So I picked up the rear half of Charlie a few months ago, (I call him Charlie because of the letter "C" in the grill) I finally brought the front half home today and I guess I never realized that 48-50's had this type of MAgic Air heater option (like this one) but this one looks original to the truck and the back of the heater box looks like it has "Aug 10 1950" in yellow paint on it.

Vin number is 98**** I'll post the rest later along with the firewall numbers on the Vin cutoff thread.,

So now I have two of these front grill guards only this one has the "C" in it. the Po said his dad purchased it new in Colorado and then later pulled the engine to put in a merc car, and cut the truck in half to make a trailer. The cab is dang near perfect for sitting under a tree for who knows how long (near perfect other than the roof got caved in, I think he said by a big branch that fell on it?

Anyway, thought it was kind of an interesting truck and history and loved the custom after market grill guard with the "installed by" so figured I would share.

















Cheers\

Josh

 

I almost got mine tomorrow ('49/50 F3), except his ignition locked up, lol. 3500 miles on his brand new Chevy truck, lol. Karma, I say....Karma. Or would that be with a C?

 

Ouch, hope the warranty is still good!

I wonder if the "C" was maybe for Colorado? or Cow Puncher???


here's the rear half. it was gone (sold) before I even picked it up....

 

Amazing shape, Josh! Where did you get it? That front end would look good on Bobby T's truck...

 

I have been driving by the bed (made into trailer) for about 15 years but only really started paying any attention to it over the last couple years. (Only about 3 miles from my house) had someone needing the bed and tailgate etc, but when I talked to the owner he said he would only let the entire package go, so now I have some extra 48-50 parts. Fenders have usual rust and are dented up but grill, hood, etc are decent.

 

Nice find there, Josh. My 50 from my high school days had that same Magic Air heater, too. Same control head and everything. It was obviously a running change during 1950 to the inboard motor style, but apparently the catalogs never made reference to it. There was an argument..er..discussion some time ago with a particular cross gender person that shall remain nameless about that, and now I know I was right. ;-) What style heater box to air tube boot does that one use, round or square? Mine had the square style.

 

Clue to the early/late 50 bed side mystery! Truck was obviously built after Aug 10, 1950, and it has the early style bedsides.

 

LOL, Ya I kinda remember those discussions as well, thats one reason why I wanted to post up what I had here. This one still has the Rubber boot and it's square also.


This one being an F-2 I'm not sure how the bedsides change play in though? ( I failed to mention it's an F2 earlier)

I'll post up the full vin number later and in the vin cut off thread, the firewall also has numbers stamped in it. I beleive it is a Kansas City build.


Question,
on the bottom of the dash rail below the starter button there is a switch (2 pole ) that switches left and right, any idea what it would be for? I have yet to pull the dash parts.

 

I think that switch was for turning the dash lights on and off.

 

If it's an F2, then the raised panels would have stayed.

Josh, that's in pretty good shape. Wish I was close enough to buy that off your hands.

 

Come on Havi, he's only across the hall,lol

 

It's a big hall, and parts are too heavy, lol.

 

Ya,I guess they'd get stuck in the door way too,lol

 

The '48/50 F-7 I bought for the cab I used on my F-2 also had the Magic Air heater system in it. The truck only had 3000 miles on it and it looked all original.

The Express boxes had the raised panels through the Bonus Built years. There were slight difference however. The original box on my F-2 had round wheel wells but a box I found to replace it had elongate wheel wells. I don't know the reason for this, whether it was a year model change or an assembly plant difference.

And, yes the switch under the headlight switch is to turn the dashboard lights on and off. I assume they used the switch on country roads at night to help see the road by cutting off the glare of the dash board.

 

Sorry, my bad. I totally missed the F-2 thing. No mysteries solved today.

And to echo the others, the switch is for the dash lights. There is no dimmer for those, and there is a pretty good glare on the windshield from the gauges at night, as I recall. It's kind of inconvenient either way, lights on or off, as you can imagine.