New Guy, Introduction, and Questions About a 1953 F-350
You got to start somewhere....
I recently started doing the research to restore my Dad's '53 Ford F-350. This truck has a long history in my family and it started when I was 16 and I bought it for him in 1978 because I owed him money for helping me build up & install a 396 in my '67 Camaro. I had noticed it outside a farm with $450 painted in shoe-polish on the windshield. Just so happened that I owed my Dad $450 and since he'd been talking about getting an old Ford, and the truck was in fine shape so it seemed like it was meant to be. A buddy & I managed to get the old flathead running and I drove it home to surprise him.
My Dad worked on it in his spare time and it went through several evolutions. He was a machinist so he made all the adapters and mounts and whatever else was needed including the body work & paint. First he pulled the 239 and the column shift 3-spd and replaced it with a 302 Ford that came out of his old Torino and hooked up to a NP 5-spd (working 5th) we pulled out of a '56 Chevy school bus. Then he had a 392 Hemi with didn't last long and then finally he built up the hot rodded 455 Olds that is still in it to this day.
Somewhere along the way, while I was in the Army, he installed a 3-spd auxiliary transmission (under-drive, direct-drive, and over-drive) out of a B-model Mack behind the 5-spd to get the revs down on the highway. Put that truck in 1st with the auxiliary in under-drive and you could redline the 455 and still not be at more than a walking pace with the 5.13 rear. In 5th and overdrive, it could reach scary fast speeds in a hurry and I know for a fact that in 3rd/Direct you could do wicked smoking donuts in it. He painted it dove grey and maroon, installed air-ride seats, an underdash AC, dual 35-gallon saddle tanks, and drove that truck everywhere for almost 30-years.
It was an unbelievable work truck & more reliable than the sunrise. It was more semi than light truck really. When I moved to Denver, I borrowed it to haul all my worldly possessions with me. When I got married, my soon-to-be & I drove it from our place in Denver to my wife's family's place in Michigan with a 32' gooseneck to haul back what I like to call her dowry (a like new JD Model H tractor, a portable sawmill, and various other equipment every married couple needs to get started in life). I never was able to master split shifting it like my Dad who could walk it up and down its 15 gears like he was born to it, but will all that Oldsmobile torque, you didn't need to. If you were running empty, you'd just leave it in over-drive and work the top four gears. If you were running heavy, you'd shift through the 5 in direct and then shift the auxiliary into OD when you got to cruising speed. You might need the under-drive if you had to plow the back 40.
A handful of years ago a wrecker rolled into it or it rolled into a wrecker outside of a cafe. Not quite sure how that played out but it ended up with the truck parked out in the weather at my Dad's place. My Dad started disassembling it with the intention to rebuild it in a different fashion. Slowly, out came the 5/3 combo in favor of a Turbo 400. Out came the split case rear end for what I think is a Chevy 1-ton rear with 4.10 gears. From the looks of it, it might have come out of truck bigger than that (see the bottom picture). The Olds survived but is tired. He'd talked of putting a warmed up flathead back in it with a modern truck tranny back into it. That's about as far as he was able to get; he was diagnosed with cancer and died this summer. He left the truck to me. It's come full circle.
I hope I didn't put you to sleep with that, once I started I had a hard time stopping.
Anyway, my biggest question right now is if the '53 F-350's share the same body parts, fenders, cabs, etc. as the smaller trucks like the F-100 and such. The F-350's fenders look longer to me but I don't have access to a F-100 to know for sure. The old F-350 needs patch corners for the cab, new inner fenders, and running boards but I don't know what other models will cross over with it.
Thanks for reading & I appreciate any help & information you folks could give me.
BTW, here's a pic of the truck when I got her home. I pulled the saddle tanks off of it as they'd gotten water in them and were full of holes. The paint has really faded after 30 years in the sun.
Welcome to FTE. You didn't put me to sleep with that post...I always enjoy reading a good truck story!
I've also got a family heirloom truck, a 56 F-250.
Here's some of what I've found out regarding the bigger trucks. The cab, hood, inner fenders, radiator support, and doors should be common with smaller trucks. Fenders are up to you. Ford made some fenders with larger openings for big wheels, but if you want to go with something closer to F-100 size, then you've got a much larger selection of used examples around as well as repros.
If you decide to go with a bed, most of the big trucks came with 8ft longbeds, 2ft longer than the beds that most F-100's came with. Some F-350's even came with 9ft beds. All of the components of the longbed are different from the short beds, and only a few are being reproduced. The front panel of the long bed is being reproduced by Mar-K in Oklahoma. The 54" wide tailgate was still being put on stepside trucks through the early 70's. The longbed running boards are not reproduced anywhere, and are hard to find in good shape. I've heard of some guys shortening the frame of the big trucks to fit a short bed, but to me that takes some of the "big truck" character away.
