I was wanting to know if it was ok to usurp a thread and tell about my rebuild as I do it. I will be doing this for awhile and asking questions as I go. That way I do not keep making redundant threads and having strange moderators emailing me privately and telling me to quit asking so many questions. Ed

 

Hey, Ed. It is probably impolite, or at least impolitic, to steal a thread for your own devices. One of the more powerful assets you have for your questions lies in the search function. Many of the questions we see daily have been "asked and answered" many times. Repetitive questions prompted some of our members to put together the front suspension thread that Kenny has stickied at the top. No one minds questions... that's what we are all here for... but a certain amount of discretion and consideration is something we all must abide. Redundant questions are unnecessary use of the forii and create tedium.
It would be interesting to follow your progress. One of the best resto stories is the work of our friend George, who is tracking the rebuild of his truck Earl. We need more of this kind of work... at least for the older boys who have trouble following who did what when.
Tell us how you are doing and the results of the answers to your questions. Best. himmelberg

 

Sounds good. Thanks

 

Hey H maybe you can explain something to me though. I had started a photo gallery of my trucks and my hobbies related to my ford trucks and someone has deleted my galleries. I also have had my sig altered twice by someone. I know for a fact no one here at this site other then the owners of the site can get my password since its impossible. What is going on and why am I being singled out. Ed

 

Ok here goes. It all started with an ebay ad about 5 weeks ago. (First week in January) I placed the bid and of course the reserve was way to high. I emailed the seller and offered him a flat $2400 for the truck and he accepted. Now comes the fun part. I sent the deposit and got a notice from my company that I was heading to Colombia the next week so I had no chance to pick up the truck. BTW I live in a town south of Houston and the truck was located at the border of Colorado and New Mexico. It was a 1800 mile round trip drive.

Off to Colombia I go while maintaining internet connections with you guys. Of course I was asking a million questions, after all this is my first old truck and actual ground up rebuild. I had a blast and made many memories and then came home. I made plans to pick up the truck Super Bowl weekend. What a dumb **** I was.

I made arrangements to pick up a 4000 lb load of ceramic tile in Dallas on the way in exchange for $250 upon delivery in New Mexico. I talked my little brother into coming along for the trip and on Saturday morning at 2:00 we were off. We picked up the tile in Dallas at 8:00 am and were on the road to pick up my new truck in my wifes new truck. Yes that is another story in itself. I am still doing Honey-Do's and will continue to do so for a long time.

The trip to Raton was fantastic. This was the only part of Texas I had not ever traveled to and my first drive into New Mexico. I have never seen so many old trucks and cars driving around in my life. There were Mustangs and 40's/50's trucks and cars every where. I saw so many old trucks of all makes that I was drooling by the time we got out of Texas.

We arrived in Raton at 7:00 PM and delivered the tile. Payment received and went over to pick up the truck at the sellers house. Then a strange thing started happening. This funny white stuff started falling from the sky. I looked at my brother and
said "huh?" Of course he had seen it before on TV and told me it was snow. We arrived at the sellers house and had a look see at the truck. He fired it up and drove it around the yard and then up on the ramp and onto the trailer like no big deal. Yes I was happy and very impressed.

Damn white stuff was really coming down by now though. Dan, the seller, invited us to come into his workshop to look at his projects and this explained why he was selling the truck. He had 3 Harley's and several scooters that he was in the process of restoring or had finished. They were all impressive. As you looked around his shop there was art work of every kind on the walls. A antique coke machine was in the process of being repainted and one had already been done and was being used. The art was of beautiful women, cars, trucks, motorcycles and scooters. All was hand drawn or painted by Dan and his son. There were numerous photos of Dan with beautiful woman and famous folks. Again I was impressed.

Dans wife invited us in for dinner and we had no choice but to accept(yeah right). In their home was the same kind of art work with Indians and beautiful woman and then on one wall was a motorcycle magazine cover with Dan on one cover and his wife on a motorcycle wearing not much of anything. Yep I was impressed. Of course they had a wet bar with a life sized Elvis at the bar. I think maybe some man have way to much fun or time on their hands. Every 40 and 50's truck model of all makes is in a show case behind the bar. All I can say is I have led a very deprived life.

Well money changes hands and its time to say our good byes and off we go. Did I not tell you about the white stuff? Well let me tell you about that. We were in Ratons first winter storm of the year. And me and my southern **** had never driven in this stuff. I will tell you now that I did not have any idea what this stuff could do to your aging process. We made it out of town and were heading back to the Texas border around 9:00 pm. The snow was coming down sideways and at about a 30mph clip.

Which is good because that was the number I picked for my limit of driving in the stuff. The trailer was handling well and we were both full, warm and happy. My brother of course decided that since he knew what the white stuff was that he could tell me how to drive in it. It was at this time that I stopped the truck and asked him to get out and walk to Texas. Things got real quite for awhile....thank god.

We were driving on the road and the snow was about 6" deep so you could not see the lines or the edge of the road. You couldn't see 20' in front of the truck and high beams were a no-no. Along the way there were several vehicles and large trucks that stopped and pulled over. Not I though since it appeared that we were doing very well with the trailer holding the rear end of my truck down. (Not big ***** just stupid) We stopped and helped a few folks that hit the guardrails and ditches and it took us about 3 hours to go 50 miles.

