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The decision to go with 16” wheels and tires locks in your need to swap the rear axle. No 16” wheel that we’ve found will clear your stock 14” rear drums. And no 16” wheel has the stock 5 x 6 7/8” bolt pattern. Switching your front hubs to 8 x 6.5” will then be called for to allow just one spare. Determining whether later F-2/3 hubs will bolt on is I think the logical first question to answer. The cross over steering of the 47 would differ from the later trucks. Stu
Opps edit - I see you plan to redrill hubs to 5 lug pattern. Stu
Yup! for the sake of simplicity in the rear I’ll be using my dana 60 in stock form, utilizing 16” 8x6.5 wheels. Don’t plan on using the 5 lug wheels and equipment. I’m going to pull the front drum/hub off my F3 and see how it fits on the 47’ spindle. Then I will go from there. Love a challenge
I finally got a day off - which meant the whole day was devoted to working on the tonner (nothing else I’d rather do). We were lucky to have a warm day here in Iowa so I was able to get some more painting done on engine parts. Sadly I didn’t accomplish a whole lot and I’m still waiting on gaskets for the 226…I also managed to break off the studs in the exhaust manifold so I have some more work cut out for me! I ended the day test fitting a hub from my 50 F3’ onto the 47’…well it looks like we have a match! The F2 F3 hubs do in fact bolt onto 47’ spindles. Even got brake engagement! And I couldn’t resist…I had to bolt on an F3 wheel with 7.50x17s. I think wheels and tires can make or break these old trucks…time to track down some f3 hubs and drums
You are killing me with this conversion! I am a lifetime fan of tall , narrow truck tires. I have a sterling 10 1/4 from a 94 f350 srw pickup. Only thing is I like the stock wheels/hubcaps and have 4 new 7,50 17s. 2 Traction and 2 highway. Still is an excellent bit of knowledge that I'm sure will be extremely valuable to me and others in the future. So you are saying the drums work on the tonner's shoes? I wonder how long those front 8 lug drums and hubs were utilized! You are the Sherlock Holmes of the Ford Hub!
You are killing me with this conversion! I am a lifetime fan of tall , narrow truck tires. I have a sterling 10 1/4 from a 94 f350 srw pickup. Only thing is I like the stock wheels/hubcaps and have 4 new 7,50 17s. 2 Traction and 2 highway. Still is an excellent bit of knowledge that I'm sure will be extremely valuable to me and others in the future. So you are saying the drums work on the tonner's shoes? I wonder how long those front 8 lug drums and hubs were utilized! You are the Sherlock Holmes of the Ford Hub!
GB - it’s a difficult decision to stray from the original 17” wheels. I love the look and I’m a little sad to see them go but for what I want to do with the truck I gotta make the switch to get the 3.73 final drive ratio as I hope to spend a lot of time out on the highway. I also wanted to retain the original 4 speed as that’s another part of these old trucks I love - double clutching is fun I’ll admit it. My F3 has the stock axle and she winds up pretty good in town.
Since I am making the switch to 16s tall skinny bias plys are a must to keep the original feel and ride of the truck alive. But yes the 8 lug drums fit the tonners shoes from what I can tell…now I’m curious if 53’-56’ drums/hubs are the same?? I was able to adjust the cams and get brake engagement and both sets of shoes measured 1.75” wide. I will most likely try to have shoes arc ground to whatever drums I source If they are in decent enough shape.
Well I did a bad thing this weekend. I actually brought out the dial bore gauge and a micrometer and measured my bores again. I decided to take the plunge and tear the engine down. The 48-52 shop manual states that any bore taper .015 can be cleaned up with a hone. Most of mine checked out from .008-.011. Which probably would be fine with a hone. I’d probably been fine running the engine like that. However given the fact the engine is out of the truck and I haven’t invested any serious coin into it other than spray paint and my time I decided I want to do it right. I’ll be taking the engine to the machine shop hopefully this week to have it hot tanked and bored. Possibly have the crank ground and new cam bearings. Ultimately I want to daily drive this truck and I’d rather do it right the first time than do this all again in 2 years when this thing seriously starts smoking. And I’ll have one healthy 47’ pickup that I’ll have confidence in on some future road trips. The cool thing is this engine is stock. 3.30 bore - doesn’t appear this things ever been rebuilt.
This is like deja vu of my 254 I built in college a few years ago I put in my F6…wish I had put the 226 in that truck.
I took this week off to get some stuff done around my house, ended up working on the truck all week. Seems about right. Anywho I dropped the engine off at the machine shop on Monday afternoon, sounding like I won’t see it till after Christmas. That’s okay, plenty to do. Tuesday morning I drug the heep out of the garage and started in on the bed. I took off the angle on each side of the bed so I can clean up some rust in there. I ended up getting two panels patched, still have 3 more to do. Once I’m finished I’ll paint the angle iron, bed sides and reinstall. Remember guys, I’m building this to be a workhorse not a pebble beach truck so my patches aren’t the prettiest but I can guarantee this thing will outlive me (I’m 25 so that’s saying something)… have a happy thanksgiving everyone!
It sure is nice to have motivated people on here that are younger than me. I used to be the young person in the hobby, I'm now 41.
Keep posting pictures!
It sure is nice to have motivated people on here that are younger than me. I used to be the young person in the hobby, I'm now 41.
Keep posting pictures!
I'm 63. Started doing this when I was 41… and I still feel like I’m 18. Wish I could say the same about my Dad bod though.
Sammy, post #19 brought back some 64-65 memories of the 50 Ford 3/4 ton wrecker that was mostly a parts chaser at my Dad’s truck/auto shop. All it had was a hand crank winch and a boom. It had the 6 like yours and it idled so low I never needed the clutch. I usually had my foot on the dash and would just slip it into 1st then just bang through the gears by letting off the gas. Too lazy to double clutch!
Then after I got out of Navy the 57 International with a real pto style winch which was a Holmes style wrecker that had the exhaust routed in front of the right rear that could really back fire. Sometimes the wife and I went out a night to have some fun with it.
Sammy,
Great documentation on your truck build! I like it! Has most of the things that I think about in my projects too. Some moves forward, a few back to regroup and try again. Thanks for the pictures and progress reports!
Good to see there are some younger folks that care about old iron too!
Regards,
Chris
Hey guys don’t really have an update but haven't touched the truck since the last post, I have been collecting all the parts I need to do the brakes, patch panels, and other miscellaneous parts I’ve found. I have a different idea for the front brakes but I have all the parts to do it.. I’ll mock it up some night and post pics, might be helpful to other members. I’m knee deep in the middle of a kitchen remodel so when it warms up I’ll be done with the kitchen and hit the ground running on the 47’. Been subzero here all week…I might be insulating/heating my garage before next winter….
Stay warm! An insulated working area is really helpful. Dad built a big metal building and insulated it. It still got cold in the winter, but a couple of those small propane heaters threaded onto 5 gallon cans worked pretty well.
I'm into a couple of kitchens too.... That's my work, so after work I gotta get greasy. This is my 46 tonner that was a parts truck, but I had a sweet running H six and some winter nights so I've been building it back up. It isn't as nice as yours, but the red one is clean like yours. That has a small cyl cummins6 cyl turbocharged generator engine in front of a GM sm 465 I did 2 winters ago.
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