Just out of curosity. Where have all the stake bed 1948-56 trucks gone? I haven't seen one in years. I know not many where made and probably many ended up getting a regular pickup bed with fenders put on them. I think they are neat and apparently very rare now.
Thanks

 

That's funny because my '52 F-3 Marmon Herrington started out with an express bed, but when new the original owner put a unit hoist/stake bed on it. During restoration it will go back to an express bed.

 

I suppose any one of them that were up North ended up like this one, lol.

 

Seems the half ton beds are the rarest. Here's one sitting on a lot in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, that I saw a few weeks ago. Beat up pretty bad, but could be saved. If anybody needs the contact info let me know. I have no financial interest. Stu

 

There is a 1948 six cylinder equipped F1 on a ranch I worked on while in high school. Can't remember if it has the Ford script. The fellow's father bought it via black market.

 

I think a lot of the original flatbeds were used hard and rotted away. They were probably replaced with home made or after market units and used hard some more until they were scrapped. It's a lot easier to replace a beat up pickup box with a home made flat bed than replacing a flat bed with a box unless you have a F-1, stock boxes are being reproduced and sold by many different vendors.

 

I don't have all the production numbers handy but the 1950 F1 Stake production was less than 2% of the total. Not surprising few have survived.

 

I have a 1949 4-speed stake bed, pretty hard to find one.

 

I posted this earlier tonight, maybe some one might be interested:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...ete-truck.html

 

I'm curious how they did Mercury flatbeds. Did they have their own stamping of the back rail? Or did they have a plate that covered the Ford lettering?

 

52 Merc, good question.

 

You are right you don't see alot of f-1 stakes
you see the bigger ones
I have a 1948 f-1 stake 226 4sp
most of the wood on the back is original




Joe

 

Here is a ford book ad for stakes





Joe

 

My baby is a '53 F250 stake bed. At least it came as a stake bed, even tho she's got a nekkid fanny right now. I"ll build a new bed for it along the way. It has the short running boards, but there are a pair of metal supports just aft of the cab on the driver's side. not quite sure what went there. another running board section, or possibly winch controls as this was a service station work truck from what i can tell. Even still has the Eddy's Gulf logo onna doors.

 

There was a 53 F-100 stake bed in a local junk yard I got parts off back in 1998 when I rebuilt my '54. It looked like it would have been a neat truck in its day.

I think I have Ford literature that tells how many panels, pickups, and stakebeds/platforms were made somewhere. I will have to look for it and report back.