Hello All, guess "we" as in my wife and I have have aquired a 48' F-1 flat bed and a 51' F-1 pickup so I would like to introduce myself and say hi.

They are actually my wifes trucks but I get to work on them, lucky me. We have a friend that has a very cool 48' F-1 that you can see if you google search "bondorella" and once my wife saw it she decided that she needed one too. So, she started searching craigslist and found the 48' in pieces in a storage locker but at least at one time it was a complete truck and came with a 68' 302 and C6 trans. We will rebuild the 302 and scrap the C6 for an AOD. Then she decided she did not want the 48' because it would be the same as our friends and that she liked the 51-52 "teeth" better so she found a 51' that had been started then stopped about 10 years ago but it is missing so much small stuff that we hope to have one complete truck out of two. The 51' has most all the sheet metal and a bed and appears to be mostly rust free but I think has a couple hundred pounds of bondo on it. The cab was painted flat black and the interior and firewall were painted the original red and has a new upholstered seat, gas tank, disc brakes in the front and painted frame but all other body and bed are either primered over bondo or bare metal. I can see that the cab in front of the driver's door has a lot of bondo so that will have to come off.

Our plan is to keep the budget reasonable as this will be a partial rat rod. The rear frame has already been C-Notched and the stock rear axle has been flipped but we are going to replace it with a stock 69' F100 9", get a dropped front axle, the interior is mostly done already and we are going to try to do the body work ourselves then clear with metal flake over bare metal like our friends with whitewalls and stock rims.

I am sure I will have lots of questions as this is our first build and we have never seen either of these trucks together to see where thing go. I will try to get some pictures up and thanks in advance.

Here are some pics of the 51' when we picked it up.

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Welcome to FTE!! Sounds like you have a great start on a project. Also cool that your wife was up for buying a truck that was in parts...lol. Can't wait to see pics of all this.

 

Welcome to the site. It's always a big plus to have wife's interested in your projects. Sounds like it will be a "ours" project which is great.

 

Thanks for the welcome. This is definitely her project and she is going to have to do most of the work. I will just be involved to teach and give guidance, she will be responsible for the outcome. I will try to get some pics up.

 

Welcome from another member who's wife lets him work on her truck. Good luck with your project (s).

 

Welcome! As a wife who picked out our truck, I'd like to commend your wife on her impeccable taste! Can't wait to see more pics.

 

Welcome and enjoy your new project, what part of the world you from.

 

Ware in sunny California and the 51' was built in Lon Beach so it is keeping close to home.

 

Welcome. It looks like the front axle has already been worked on with the disc brake conversion. You can get a simple drop/lowering of the front by removing every other leaf spring in the pack. It might be worth trying and could save you around $4-500 for a drop axle.

And keep posting pics. We love seeing other people's projects.

 

Welcome and glad your wife choice a f1... Lori has a really nice one too.... Is your wife part of the G-Girls?

 

Thanks Moe, Lori was the one that got me into this mess and Brian actually took those pictures when he went to look at it for me. We are about 3 hours north of them so because of distance only my wife is not a member of the G-Girls but I am sure she would be otherwise.