well my dad has had old seventies fords since i was born and i would always ride along when he went to mechanic on somebodies car or get stuff from town for what ever project. the black 78 f150 ranger with the hot running 400 really hooked me. i can still remember the glass packs barking when he would down shift and stand on it and blow past some old foogie on the highway scaring the hell out of them.
When I was a little mindless child my grandparents would come up to the panhandle and we would all go to a big tractor & anqique farm equipment show. We (me and my sisters) would run around all day crawling on the old farm equipment and hopping in the model T's and make vroom vroom noises. My favorite vehicle of all was the fire truck with the crank siren. I can't tell you how many times I got in trouble from anoyed people as I cranked that thing over (thinking about this make me want a fire truck). I had no idea about the mechanics of anything but loved the look and sound of the old tractors. Eventualy my dad got an old tractor to restore which of course gave me ideas about restoring things too.
Later in high school I knew a guy with a '65 longbed with a hopped up 390. The truck sounded bad to the bone and just before I was going to get it from him my parents stepped in and said no - too powerful and too junky. I liked the older stuff anyways so my dad convinced me to find something older. I was told that trucks are easier to restore and thus ended up getting my '41 at age 15. I visited a flathead V8 club meeting at a guys house who had a ton of trucks and found a '51 with faded paint glistening in the sunset and thus I began my search for a '51/'52. A few years later I found a '52 someone was working on and drove often to see what was new. I got it shortly after the for sale sign went up. I actually wasn't partial to Fords until I had to drive and work on a couple GM vehicles.
When I was oh say...10 years old. I was looking in an old photo album at my grandmas house and saw a picture of this truck...I said "dad who's truck was that! What kind is it?" He told me it was my grandpas 51 ford truck 1/2 ton. My dad drove it alot including when "courting" my mom before they got married. He told me that that truck hauled a ton of coal many a day eventhough it wasnt suppose to haul that much. I loved the teeth in the grill. I thought it looked mean. I was hooked ever since.
I have always owned trucks. My first daily ride was a 1950 five window Chevrolet ˝ ton. I have owned many Dodge and Ford trucks over the years. Purchased my first new truck in 1975 ( a Dodge 4 x 4) while working at a Chrysler dealer as a line technician.
Four years ago, I sold my 2000 Nissan Crew Cab and bought a 2002 Ford F-350 dually to pull a 5th wheel trailer. I love this diesel truck but I began to think that I will be able to retire in four years and I might sell the dually and 5’ver so we can travel in a motorhome or by car (motel our way around).
I started looking at new trucks so I could choose which one to buy used in 4 years. Was having trouble deciding which one to buy. A retired friend had been talking about buying a Model A truck to drive to Home Depot and back. That gave me the idea that I could build a better truck (or at least as good as) a good used late model truck.
I started looking for an F-1. Chevrolets are so popular, but I wanted to be slightly different. I have always liked ’49 – 50 Fords. I started looking for a candidate and found my 1951 F-1 (He is nicknamed Rusty). Thought the front end looked funny but I couldn’t pass it up. It was built the same year that I was born and it is an original California truck that still resides in CA. The front end has grown on me now I kinda like it.
Rusty cost $1000 and needs a lot of TLC, but I think he will be the prefect retirement truck. The best part about it is my wife is onboard with this project and wants to be involved. First time in 26 years she has been excited about a truck. This is good!!!!
Clay, thanks for bringing this back as I missed this thread the first time it went around.
I have enjoyed reading everyones stories and find it interesting how our family has influenced the decision to own a ford truck...
My story isn't a lot different but it is a little. I too was born into ownership of my 53 f100. Dad was a big gear head and had many toys, the last of which was this 53 F100. I dont know the history of how dad got the truck or even when he got it. See, he died when I was 2.5 years old. The truck was stuffed into the old garage in behind our house and fortunatly for me, mom kept the truck.
The death of my dad was very hard for my family to accept so nobody would ever talk about him. If someone mentioned my dads name, it usually ended up in someone crying. In a quest to connect with my dad, I would sneak out of the house with the key to the locked garage. Dad had been working on the truck so the front clip had been removed but that didnt stop me from sliding between the truck and the wall of the small garage and weasling into the drivers seat. I would sit there for hours "driving" it, rowing through the floor mounted three speed transmission. I often wondered what the different positions meant with the shifter.
