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In 1968 this truck was assembled in Oakville Ontario before being shipped to British Columbia - its 50 years later and we are driving her home! We are in Calgary right now and we wanted to post a video of our trip so far! Special thanks to Privateer from the forum and the dozens of others who have posted advice and encouragement! The truck is pretty clean I'm going to need some front fender work and some rust spot repair but mechanically she looks pretty tight!
Glad that I finally found this thread.
Thanks for stopping in, Frankie, Sally and I enjoyed the visit.
That's a sharp little truck, but the body is deceiving as the under carriage is really solid, theres very little rust on the floor boards and no rust holes in the floor or under the hood in the engine bay. It's a well maintained acreage truck with a shiny roof and hood so it must've been sheltered most of its life.
Hopefully you'll meet up with other Fte members along the way and have an interesting and safe trip home.
PS. you never did see the 68 650 Triumph chopper in the basement.
Glad that I finally found this thread.
Thanks for stopping in, Frankie, Sally and I enjoyed the visit.
That's a sharp little truck, but the body is deceiving as the under carriage is really solid, theres very little rust on the floor boards and no rust holes in the floor or under the hood in the engine bay. It's a well maintained acreage truck with a shiny roof and hood so it must've been sheltered most of its life.
Hopefully you'll meet up with other Fte members along the way and have an interesting and safe trip home.
PS. you never did see the 68 650 Triumph chopper in the basement.
Hey Man! I saw it when I looked down the stairs but I didn't get up close. That is going to be so fun though when it gets done!
Just wanted to toss up and update. So we left Calgary and settled in with some Waylon for a long ride. Truck is still doing great, I'm keeping it under 60mph as per some of the best advice I have gotten from Privateer "Use it for what it was built for" - She's no hotrod but she can do 60 all day long.
I am currently getting about 20L/100kms which is 11.8 MPG out here in the Prairies. Not sure how good that it. The cap and huge mirrors on this truck are no doubt providing a ton of wind resistance. Any thoughts on this are welcome. I had a guy at a gas station tell me I need a 2 barrel carb on it because it is "kinder to the engine" I guess it just helps it breath better which would make it easier on the rings?
Finally I'm having an interesting thing happen, the truck starts like a clock every morning but then after a couple hours of running it will idle really high and I will have to get out and turn the idle screw down, later in the day I will have to turn it back up a bit because its struggling to idle. Not sure if this is an idle issue or might be timing? I'm going to ask some of the guys in the 6 Cylinder threads.
Thanks here are some pics of the sweet Prairie sky!
So we left Calgary after a couple days with Perry - I can't get over the generosity and help we have gotten so far. It was time to hit the Prairies which I was looking forward to except for the highway speeds and the wind. I'm not 100% sure if my speedo is accurate so I drive it about 55mph because the engine kind of likes to sit there and I wouldn't be surprised we are going faster the it says we are. We have passed a total of 3 people since the start of the trip, the rest have gone past us like we are standing still but you know what, we don't care. I can't hear my George Jones at 70mph and the truck doesn't like it anyway.
I stopped at the OK Tire in Brandon to get an oil change done and get it up on the hoist so I could get a good look at it after 1800kms. Everything looked good except the gearbox is leaking a bit of fluid from the top, they tossed about 300ML in it to top it off but that was all it took. I will keep an eye on it until I get her home. I have to say the team there was great, they ran around to get the correct filter and didn't charge me for the gear box top up and let me into the bay to get some footage which I will post when I get it edited. A team of guys watched us take off again on the highway and I heard one guy say "No power steering, like it should be" - made me feel pretty good. Thanks to Dean and Mike and Caley from the OK Tire in Brandon. It feels so smooth and happy with new oil in it which is great.
We are in Kenora now and I think my fuel economy will get better here in Ontario with the slower speeds and the ability to coast down hills without the extreme wind. Here is hoping. I think truck knows she is getting closer to home, her engine jogs along at a pace on the two lane roads that she could probably keep up for eternity. Man it feels good to be in Ontario. Canada is beautiful but Ontario will always be home. C'montario!
