Fiberglass cab? You bet!
Cheap? Ummmmm...No

 

I picked up my 51F1 for $250.00

 

Good Bleedin' Luck, maybe back in the '70s & '80s.
You'll wind up spending 10-20 times that amount in attempting to convert that '70s frame to take any body style from '48-'60.
Fiberglass cabs usually are usually a tick ($$$$$) more expensive that Sheet Metel.

 

In your neck of the woods, 100.00 will buy you a bucketful of brown powder that used to be a vehicle, a solid chassis with a valid title is worth more than that. Sorry but that's the truth. FG cabs are close to 10K, a single FG fender is 350.00.

 

so damn bitter.
i am can do anything i want. we can accopmlish many thing in our our lifetime we strive for. and i hope having a 54 body on on a 4 wheel drive frame is not to limiting for you my friend. i work hard and i can spend my money how i like i guess. i will show you the pics when i am done. as for now have a goodnight and keep on truckin my friend.
4x4bigblock!

 

Reminds me of when I lived in Boise Idaho may years ago. Their was an ad for a then current model cad for only $50. No one called about it - thought it was a mistake, except for one High School Kid. He did indeed buy a Caddy with less than 3k miles on it for $50.

Seems the old guy who owned it died and left everything to his wife, except for that car. He willed it, or the proceeds of the sale thereof, to his girlfriend. His wife sold it for $50.

So keep dreaming and looking - who knows, you might find some old widow who wants that "darned old truck" out of her garage!

 

Look at my gallery in the "OTHER" section I had a 4x4 56 the red roll back. It was a marmon herrington conversion, not a frame conversion. Dont forget about the yellow 56 I have for sale it would do you right!

Kevin Bigwin

 

If you go with a '57-'60, a lot of parts for those have not been reproduced, so whatever extra you pay to get a better truck is worth it in the long run. The '53-'56's are so popular that you could probably build one from scratch with new repro parts, if your wallet is bottomless.
Prices on the '57-'60s are all over the place; to some people it's just an old truck, to others it's a rare collectible and they'll ask 5x as much for the exact same truck.

Scan the classifieds, place want ads, check Ebay, visit or phone wrecking yards out in the boonies, drive the back lanes and country roads looking for trucks in fields or back yards.

 

Ironically, this may be one of the worst places to ask for leads on a clean, cheap truck... If we knew of one, we'd likely be buying it! I'm serious!

 

Boy-o, You've hit-the-nail-on-the-head w/ that statement & I couldn't have stated it better myself.

 

I just bought a 63 - over the phone, sight unseen, but from someone I know for $125. All I know for sure is that it is a stock six 4 speed short wheelbase - and had not been run in several years. I assume it is a F100 as it is the shorty, but do not know for sure yet.

It was going to be part of a farm sale in Northern Colorado - my brother noticed it while checking out a tractor. He will store it on his farm until I can drag it to California - I am two projects behind so there is no hurry to add it to my yard art.

Anyway, deals are out there - but when they come up you have to jump on them!

 

I completely agree with buying the best body you can from the get go. expecially in the rust belt.

Here are some pics of the progress I have made on my beater:

http://photobucket.com/albums/b162/f...52%20progress/

The pics are in reverse chronologic order (the first pics are on the 2nd page).


I bought the first truck (the brown one) for $300 and it had a cracked frame, a stuck buick v6 motor and a cheesy wagoneer 4x4 conversion. I bought the pannel truck for the frame. then bought a better cab....then a better truck....then another truck..... after all that work and selling off all the extra parts I ended up with a muttly truck (1948 bed and cab with 52 frame and front clip) that I can drive around for around $2,000 bucks... the motor is now knocking and I am currently building a 393W stroker motor and making some other improvements so by the end of the year I will probally have $5,000 in it.

All told I could have saved a lot of work and probally $1000 if I bought a better truck to start with.... granted I had a lot of fun getting it this far but it isn't the most rational way to do it and the current product is probally 25% percent weld wire.


On my 1948 mostly stock restoration I decided to buy all the best parts I could afford off the bat and when I finnally get around to getting it together I can guarentee It will be a much more satifying experience and worth much more as a finished product... at this point I all in pieces and I have $4,500 in it. AND it is about 97% rust and dent free with a low mileage merc flathead motor.

 

jpb, if you want to join the "woulda, coulda" club (me being the honorary chairman)...

After putting $10k into my '52 (which was far from total trash to begin with), and still not on the road, I was at a swap meet where an old geezer had a cherry, New Mexico since new, 2-owner, '51 with original upholstery intact, original everything, never rusted anywhere (even at the running boards), 80k miles on it, that he couldn't sell for $8,000! No takers! I could have cried. Nothing I could do to mine would ever bring it to original, factory condition like that.

The only reason I sleep at night since then is, it was an ugly brown color....

 

see for me i would rather buy it cheap right now and as i have money put it in to it. but a no rusted shell would be perfect. i still want to put one on a 4 wheel drive frame. bronco is they way to go as i heard. any ideas let me know.

 

AS was stated before, Good Luck on Cheap, they can be had but not Easily, YOU have to put forth the Effort in Order to Find 1.
You've been told WHERE & HOW to Look for what you wish, but You seem to Want Others to do All the Work for you.