If a 61 to 64 f100 came with a straight six in it, did it mount the same way as with a 292. Meaning one mount in the front of the engine with that mount being welded to the front cross member

 

6 cyl frames had nothing welded to the front crossmember with regard to engine mounts.

 

So did they mount right on top of the crossmember?

 

I believe so. Mine already had a 390 in it when I got it. Here’s a pic of mocking up the 429, you can see there’s nothing there.

 

That would make sense using the big hole for the six since it would be longer than the 292. That also would explain to me why the weld on the 292 mount was such a scabby looking weld. Probably done on the line just before the motor was installed since the 292 was a optional motor that would have needed a different mount from all the sixes.

 

Or was possibly done post assembly line.
My 63 Y block is held down in front by a single bolt, much to my dismay.

 

RB where was your truck built? Mine was built in St Paul and the truck was ordered with the 292. I have seen a few 64's with the 292 and all the front mounts were welded on, crapily I might ad. But yours is riveted on. I think different assembly plants had slightly different procedures. Just yesterday I saw a 64 F100 that the front bumper brackets were riveted on. But mine were bolted on. Don't worry about the single bolt. The bell housing bolts to the frame mounts on bothe sides. If the rubber mounts are good and the bolt is tight that motor isn't going anywhere.

 

Well according to the vin tag it was built in San Jose. Thats odd the various ways that mount was attached. The sketchy welding seems lame.

Rick

 

This is from another truck

 

This is mine. You can kind of see the weld. I left it the way it came from the factory when I restored it.

 

Nice!

Rick

 

I'll check my truck in the morning if I remember but it looks like from the MPC that the 4WD trucks used rivets for the bracket on the 292 8 cylinder (upper right) and the 2WD trucks were welded on (lower right).

 

Interesting! What about the front bumper brackets on a 64? I saw a picture of a 64 frame that the brackets were riveted on. But mine were bolted on. I don't know if the one that was riveted was 2wd or 4wd.

 

I'd bet the reason they did the front engine mount different on the 4WD was the pounding they were expected to take - could have even shown a problem during testing in 1961 that required a more robust design. One thing to note is final assembly didn't do any welding or heavy riveting, their job was simply to assemble the pieces. The pieces (engine, transmission, axles, frame, body with paint, etc.) were all prepared in other pre-assembly areas/locations or by other vendors. Everything was very orchestrated with the various pieces needed to put an exact vehicle together all coming to final assembly at the time they are needed. They would have known by then which engine type was going in which frame. General Motors knew which exact engine was going into which vehicle and stamped the partial VIN number on the engines and transmissions. That's the number-matching many people talk about.

In 1914, Ford was already experimenting with assembly line prototyping, and his system was perfected before the Minneapolis plant started making Model Ts. This system allowed cars to be assembled in a record 93 minutes, rather than twelve-and-a-half hours.

Consider this - a truck is ordered with auxiliary springs in the rear. Front and rear brackets on each side. 4 rivets per bracket. Even 4 guys would have to do 4 hot rivets each. Probably take more than a minute to do all 16. They wouldn't be holding up the assembly line for that long - San Jose was capable of rolling 22 trucks off the line every hour as well as 59 cars with a potential of over 1,200 vehicles in a two-shift day.

I gotta admit most of the 1961-1964 trucks I've seen without their front bumper installed did have the brackets (61-63 different than 64) rivetted on. But things did vary some by assembly plant and perhaps St. Paul did it a little different on the bumper brackets. I don't see any indication of 4WDs being different as far as bumper brackets than the 2WDs.

On a side note, the MPC often shows bolts being used to secure pieces that are often found rivetted on originally. That's because dealerships and most service shops didn't have the ability/equipment to do hot riveting. I've also seen examples where rivets AND bolts were used to hold on the same one piece.

Here's pictures of my 1964 2WD from the Kansas City assembly plant.

Front bumper brackets



Front shock towers - note the use of rivets in the back two and bolts in the front two. Did I say that right? Still a little early here.




And the welds on the front motor support look decent. Doesn't look bad at all here. It does look like the one other truck you posted the picture of is only half welded across the top but maybe it's not that bad in person. Or it was welded on a Monday after a long weekend by a new hire...

 

Another thought on the different front mount for the 4WD might be that things sit a little taller on those models. I think if Rick looks where his radiator core support attaches to the frame it's got two metal perches that the core support sits on. That raises the radiator up some and to keep everything in line that front bracket may provide some additional height to the equation.

My 1966 F250 4x4 with 6 cylinder uses a front perch that adds some height. Tough to compare a 1965 F100 4x4 and 1965/1966 F250 4x4 to the 2WD trucks of the same years since they used side motor mounts instead of front and rear.