Hey all! I've been lurking around this forum for the last few months, but this is my first post outside the F350 group. I'm looking for some advice from those that have gone before, to see what I'm thinking about getting into. This is your chance to speak into my life, to tell me to run as far away as I can from this pending addiction, or throw caution to the wind and jump headlong into it! Here goes:

I'm a young dad of a 4 y/o and 2 y/o, living in Montana. We've got a great little life, with never enough free time, but I have a tinkering addiction. I'm the guy that tears his motorcycles apart every winter - not because anything is broken, but because, well, there's snow on the ground and I like the smell of PB Blaster.

I went looking for a small winter project when my father-in-law said, "now wait a second, I might have an idea" (picture that in your best, patronly voice, and you get an idea). He has a buddy who has a 1949 F100 that's been parked in his one-car storage she...err...garage for 35 plus years. He drove it in, was going to work on it, but it sat and sat and sat. It's now surrounded by boxes and junk, but would sell it to me for $1,000. It's one-part neat, and one-part family heirloom (it was his dad's farm truck that was purchased new, he inherited it 35 years ago). It's got somewhere around 40-60k miles, flathead I6, and a lot of work to get it running.

Without further ado, here's the potential project:

























































So, there she is. And yeah, this guy is a serious packrat. I couldn't believe my eyes when he opened the garage bay.

Now it's your turn. Am I nuts? The idea of having a project to tinker with for an hour or day at a time is thrilling. I'm a little nervous about space (small single bay garage here), but I've gotten creative before. What should I be looking for in the truck before I go ahead with it?

Thanks guys! Looking forward to hearing from you, and learning from all your collective wisdom!

 

Hard to know exactly the condition of the truck with all the stuff piled around, but I know I would pay $1000 for it as fast as I could.
As long as you have the space and time I would go for it, but as simple as these trucks are you will sink $$$ thousands into it to make it a reliable driver. How much depends on your goals and skills. There are ways to save cash, plenty of guys here, including me, who build on a tight budget.

 

Welcome to this end of FTE. Unless the floorboards and door bottoms are rusted so bad a cat could find his way out, it would be mine. I am assuming he has a title or what ever you need to get it transferred to you legally. Hope that is not fertilizer on the fender. Did you say clutter?

 

Welcome to this forum!

What they said^

It would be worth more to me to get a truck from within my family. There's a lot of unknown with that one, but it would be worth $1,000 to me, if I were you.

And you're asking a bunch of addicts if you should take your first fix...

 

I'm with the other guys. I'd be all over that one. Since it has been in his shed for so long and not out in the elements it might not be too tuff to get running. Brakes will probably need attention for sure. If the wife is good with it that's a plus. And welcome to this forum also.

 

Welcome P Christiansen,
Hmmmm. The most time consuming part of the restoration is the Cab.
You could literally spend 4 to 6 months welding, grinding, sanding...
So... Look at the bottom 10 inches on the doors - Look down inside the door where the window goes
with a flash light. It shouldn't look like Swiss cheese. Look at the cab floor, cab corners, & Cab roof line - especially
around the front & rear windows.

You will most likely replace the drivetrain - engine, trans, rear axle, & bed floor - so those don't matter much. Those
big fenders can take some time to fix or you can replace them with fiberglass for $265ea. The bed floor will need
replacing with new wood & probably some replacement of the metal supports. All the bed parts can be found
through different resellers - we used Midwest Early Ford.

There are no reproduced Doors or Hoods out there so be nice to those.

I think if the cab is pretty clean I'd easily do it for $1,000. If the cab roof is all rotted out & the doors -
I'd think pretty hard. If you use salvage parts & do the work yourself - these trucks can be done for $6,000 or so
not including paint. (I spent a lot more than that but we had our truck painted).

Good luck over there in Montana. Come on in the water is warm.... Just kidding - its a fun hobby if you enjoy tinkering
in the garage.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1 (351W/AOD)

 

Looks like we live in the same area, have we met?
I'd be happy to go with you for a more in depth look over. PM me
I don't recognize that truck, and I know of most that are around here...looks like the owner kept it well hidden! LOL

 

Good gracious!! Look at the crap around that truck! If that dude has a wife, she might just pay YOU $1000 to haul it out of there. LOL. That whole garage might collapse when that truck leaves.


But seriously, I'm with the others, unless it's literally rotten from the fender wells on down, it's worth what he's asking.

 

What they all said,... BTW welcome, you have come to the right place. Some of us have cookies. Only a single garage, awe, it can be done and I have proof. That truck looks just fine, it will provide you with unending satisfaction and activity. There is hardly any thing about these trucks that has not been discussed here, so feel free to ask, the knowledge here is amazing.

 

Come on Doc, NOBODY married has a garage like that...that is unless it is a detached garage that the wife rarely goes in and has no idea what is in it..not that I would know

 

You know it does have a gun rack in the rear window....

 

Holy smokes! I leave for a day, and I'm already three pages back. What an awesome, active forum! I guess I never paid that much attention to the time stamps on posts - this is great!

And yeah, I agree with the general consensus that this guys' garage is nutty. It's so chock full of stuff, but hey, if there's a deal to be had in there, I'll go after it! (Part of the deal is that I help them clear it out and build shelves for the their garage. I think that may be worth more than the $1k for the truck!!).

Anywho, yeah, I agree that it would be a fun project. And yes, asking addicts if I should jump in probably isn't the most "unbiased" opinion. But, sometimes you need a chorus to overcome the logic that plays in your head.

Thanks for all the input guys. I'll start saving my pennies and see if I can't get that thing trailered over here. The truck is currently in Seattle (that's probably why you haven't seen it, tinman). I'd be trailering it over, probably early spring once I get the funds together and my garage prepped for the new truck.

@tinman- No, I don't think we've met. I'm in Kalispell in town, where are you at? If all goes according to plan, I'd love to pick your brain on how to dig into this thing!

@toby_tough- You're right! Gun rack! Oddly enough, I started looking for a gunrack for my F350 a few months ago at garage sales. Looks like I may end up getting one, there is just a rusty truck attached!

Thanks all! I'll keep you updated on the progress, and you can know that I'm lurking here soaking in as much wisdom as I can in the next few months!

 

It's fun staring down the tinkering rabbit hole, isn't it! This may not be the best idea since the truck has sentimental value, but if you are in it more for tinkering than having a truck at the end you can spend a lot of time tearing down the truck, cleaning up the parts, and selling them on ebay/craigslist. For starters, the hood jewelry original gauges and fenders (if cleaned up) would cover the cost of the truck.

That said, if it were me, I'd buy it and fix it up! A lot of us spent much more than $1,000 for the shell of our projects, and I doubt you'll hear too many people regret fixing them up.

 

There was literally no chance of you getting an answer you didn't want! Regards your garage - best check for height. They are fairly tall at the cab centre and at least a couple of inches more than similar vintage trucks from Chevy. You will also be needing somewhere to put everthing you take off so you're not contantly tripping over it.