Hey all,

During Xmas, my father in-law mentioned he's going to get rid of some "projects" that he is not going to touch, one being a 39 PU. Well, that got the gears turning as I'm a freakish gear head and love a challenge.

The truck has a bit of rust in the bottom rear of the cab, and some in the passenger side of the bed, other than that, it seems to be in fairly good shape, I have some pics in my Gallery.

Being that I'm a member of quite a few forums, I'm going to bite the bullet and ask for opinions, yes I'm ducking and will take them for what I paid for them, but you get the jest.

My outlook is this, I'm not going to do a full restoration becuase I did that once and it sucks. and I can't do it in such a way that my wife sees mass amounts of cash leaving the account, a couple hundred here and there is easy to explain.....kinda, but a new IFS front end.....no good can come of it!
(did I mention my wife doesn't know about this and the truck is staying at her dads place on the other side of the state?)

So, what's a good way to start this thing, I'm looking at doing a rat rod build, using the flathead etc, but want to be able to drive it without being scared of it breaking down or crashing itself. Any ideas on suspension etc? Stay stock? What about floor boards? they are gone, go wood? or fab something up?

Yes, this is my first Ford, I was brought up a MOPAR guy, still am, but old steel is cool no matter the brand, 4 wheels or 2.

 

Jengel, welcom to the forum. One of the good things about rat rods is that you can be creative, have a cool ride, and not poor thousands of dollars into the project.
I got a brief glimpse of an old Ford rat rod truck the last couple of days. It was on a CD of the West Coast Kustoms Car Show.
The truck I think was a 46. It was all primer black. No rear fenders, no running boards, no front sheet metal except for the radiator frame which wasn't shown well.
It had been lowerd front and rear, and the top was chopped. Performance looking flathead motor.
It was cool in the eyes of folks who like the mag Ol Skoolz Rodz.
On something like that, a dropped chrome front axle would look great. Mike

 

Welcome to the only family Ford Truck site, on the net. As you can see the members in these forums are very knowledgeable about trucks; they will eagerly help you…with your question. If you have a minute check out the Guidelines, it will help you to navigate through FTE.
Enjoy FTE we are happy to have you on board!~

 

Thanks for the help Tim, I'd really love to use the forum archives a bit more, but the response times of this server is pretty lack luster (frustrating). Not that I'm complaining.....ok, yes I am a bit.... :-)

 

Again Welcome to FTE!

Of course everybody says to have a game plan when you start a project. Since I am possibly the worst person on the face of the earth when it comes to planning ahead.. well that's all I'll say.

As for the floor, it's up to you. Having a visible wood floor and a Mexican blanket might be your dream interior or it may just be easier to put in wood than metal...

The first thing that comes to mind about reliability is the brakes. If they are still mechanical it would probribly be just as easy to get a disk brake conversion than switching to hydraulic. Along with that think about what you want to do with your master cylinder. Most people go with an assembly on the firewall to prevent the old 'air problem' with the petals under the floor (with the wheel and master at the same level it's easy for air to leak to the wheel cylinders). With the brakes set the (rebuilt) stock suspension should be good enough to get you down the road safely if you drive normaly.

The good thing about a 'rat' rod is that you don't really have to worry about the body. The best thing you can do is research, and until you figure everything you want to do there is still the tear down. Good luck and we all hope you stick around!

Clayton

 

Thanks Clayton, that's exactly the type of information / opinions I'm looking for, you all have the experience, been there and done that, whatever you learned is worth gold!