I am doing a frame off restoration on a 1959 Ford 4X4. My brother James and I bought the truck back in 1982 as a 16th birthday present for our younger brother Michael. After years of camping trips and roads trips and taking his wife to the hospital to have his first daughter the truck has seen a lot of miles and love. Michael bought his first house got him a shop and decided to restore this truck. Unfortunately he died in a car accident in 1999. The truck has been sitting in his shop since then and it is time to finish what he started. I am a mechanic by trade so I am not new to the world of busted knuckles and old rusty bolts. But this is the first total restore I have done.

The truck as of last weekend has been totally dismantled. The engine is at the shop being checked out, as I don’t have the tools for that. The transfer case, transmission and axles have been hot pressure washed and cases cracked and lists made of parts needed for rebuilds. The frame and Cab are back from the sandblaster and I spent all day laying down the primer on the frame.

The questions I have about this truck concern the rear axle. The original was bent in an accident a couple years after we bought it and replaced with an eight inch axle. Since then we have gotten hold of a 9-inch axle with a posi, I have new spring perches for it and I need to know what the actual width of the axle is as he did not keep the original? Am I going to need to shorten this 9 inch axle or not? Michael dismantled a lot of the truck and I have boxes of parts to sort out and replace. Did the rear axle track in the same path as the front or was it narrower?


Thank Ya Much!

Scott

 

welcome to FTE. Sorry to hear of the circumstances involved, but you can find the info here https://www.ford-trucks.com/article/...ial_Swaps.html

good luck.

 

You probably will not have to shorten the axle but it depends on what the 9 inch came out of originally. The 57-72 nine inch rears were all the same width and the spring perches were all in the same place but 73 up were wider. Even a 73 may not require narrowing since you might be able to make up the difference in width using wheels with a deep backspace. There should be a tag on the rear end which should tell you what it came out of.

 

Welcome to the board!! Sounds like a great project, the 57 -60 trucks sure look tough, especially as a 4x4.

Sorry to hear about your brother

Bobby

 

Sry to hear of the circumstances of the situation, but as GreatNorthWoods said, the easiest thing to prob do (if you have the 73^ 9in.) is to get some offset rims...Unless your going total restoration and using the origional rims.....Again sry to hear of the loss, but glad that your honoring him with the project.

Austin

 

sound like a great way to honor your brothers memory.start up a gallery and post some pics so we can see this beast. i have a 59 that i converted to 4x4 it not together yet but when i had it sitting together to do the cab mount it looked awsome.

 

FYI

1957/63 Ford Truck Parts Catalog on CD: hipoparts.com

Correct original or re-printed Ford Truck shop manuals: faxonautolit.com

The illustrations in the parts catalog are worth their weight in gold. Everything body and mechanical is shown.

Dis-assembly = take pictures and video. When re-assembling, pictures say a 1000 words.

 

John's F-Fun Hundreds have got a reprint for $55. Nice quality and the cheapest I've seen yet ...