I am working on a 1956 F100 and wqould like to bring it back to stock, with safety upgrades (I think).

Here are my questions.
1. The truck did not have an engine. I can acquire a low mileage 292 cheap, but the original engine was a 272. If I need to sell in the future, will it hurt the value to go with the 292?
2. In studying this site, many poeple have upgraded to power master cylinder and disk brakes up front.
3. Also, many folks are going with the Toyota power steering.
4. I have also read that for safety reasons, some people have moved the tank from the cab to the bed.

In terms of the value of the truck when I am done, am I best off keeoing everytihng bone stock in terms of brakes, steering and the tank versus upgrades?

Any thoughts on the same questions for the 292?

Thanks for your guidance -- I am new at this. I want a safer truck, but it is a weekender so I want to preserve originality where possible.

 

Hey Tbuilder,
Welcome Aboard! Let's see - lot's of questions...

o Keeping it original vs. making changes - hurting re-sale value...
I would do what you want with the truck - it's very expensive to keep it totally original - Not sure anyone makes any money messing with these old trucks. I'd do what ever works for you.

o Moving the gas tank - Lot's of opinions out there. If it's full of gunk & you have to mess with it - it's nice to get the extra room in the cab. Our's smelled & I didn't like gas sloshing around right next to me. I'm very happy with our 1970 22 gallon tank out under the bed (38% more range).

o Engine Choice - Lot's of options to choose from - I think you'd
do yourself a favor at re-sale time staying with a Ford Engine. We went with a 351W with a mild cam - around 400 HP - Honestly it was overkill -
A nice little stock 289 would have worked fine for knocking around town.

I do like the dual chamber master cylinder & 4 wheel disc brakes - Nice to be able to stop with modern power brakes!

Good luck over there & Have fun!

Ben in Austin
1950 F1 (351w/AOD)

 

From what I've observed over the years no one really cares if a truck is original or not. Some people do make concour trucks but they seem harder to sell than one with modern upgrades. Most of us consider modern upgrades, especially safety wise, to just be a part of owning a vintage truck. They where still figuring out many things in the 50s and parts wouldn't become how we know them today till the muscle car era.

Most people that even know these trucks didn't know the 272 was one of the V8s, almost everyone I've talked to asks if it has a 292. To my knowledge they are the same block and parts (I think it's the bore that makes up the extra 20 cubic inches), so it's not going to look any different.

Moving the tank to under the bed is more of something you do for more room in the cab. If you're hit hard enough to rupture the tank in the cab, you're already a goner. With that being said I'm moving mine under the bed anyways, lol.

Upgrading the master cylinder is a smart thing to do. The originals have one chamber, modern ones have two, one for the front brakes, one for the rear. Why that's important is if you have a leak you don't lose all your brakes but just half of them.



From everything I've seen if you build this truck to be used, it will be worth the most. Like I said safety upgrades are considered a standard thing to do, so if you don't do them chances are the person who buys it will, and they will also see it as a downside that it hasn't been upgraded. The market for a pure concour is very small, and you'd have to have something very special to make it worth anything more than one that has safety upgrades. Actually ones that have been really built up sell for the most (original look, but lot of power and upgrades).

These trucks aren't like say old Mustangs, there is no GT500 that's worth more all original. Maybe a '56 Big window in red or black, but truthfully I've yet to see anyone really care if it's truly original or upgraded. The two big things that I've seen effect value: body work, powertrain. If you do extreme changes to the body it appeals to a smaller market, most people want the 50s look. The powertrain isn't so much about if it's original as it is if it's Ford or not. Basically any Ford engine you put in there is good. If you put a Chevy in it, it devalues it a bit just because people don't like to see a Chevy in a Ford (course it sure beats nothing in there!)


With all that being said, do whatever you want with it and enjoy it. It's very hard to devalue one of these trucks and making them able to be more of a truck than before increases their value. It takes something pretty extreme to effect it with these things thankfully. It's worth what someone will pay for it, but almost everyone looking to buy one wants it to be used, not to be tucked away like a rare muscle car. The market for a safer truck is huge, the market for an untouched one is tiny, everyone wants to actually use one.


