My 52 has a long bed on it but I have yet to see a pic online of a 52 long bed. LMC catalog only has parts for a short bed but does sell wood floors for a long bed. So I am confused about the bed. The running boards that came in the back of it do not seam to fit and only go from front fender to rear of cab. And then LMC has running boards for a lot of money but do they go fender to fender, which is what I want. Does anyone know more. I am almost to the point of building wooden ones to match the wood bed. What do ya'll thin?

 

There were two long boxes. 8' regular for the F2's and F3's. There was also a 9' express box.

The short running boards you have (if rounded at the back) were typical on a truck that had a flatbed instead of a box on the back. I'd guess that's what your truck had from the factory. Someone later stuck a long box back there.

You're right, most of the catalogs show only F1 half-ton replacement parts. Running boards for an F1 won't fit your truck. These have an extra 8" between the fenders.

I have an 52 F2 that someone took a torch to and cut off the long running boards at the back of the cab - probably installed a flatbed at some point. When I got the truck the 8' box had been put back on. So my running boards are butchered up. I haven't decided how to fix the po's hack job.

 

I know a lot of the history of the truck because the guy I got it from, his dad used to own a junk yard and it was one of their junk yard trucks. And as far as the bed, if I remember right has been on it since then. It even has had modifications to it for engine hauling and strapping points. I will pick his brain some more today. And I did check the bed, it is 8'. So I am guessing it is going to be really hard to find running boards for this? Also the short running boards do not match up with the mounting brackets on the cab.

 

The Express beds on 48 - 52s were the 8' variety only. The 9' came on the mid year tonners. Nobody makes replacement parts, tail gates, running boards, or fenders for these beds. Finding good used is the only way to put them back together. Stu

 

What Stu said. There used to be one place that did make the 8' box many years ago but stopped, probably because there was low demand. Whenever I see a post like yours pop up I give the manufacturer's name and suggest you contact them, maybe if there is enough interest they might make a few.

Dan Carperter Specialties
DAN CARPENTER'S SPECIALTIES,1951-52, 1953-56, 1957-72 Ford Truck Beds

Their 8' box wasn't exactly like the original but were the only and closest you'd find.



The above pictures were sent to me some years ago by a person who bought one the Carpenter's boxes. The didn't have the raised panels but they had all of the other features of the factory boxes.

 

Bob - Looks like it had the flat/rectangular stake pockets like the later F-1 half ton beds. The factory Express bed ones had the sculpted pockets like the early half ton beds. The pockets on the Express beds, though, only looked like the early half ton pockets. They were actually taller and wider. You can buy repops of the half ton ones, IIRC, but they'd have to have major modification to work on an Express bed. Stu

 

Stu,

I agree, there are some differences but they seem like minor differences when you realize that no one else made a box this close to the originals. It's kind of like the arguments over the RV wheels verses heavy duty snap ring wheels for the larger trucks, it's better to have something close enough that will work to get the truck on the road and enjoy. Unless you're doing a points judged restoration this reproduction box is a lot better than waiting to find the correct box or nothing at all. The side pockets wouldn't be much of a problem to fabricate or even alter the available F-1 pockets, they may not be 100% correct but 99.9% of the public wouldn't know and all they will see is a very nice looking old truck.

 

No quarrel on any of that. Seems, though, that somebody did a thread a while back (maybe a long while back) about their efforts to modify the repop pockets to match the Express bed type. It didn't sound like an easy job given all the compound curves, and unless you were replacing them all you wouldn't want some to look correct and others to look odd. Stu

 

I think that post might have been Jon Stark, irondragon, I think he said he mistakenly bought the F-1 pockets thinking they were the same as the Express boxes'. I don't think it would be too hard to fab a set if you make a form out of a chunk of hardwood. It would take some time but you could fab four end pockets that would be pretty close to the same. The center pockets would be different, you'd need a different form. I've hammer formed a few parts for my Buick project and it worked out pretty good. I did them pretty fast because the parts were being used inside the car but with a little more work I think I could form the side pockets. Some day I'll have to give it a try.

 

Might have been Irondragon, don't remember. I'm gonna have to do the same for patches on several of my pockets. None need to be replaced in total, but several will need lower sections where dirt got trapped and rotted out the pocket. I thought too that an oak buck and some patience would take care of it.

I've also got a near perfect bed on one of the trucks that I've thought I could use to pull a mold then make one or more out of fibre glass. That wouldn't be hard at all. Stu

 

I hate fiberglass, spent too many years, about 5, repairing truck front ends. It's easy to work with but itchy as he. It's a cheap way to reproduce parts, I plan to build sidemount tire covers for the Buick out of fiberglass, used ones sell for $500-1000, a little too steep for me.

 

Thanks everyone, but one more question to Stu. You said (Looks like it had the flat/rectangular stake pockets) But I went out and took a good look at them and all the edges are radius and almost go all the way to the bottom of the bed and the bottom of it has a large bubble radius. What does that mean?

 

hey bob and stu,his bed has the raised panels on the side,would that not make it a 48-mid 50 express box?or did all the express boxes have the raised panels and just the f-1s did not have them.
mtflat, i have a extra set of running boards i get with my 50 merc m-68,they are not exactly like my boards but they are the same length.let me know if i can help you out with this.

 

Yes they are raised panels. The bed is actually in pretty good shape, so I guess I will just need to practice up on my welding so I and fix the two small spots of cancer.

 

All of the Express beds, from '48 to '52, had the raised panel sides and rounded/sculpted/bubble radius pockets. This is the way the early half ton beds were done too. I don't want to say when they changed the half tons to the slab sides and square pockets because I'm sure I'll be wrong, so I'll defer to the half ton folks on that. The reproduction bed above has these square half ton type pockets. I also now see that it has the late half ton style head board. The Express beds all had rounded upper edges with raised stiffening indents across the span of the headboard. Also, the upper edge corners were welded to the sides as opposed to the squared off ends seen on the reproduction. I don't have a good picture of an Express bed saved, but maybe one of the others does. Stu