You're so darn helpful I can't stand it! But no, I'll remain a fan of M15s but have no room in the barn. Plus their cabs are smaller than Jailbar cabs. Doubt I'd fit. And my one concession to sanity is that all projects must fit in the shop or in the barn. Both buildings are full and my daily drivers sit out.

All this talk about Jailbars does have me doing the mental floor planning of what would have to go, and be redirected on my '51 project, to free up space for a tonner OT5-4 project. It's plausible. Stu

 

Ok it is all coming back to me since I went through all this 25 years ago when I put a '47 tonner express box on my '38 tonner. In 1942 there were width increases in both the 1/2 ton and tonner. This amounted to 2 1/2" of additional width at the wheel wells in the pickup's bed. Starting in 1942 there was 48 1/2" between the wheel wells. I remember I had to take 2 1/2" from the width of the '47 bed to get it onto the back of my '38. This was no easy feat before I had a welder. Lots of overlapping of steel and lots of bolts. A GMC tailgate finished it off. I even had a body shop weld in a ford script in place of the old GMC. Also in '42 ford went to hotchkiss drive, open driveline which is more reasons the frames were different. I now remember why I always wanted a jailbar tonner express. As a cabinetmaker, having a truck with 46" at the wheel wells is a very poor way to haul plywood. Particularly units of 40 sheets at a time. This also wont haul 2 banks of 24" deep cabinets, so I guess I stick to the jailbar series. Willowbilly, I think our tonner panel bodies are very much the same, but I bet yours has 46" between the rear wheel wells and I know mine has 48 1/2" Too bad my door opening is 46 1/2" really hard to load and unload plywood. OK, it's getting late and my box of wine ran out a half hour ago and the old Christmas movies are over...... zzzzzzzzzzz