I wouldn't worry about the spalyed ubolts to much. I agree that it doesn't "look" right but it seems it has held on for this long so I doubt it will cause future problems. Making a new longer top plate would be easy and cheap. Would give you the look you want plus it would be hard to tell it wasn't factory. I just noticed something about those old factory photos today. There had been much talk about the wide lip front fender vs the narrow lip front fenders. What has been proven is that what wheels the truck left the factory with dictated what front fenders the truck got. 17.5s and 19.5s for the most part got the narrow lip front fender and 15 and 16s got the wide lip. Stu posted this info out of his master parts manual a while back. Iirc there was only one case where a 17.5 was on a wide lip fender. I think it was 1958. Anyway, back to the old photo, Thats a 1959 wearing 19.5s and has the wide lip fender which should have never happened. I will chalk it up to a promo photo.

 

I remember those discussions of the wide lip vs narrow. I found this in the Ford parts catalog.






It confirms your/Stu's info for 57-58, then for 59-60 models it looks like the 17.5's were dressed with wide lip fenders. Thats the way my truck was delivered from dealer, 17.5's with wide lip! I like the way the trucks look in those photos with 19.5's and wide lip fenders.

 

Thats the one Wally. Thanks for posting it again. And I see I stand corrected. So since 1959 was the first year of the factory 4x4, a F250 with the 19.5 wheel option would have been the only one with the narrow lip wheel. Just like mine

Any other 59/60 4x4 with 17.5 or smaller would have had the wide lip correct?

 

I think thats right Mark. I never noticed that your truck has the thin lips, just went bake through your gallery.

 

Gents,


Thanks for the input on the u-bolts.


I checked my front axle over the weekend. It does have the staggered ratios. 4:56 rear, 4:55 front. I'd heard of this before, just had never seen it.


Funny thing about the springs, I ordered a new set for the front as they are well spent and arching the wrong direction. I checked my Ford parts books and it indicated the "correct" front spring on a '60 F250 should have 8 leafs. I counted both of mine, and there are only 7? The guy that I got the springs from said his manual had option for both 7 and 8 leaf. I went with 8 leaf, but seems odd that there are so many discrepancies.


As far as the wide/narrow lip fenders go, which does mine have? I searched some images, and I'm "new" to Ford trucks, but was curious how to tell the difference between the two. Is that any way to detect which wheel size was "factory" on my truck? Sounds like it does to a degree.


Thanks fellas.


Jonathon

 

Jonathon; your truck has the wide lips!

 

Thanks, Wally.


In the process of digging around my engine working on getting it un-stuck I noticed a tag riveted to the side of the block just aft of the oil breather down-tube.


There are several groups of alpha-numerical values, but the one that stuck out the most was "C.I.D: 312"


I will do some reading on this, but looks like a 312 may have found its way into my truck at some point in its live. I understand the only good way to differentiate the two is to measure bore/stroke or look at the code on the main caps.


Funny the stuff you discover when you get into things...


Jonathon

 

I like that part of the process.

 

Hi Jonathan, is that truck from BC? I'm asking because a friend of mine had a yellow 1960 F250 4X4 way back when we were in our late teens, early 20's. The one in your pic looks just like the one he had. It was a very cool old truck, even then. It would be awesome if this truck was the one we used to run around in.

 

The history I got on the truck was that it was originally from the state of Colorado. I did find some old registration papers dated into the mid to late 70's that indicate it was there until I bought it from a gentleman in Goodland Kansas.


Jonathon

 

Thank you for the reply. I didn't think it would be the actual truck but I had to ask. It's great that you have the past history of the truck. IMO it adds some intrinsic value to them.

Good luck with your project.

 

I agree, and thank you.

Jonathon