I recently purchased a 1955 one ton and it has a pickup bed. I have searched the internet and can't seem to find out much about this model. I am interested in knowing if there were many made and their approx value. I have found many flat bed models on the internet but none with the pickup bed. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Love to see pictures ^_^

As far as I know, which isn't too far, they where originally flatbeds at that point, maybe not. Possible someone did a custom job like myself. What size is the bed? (6.5, 8, 9')

lol sorry, I'm more curious than helpful I suppose.

 

Thanks for your reply. This truck appears to be all original including the bed. I did see one 1954 Ford one ton with a pickup bed on the internet and the person called it an express and it was all original. I will measure the bed tomorrow. Thanks again for your help.

 

get pics also.. welcome to the forum..

 

First of all, welcome to the group. Glad to have you.

As you've described the truck, it is all original. The one ton Express beds of that era were 9' pickup beds. Below are detailed drawings of the same truck from the 1954 Dealer Handbook.




Besides the bed and associated wheelbase, a main difference between your model and the smaller trucks was the wheels. As shown the F-350 had a 130" wheelbase compared to the 118" wheelbase of the F-250. The F-250 used 16" wheels having 8 lugs x 6.5" bolt circle. Your F-350 has 17" x 5.5" wheels having 6 lugs x 7.25" bolt circle. The Chassis Manual lists them as Ford part #B5Y 1007-B. At this point it would help if I could see pictures of your wheels. Some of these wheels had only 1/2" of dish, while other single wheel designs had 3.5" dish. Whatever the dish, they are a multi-part style that used an outer rim known as the Firestone RH-5°. The common term for them today is "widowmaker". These wheels are designed so that the halves of the outer rim interconnect at the mid point of the wheel. Today most reputable tire shops won't touch these wheels for insurance and liability reasons. Below is a picture of how the wheel halves connect.



There are no easy solutions to the problem. None of the wheel companies use that bolt pattern anymore. Other wheels were manufactured beginning in 1956 that were a tubeless one piece design, but finding them in yards could take serious looking. These came in 17.5" and 19.5" sizes. This is where seeing your wheels would help me give you exact descriptions of replacement wheels.

If finding used replacements doesn't work out, there are companies that take centers from old widowmakers and remount them into new tubeless outer rims. Several are Amercian Wheel Specialist of Pasco, WA, Stockton Wheel in Stockton, CA, and Wheel Vintiques, also in CA. Stu

 

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. My name is Steve and I am a rancher here in Oklahoma.

Hey Truckdog, thank you very much for the information, that is what I have. It does have a 9' bed. I purchased the truck from a farmer about an hour away but haven't picked it up yet. I plan to pick it up this weekend and will take some pics and post here. I had forgotten about those split rims but I bet that is what it has, I will take pics of the wheels when I get the truck home. Thank You!

 

Well there's a rare sight for you, I've heard of 9' express beds, never seen one! Sounds like you have yourself a pretty interesting truck!

 

Pics please when you can

 

It will probably be the first of next week before I can post pics but will gladly do so and appreciate any input from you guys after you see the pics.

 

Here is a link to some pics of my Dad's 53 F350 9' bed truck. sadly he sold it on ebay to a guy who turned it into a hot rod. those running boards were LONG. i think the wheels might have been "homemade" into one piece rims somewhere along the way .

Mark

53 F350 express/service bed album | Mark | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy.

 

i was kinda chasing one in michigan i think , on ebay for awhile myself . i had a homemades 1 ton long bed myself . i have only seen a couple of 'em to date . didn't seem to survive as well as the lil' trucks . the one i was oogling , he got i believe 3500 out of it and i thought it was kinda high for it's shape .............. oh and welcome too this lil' corner of the interverse .

 

I picked the truck up today and have attached some pics that I took before unloading it. I thought it had a nine foot bed but the bed measures eight feet and the way the running boards fit from the cab to the bed, it sure looks original. Someone took some of the trim off of the hood in order to start sanding it but I have the trim. One of the hood trim pieces is an eagle hood ornament, is this original to the truck? The VIN is F25V5K20204.

Guys, I sure do appreciate your input, I have never seen this series F-350 with a bed like this and no nothing about it and would appreciate any information you may have.

Thanks!


I just decoded the VIN and it says my truck is an F-250 but the emblems say F-350?

 

It appears you have the 250 axles and hubs, the 250 8' bed, a 250 vin, it's a pretty sure bet your truck really is an F-250. Hoods and/or emblems are easliy changed by previous owners, for whatever reason, so it's not always an accurate way to tell the series.

 

The two center stake pockets, as seen from Stu's pictures, are a dead giveaway to a nine foot express bed. The eight footers have one center stake pocket. For sure the express bodies were not as common as the stake bodies.

 

I think I will get a big, big hammer! Not knowing very much at all about these years trucks, I think I just got..got!