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Dose anyone know where I can find good sheet parts for my 52 F3 long bed. I have seen some on ebay but I am worried about the quality of the parts. I just had the guy from dustless blasting in to do the body and some of the parts are worse then I thought. I think Repair is not an option replace my be the best way to go as some of the rust damage is extensive. The truck will need a floor, running boards, cab corners and a rear fender. The biggest thing is finding parts to fit a long bed all I can find say short bed only.
The cab parts are the same as the F1's. The bed is the issue. Don't throw anything away. Pinecone Ford here on the forum built a beautiful truck from a really rough one. I'm sure he'll be along soon. Expect to do a lot of scouring the country for Express bed parts. You may have to make some road trips or pay shipping to get them. Keep looking, parts are out there. The Express bed is the same from 48 to 52 so that helps a little. Good luck with your build.
Hey Rken,
We have a member here "reamer" who makes parts for the '48-'52
cabs. We tried parts from some of the bigger parts suppliers but they
didn't come close to what Reamer produces. His cab corners were a
great fit.
Good luck on your truck. Post some pics when you get a chance.
You'd be surprised what is fixable - especially on the bed.
Rken, welcome to FTE.
You are looking for some very hard to find parts. To the best of my knowledge, no aftermarket company is reproducing the running boards, front or rear fenders or *metal* bed parts for the F2/F3. You either have to fix what you have, or scrounge with a wicked passion for parts all around the country. I did a mix of both, and it wasn't cheap or quick to do. But in the end I have no regrets. These Express Bed trucks are rare to see at the car shows and cruise nights and they get special appreciation from people.
On my F2 I had, I ended up replacing the bed floor with 1/4" diamond plate painted to match the red body color. That was less money than fixing the original floor which had rotted crossmembers. A guy fabricated & welded new bed side patch panels and straightened the tailgate for me. On my F3, that bed was even rougher but I had a guy do the same treatment to that one EXCEPT I was able to replace the bed floor with oak, just like original. The reason I did that is because Bruce Horkey now reproduces the wooden floor parts and crossmembers. They weren't cheap but they fit well and make the truck look stock. I guess what I'm saying is that if you wish to preserve the bed - find a good fabricator and have him stick to the original design as much as possible. Maybe buy some reproduction 6-foot bed parts and have them welded in. The stake pocket bottoms can be fixed with a cross-section of an exhaust pipe elbow. There is a thread on here of a guy doing that very successfully. Search for 'express bed stake pocket' on here. If you are going to scrounge for parts, expect that the shipping will be as much as the parts or even more - just part of the hobby. Good luck and we will encourage and support your plan to save your bed.They all can be fixed with some time, money and vision.
My signature photo is the F3 and has the 'before' look.
Here are 'after' pictures of the F2 and the F3, if that gives you some motivation.
Tom
Thanks all for the help as far as the bed goes its is pretty good shape the wood is shot but the meatal is repairable. I was hoping to replace the wood crossmembers with meatal. The last owner replaced them about 6 years ago and they are all rotted out again. Its the floor of the truck that needs replacing. The one rear fender and running board that may need to be replaced. Here are some pictures.
the next two pictures are of what I think will be hard to fix its as it is rusted through both layers and the shapes may be hard to reproduce
Everything I see there is repairable. Floor pans and cab mounts are available from any of the truck parts vendors. Those patch panels fit all series as the cabs are the same. The running board looks better than most. The fenders all have nothing more than typical rust. You may find better ones, but they'll still need rust repair, so you might as well fix, or have fixed, the ones you have. Here's a great tutorial on how to fix the rear fenders. Myers has done an incredible job, so you can see it can be done. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post19595279
Thanks all for the help as far as the bed goes its is pretty good shape the wood is shot but the meatal is repairable. I was hoping to replace the wood crossmembers with meatal. The last owner replaced them about 6 years ago and they are all rotted out again. Its the floor of the truck that needs replacing. The one rear fender and running board that may need to be replaced. Here are some pictures.
What do you think
All the Cab areas are repro'd. You can get just the braces, left or right front floor sections or even the entire floor and firewall as one piece. I think the entire floor is about 500 bucks plus tax. But if it's anything like mine you could just get the front half for way less. I just replaced my floor with flat sheet metal with some gussets and that worked fine.
It's not polished to a mirror shine but nobody's going to see it.
I made bed mounts out of 2" boxtube, 3 - 1/2" channel and 1/2" of rubber pads for a total height of 2-1/2", which i believe is factory
You have to notch the center 2 tubes slightly, the rest just sit flat on the frame. Pretty straight forward.
Mine didn't have holes drilled in the frame for crossmember 2, 5 and 6. I ended up drilling those out so i wouldn't lose the rubber pads and just because i don't like the idea of that stuff running loose and vibrating against the frame. I was about 200 bucks all in, and that's including stainless fasteners and having the metal shop bend the channel for me as nobody carried the right size around here. Probably cheaper than wood all in, and it'll last foreverish.
Those fenders and running boards are pretty healthy as far as big boy pickup metal goes. You'd be hard pressed to find any replacements, let alone better ones. My right hand rear fender is so bad it actually fell the hell apart, so i just welded it back together and slapped it on as is. But it's kind of a rustomod thing so it works. If you're not doing that and can't do it yourself a bodyshop's in your future I imagine.
Your parts are not that bad compared to some I've seen on here. I have the same areas to fix on mine if I ever get back to working on it. Bruce Horkey sells the original wood but, I replaced my bed cross members with steel tube. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...55a53e9c6c.jpg
I just wanted to thank all of you help. I will be trying to do the body repair myself and after seeing you pictures and reading your posts has renewed my faith in I can do it. Thanks again.