Looks like fun! Great pics too. Keep 'er between the ditches!
Not real familiar with the bump sides, but the carb issue might be the cold choke mechanism coming on too strong. Rotate that back a notch or two and see how it goes.
Thanks man! Keep an eye peeled, we are headed to the Oakville Plant outside Toronto tomorrow WHERE IT WAS FIRST ASSEMBLED! We will be posting some pictures of the last 3rd and then after that a bunch of videos and stuff which will be here and on the FTE blog. Excited to share it all. Man this Truck is a great road trip vehicle and even though the long hill climbs can be a lil slow, its all about the journey, the tunes and the people we met.
We got a chance to stop in North Bay for a car show. It was great. Lots of shiny cars hanging out. It was nice to hear a bunch of the stories people had connected to the Ford F100. Every one loved the straight 6 and I got a lot of amazed looks when I told them we had driven it across the country. To be honest I can't believe it either. On our way in the night before we had a stroke of good luck, we stopped at the edge of Lake Superior to get a picture just as the truck started to overheat due to a crack in the top rad hose. We limped into the next town where we started to fix it. Luckily the break was near the bottom of the hose so we recut it and jammed it back on. Walking up to the cashier in the only gas station open for 500 kms in a pretty town called Schreiber, I found out they didn't sell coolant. I was screwed..... until from behind me a kind voice said "hey what colour are you running" and There was Ray, a nice dude with a shirt on that said "Dads garage". I told him I had green in it and he said hang on Ill go see if I have some. What a guy.
Ten mins later he was back with coolant and some hose clamps and we fixed it in the parking lot. Ray told me all about his 1952 Chev dump truck which he had done a really nice job on by the looks of it. He really saved us on this one, I know I could have fixed it and put some water in for the time being but it was really nice to have Ray there to help out and get it done right. There are truck guys everywhere and it really felt good to know I could count on and offer help to a community like this. Road magic man, just more road magic for this old girl on her trip home.
20 kms later we saw a tractor trailer all folded up in the ditch, the cops weren't there yet but about 9 other trucks had stopped to haul the guys out of the wreck. Solidarity among people is a real thing and I hope this world never loses that. These guys weren't ok but at least they had their brothers around on a stretch of dark highway where cell service wasn't a thing. We tried to call the cops but couldn't, phones didn't work. There were cherries in our rearview mirror so we crawled past the line of trucks and kept going. I didn't look but Don did and he didn't wanna talk about it after. For the rest of that night drive to Wawa Ontario I heard our new friend Ray's voice in my head "Watch out for the ditch donkeys, they are real bad this time of year". My eyes were basically laser beams scanning the ditches for Moose and Deer for the next 3 hours as we Kept it at 50mph. My heart goes out to the family of the driver, 31 years old. Another reminder of how dangerous these highways are, 2 lanes, steep grades, moose and deer. Its no joke and its easy to be too casual about driving until you're looking at a rock cut coming at you as you pile into the ditch.
3 hours alter as we pulled into Wawa Ontario an ambulance ripped past us which must have been from the scene of the accident. God rest that guys soul, and for the rest of us lets use it as a reminder that driving is a dangerous business even for the most experienced hand.
Anyway - thats the update I still can't believe the truck has been so rock solid for over 3800 kms. F100 forever.
We have - woulda loved to show you the truck! You ever make it down to Toronto?
Sorry I missed you guys, but I understand you probably just want to get home! This is a great story, I checked it everyday to see your updates. I'm amazed you did it! That you could actually sit in the truck for hours at a time. I'm good for about 45-60 min then my back starts getting sore. I've never made it down to Toronto in the Merc, and the closest I like to get at all, is zipping past on the 407!
It was a test of finding different ways to sit and position yourself hours on end. Ya we needed to get home, keep an eye out we have a ton of video content we will be posting along with some full articles on the trip. It was a real trip I'll say...
05-10-2018, 01:02 PM
