Mack Hils makes reproduction beds and bed parts including the correct stamped floor. There are about 100 spot welds to put it in and the formed reproduction floor is very wavy. I had braces everywhere, particularly off the shop ceiling to hold the new floor in place and level it the best that I could while spot welding. The original trucks had wavy bed floors, I understand why.
DO NOT DO IT!

EDIT:
I looked up Mack Hils. It looks like it has been sold and is a custom fabrication business. It also looks like they no longer make the bed floor for 48-50. Based on my experiences, it is probably a good thing! I bought the reproduction floor about 25 years ago and finally installed it a few years ago. The bed with the installed reproduction floor is currently in a friends paint booth ready to shoot final color on the first "warm" day.

 

Sounds like you are ready to put that bed "to bed" !!

 

It continues to fight me. The final coat of prime I tried to shoot the entire bed including the floor at the same time. I just could not keep a wet edge. I have the floor masked out and will shoot that in color 2nd.

 

Nice project! Next time you have trouble with carriage bolts you might try tack welding a nut to the head.

 

Hey Doug,
The door latch hardware isn't very pricey. It's figuring out which piece you need that's the challenge. Also these doors tend to sag when the hinge area is rusted out - plus the original hinges are welded in there. Hopefully it's just a door latch piece.

Good luck over there.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Congratulations Doug and welcome to FTE. The heater that you have is a stock heater only used 1948-50. Your box looks in pretty fair shape. Hopefully the rest of the your heater (motor, plenum, tubes, etc.) are in good shape, but if not try getting with Denny Dahl (firstrider) as he and Jeff Johnson helped me find all my missing parts which was basically everything but the heater control. The conundrum is that since heaters were an option trucks that went to cold states where heaters were a must also use salt which rusted out all heater parts in the RF wheel well. In the states without rust also didn't need heaters . . . hence the heater parts for '48-'50s are hard to find.

Hope this helps.

 

Great looking Monkey face. Lots of good rigs In Montana yet. It's a great State to live in.

 

Send me a PM . Have what ever you need to complete your system . Retrieved 3 large boxes of clean metal heater parts from the media blasters fri & primed them today .See pics in Magic Air & FORD script fresh air heaters post . Later , Denny

 

Hi Pete and Denny, I think I'm fortunate in that I have all the heater parts, ducting, etc. in decent, surface rust condition... with the exception of the heater motor. it barely turns, but since I'm converting to 12V, I need to replace it anyways. (anyone have a suggestion for an easy 12V replacement?) I could not believe the great shape the interior of the heater box is in. All the connecting rods and flaps work flawlessly! Even though we do use salt on the roads from time to time here in Montana, this truck has not been licensed since 1965, seeing how it never left the ranch, so didn't encounter that hated salt for the last 45-odd years.

Ben, the door hinges were just screwed on with three screws in each hinge. The doors actually closed and latched quite well, but no matter how hard one cranked (and I can tell someone has cranked REAL hard) on the door handles inside or outside, the drivers door would not unlatch. When I got it apart, the travel on the latch is about half what the travel is on the passenger door.
Thanks again everyone for your comments and hints, they re much appreciated! I feel like the lone ranger here trying to do this project with a 40 year gap in knowledge and practice! LOL Today was a fun day in that I only have one more bolt to undo to get the cab loose. Started removing throttle linkage and trying to figure out how the @$@#%& to get the steering wheel off (looking for hints again here!) Installed my new 12V coil (dang I feel DUMB) the old coil had the leads marked Battery and Dist, the new coil is marked "+" and "-" I'm assuming that since the truck was originally positive ground that since I'm changing polarity, I also reverse the leads on the coil so the wire coming from the ignition switch hooks up to the positive side of the new coil??? Sorry that this is such a long post!

 

For direct drop in replacement 12V heater motors go to apartswarehouse.com . They will have what you need .Their motors work great for me . Finding 6V motors is a little more difficult .Good luck .

 

That is a great find you have and it looks like it is going to make a really nice truck. You have two windshield wipers- I'm jealous!
You mentioned that you ordered an alternator- just wondering if you ordered the alt conversion with brackets or if you're dabbing up your own brackets.
I need to make this upgrade to my old rig at some point.

 

Hi Marauder,
I ordered a single wire nice chrome one off eBay, before I knew I should be using the two wire version. I got a one-wire because I could eliminate the voltage regulator. I understand now that the one wire ones require more RPMs to be producing juice. I guess with the two-wire ones I need a voltage regulator? I'll be fabricating the bracket. Denny, thanks for the heads up on that source for the 12V heater motor!!

 

Denny is right. arpartswarehouse.com is the cheapest that I have found. If your truck has the blower motor in the RF wheel well then the correct part number should be GR-157 for $22.95 (GR-157 - $22.95 Single Shaft Blower Motor - School Bus Parts - A Parts Warehouse). These folks are most helpful but their main business is school buses and truck fleets. They don't know anything about old trucks but if you give them the critical measurements that you need they will grab one off the shelf and measure it for you. The GR-157 should fit as it fit my 1950 F-2. The price is right as other suppliers will charge you a lot more (example Sacramento Vintage Ford).

Good luck.

 

You need a steering wheel puller usually less than $20 from Sears or elsewhere.

• Sears.com
  
• OEM/Steering wheel puller set (27017) | Steering Wheel Puller | AutoZone.com

The + pole of your new coil should be connected to your powers source and the - pole goes to the distributor on normal negative ground vehicles. If you are sure that it was positive ground you can reverse it. If it is positive ground and since you are changing to a new alternator though you may want to think about changing to a negative ground system. I don't believe that the diodes in a one-wire alternator will work with a positive ground. Also you said that you are rewiring the truck so that should make it easier.

 

Pete, I have one of these pullers, but there are no holes in the steering wheel to attach the bolts to. There is just a smooth surface (see pic)

AS you might note, I've backed off the nut and smacked it repeatedly with a hammer while pulling up on the steering wheel, with no luck.