That occured from about age 5 until age 11. Mom married a wonderful man and we sold the old house and moved into the country on a farm. I insisted that we take the f100 and all of what remained of dads tools. Some members of new family on my step fathers side knew quite a bit about wrenching and helped guide the way on the f100 as much as they could (though we never did get much done). What I did learn though, was that my dad had stuffed a Pontiac 389 tri-power and its three speed tranny into the truck, many many years before.
I always had dream of having the 53 fixed up for when I turned 16 but the lack of knowledge on what to do got in the way. I bought a parts truck 53f100 to supplement some of the parts that I thought I needed to get dads truck on the road.
college happened, got married, have two kids, moved back to the midwest from the west coast, mom died and now I have dads 53 f100 in my garage, along with the parts 53, my newly aquired 55 F-something or another, my grandpas 72 Citroen DS, my Isuzu in the sig and my step fathers 77 Honda CB750.
My plans thus far are to build the 55 and the 53. I would like to keep with tradition and build the 53 for my son, hand it down and build the 55 with the same ideas my dad had with the 53. The 55 is all there and in good shape so it should be a quick build.
I have owned dads 53 for a little more than 30 years now and I am 33. It has never been drivable so I long to finish his idea. How long has your project lasted?! LOL
__________________
Proud member of No Sympathy truck club
My Dad always had stuff while I was before driving age. 1914 Model T
1917 Model T
1962 Merc 2 door
1962 Merc convert.
(both cars were the same tan
color...our neighbors thought
Dad was nuts)
1968 Cougar
then I became of age and Dad said what the f$%k.......I bought a 1970 Dodge van.
followed by a 1976 Dodge van.
Dad not wanting to be left out bought a 61 Econoline pickup to restore. We had fun with that.
Then I got the old car bug......plus a little bit of hippy van thrown in for giggles...I bought a 50 Chevy sedan delivery. Kinda fun but not big enough. So I had my brother look for a panel truck preferably Ford. I wanted the round body lines of a pre 57 panel.(no drip rails) In 1980 my brother found my 54 F100 panel and drove home my panel from California. It made the whole trip except the last 40 miles.
Now that panel has been thru alot of lives thru the years and been pushed aside for a couple of Cal-look VW's.....another 53 F100 followed by a
55 F100 followed by a
56 custom cab F100 and now a
56 M100 pickup.. made room by selling my
57 Sero trailer..................
back to the reason for this.........when telling my folks about these trucks being my favorite vehicles.......they said the neighbor down the street used to beat-ass down our street in a Mid-fifty F100 dark blue with white tonnau cover and white spare tire cover......when I was in my 6 to 10 year age range!! That truck made me stop and look cause of it's sound coming down the street but I didn't remember what it was till years later and that darn truck must have burned images of it in my brain that made me like them as much as I do now. (or getting past the hippy years?)
It's funny all these years later with my panel cause I always get people asking me if I still have that old truck?! "Damn straight!"
Michigan Rick
__________________
no time for reality when everything is fake.... T.Q.
1954 Ford F100 panel
1956 Mercury M100 pickup
lots of bicycles
I work for the cable company. I was working on a problem one day and cut through this guys yard. After I finished what I was doing I cut back through his yard commenting to the gentleman that he had a cool old truck. He then procedded to ask me if I wanted it. Thinking he was just kidding I said " only if it's free", well it was. He gave me a 1951 f2, with no bed and a 351 w in it. A week later I picked up a 51 f1 with a flat head v8. I still need to get the flat head picked up, but I am very happy right now. This is how I got into ford trucks. By the way this all started about 3 weeks ago.
My first Ford truck was a 2001 SVT Lightning, followed by a 2002 F150 Harley Davidson edition. For some goofy reason, I sold both of them. I've missed having a truck ever since (although we do have a Dakota but the wife drives it daily). My buddy has a '55 Chevy but hate the looks of it - not sure why, but something just doesn't look right about it. The Effies just appealed to me and seemed like a project I could take on and have fun with. I have a 1.5 year old little boy and my dad was always working on old cars (because he had to, not because he liked to - I found out later). But through that process I caught the "bug" and wanted to have a project like this that he could be around. In addition, my wife is eager to learn about how vehicles really work and without all the electronic crap of modern vehicles, this is a perfect platform to educate her on. Heck, she wants to learn how to weld! :-) She's awesome!
