I'm usually in the 73 - 79 forum but I have strayed and wound up buying one of these things.




This is supposed to be a 50 F4, but what do I know, I know how to take pictures.


This was the only easy to find identification plate that I could find.




This is the motor thats in it and it has the forward facing distributor. How many people have lost a hand or arm by adjusting the distributor?. There is a 1 year old solenoid, coil and fuel pump on the motor and it looks like it's been worked on in the last 2 years. All in all it looks like the seller could have been telling me the truth when she said that her father had it running last spring and the tilt deck was working. He has put a lot of work into the truck and you can tell by the condition that the mechanical is in. I've driven 1 ton trucks most of my life and can tell when I'm looking at one thats been maintained and this one has that look mechanically. Theres trim pieces and glass work in the garage that comes along with the truck.




According to the dash, this is a Mercury and there is a M on the heads plus they have Made in Canada on them.

As a bonus theres a 1916 - 25 Model T Touring car shell and frame with misc parts including the complete front and rear suspension from a MG that comes with the deal.

I have more pics but they are not the best do to the tight quarters of where the truck is parked. In 2 weeks or less I'll be having it towed to my place and will get better pics then and will be able to show all the pieces that come with this $900 deal.

Let me know how bad I got stroked.

 

Welcome to the land of 48-56s.

If the truck is intact, as it appears, is unmolested and has a title, you did just fine. Unless you know about widowmakers, you'll want to share pics of the wheels when you are able. I'm unsure if the F4s wore them.

What are your plans?

 

Welcome to old big trucks. Your truck is definitely a Merc. Fender marker lights, center nose badge mounting holes, and the Merc data plate. This old thread covers the breakdown of its data.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...fo-thread.html

Next is to get to know about old big truck wheels. Your M-4 has either 18" or 20" two piece rims that have the trade name Firestone RH-5°. Called widow makers. Doing a forum search, or Google search, of those terms and my user name will pull up lots of pictures and past threads on the subject.

The best replacement option for the F-4/M-4 size truck is the Budd wheel #89340 set. These are still commonly available on 1970s era Dodge and Ford Class A motor homes that are tucked away in the corners of salvage yards. Factory new are also available, but I'd go there only as a last resort. Stu

 

The truck looks very complete and solid. The bright metal trim can be hard to come by for the Mercurys.

Looks like a fun project.

Tom

 

Tires are 17 x 750 and I felt around the back side of the rim and couldn't find a split.














Theres quite a few new parts on this motor so that gives me some confidence with it.
Theres a bunch of trim pieces in the garage that come with the truck and theres glass also. The owner has developed Alzheimers and his daughter and wife are selling every thing off, he's 81. There is also a Sears branded 1966 Puch aroung here but I don't know the size or model, just that it's a Twingle.

The tilt deck is supposed to work so this truck may become a toy hauler to go to car shows with. The truck and car won't be competition quality, but they will be,'Hey, I can do that too' quality and have a good looking rig, toy set.
I've got some modern 1 ton dually and srw suspension parts that are going onto the frame, would like to convert it to twin I beam as I have a spare piece of front clip lying around. The motor and trans will go into the car and a 351w with zf42 may go into its place or I might put together a 400 with a zf as I have a 400 motor that needs rebuilding.

First thing that needs to be done is a concrete patch needs to go onto the neighbors step and a piece needs to be welded on her railing, fuel tank on the 78 F350 needs to be replaced, a load to the dump needs to be dumped, and then I get to clean up the work area and make 2 trips to the recycler. Then I can bring home the truck and everything else as I'll have a 18' x 10' space for it.

Thanks Forty Niner, Stu and Tom, With some luck by next spring I'll have most of my fleet of adventures done or at least up and runnin, have a good day all.

 

It's an M-3/M-68, not an M-4. The 17" wheels are also widow makers. They look one piece but are not. The center disc is mounted on the semi-drop center that is the joint. Sounds like you have no interest in keeping it stock, so you'll want to find a 1967-1972 F-250 Dana 60 for an axle and wheel swap. Stu

Widow maker 17" front:



Widow maker 17" rear:

 

Thank you Stu for the info, I'm dealing with the daughter and she has limited knowledge as what the truck is so this really helps. I told her that I was a FTE member and would start a thread on the truck to get it properly identified as they have 2 other pre 50 trucks and her father has Alzheimers and gets confused when talking about them. This will help clear up the bill of sale, plus she is a future customer of mine so there is a potential fishing hole for me when it comes to a couple more of these.

Did my mail run and it started to rain so that pushes the step repair back a day, but I need to dig out a fuel tank anyway and the sheds could use some cleaning out.

Thanks again for the info Stu, much appreciated.

I've got a dually axle from my 89 F350 that I'll be putting under it and am hoping that I can graft part of the 79 F350 front frame clip into it and convert it over to twin I beam. I know about the difference in the rims from 79 to 89 but don't mind having 2 seperate spares as I already have the rims. Also have 2 vacumn boost brake systems and 3 pedal assemblies for parts in case some thing needs to be modified. What ever I don't need like the rear axle and rims will go on my for sale list. These 2 projects are the last 2 that I want to get going so that will help me clean out my yard of 'extra' parts that I've been hoarding.

 

That engine is from a late-40's vehicle, could be car or truck. Maybe Canadian trucks used the older style engines until '49? But definitely not in '50. You might sand a spot on the heads to see if they are aluminum...

Until the 8BA series engines came out, Mercs used the same engines as Fords.

 

I spent a few hours online trying to figure out this motor and there seems to be some confusion about the cut off date on the usage o the Mercury motor in Canadian trucks. Don't know if this is relevant, but on the rear axle on the passenger side it looks like the year 1948 is cast on the axle housing. I mentioned it to her and told her the truck may be a 48 or 49 but this is a generation of truck that I have little knowledge about and haven't seen any of the grill pieces for it, the grill is supposed to be in the garage as he bought the truck complete.

 

That F350 axle will be a good bit wider than stock. But one of our guys did a similar Sterling axle swap on his 59 F-350, with pickup bed, and runs rear DRWs as singles. It works fine for him. I've not heard of anybody swapping in a twin I beam front end so you are blazing that trail. Stu

 

Both frames are 34" wide but the modern stuff mounts on the outside of the frame and not under it. If worse comes to worse I'll wind up with a 90" wide deck or maybe a bit less, there's a few options open as it will remain a deck truck. The front end is whole other ball of wax, lots of measuring followed by more measuring followed by a I hope this works session.

 

The engines in Mercury trucks were not marked as Mercury's. They were straight-up Ford engines. Just as the differences between a Crown Vic and a Mercury Grand Marquis, the differences were mostly trim and grilles.

 

That's interesting Ross and makes sense, what took me down the Mercury motor path was the letter M on the right bank head above the C7RA-A and the Made in Canada below it. That and some of this online info contradicts itself.

 

Hey Perry! Nice to see you joining this section of the forum, you have a great looking starting point there and look forward to seeing it come along next time I'm out your way! Hope all is well!

 

Thanks Jason, from what I could see on the truck it looks like the po took care of the rust so that sure helps. Could only see the passenger side cab corner and it was solid and so was the floor, can hardly wait to get it home.

Sounds like your really busy, stay safe and hope to see you again the next time your out this way.