Makes perfect sense to me.... Dats what I'm talk'n 'bout...

 

I have a street sign welded as a patch panel for the P. side floorboard of my '72. I also have the rusted out D. side fender on the '72 held on in multiple places with aluminum straps that are just screwed on with self tapping screws. They also filled some fist size rust holes in the lower parts of both front fenders with a few inches of bondo, didn't even clean the old rust out just filled it full of mud. I haven't run across anything horrible on the '51 or '48 yet. The Romex for electrical wiring in a previous post gave me a good laugh though. lol

 

wow, i read half way through this thread thinking "PO" meant parole officer. i figured it out and now it makes much more sense.
matt

 

i dunno if you seen my post / thread earlier on this subject , but here a couple a weeks ago when id decided to fix the left front cab mount , the p.o. had formed fiberglass in the correct shape to fill in where there was rust in the left floorboard of the 53 and then covered it all with blackjack roofin cement , and filled in the inner rocker where it was rusted out and the front cab corner , with said blackjack . right side of the truck was fine save for a lil rust in the cab corner .oh and yeah the firewall and floorpan had come apart at the seem where it was pinch welded , also filled in with blackjack .

 

I guess I should be happy about my truck. The PO used it until the late 70's as a daily driver farm truck, then parked it where I found it. Basically it was just a terribly rusty mess of a truck, but not really molested much. The worst part was where he had taken the cylinder head off, and "protected the engine" with a red tarp. The tarp turned brittle and broke into a million quarter sized pieces and went EVERYWHERE when we started moving the truck. At least it was in his yard not mine!

-Ben

 

My truck has the normal PO modifications, the obligatory radio opening in the dash that was cut with a combination of a church key and a smoke wrench, the "all one color" wiring modifications (in my case....red) with the majority of the wires going nowhere
.....side note...if you have wires hanging down, make sure you twist them so they are pointing up, that way all the electrons don't run out and drain your battery.....lol

The fuel tank was taken out of my cab and mounted in the bed of the truck, the PO had welded some 1/8" plate across the bed as protection for the tank as well as some 3/4" square stock along the bed sides in a vain attempt to stiffen the bed up. The front 2 spring pins for the rear suspension had been replaced with large bolts, the only thing keeping them from falling out were the lower aprons of the bedsides.....nice
The original inline 6 exhaust had been split into duals by cutting a hole in the original exhaust manifold and welding (and I use that term very loosely here) another outlet into it. Of course this was all joined up with flex pipe....sounded real good

The truck had some real nice tuck and roll upholstery, well, ok, maybe not real nice, on a set of marine style bass boat seats complete with 360 degree swivel bases.

The tailights were the standard issue mobile home style tailights mounted to huge 1/4" diamond plate monstrosities that had been welded to the rear stake pockets (again I use the term welding very loosely here).

Ah, the joys of old trucks
Bobby

 

So far I think Bobby should get the award for the "Best-Butchered" truck?

 

LOL...naw, I've seen alot worse in some of the threads on this board.

Its amazing what kind of "fixes" have been perpetrated on our trucks over the years by interprising PO's..........lol

 

This has been rather enjoyable to read but pictures of the PO's work would have made it that much more interesting.


Rick

 

Yep, kind of like one of my hero's (Sam Elliot) said in Roadhouse: Ain't it amazing what you can get used to?

 

My PO claimed he used to run a body shop. The body work he had done is not toooo bad. I just wouldn't have taken my wreck-damaged car to his shop because the quality is not that good. The suspension changes to the front were what puzzled me. He kept the stock 48 parallel leaf suspension but he added power steering. He used a darkside power steering box which he had mounted just below the left frame rail directly above the front axle. There was exactly 3/4 inch clearance between the bottom of the steering box and the top of the axle. If he had attempted to drive it the axle would have cracked the steering box at the first big bump. To get the steering geometry correct he had to move the tie rod to the front of the axle, which he did by switching the spindles side for side. Now the shocks were in the way so he reversed the upper shock mounts and mounted the shocks behind the axle and welded a shock mount to the bottom of the axle facing the rear. He put some thought into the mods; just NOT enough.

He did use a tube-type engine mount and a fabricated trans mount from, I think, Mid-Fifty or some other typical truck parts supplier. He just drilled new holes for these things so now there are more holes for me to fill. Anybody need a small-block Ford engine mount and C4 trans mount? Mine are for sale.

Phil

 

I used a galvanized garbage can lid pounded flat to cover the giant hole in the passenger side of the cab on my 60 f-100 (riveted in place of course). I was 15 at the time, and my parents bought plastic cans the next time. I thought it was a sweet fix at the time, and the price was right.

 

My PO claimed right up until the money changed hands that he used to drive the truck around his trailer park (uh-huh) on warm summer nights, he painted such a pretty picture of cruising in it. When I got it home I realized the flatty in it was from a car, and car flatheads don't have motor mounts cast into the water pumps, like the truck. The motor was sitting down on the front axle and tie rod, bouncing up and down with the axle!

Here are some pic's as requested: Wiring at the solenoid, throttle linkage held together with a piece of bailing wire, wire to the coil... typical stuff!

 

Haha, great stories everyone.

The PO from my '48 didn't weld anything.... it was all brazed!! The uppers and lowers on both fenders... no bolts, just brazed. (And I may as well add that he ain't to good at brazing)

And almost everything that was in the cab was held in place by a carriage bolt or two and about 4 or 5 nuts on each! (He must have been trying to clean out the shop and just put every nut he could find on.

All the brackets on the front of the '71 302 he dropped in were home made, and not even close to being straight, the belt was like all over the place.

All the above things is why I am parting it out for all you folks who just need a few parts. And need the money for my '49 to get that on the road.

Wow I just love PO's!!!

 

Took me trailer loads to get my project home, my PO was just a colector of stuff. When I siffted thru all the junk what I got was a good frame two doors two front fenders a 302 cid with 289 heads claimed to be 289.. Cordobba IFS tacked then bondoed into the frame. 2 running boards
best of all a good clean Tittle.
can't really complain much... I knew what I was gettin.