here! A little story if you have time to burn!!

Just thought I would introduce myself. Originally, this started with my dad who was into the late 50's models of course. I remember when we were young kids rolling around in the back of his 57 f series panel. I have been into 61 to 66 f series trucks since I started driving in 1988. My first was a 66 LB 352, 4spd. A real piece when my dad gave it to me for my 16th birthday, It was my first engine swap, my first body restoration, first paint job, the whole bit. I washed dishes in a steakhouse just to blow all of it on parts and pieces. It ended up with a 69 390 and a flawless blue paint job. Unfortunately, it died a fierce death on graduation night. I sort of still have it (half of it anyway), its a trailer now.

So I picked up another, this time a 61 F250 292, 3 speed, narrow long bed for $200. I really hated this truck, it was in worse shape the previous project. But I worked with it anyway, Rebuilt the old 292, straightened up the body, stuck a hurst shifter on the floor for fun. When it came time to put the bed on I was crushed to find the the 66 wouldn't fit, it was like 5 inches too long. I ended up bolting a 60 wide bed on it, like the factory did in the early 60's. As you know, they looked horrible. I drove that truck for a lot of years.

When my brother turned 16, he picked up a 64 with a badly done 302 swap. We went through that one and made it pretty. He was driving home one day and the crummy motor mounts gave out, the block flipped sideways, locked the axle up, and the truck flipped. It was gone. So then he wanted another. He picked up a 66 that my Grandpa bought brand new with the mighty 240 straight six. We chunked that motor, put in a 302 w/289(ported) heads, cam, headers, 500 holley 2bl and built a real runner. This one looked great when we did the paint up on it. It turned out the we built such a great runner that we ended up becoming experts of the ford 9", he stripped 4 sets of gears, broke 3 axles, and twisted a pile of drive shafts. He would run this truck at the drag strip and turned times in the 13.90's. We also cleaned out our neighbors stockpile of 60's f series trucks and accumulated junk, when he finally swore off of them.

By this time we really had a stockpile of junk 61 to 66's stacking up so we started challenging ourselves, my dad also took advantage of this and started buying these trucks since we left a lifetime supply of parts on his back 40. My dad bought a 66 short bed 352, 4sp that was in good shape and an alleged 65 (really a 64) trash hauler. My littlest brother started driving and immediately jacked the short bed for himself. My middle brother got board and did the body work on the trash hauler, so we shot primer on it and it looked really nice. It was still a trash hauler but when we used it we were bombarded with "what do you want for that old truck?" so it disappeared. I even had a 66 F700 dump truck for a while, that was cool.

Since my dad missed the short bed so much, he bought a flawless Black 66 custom cab that lived down the road when the original owner died, it even had a factory under dash AC unit. By this time my baby brother had worn out the short bed and "borrowed" the black beauty, he is still "borrowing" it 7 years later.

So that brings us up to now, my dad started bugging us about "when are you guys going to get rid of the truck pile in my back yard? Since that was obviously NOT an option, that left us with only one choice, BUILD DAD A TRUCK. I hunted around and found a 63 unibody, it was in very bad shape, but the bedsides were both very straight and it was worth the $700 I paid. We decided to get funky with it but still keep its classic looks.

This truck will keep the 292 (since that motor is dads fav.). This truck will look like a 66 Unibody, thats right, the one that never happened. We have a nice set of 57 T bird valve covers on it now. I have some pics from fitting to post. We also have tons of goodies to bolt on. We have every piece of custom cab chrome that Ford produced for all six years including things like bullet mirrors, lower chrome dash bezel, horn ring, and even a perfect set of the door handle guards (the hardest piece to find). And of course all of the standard stuff. All it won't have is the aluminum trim. In the pics, it has the aluminum grille but we are going to chrome one of the steel white ones. It will also have a single axle, so the twin-I-beam emblems will be changed to read One-I-Beam.
enjoy the pics:

T bird valve covers

 

 

Well I have been trying to post some pics but it wont let me??????


Edit: I guess it just takes a while.

 

Here is the 66 clip being fit. There has been NO body work done on any of these exterior panels yet, thats just a batch of the straitest hood, fenders and doors we had. We are still tweeking the seams up before my brother skins it. You can see where the hood needs to be stretched at the lower rear.

 

Here is a little cancer surgery, I ended up with quite a few spots like this. I didn't use replacement panels, just hammered it out of flat 16 gauge. I ended up doing all interior cab and door corners, most of the floor, and the front cab mounts. You know how cancer is, you start picking on a 1 inch hole ant by the end of it, you have a 1 foot hole. When I finished that piece I did the area around the column, I like doing 1 section at a time so I dont lose dimensions. If this wasn't a unibody, this cab would have been scrapped.
I have since finished most of the interior work. The cab is painted and carpeted with the Fiero buckets mounted now. I will get some current pics up soon.

 

Hope your dad does not visit this site, might ruin the surprise!! Keep up the good work!

 

No surprise anymore, we have been giving it to him for his birthday and Christmas for 2 years

He is about to retire so we gotta get er done soon. I am going to snap some pics later on today.

 

Here is some Ford "GOLD" for you guys to look at.
We have a bunch of the bullet mirrors, and a few of the early chrome dashes. But I have only ever seen one other set of the door handle guards and the guy wouldn't sell them (does anyone know the story on those??). That is the only chrome lower dash bezal I have ever seen, we wondered if it was an aftermarket item. We have a few more rare items but these were in the top of the box. None of these are dented or scratched, just filthy.

 

Here is the area I was working on in the floor pic, the carpet my hides ugly welding pretty good.

 

Here are some more cab views, I have a few skills but apoulstry isn't one, so seat covers on the feiro seats for now. Still have the dash and colum to do.

 

Here are the frames I welded up to mount the seats, the sliders still adjust too.

 

I don't know anything about these, other than they were on my 1963 F 600 when I bought it.... are these a rare item? This is my first 61-66 ford.
Greg

 

Super rare, maybe they only came on industrial grade trucks (????).
Anyway, don't let anybody talk you out of them, you'll never find another set.

 

The door handle Custom Cab guards were what was used on the CC trucks with the Custom Cab package when it was ordered w/o side moldings...these trucks also got the lower stainless dash trim the switches go thru which was originally painted a silver on the flat area with the same CC script painted/stenciled on the trim as well in black.
These trucks did not have the later type CC door nameplate with the pins in the center of the upper door as commonly seen on the 65-6 trucks. That plate was used on trucks with the side moldings for 61-4...I realize the belt mldgs were originally a a 63-4 piece only btw...



- cs65

 

Thank you, and I don't mean to hijack this mans thread...quick question.. My truck doesn't have the lower stainless piece where the switches go through. The only thing that says custom cab, is the door handles. It does have the zippered door pocket on the drivers side..does this have any significance? The truck has a very old single stage paint job on it, so its possible the handle guards could have been added then. Does the door pocket mean anything...and it does have the truck ID plate on the drivers door It appears the door is the orgional. Just wondering if it was origionaly ordered as a Custom Cab. I'm new to these trucks so I don't know what all you get with that option.

Thanks,
Greg