I have been looking for a 48-52 for some months now. Actually years, since I sold my 56 F100. Anyhow, I have been watching asking prices, starting bid prices, and ending prices on ebay (reserves not met) for a while. What I have noticed is, it appears many are way over priced. Some bids not even reaching 33% of the asking price (ones that have buy it now). Some I thought were reasonable are not even getting any bids. I don't mean to disparage anyone. You would expect a man to want to get the most he can. I have been trying to use this data to gather info for my own purchase. I am NOT buying for any investment reasons.

I have seen some reasonable priced F1's I might have purchased but for the Chevy motors. I will never understand this. I know the logic is cheap to build but..........

A friend told me to buy one with the Chevy and put a Ford back in it. That is an option but just runs my cost up.

So, off my soapbox. Just thought I would pass along some things I have observed over the past few months.

 

That is the reason we don't always discuss the Ebay trucks. Ebay, in my opinion, is nothing but smoke and mirrors most of the time. It caters to the international market nowadays. I think a LOT of the ebay auctions that end early, don't meet the reserve, etc. are actually sold offline after the auction ends. I honestly don't even bother to look at ebay for the most part nowadays. As far as the price, get ready to be surprised. The general selling price of our trucks keeps going up. We've seen some really crappy rust buckets fetch 5-digits in the last few years.

 

purplewg,

I am a guy who thinks a Ford should have Ford engine, but I do understand that chevy V8 is the easiest and cheapest V8 to put into just about anything that rolls, and that is why people do it even today.

In my view, the key item to look for when buying a 1948-52 F-1 is to make certain the frame has the serial number stamped on it and that the same number is on the title. If you start there, you can build anything and your investment of time and money is secure.

A few months ago I bought a 1952 F-1 in pieces, no suspension, but a lot of good parts including a frame with serial number. The truck was the victim of a divorce and had been kicked out of it's garage and was sitting on the dirt beside a rental house. I have got it up on some axles and wheels, it passed a Nevada VIN inspection, and I now have a clean/clear Nevada title. This will be a great project truck for someone.

So good value trucks are still out there, just keep looking!

 

Shane, I think you are correct. I have had sellers email me pics of rust areas and have been surprised at how bad the good ones are.

Walt, trust me if I were to purchase a Chevy powered F1, the first thing to happen would be to pull it before it contaminates the rest of the truck. lol I have found some decent prices on "project trucks" but I am not sure if that is how I want to go. I have to move all my crap to the farm soon and moving a project would just be additional headaches.
BTW, where is the S/N located on the frame?

 

For the 48-52 models, the number is on the top of the passenger side frame rail between the block and radiator.

 

So buy one with the chevy engine and pull out to sell, they are so popular you know you will have it gone quick. Costs shouldnt go up that much to swap to a Ford, there are plenty of fox body mustangs out there to grab as a donor for an engine and trans. Buy a whole car, take what you want and sell the rest, I do it all the time.

 

Thanks much Fortyniner.
drptop, may end up doing that.
I wonder how titles are being done whenever someone puts an Explorer or S10 frame under them?

 

Here as far as frame swaps the serial number from the body is used for the vehicle title, the frame is considered a replaceable part. I save the title from the chassis donor vehicle as well so I have it in case there are any questions.

 

Keep in mind this is not the case everywhere, and I'm actually surprised is the case where you live. Every case I had heard of required it to be titled from what the frame came from.

 

I just went through this search a month ago. I started looking about 18 months ago. As you said, lots of nice truck with Chevy running gear. As you have expressed, I just pass them by. Keep looking. There are some good Ford powered units out there. I have come across a few. I have found those with the Ford running gear are the ones bringing the higher premium prices. You may have to settle for a stocker until you can put your own modern engine in it.

 

I would highly advise against your friends suggestion. I am going through that now with my truck. the cost to fix it right will be much more than you can imagine, both in time and money.
I often hear the excuse of "budget", when someone strays from ford power, but I really doubt the initial cost is much different. When you're going to spend $20,000-$30,000 for a normal drivable truck, a couple hundred bucks doesn't make much difference. If you're planning to sell your truck someday, having Non-Ford power will lower the price, and eliminate many otherwise potential buyers. That's a fact!.......I mean, IMHO.

Good luck.

 

Just curious why it would cost so much to swap to a Ford? Whip up some engine mounts, trans crossmember, make a driveshaft, swap the radiator, front part of the exhaust, and adapt the wiring. If this was a carbed engine it would be even easier, I normally deal with fuel injection now.

 

Not to start a s*** storm, but IMHO the reason the ones with the chevy drive trains are cheaper is because it is simply more expensive to use a Ford drive train. Most all the Ford 5.0's, 351's have been beat to death and/or badly modified, so it's near impossible to find one that doesn't need a full rebuild, then there is the problem of finding a good compatible tranny to go with it, Ford is notorious for non interchangeable assemblies, so there are almost no useable OD trannys. Then once you have a rebuilt engine you have to change out the oil pan and pump to clear the axle or IFS cross member. If you want to go Ford driveline, again IMHO the economical way is to use and EFI mod motor and matching tranny out of a complete donor vehicle. But even that can be a compatibility nightmare. I am helping Gary with installing a 2007 Mustang 4.6 engine and 3650 tranny in his 52, and are fighting a lot of issues with it: i.e. no one offers a wiring harness without PAT for use with an auto tranny, so a manual was the only choice, That creates the problem in that the 3650 variant of the T5 everyone else uses is unique to Ford in that it uses a weird remote shifter that sits beyond the tranny tailshaft. To move the shifter to a more useable forward location is going to require custom modifying a ($$$) Hurst short throw shifter kit and building a 1 of a kind mount for it. The tranny also uses a flange driveshaft connection rather than a slip yoke requiring a custom slip joint driveshaft to be made. Then there is the exhaust. The 4.6 comes in 3 flavors, 2V, 3V and 4V, and the heads do not have universal header flanges, port shapes, so he is having to have block hugger headers made. Motor mounts and tranny mount is also an issue, as is coming up with a pedal and clutch, brake MC set.
In comparison my chevy sb 400 with T56 was a straight bolt in install in my 56 with just a few inexpensive easily sourced off the shelf parts.

 

AXracer,

You said it, and I sure agree. I wish it was different, but you are pretty much on-your-own if you want to install a modern Ford powertrain with an automatic into an older vehicle.

On that 2007, you could have used the automatic and the mustang wiring, you can turn PATS "off" with SCT or other software on Ford PCMs prior to 2011. It is a pain taking the production wiring and separating out the wiring needed for th PCM, but it can be done, just takes time.

 

He picked one of the oddest transmissions to use based on the shifter. I think he would be better off selling that trans for about $800 and putting the rest of that money towards a T56 or a TKO 500 or 600.

They made a 4.6L 3 valve unit to install them into whatever you want:

Ford Racing 4.6L Mustang 3V Control Pack M-6017-463V - Free Shipping