By the time we reached the Texas border I had Buns of Steel and my seat had a hole chewed in it. To all of you Yankees I am so glad we lost the war since I would not ever chose to live where that white stuff falls feet at a time. Its about now that I decide to relinquish the reins and hand over the wheel to my brother who is still miffed about the invitation. Off to nanaland I go.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful other then folks at every gas station asking me questions about the 54 in the trailer behind my now mud colored 03 truck. We arrived at home right before the game started and both of us showered, grabbed a beer and then proceeded to sleep thru the game. So much for planning. I will complete the rest of the story of the rebuild as I go. Ed

 

First week consisted of going over the truck and looking at all of the failed items. Found one small rust hole in the driver side rear cab corner. Easily repairable. Found 2 small holes in passenger side floorboard. Again easy repairs. Bought 2 cans of lubricant and sprayed every fastener I could find on the truck. Since the truck had several bare metal spots I sprayed all of the potential rust areas with Rust Free. Smells like hell but it works.(Burns too) Left the truck alone for a week and continued to spray all fasteners every other day. Ed

 

Second week. Pulled all windows and sent the rear and side windows to be remade. Removed both the rear bumper and front bumper. Rear bumper took two freaking days to get off and I have never seen those damn square nuts used in a large item before. I had to cut the bed wood out to get to the dang things. Removed all of the bed bolts and removed the rotted wood. This also took two days. Thank god I had lubricated all of the nuts for a week.

Questions-
I found the oil filter case full of clean oil, ~1" deep. Is this normal?

How do you tell what gears are in the rear end?

How much trouble is it to convert the transmission to a floor shift from a column shift?

When you order the new bed wood kit does it come with the 4 bolts that hold the bed to the rails?

 

Hi Ed,

Congrats on your very nice find! I also enjoyed reading of your adventure.

Himmelberg has summed it up pretty well. "That's what we're here for".
Just to add, you shouldn't be receiving e-mails from "strange" moderators for asking questions in here. I'm the only moderator (though strange) of the '48-'60 forum.


You are not being singled out. There are many posts in the "User feedback and questions" forum from user's asking about their signatures being edited or deleted.

Administration is currently cleaning up signatures that do not follow the guidelines. The guidelines are posted in the "Site announcements" forum.

Same thing with Galleries. If you posted any technical pictures, pictures of just truck parts, an incomplete truck, or non Ford truck material, and did not check the "hide this gallery" box, administration will either hide, edit, or delete your gallery as they see fit.
Hidden galleries are still visible when you click on the link under a person's avatar. They just don't show up on the main galleries listing page.

Only the 3 administrators have the powers to edit or delete user's signatures and galleries.

I hope this helped to answer some of your questions.

 

Thanks Ken. Ok now lets change something. I meant air filter housing full of oil. Is that normal? One other thing, I have tried to find another truck with a front facia like mine and I have never seen one. Also my truck has holes on top of the hood like it had an ornament at one time. Did any of the ford trucks come with hood ornaments from the factory. Mine also has the spot light on the pillar and on the front bumpers and it looks original. What is all of this about. Ed

 

I see now that the 54's had that front fascia. I still have not found the hood ornament on a truck and I guess that is good. No one else seems to have a spot light in the gallery though. Mine looks like it is in very good condition. I just may keep it. Ed

 

You have an oil bath air cleaner. The oil traps dirt as opposed to a paper filter like you find in today's trucks. Your hood should have an emblem on the nose and matching emblems on each side.

 

So it is supposed to have the oil there. Hmmmmm. I do have the ornaments for the front fascia(hash marks) the front of the hood and the side of the hood. I have an extra ornament that says overdrive but I have no idea where it goes and I have two small holes on each side of the cab next to the rear window and I have no idea what goes there and last of all I have 2 holes on top of the hood where at one time there was a hood ornament. I do not have the boomerang holes although it appears that was common on the 54. I wonder why. Also I have noticed by going through the gallery that not all 54's have the same grill. I guess it is time to start buying me some books to do the research on these matters. Ed

 

Hi Ed, my 54 had the regular grill, but I sold it. I prefer the 56 unit I put on. Maybe your hood has no holes for the boomerangs because it may be from a 55 or a 56. They are interchangeable. The overdrive emblem may fit right on the nose of the hood. John

 

If the overdrive emblem is like this '53, it goes on the grille above the 6 or 8 cylinder emblem.

 

In regards to the holes on top of the hood, my '55, F-250 and '53, F-250 appeared to have holes as well. I spoke to an old timer in Pigeon Forge and he was saying that a hood ornament was an option. He had one (it looked like an airplane or a bird) for $400. He said they are a pretty rare find and from what I can tell, they are. Over the years, a lot of people would remove them for whatever reason. That makes them all the more rare. Anyway, you will occasionally see a '53-'56 F-100 or larger with a hood ornament. If you can find them, they will either be expensive or need rechroming or pitted etc... There was another guy in Pigeon Forge that had 2. One of them was pretty rough and $150 and the other one was nicer, but more expensive. You might just want to fill those holes in and paint the hood like most everyone else does.