Affter several false starts and stops over the past 20 years, this is going to be the summer the '56 F-250 gets done. The truck is mechanically sound, the '57 292 runs great, and the body only has a few minor rust areas. It will be a mostly stock restoration.
Here's the current plan of attack, but I'm looking for advice/opinions as to whether this plan is sound.

1) Disassemble the front clip, cab, and bed from chassis. Chrome pieces sent off to plating. Bumpers to a local powder coat guy for stripping, coating. Seat to an upholstery shop.

2) Delivery of body parts to a professional stripping company (American Stripping Co in Sacramento. They do media blasting, fill light rust holes with a zinc metal spray, and finish with an epoxy primer.)

3) Clean up/repaint chassis in my garage while the body is off. Running gear is all functional, so I don't think much needs to be rebuilt, just cleaned up and repainted/recoated. The engine is staying in place but will get cleaned up. All new hoses and belts, a new 390 cfm Holley 4160 carb for the 9425B intake, Pertronix ignition, radiator boiled out and repaired. Ceramic coat the ram horn exhaust manifolds. Wheels to same powder coat guy used for the bumpers.

4) Take epoxy coated body parts from stripper straight to a body shop. Body work, painting done at the shop with body parts off the chassis.

5) Bring the painted body pieces back to my garage and reassemble with new glass, new weather stripping, new bed wood/strips, new wiring, etc.

6) Drive the truck to an exhaust guy and have a full exhaust system installed.

I guess the biggest point is getting the painting done before assembly. What are your thoughts on that? I didn't want to put the truck back together before the cab bottom, jambs, interior, and firewall were painted.
Would it be better to assemble the whole truck first (in epoxy primer) before heading to the body shop? I'd like to save a bit on the labor expense having the body shop take things apart and put them back together.
So, what do you all think?

 

I would take the complete truck to your body shop and get their input on how they would do it. Have had a couple body shops be negative about the putting back together and them not responsible for any misalignments.
On my project I am painting it all in pcs and doing the body work in pcs. I am currently fitting all pcs to the truck, so basicly it is al together right now and will start the tear down shortly just have the hood and some rear door latch issue which I hope to have cleared up shortly

 

That's definitely an option to reassemble it in epoxy first.

Have any FTE folks done assembly after getting the pieces done at a shop?

 

I had taken my panel, all in pcs to the media blaster who is also a powder coater. He media blasted and primer powder coated the whole panel for less than 1200. Before I had this done I did some research to make sure the coating could have filler put over it and paint. It passed, I just sand with 80 grit and filler goes right over and bonds real hard. To weld tho I have to take the powder completely off. This process allowed me to go thru two winters so far and not surface rust.
My buddy just down the street just had his 52 stude truck painted all apart and he just completed the reassembly, alot of care had to taken putting it back together, alot of tape and always had to have a second or third hand the majority of the time, but it looks really nice. Looks like the truck was dropped into a tank of paint. What really amazed me he took the truck in to the painter in three sections, cab and doors, than the rear bed and fenders and than the front clip. The paint on all three sections match.
Amongst my hot rod friends I don't know any who paint their cars altogether, always apart and they all do the fitting process at least twice, there are the exceptional ones who only do the fitment once tho, I am not one of those.

 

That's good to hear that with the proper care they put everything back together without any damage.

I would definitely get help...juggling the heavy pieces alone seems like a great opportunity to bang stuff up.

Were these trucks originally bare primer under the cab? This truck was built in San Jose, just like my Mustang, and the car had a bunch of original red colored factory primer on the bottom. Unfortunately one of my cousins sprayed my truck back in the 1980's, and he covered everything. He meant well, but the results are a big reason I'm hiring a pro to paint it this time around.

 

Don't know about the primer question , do know that the three I have built they had red primer underneath. I am doing the body work and cutting of the final paint and my son will do the paint. I figure we can paint it four times before we come close to what some of my estimates have came in at.

 

I've been away from this forum for a couple years but I'm surprised there aren't more restoration minded folks chiming in. Are there any stockers left around here?!?

 

The trucks I've seen had primer only under the dash, under the hood, and on the underside of the roof - behind the seat was operator dependent.

 

Welcome back Rob. Its good to hear from you.

The stockers are still here. Maybe we don't post as often since our trucks are complete and we don't have any questions.

I can't help you with the order of assembly. But do keep us up with your progress.

 

Thanks, Abe! I'll start a "build thread". This project is LONG overdue and I'm anxious to get things going.

 

In response to the primer question, I have a friend that restored a 40 convertible years ago which was a very original car. It had just the red primer on the underside of the floor pan. He restored it that way and later we took it to Hershey Pa. to be judged in the AACA meet. He was really bummed when he did not score a first and later found out that the bare primer was the reason. He did not have written proof that some factories left it in primer and some did not. I never personally saw it however he was told later that there was something somewhere in the Early Ford V8 Club documentation of this happening at some assembly plants. IMHO without a copy of this proof, I would shoot color underneath. It also provides better protection for the long term and will be better if and when the truck is sold.

 

My '49 F4 cab had never been off the frame and shows what is probably a red oxide primer only on the underside of the cab surface. It still has primer only. Maybe I'll look under my '56 today.
Edit: The F4 was built in St Paul.
2nd edit: The '56 F350 has the red primer only on the bottom of the cab.

 

I can't advise on the Order of assembly , but my 56 f100 has red primer on the bottom of the floor pan.

 

Good points, Bill. I may just have the entire cab shot with color for the corrosion proofing. The goal for this family heirloom truck is to keep it working, and for it to last indefinitely. I want it to look stock, but there's no plan to show it.

 

Howdy Rob,
My son and I just finished up our 51 restoration. We had a body shop do our sheet metal repairs and painting in pieces and we reassembled after paint, and I am glad we did. BUT (and this is a big but) if I had it to do over again I would do it a little differently. I would get all the metal straightening done, holes patched, etc etc, (yourself or body shop, whichever) but before going forward with serious sanding and painting, I would reassemble the whole body. Everything. Don't assume it will fit. It won't. **I cannot recommend this strongly enough**. The repair and metal straightening phase will inevitably lead to bolt holes not lining up, pieces not sitting squarely against one another and all that. If they're bare metal or just some primer, it's not too bad to push, pull, cut, drill, bend and bang them a bit (or a lot) to get them to fit. Once they are reshaped to fit each other properly ON THE FRAME, then disassemble again, and do the rest of the priming, sanding and painting. It sounds like more work, but it's actually less work. And it will save you a lot of scratches, scrapes, paint cracks, heart aches and head aches during final assembly.

My 2 cents.

Best, Tyler