The running gear of F-250 and bigger trucks are not common with F-100's. My F-250 has 8 lug wheels, a full floating Dana 60 rear axle, larger brakes, different kingpins, spindles, heavier duty rear leaf springs, just to name a few things. Many of the big trucks came with custom diamond plate steel, heavy duty bumpers instead of the chrome, car like bumpers on the F-100.
If you have "split rim" or "widowmaker" wheels, everything I've read on this forum suggests you should get rid of them as they are dangerous and tire shops won't work on them. I can't back up that statement with any technical details, but hopefully somebody more knowledgeable will chime in.
Again, welcome to the forum and I hope you keep us posted with progress on your truck!
It is always great to read about a truck with history. To make a new bed, take your measurements to a sheetmetal shop and have them make your bends. The rolls can be made with electro weld tubing and careful welding. Good luck and have fun. Keep us posted.
What we need to do is find someone here who has a "Salesmans Handbook" for the 56 series.
It will have tables for the differences in suspension and measurements (including wheelbase) between the F-100 and your F-350. I believe those are the major differences.
Thanks folks - I learned a lot right there! Commonality with the smaller trucks will make getting parts a lot easier. Is there a good vendor for the body panels/parts I'll need?
Check with Mid-Fifty. Google will turn them up. They seem to have the best combination of price, availablity, and customoer satisfaction that I've seem for the '53-'56 machines.
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Welcome to the board! Thanks for sharing the history of your truck. The old thing has had a pretty adventerous life, very cool.
I'm running a 500ci Caddy in my 49 F-1, like the 455 Olds it has gobs of torque and can actually be fairly efficient (if you can keep your foot out of the carb).
Good luck on your rebuild
Bobby
__________________ ...Someday our foes may win... ...but NOT today!!
I don't have any advice for you, but wanted to let you know I enjoyed reading your story. Take care of that truck, and good luck with the parts search. You came to the right place.
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I'll add my welcome. Great story. Sounds like your Dad was a resourceful fellow. So much so that he somehow converted the front axle from the stock 6 lug x 7.25" bolt circle to 8 lug x 6.5" circle. Can you tell if he simply used adapters to change the pattern, or did he swap the whole axle? If he swapped axles, any idea what the donor truck was? And like you said, the rear was obviously swapped. The stock would have been a split case Timken.
And to the above comment about widow maker rims, the back one pictured is not a widow maker. It's the better locking ring style two piece. I can't see what the rest of the rims are. Stu
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Stu
'52 F-3 Marmon-Herrington V-8
'52 F-3 Marmon-Herrington I-6
Check with Mid-Fifty. Google will turn them up. They seem to have the best combination of price, availablity, and customoer satisfaction that I've seem for the '53-'56 machines.
Thanks, I'll check into them. Any feedback on National Parts Depot? They turned up on a google and they seem to have most every part I'd want.
I'll add my welcome. Great story. Sounds like your Dad was a resourceful fellow. So much so that he somehow converted the front axle from the stock 6 lug x 7.25" bolt circle to 8 lug x 6.5" circle. Can you tell if he simply used adapters to change the pattern, or did he swap the whole axle? If he swapped axles, any idea what the donor truck was? And like you said, the rear was obviously swapped. The stock would have been a split case Timken.
And to the above comment about widow maker rims, the back one pictured is not a widow maker. It's the better locking ring style two piece. I can't see what the rest of the rims are. Stu
OK, I just finished crawling under it. The original axle is still in place. Looks to me like he made an adapter for it and phased it so that the original 6 bolt pattern doesn't interfere with the new 8. I'd have to pull the wheel off to check further but can see that the adapter is screwed in from the backside of the hub standoff. Front rims are 16.5s. Rears are 16" splits. He was a hell of a machinist. 50+ years in the trade, had his own shop for most of it, and if he'd lived another hundred years it still wouldn't have been enough time for him to teach me everything he knew.
What part of the world do you call home? I noticed the truck has New Mexico plates and the trailer has Colorado plates.
Bobby
I live in Denver. My Dad lived in Silver. Let me tell you, pulling that truck home over the Black Range and then Raton Pass behind my Tacoma was no picnic. Spent a lot of time in 3rd!
Again, thanks for the kind welcome, folks! Once I get the parts situation sorted, I'll keep you updated on my progress. Right now, the plan is to take it back a little closer to original with some 50's hotrod style which was his intent and put of bed on it. It's a 130" wheelbase dually chassis so I imagine finding a bed for it won't be easy and would have to have the fenders widened to cover the outside duals. At the moment I'm searching for a decent '53 flathead core to rebuild for it and will most likely try to find a late model 5-spd to mate to it. I have my own machine shop and can fabricate and oddities I may need but it'll be a lot of new ground for me.
Welcome. I really admire the folks with the Big Trucks on this Forum. Us 1/2 ton 'rs are a dime-a-dozen but when you're building the bigger stuff, I think it's a special breed that is so cool.
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