After looking back at my pictures of the the F1 frame, I thought I might explain the history and my overall plan for the truck. It lived most of it's life as a farm truck in Idaho, hence the relatively intact sheet metal. Since it is in such decent condition and the patina is nice, it will stay mostly as is. The only work I plan will be for comfort and safety, such as the structural repair discussed above, reconditioned steering and suspension, and a power brake upgrade.

As sometimes happens after motor swaps, clearances change and in this case, in order to remove the steering box for rebuild, the transmission has to be removed to provide clearance to swing the pitman shaft out of the frame. Since the trans. will be out, the rear transmission mount will be remodeled to be removeable instead of welded in, and I will try my hand at rebuilding an automatic. A new tubular front engine mount will replace the 'iffy' home made units as bought. The rear differential ratio will changed to be little a more cruise friendly.

The front axle will be changed out to a Sid's dropped unit with new springs to replace the stock assembly. The old springs had half the leaves removed and were laying flat and virtually on the stops. Some suspension travel will be a good thing. At this point, the plan is to rebuild the stock drum brakes and install new brake lines as the old ones have been rather cobbled up.

The seat is starting to tear so it will be recovered and the cab will get some sounds deadener and headliner. Miscellaneous small repairs and changes under body are planned but no general plan to completely de-rust the frame and under carriage, which I think are part of the 'history' of the truck. Basically, my plan is if I work on a component, it will get cleaned up, but otherwise it will remain as is. Over all, I would like to maintain something on the order of 'drives like a truck', while having a safer, more comfortable ride.

Thanks for all the welcomes and again to 'Ax Man' for all the help.

 

If I might comment on your plans: If you are going to be retaining the drum brakes, IMHO power assist is overkill. Drum brakes are "self energizing" by design. You certainly can boost drum brakes, but they may become overly sensitive. Whichever way you go, dual circuit master cylinder, complete replacement of all brake lines and new (NOT rebuilt) wheel cylinders are highly recommended.
A better place for power assist would be for the steering. If you use a used Toyota PS box, you can convert to PS for lower cost than rebuilding the stock 1930s "armstrong" design manual steering box, and the Toyota box works so well it seems like it was designed for our trucks, makes the truck much more pleasant to drive. You can read about it in my article here: Toyota Steering Box Swap For 1948-1960 Trucks | Ford Trucks It's a weekend bolt in swap. If you have a significant other of the female persuasion they will thank you, and if you do much lower speed driving/parking with the truck, your arms will thank you as well.

Just FYI, in my user name AX is the acronym for Autocross, racer is self explanatory. I am a Nationally ranked/competitive autocross racer (my siggy pic is me from the cover of the 2010 SCCA National Championship program cover) so suspensions and handling is my "thing". I have been building hot rods and race cars for >50 years.

 

You said you removed rear leaves...did you do that with the leaf springs on the truck or take them off...I am trying to figure out how to remove these springs...weird setup