It began when my family bought a used '71 F100 longbox, something for driving logging roads and hauling hay bales for my sister's 4H critters. 302, 4 speed, some rust repairs had been done. A few years later it was mine. I didn't have any real plans for it, and then it got written off after a drunk ran into it while it was parked. A guy at work had a good looking 1957 F100 Styleside, so I looked for a '57 to '60 for my next truck. I bought a '60 M100 Styleside for $400 from a curber. The engine was badly worn, windshield cracked, rust in cab and box and fenders, damaged grille... remarkably little of value in it other than the 3 speed transmission and rear end (Dana 44 with limited slip). So, when I heard about a '59 M100 some months later that was rusting in a back lane, I checked it out. $225 later I was driving a '59 M100 Flareside with mostly straight sheet metal, a healthy 223, nice glass, and a rusty cab. I blew a few hundred bucks on 4 new LT235 tires and used slot mags, painted the grille black, and changed the headlight doors for chrome ones. I drove it until a) the cab rust got really bad and the doors barely closed, and b) something (I forget exactly what) went bad with the engine on a freeway run. It's been sleeping in a field since then; I borrowed the front axle for the '57, and this year, disassembled the box and front clip. What I haven't accomplished that I'd hoped to this year: remove engine and cab, sandblast and paint frame, fix rust in box and grille, put a good engine in, and celebrate it's 50th year by at least having an engine turn over in it.
Subsequently, leaving out the details...
'81 Mustang as a commuter car
'60 M100 (same one) with a better 223 for a few years
'60 Ford panel truck, but not on the road due to worse rust than expected, and need for inspection before registration
'81 Econoline, $600 and rusty... currently serving as storage for spare parts and home for critters.
'57 Ford panel, found on eBay... came with no engine, and what appear to be '59 or '60 Ford 4x4 springs and axles, a 1960 grille/hood/fenders, and a probably-illegal propane system. Put the engine and axles from the '60 M100 into it, all new brake hydraulics, and made the electrics work. "Borrowed" the gas tank from the '60 Ford panel and had it cleaned and coated. Paint was faded light blue; original colour was orange. It is currently taking a sabbatical in the carport while I do something about the front clip (still looking for a good '57 grille/hood/fenders). And decide on what colour it should be... Blitz Black? Blue (but darker)? Or that original orange?
Are you ready for this, as a freshman in high school i clean sheep crap out of a farmers barn for it. as a kid we bought firewood from him, and i asked him one day if he would sell it, he said no, but i could clean out his sheep barn for it, blood,sweat and nose plugs. drove it home and blew a rod on the way home first and only powered drive..
In addition, my wife is eager to learn about how vehicles really work and without all the electronic crap of modern vehicles, this is a perfect platform to educate her on. Heck, she wants to learn how to weld! :-) She's awesome!
That is cool. Come back here when she also wants to learn how to grind her new welds, and block sand a little bondo and we'll be really impressed.
__________________
'fenders
53 F100
"All Ford" Volare Truck
Fell and hit my head, then the next thing I knew I had a 51 F1 sitting in the garage!
but serioulsy, my stepdad had a 56 F-100 growing up and I liked it but when I started seeing the 51's I really liked the looks so I found one. It's all downhill from there
I was a '30s Hot Rod and Mustang Builder. Wife's Grandma gave up driving and gave us a Datsun Pick-Up. Drove it for a year and realized that Trucks are essential. Moved up to a series of properly sized '70s Ford Trucks until I saw my first '49. Love at first sight (wife is 48-50 dedicated also) I did have a very nice '67 (in my gallery) that was so low-milies I couldn't pass it up.
I need a '57 Fridge with a stupid million inch FE Motor before I die.... And my Wife may well kill me if I got one at the moment.......
This forum is owned and operated by Internet Brands, Inc., a Delaware corporation. It is not authorized or endorsed by the Ford Motor Company and is not affiliated with the Ford Motor Company or its related companies in any way. Ford® is a registered trademark of the Ford Motor Company.