Love to see pictures if you get a chance!

 

I know that this is not a science, but it is good to get some guidance from people who have been doing this awhile. I will be posting pictures of progress soon. Truck is apart and at the media blaster.

 

Looking forward to seeing pic's. I would also keep in mind that you will only recover a portion of your expenses regardless of the build.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by 76f350spercamprspeal

Welcome to FTE, Best Damn Forum EVER!
------------------------
Here's How to Post Pictures:
1. Login to FTE.
2.Click User CP (In the Top Left Hand Corner)
3.(On the Left, There will be a list, The 5th Option Down, will say "Pictures & Albums) Click That.
4.Then, Click Add Album, Enter a title, and description, if ya want to.
5. Click Upload Pictures, Then click Browse, Locate the Files of your truck. (You can add 3 files at a time)
5. Click Upload.
6. Add a description to the individual pictures, then click save.
7. Add more files if ya want.
8. Click The Picture you want to post, it will give you two codes at the bottom, Right Click The Second one (It say's BB Code, Then Say's [IMG]http:blahblahblah...[/IMG])
Then, Once that is highlighted, Right Click, Then Copy, Then Paste it into your post.
You can add up to 30 Images in one FTE Post.
If, Ya need any help, Don't hesitate to ask.


Quote:
Originally Posted by old_dan

You can also go to the "Garage" tab and start an album right here on FTE. After you post pictures to an album, we can look in your album, but you'll also be able to "insert a picture" by pasting in a link to the picture in your album.

It seems awkward, but whenever you "insert a picture" to one of these threads, the forum is looking for the picture somewhere on the web (which is always available) rather than from somewhere on your hard drive (which isn't always available).

Quote:
Originally Posted By Jolly Roger Joe

Welcome to FTE!

Go to Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket and sign up for a free account. Then create an album for your truck. Upload any pics you want to post on FTE to that album. Have this album open on your computer when you want to post pics on FTE.

While you're making a post on FTE, select the pic you want to post from your Photobucket album. When the large version of the pic is open, right mouse click on it and select "View Image Info". The image info will be highlighted and will look something like this:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ghtsafter1.jpg

Copy that highlighted info (right click / copy).

When you have the spot in your post where you want the pic to be placed, select the "Insert Image" icon at the top of the post (looks like a mountain) and paste (right click / paste) the image info you copied in the highlighted box (just shows "http://" when it opens).

Your pic will be placed in the post.

Hope that helps.

Here's a tutorial Bob put together: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/67...-pictures.html

 

You need to decide if you are building this truck for you or for resale. If you are building it for you to enjoy for some time, then build it exactly the way you would like it to be. Put very little or no weight on what others have done, and especially don't pay attention to what "is done in the magazines" or building advice from well meaning but virtually clueless "friends and associates" who's major building experience was on what came in a box at the hobby shop. My advice is always: make a list of what you want the truck to be and how it will be used (NOT modifications) Then decide if the stock truck will satisfy those desires or not. If the answer is yes, then just rebuild any and all that is worn. If the answer to any of your desires is no, define why not, and what might be done (modified or replaced) to bring it up to a satisfactory state. Way too many novices jump in with a list of modifications without any real clue as to if they are actually needed or are even desirable for their use, just because they read that's what was done to a feature in a magazine, at a car show or was recommended as "necessary" by someone else, then after a year or two realize they are in way over their heads financially and in their ability to complete everything.
As far as building for resale, you need to spend only the minimum necessary to make the truck drivable, dependable, and safe. Make the changes that improve those parameters. There are a whole lot more potential buyers out there looking for a reasonably decent looking drivable truck they cannot build themselves than museums looking for an exact OEM restoration to put on display. Stock F100s are not particularly rare or in high demand at ridiculous prices. Very few will ever make money over their rebuild costs.

 

Thanks for the insight! I think we are going with everything stock except the brakes up front, master cylinder, power steering and maybe the tank. I think we are going to leave the stock drop axle, springs, etc. My only confusion at this point is that by the time you buy the power steering and brake kits, you night as well put a new frint suspension in. Gotta figure that one out.

