

Tanner, wait until she sees that truck with that nice flat bed on and shiny paint. If she's like my wife she doesn't understand what drives us with our old trucks but she certainly like to ride in them.

At least you had one original board to use as a pattern. What I find most interesting is that all of the hardware stayed with the bed after all these years. The bed I got for my F-4 was the same, every single piece of hardware was with it even though as were were disassembling it to load onto the trailer the wood was disintegrating in our hands. Both beds are almost in the identical condition.

 

Bob, my guess is you have been married for a while, and if you haven't learned that wives like to just pic and make a fuss just to see how you as a husband react to her complaint or demand, I am a little worried about you.

 

We've been married almost 22 years. My wife's a hard worker, she comes from a farm family and has a strong work ethic but she doesn't' have any tolerance for my old truck sickness, I'll admit it's a sickness. You'd think she'd come to grips with it after almost 22 year, I had my F-2 long before I met her and I even told her when I asked her to marry me that the truck will always be there so get used to it. I guess she must not have know how strong the sickness can get. Since we've been married I've had, at last count, 16 '48-52 trucks.

Like I said, I think she just likes to complain (that's the nice way of saying with I really want to say). She's like her mother, neither seems happy until they find something to "complain" about. I just try to do my part to make her happy. BTW, I grew up with a mother that was basically the same, but a lot worse, so I've been able to build a wall to all of the noise. I figure you have to enjoy life a little and then you die.

 

Well, back to the bed.

I am half tempted to go ahead and sand, prep, and paint the truck frame from the cab back, and then tackle the bed frame so that I can go ahead and mount it up on the truck to get it out of the way.

Would this be a bad plan considering I still have not touched the cab, engine, trany, or the frame from the cab forward? I know it is kinda like doing it backwards, but it might not be a bad way to do it since I started with the axle, rear brakes, rear suspension, etc.

 

I don't think it would be a good idea to paint the bed right now because I would think it might get scratched up by moving it around to work on the cab. What I would do is have it blasted and epoxy primed. Primer is a lot easier to reapply or touch up in the even the bed gets nicked while you're working on the cab. After all of the body work is done have all of the parts painted at once, or at least within the same relative period time. Just my thought.

Have the underside top coated with whatever coating you're going to use but leave the sides and top in primer. It's easier to coat the bottom first so you don't have to worry about messing up the top. I am personally going to coat the bottom side of my flatbed with a rust encapsulator. The encapsulator is a lot tougher than a painted surface. POR-15 makes a good one but IMO it's expensive, search the forum for "rust encapsulator" and you'll find discussions on the different brands. You don't want to prime the metal if you go with an encapsulator, they adhere best directly to blasted or solid rusty metal.

 

Hmm...... More choices now.