I've been trying to figure this out since I got the truck. There are two dimples to the right of the wiper switch, ah, between the two gage clusters. I presume they came that way from Henry to make it easier to drill a couple holes, but for what???

 

That's an interesting question! I actually never noticed them before, but I've got them too.

I can't help but wonder if there wasn't some type of auxiliary piece of gear or a gauge (such as a pneumatic pressure or vacuum gauge..tach?...compass?.....gun sight? ) that was intended to be mounted there on the larger trucks. It seems like an odd place because the steering wheel is in the way of any thing you would have to turn, or look at and anything tall would block the drivers view.

Beats me, but I'll look around and see if there might have been anything there.

 

The smartest gal around response. Thanks Julie, what about a signal prism mounting points?

 

IIRC the larger trucks had an air pressure or vacuum gauge there?

Question for you 51-52 folks: does your speedo have arrows for turn signals? and yet I've never seen them with a factory turn signal lever

 

Very interesting.
Is this a '51 only thing.
My '52 doesn't have them.

Speedo arrows?
Not arrows but round holes at the 15 and 75 mph marks that look like they could be for turn indicators.

Why do you suppose the speedo reads to 90 MPH. I guess they knew 50 years later some one would upgrade them and need a speedo that would register over 60. (45 for my F-3)

 

Both of mine have the arrows for the turn signals in the speedometer, and dimples? What dimples? Neither one of my 52 F-1's have any dimples in the dash in that location or elsewhere.

 

Wow lots of good questions. Yep I was thinking, Ross, that since the dashes were the same F1-F6, maybe like you said the larger trucks had some sort of "other" gauge mounted there - air pressure for air brakes or something.

Good point on the signal arrows as well. I think I have the answer. Signal lights were a dealer option in 51 and on- I THINK, so provisions were made for the indicators.

But also of interesting note is that the 51/52 speedometers were used in Ford Parcel (Number Dummy is going to shoot me for my bad nomenclature) trucks up to some time in the mid 1970s (I think). That's why you can get them from anywhere.

BUT, there were three versions of them made in the US and The Canadian Built were different as well. First version had little round holes for the signal lights (green plastic film lenses). Those only lasted about half way through 51 production (and may have been the result of a subcontractor change) The next batch had little tiny arrows on them. The modern replacements have large arrow points that are almost triangles.

The Canadian 51 speedometer I got for parts had a different size odometer in it with different style numbers (very slight, but enough to prevent them from being interchangeable). The face was very slightly smaller, yet the outer rings were interchangeable.

 

Yep, signal lights were a dealer option, but they were all (AFAIK) the SignalStat type with integral arrow lights. I've never seen any of them hooked up to the speedo arrows, tho it is certainly possible to do so. Not like you would even notice the speedo arrows, they're so small.

 

I'm not familiar with such new technology as 1951, but would any of the heater controls options be a possibility? Just a thought, but I'm thinking as Ross said: air pressure and vac for big trucks.

 

Yep, I have the "strap to the column" turn signal switch and the little lights on it flash as do the arrows on the speedometer. But that's because I wired them in. Plus having bought a newer speedometer to replace the one that was in there, it has the bigger "arrow points" that are much larger than the arrows.

I'm wondering if somewhere in the planning maybe Ford had intended to install factory signals and didn't get to the changeover because of slow design change, retooling with the other componenets, or decided not to because of the costs involved - then didn't change the speedo drawings back - who knows?

I think it would be very interesting to review a set of the Bonus Built Drawings (blue prints) sometime - especially the side notes.

 

My '51 has the arrows on the original speedo. But I found that a gentle smear of body filler prior to paint got rid of those curious dimples so now I don't have to wonder about things like that as I'm driving.

Speaking of speedometers, ever notice how many different companies still sell them? I see them on ebay all the time and have several catalogs that still sell them. Did they just make a jillion of them for the replacement market?

 

See my #7 post (paragraph 3) above!

 

Oops sorry Julie, I missed that on fist read through.

 

Oh come on Scott...Did you reeeeeeealy read it???????

 

I read it as best as I could on my Blackjack phone. It gets hard trying to read everything on a two inch by one and a half inch screen!