 

Are you increasing the power considerably? Are you going to be driving in heavy expressway traffic? Do you normally drive up hard and then brake hard? Do you drive a lot on curvy hilly roads? Is your weather extremely wet or extremely hot? are you going to be towing a heavy trailer? If the answers are no, there is no good reason to upgrade the front brakes to disk. The only advantage to disk brakes is they tend to fade less with heavy use/when hot, and they dry quicker when driven through water. The bendix type brakes that came on the truck are self energizing, disks are not and therefore needed to be boosted, and the bendix work better than disks when cold.
It is a LOT more expensive to change the front suspension if you use an aftermarket (usually referred to as a MII) IFS. There are a lot of hidden costs and modifications involved besides the kit and full kits from a reputable american manufacturer start at about 2K. Final costs will be close to double the kit cost. They are not for the timid or inexperienced (do a search on MII IFS installations here for other's experiences) and typically takes months to accomplish. Trying to adapt junkyard IFS is less expensive for the parts, but the parts are likely to need rebuilding and may be obsolete, don't fit particularly well without major custom fabrication, are twice as much work and has 4 times as many potential pitfalls all for very little gain over the OEM front end in the end.

 

Hey Tbuilder.
Hmmm.. Changing out the stock rear axle is pretty straight forward - not much welding, move a few shock perches, etc. 2 weekends max. The Front Suspension is another story. Hmmmm....

We went the Mustang II route with coilovers from No Limit Engineering.
The parts cost started as $2600 including front brake hardware & it opened up cans of worms all over the place. It cost another $2000 to get it installed. New steering column to hook up to the new rack , $500 +$200 for new wheel, borgeson joints, etc. Why not re-wire the truck now that it's all ripped out, etc. Motor mounts, trans mounts, electric fan, etc...

It's nice but you are down for a while (6 months for us) & it costs a lot of money. If you just leave in place the existing axle configuration & upgrade the bushings, etc. It's $800 plus a front disc conversion - $350 or so.

I don't want to convince you not to do the Mustang II front end - just want to make sure you have realistic expectations - it's major frame surgery & it affects steering, wiring, engine mounts, radiator positioning, etc. Good luck over there!

Ben in Austin

 

You know.....there is a lesson here that you guys are making me think about which is perhaps start with a few things then do more later if requried. So I can do the dual master cylinder now (the ones that I have seen are for the disk conversion but I guess there are ones out there if you keep the drums all around). Drive it for awhile, then figure out the next thing.

OK, back to parts search for master cylinder upgrade for all drum configuration. Suggesions?

So how hard are they to turn without power steering? Mine was in parts when purchased so I have no idea.

 

Hey Tbuilder,
Here is a link to one of our members who did the front end conversion
earlier this year. It shows the work - Wally did a very good job using Heidt's IFS - pretty sane approach to it. I think it took them about 2 months with some experienced help.

We replaced our master cyclinder up front - I think we used a '68 mustang part for a dual chamber - under $100. You might want to look for one of those.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...g-project.html

Ben in Austin

 

the gals at Mid Fifty are some of the best friends you can have. Order one of their free catalogs Mid Fifty F-100 Parts - Home and keep it close by for all the great reference drawings info and tables in it as well as almost any part you might need. You can't beat their excellent service and knowledge.
If the steering box is in good repair, (few are, most were not maintained properly over the last 60 years and heavily (ab)used), The axle kingpins replaced, the alignment set and radial tires are used at the proper inflation the truck will steer like, well, a truck. You may find the armstrong steering acceptable, but I doubt your wife will want to take it shopping or anywhere she needs to maneuver it at slow speeds. The large stock steering wheel and flatish angle help give you leverage, but may or may not be comfortable depending on how tall and/or big around you are.
If you retain the front beam axle and suspension the Toyota power steering conversion is a worthwhile consideration, it works very well. If the stock box is in need of rebuilding or replacing, and you use a used Toy box (they are extremely tough and seldom need rebuilding) and U pull pump it is close to a toss up in cost, and an easy conversion. You can read about it's pros and cons here: Toyota Steering Box Swap For 1948-1960 Trucks . Articles