Hello, I am new to the forum. I have a chance to purchase a 1953 Ford F500 (Anniversary Edition). It is a barn find. It will need to be refurbished but looks to be in fair condition. I know it is hard to say without seeing it, but what do all of you feel is a good price?

If I purchase it, my plan is to take my 1899, Bessemer, Hit Miss, natural gas engine off of my trailer and bolting it down on the F500 flatbed so I can drive both to shows.

I believe it has a flat 6, 31,000 miles, no title.

Any help/advice would be appreciated. I am a tractor guy (Allis Chalmers and Farmall). Don't know much about trucks. Just getting into it (maybe).

 

Have not physically looked at the truck yet. It does have a 6 cylinder. I am assuming a Flat 6. Does anyone know the specs or can anyone point me in the direction to find specs? Is this generally a good engine? After a little research I found maybe it is a 254ci, AKA Rouge 254, AKA M series. Could be 223ci but this was offered in 54-56. Could be 262 offered for heavy duty.

The bed is 12 foot long. Would this be a 2 ton truck?

As you can see, I am VERY new to all of this.

 

Sounds nice, but I would not purchase any vehicle without a clear title. You could research how to obtain a new title in your state, but make are you can legally register and license the vehicle before getting too involved.

 

Thanks for the advice. I had thought about that already. I live in New York. The truck is in VT. Here, a vehicle does not need a title if older than 1974. I do need to have the following forms to get it registered here; MV51 (certificate of sale), MV51B (Statement of Ownership), MV82 (Application for Registration), MV 440H (application for historical plates), and a bill of sale (which is different than certificate of sale)

 

Welcome to the forum! It's good that you have already sorted out the ownership issues, up front. You're lucky, since in most states, especially in my neighborhood, lack of title is a bad deal. It's hard to get papers for vehicles with missing titles without a lot of hoops to jump through.

If indeed the truck has a flat 6 engine, it is most likely the 254 as that was the most common flat 6 used in 1953. My understanding it was only offered in the F600, but anything is possible if your is a 500. There's also the possibility that it was swapped in at some point, but if it is a very low mile rig that's been sitting forever, that is less likely.The 215 OHV 6 may be more likely to be original.

Value can be difficult to determine. People in different parts of the country value old trucks differently depending on condition and availability. In my area, an old truck like that, not running, barn fresh, wouldn't bring more than $1000 or so. If it's rust free in the rust belt, and someone really had to have it, it could bring substantially more. Big trucks sell for much less than their little brothers. There's just no demand for them beyond parts rigs to fix up their F100's. Feel the guy out, make an offer and see what sticks. Hope this helps.

 

Greetings, and welcome to the forum.
Your '53 F500 is basically a 1-1/2 ton truck. Your truck has the 226 "H" flat six engine. The 254's were only offered in the F-6/F-7 trucks. The 262 was not offered until 1961, and it was an OHV engine.

 

The 226 was last used in 1951, replaced by the 215 in '52. The 254 was carried over through 1953.

 

 

My bad. You are correct. And the 215 was an OHV engine so there's no mistaking it. The 254 was used from '48 through '53 in F-6/F-7 trucks only but is readily interchangeable with the 226.

 

When looking at the engine, where do I look to tell what it is? This is the only picture I have of the engine.

 

That's the 215 cid OHV engine. Although if the truck was a '54 that was sold in '53, it could be a 223 engine, but I think the 223 engine had the breather cap at the front of the valve cover.

 

Is this a pretty reliable engine. I'm looking at putting my antique hit miss engine on the bed, it weighs about 1800 pounds. I'm assuming there is no power steering. We have a 29 Sanford in the Fire Department. Its top speed is about 40. What would this truck safely run at?

 

The engine is fine. If it's in good shape it should serve you well. Hauling 1800 pounds shouldn't even make it breathe hard. There were work trucks made to haul much bigger loads. Top speed will depend on your axle ratio and your bravery. I'm not the expert here, but I would think you should be able to manage low highway speeds (55ish mph) without too much difficulty, but you'll likely be taching over 3000rpm so it will be a bit noisy.

 

Thank you truckdog62563. I know all tires will need to be replaced. Not sure if the Rh5 rims are on or not. If they are, all six rims would need to be replaced (if they are on the front as well) I know they are very dangerous when taking apart to change tube or tire. Can they be explode running down the road? I'm just wondering after sitting for 25 years on a wooden floor if they are even safe to run enough to get the old truck onto the trailer or rollback. In the photo I have it looks like all tires are holding air. If they are not, and I need to pump them up (just enough so they are not flat) to get it to roll to the trailer, could I have trouble?