Bob and probably some others over the years have posted tutorials on how to shift non-synchronized transmissions. The HD 4sp floor shifted transmissions that many of our trucks come equipped with do not have synchronized gears, and as a result require the engine and transmission gear speeds to be matched at the time of a shift. One method for achieving this match in speed is to double clutch. Your truck is a 3sp and will have synchronized gears for 2nd and 3rd. Engine and gear speed matching will not be required, but you will probably need to come to a complete stop to shift into 1st.

Jim

 

Hello again, I have decided to pull the truck home next week. I was thinking of renting the car dolly from Uhaul (no the flat trailer). Have you guys used it before? Will the f1 fit on there properly?

 

Three and a half hours of driving a 66 year old truck of unknown conditions would be asking for trouble. Trouble can call anytime on our old trucks even with careful maintenance. - I am envious of your acquisition. At 8 or 9 years old I learned to drive a Meadow Green '51 F1 flathead "three on the tree" in our hay field in Indiana. Truck was made the same year I was and it had been dad's first and only new vehicle. It's duty involved everything on our small 15 acre farm that a tractor should have done in addition to traversing roads to and from coal mines where dad worked. It also hauled stoker coal to feed a Crane boiler furnace that heated a barn for 10,000 chickens and our old house. In later years it hauled purebred Berkshire hogs to Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky State Fairs. Salted Midwest roads eventually did it in after more than 215k miles when the odometer stopped working. Our mom, an English war bride, used hardware screen and many pounds of putty (bondo) to patch the rust holes before painting it with her Hoover vacuum cleaner. (Yes, they had a paint sprayer attachment.). It was a very rugged, dependable, versatile old truck.

In about 2010 Iacquired a '51 'Five Star Deluxe' for a project on my retirement in 2012. It was pretty rough and I was way over my head with respect to skills, knowledge, and experience in restoration / recovery. Joe Dunn of Tennessee came to the rescue of that old truck before I moved from Indiana to Morton, Washington in 2015. - I now have a '56 F100 that I enjoy, but a Meadow Green '51 with the cream colored grill (yours) is the truck of my dreams.

Yours appears to be a good one. Enjoy the adventure. We are happy to have you "in-the-fold" on this forum. Please keep us apprised of your progress.

 

That is a great story. I wonder if your Dad ever wished he had bought a bigger truck, or a flatbed dump? I have often wondered the same thing about my Grandpa's truck, if he's wished he had a bigger truck to use on his large dairy farm? But if he had bought a bigger truck, I wouldn't have bought it as I needed a daily driver at the time!