Hey all,

So my journey to this point began with purchasing a running driving 1951 Ford F1 close to 5 years ago as my first car, about three months after turning 16. The original thought was to have a winter project to turn around with the help of my dad and be able to drive a cool old truck to school my senior year. This is the truck I originally purchased, an 'original' 1951 Ford F1 (numbers matching, body work had been done poorly and painted over by PO). Has the original flathead V8 and three on the tree setup.

So we got it home and started tearing it apart and realized that despite some bad patch jobs and running boards, we had a pretty solid original truck, and my dad decided that we wouldn't be doing it any justice if we did anything but restore it, after which it wouldn't really be a proper vehicle for a teenager like myself at the time to be using as a daily driver, so we began looking for something else to build that was a little more driver friendly as well as not quite so historic. The following spring we found a complete body of a 1950 F1 minus the hood,tailgate, and grill that the 2 PO had flipped the doors and chopped, as well as modified the front nose, and decided we would go down that route. We then found a 1950 chevy 1/2 ton chassis in pretty good shape with a 350/th350 combo and decided we would try to piece together something that may someday be road worthy.

So once we got all the pieces in one place, we started to try to put some things together. The advantage of using the 50 chevy chassis was the wheel base was the same or close enough to the 50 F1 so that when we got the body aligned, the wheels would be in the right place in the fenders without having the do too much cutting. We ended up having to move the motor and transmission mounts forwards about 4 inches in order to get firewall clearance, and then bolted the cab in place for the moment and moved forward. We had to extend the driveshaft as well, as well as rebuild the rear as some things were hung up. We began work around the chassis, replacing all the brake lines and making sure the brakes were functioning (drums all around for now). We then mocked up the front end and set it on the frame to see how it looked around the 350. The engine sat a little low in the bay but was fine for me. We purchased an aftermarket radiator that bolted right on and fired up the engine to make sure everything was working as the PO said it would. The engine did fire, but needed and new carb and probably a new intake manifold as the one on it had some of the treads pulled out. Next I worked on the dash, which we decided to cut out the gauge area and leave the rest. I built a custom panel for some aftermarket gauges we purchased, and put it in the original gauge location with some updated tech in.


Then we got a little ahead of ourselves and decided to paint the dash to see what the inside of the truck might look like when it was put together. It was cool to see some color on it in such a short period of time, but now its three years later and we still haven't gotten the rest of the truck put together enough for paint. Anyway here is the inside of the truck partially finished. I pulled a front seat setup out of a late 90s ranger that fit in the cab perfectly, and purchased a new trans cover and customized it for the lokar shifter attached to the th350.





I think once we got to this point I left for my first year of college and work kinda stopped, I play basketball so only got 5 days home for winter break to tinker with things and a week for spring break. That year during those two periods of time I managed to build a solid wood bed out of some nice cherry my grandfather had cut himself and a little custom door to get to the gas tank sitting below the bed in the rear.

Last summer I took an internship at school so I was away from the truck all summer and wasn't able to get anything done. Then this was repeated this past year, and during my two weeks home over winter and spring breaks combined I managed to fab up a tailgate from 1" square tube and the stamp of an old tailgate that was in decent shape other than the frame.


Somewhere in there we also purchased fiberglass rear fenders, as we could not find any close to us in any type of recoverable shape, but did find a 51 hood in pretty good shape that we threw on top. We also purchased a repro set of stamped running boards for the original 51 I bought and had a friend who's a great welder/mechanic fab up some smoothies for this truck. This summer I managed to land an internship 10 minutes from home so I get to work on the truck most nights after work, and have been home for three weeks now. This is what she looks like sitting in the garage now, and I'm shooting to get it finished and on the road before I turn 21 in the end of July. Will be updating progress over the next two months to hopefully keep me motivated to finish.

 

Sorry, I got off the bus when you mentioned Chevrolet chassis. Not that I'm a purist mind you..........

 

Chevy chassis or not, that is an admirable amount of work and vision to accomplish despite limited time.
Your pictures and narration are super.
Welcome to FTE.
Tom


p.s. Bob...of all the choices available he picked Ranger seats. Cut him some slack.

p.p.s - I see you are from somewhere in New York. This coming September there will be a FTE gathering in Penn. if interested. Scroll down for a thread called ' Central Penn truckstock, plan now' for details. Hope to see you there.

 

Welcome. I applaud the efforts and the decision to keep the first F1 unmolested. Your continuing focus is a tribute to commitment. Thanks for sharing and heres to seeing you on the road soon.

 

 

Young guns, welcome to FTE the best Ford truck Forum on the world wide web! Lots of smart guys here to help you out. Thanks for the pictures. Do you still have the stock 51? I am glad you didn't chop that up.

Where in NY are you? The 2018 Truckstock is in september in Howard, PA at the Bald Eagle State Park. Think about it.

 

Don't get me wrong. I didn't mean it like it was a bad thing. I'm behind you 110%. Let's rock!

 

 

The current dilemma is I have this customized front nose and having a hard time finding a fit for the hole that is left. We tried to cut up an old 50 grill and stick it in the hold but the lines were all off and it didn't look good so we had to scrap it. My grandpa had an old 56 dump truck sitting in a shed that hadn't been touched in 20 years and he let me rob the grill off of it. A couple dings but in pretty good shape. Problem is it is 15 inches wider than the hole in the nose, so it'll have to sectioned to fit in. Has anyone tried to do this/have any idea what would be the best way to get the tapered grill to shrink without ruining the profile completely?

 

The 1954 Pontiac grille has long been a favorite of customizers who want a "floating" grille. 1954-55 DeStoto grilles are also a floating style.

 

Show us a pic of your grille hole. How different from stock is it?

 

Abe,

You can somewhat see the front setup in this picture. I will get one from straight on with the grill I have below when I get home from work this afternoon.

I'm pretty sure it is a '50 front nose with the bottom part of the grill hole filled in to make a symmetrical hole. It measures about 50 1/2 inches from the widest part that would be the outside of the headlight bezels end to end.

 

Im very impressed by a young man that has the patients to have a plan and stick to it. I too applaud you for not molesting the 51 and going to the 50 as plan B. I think your doing a fine job on it and a chopped and otherwise altered truck would be my choice at your age. Heck my first car was a 66 Valiant with blacked out windows and a mattress for a back seat. I knew nothing about fixing a car so when the fuel pump died I sold the car, so compared to me your a genius. Congratulations, and Rock that truck any way you want, there are valid reasons for it. And if I read correctly, you still have the unmolested 51 waiting for a proper restoration when life settles down for you.??

 

Thanks, there aren't too many people my age who have any sort of understanding of what kind of time and work goes into doing such a project, they just like to see the finished project, tho don't we all.

Yup the 51 will probably start getting work again after this rod is finished and I finish college in two more years. Then hopefully I will be able to do it some justice for the nice piece of auto history that it is. Got as far as repairing and restoring the frame and 238 flathead, and having the cab sandblasted and put in primer before moving on to this build.