Been posting a few pics of my truck whenever I need help, but I've finally been getting some work done that's enough to post. I bought the truck last spring from a guy who had started working on it and needed the money so let it go. He had put a mustang front suspension and steering, and a 351 EFI in it. I can't say I would ever buy another vehicle that's got an injected engine in it, unless it's going to be a daily driver.

Currently I'm getting the body all stripped down for priming. I would of like to of gotten it media blasted, but could not find someone to do it within a reasonable area of my place, and those that could possibly do it wheren't very credible or wanted an arm and a leg. We've sanded tons of vehicles so we figured may as well sand this one to. I got most of it done, but the roof proved to be a real challenge. We tried countless techniques and methods and could not get it down. Eventually we just ordered some kind of fiber pads from napa for a grinder and that helped get it down a bit. We felt safe enough sandblasting the firewall and inside of the cab, as it seemed structural enough. Enough talking, some pictures for now.






You can't tell by pictures, but I have the cab completely stripped down, everything that can be removed is removed. There are some dents across it, but nothing that can't be fixed. My box walls are all kinda bowed, and my fenders need quite a bit of work, so I'm planning on just buying replacements. I'm going to keep the truck for the rest of my life, so I'm not going to try my best to get old stuff straight, when I can have new parts and have it right, and not have to live with it. I'm not to concerned with keeping it original, as you can tell by my big *** engine sticking out of it.

It's not quite done being blasted yet, ran out of sand, so I'll post pics of inside once I've got it done.

Any tips are highly appreciated, I'm new to restoring vehicles, so I'm always willing to learn and discuss.

 

Looks like a pretty solid starting point. I look forward to seeing the progress!

 

Nice start, keep it up! We love pictures!

 

djt14,

Is that square hole in the passenger side kick panel for an aftermarket heater? My cab has that hole too, but came without the heater.

 

That's for the Magic Air Heater, it'd be sweet if you still had it or the front tube. Don't throw it away if you have any pieces at all. See thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...and-parts.html

 

Yeah, my luck, has no heater now, and none of the original heater controls are present.

 

Yes it's for a heater. I've got the entire heater except for the piece that goes from the heater to the side of the cab... And I believe there's a piece that goes in the fender to if I'm not mistaken? I'm going to try and build those sometime. I've got the whole heater pretty much painted, just need some motivation to get the last few pieces done and put it tover her. My heater turned out pretty good as far as I'm concerned. I blasted it all in my cabinet and found a close to original paint. I'll post pictures of what I have done tommorow.

Thanks for the kind words.

 

Do you mean bowed in the middle or splayed out (tailgate opening is wider at the top than the bottom). I have a fix for the latter.

 

Have all your fresh air tube , heater , cable control panels , cables and even the heater boot for you M! truck .Get in touch for your needs .Sent a Magic Air heater , cable control panel & boot to AZ. today & another cable control panel w/ cables to Mi. wed. .A '52 3 pc. fresh air tube is on the way to Title Town , USA ( Green Bay , Wi. next week .Heater boots for '51 & '52 Ford F1 & Mercury M1 & up trucks made exclusively by Strictly Custom ,Pt. St. Lucie , Fla.

 

It's bowed, it's got a big curve in the wall. I think it had some major problems before I got it as the whole wall is basically covered in body filler.... I figured for $600 I'll just bite the bullet and have a new straight box. For the amount of time i'll put into fixing my old one I can save myself the headache and have a new one.

firstrider, I'll drop you a PM once I figure out exactly what I need!

I did some work to one of my cab corners last night. I probably could of saved myself a bunch of work and only cut out the little rusted parts, but for some reason I figured If I didn't do it now I would have to later. So I cut it out and made myself a patch. Also made a cap for the bottom of it. Not to bad, could be a little more true to the rest of the truck, but it's pretty well all hidden and I can bring it up a bit with some body filler.


I also wanted to have matching brake and gas pedals, so I made up a brake pedal last night. I could of swore when I center punched the holes that they where all straight.... Might remake this one.

Got some more holes to close up and a bit of work to do to my other cab corner, probably start on that tommorow.

Also, does anyone know of a way to identify a rear dif? I would like to know what mine come out of originally, I'm thinking a 90's f150 along with my engine, but not to sure. I'll take some pictures of it to see if someone can put a name on it.

 

To strip old paint a 3M clean and strip wheel in a drill makes short work of it. Available at most big box DIY stores.


To help id rear axles:
1948 through 1960 Ford F-1 and F-100 Rear Axle (differential) Swaps - Ford Trucks

Unfortunately no one is currently making metal repop F1 front fenders. Dennis Carpenter has been promising them for a few years now.