Pretty decent looking truck! Congratulations and welcome to the board. You'll find a lot of really good people here and they are very helpful. Not trying to be critical here but why do you have to have white walls? White walls are like belly buttons, everyone has them. Be original and leave the black walls. Looks like I sold the rear bumper and brackets I had way to cheap, I didn't realize they were actually that rare. Oh well screwed myself again! Nevertheless enjoy your new truck and have fun with it!

 

Dicky Bravo... these trucks are not made of rocket science. With proper manual, ie shop manual, and some simple tools, you will be able to work on most of the stuff if you put some elbow grease into it. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it is easier to take it somewhere and have them work on it with warranty and all, but once again, these are pretty simple.

With that said, any reputable repair shop can do pretty much everything on these except for engine machine work. You don't need a special mechanic. (Most of the shops outsource for machine work anyways.) The only concern would be coming up with parts. To be frank, you will be finding parts for the mechanic anyways.

so, gather your parts books such as Dennis Carpenter, LMC, or Sacramento Vintage Ford. There is a place called the Lees Auto Supply in Alameda who can probably get you most of parts except model specific body parts and accessories. And if you want a name of a good machine shop, I know one in Oakland. Just let me know.

 

hx... yeah, I plan on doing a lot of learning, and trying everything I can to do it myself. That being said, I just wanted to get a truck that ran smoothly from the get go instead of taking down and building up an engine (as I'm definitely a newbie there, or anywhere). I'd like to see how your engine comes out.

flatheadjohn, I still haven't fully decided on the whitewalls,. Here's a pic the previous owner took with some WWWs he had on his model A (you gotta picture a much larger tire on the front and my, non-shiny wheels).

 

Trust me - these trucks are SO BASIC, even a GIRL can work on them!

And honestly, if you have the Shop Manual and possibly the Chassis Parts Catalogue (available on e-bay $29.95 per CD) with the exploded drawings of just about everything, you can fix just about everything you will need to - even making parts out of sheet metal or bar iron.

And honestly, you'll have to find a little old mechanic to work on it who remembers basic automechanics if you decide to have someone else work on it.

A perfect example happened to me the other day. I drove to the Ford Dealership to buy a couple special bolts for my 2002 Ranger Seat that had broken. I took the 51 to get them. While I was there, I asked the service rep if he had a mechanic who could change my kingpins. There were all sorts of guys out there looking at them bu NOONE knew how to do it! I did it myself by reading the shop manual. It was SOOOO easy.

One more thing I would highly recommend (and it looks like you already have one). A digital camera works wonders. Take pictures of everything from lots of different angles before you take it apart and that will really help getting them put back together. Plus it's fun to keep track of your progress!!

 

Another nice 51. Lot of good info and help here @ FTE. Two of the best bits of advise I got here are " drive it and it will tell you what it wants " and " try to do something with it every day even if it means to only just sit down and stare at it for 15 minutes or wipe off a couple bugs on those really cool grill teeth you got there. Good luck and welcome!

 

call me old school, but I am always a fan of white walls. Looks great on the truck!

 

Wow that's some nice truck Dicky. I like it just like it sets. I go for the patina in some cases too. It all depends on the specifics. That truck is in amazingly good shape. wow- original!

I live up in Napa county. I lived very near you when I was a student at SF state-a couple decades ago. I lived on Mangels-probably not too far from you. Just a couple blocks off Monterey??

Glad you got that truck.

Goodluck Tom

 

I learned a thing or two about white walls from some of my older friends. They told me that the reason a lot of guys ran white walls back in the day is because that is what was available to them. Most guys wanted black walls and would run a used black wall as opposed to a new white wall. See during WWII a lot of things weren't available due to most production going to the war effort so new tires were scarce along with a lot of other things. So after the war it took a while for factories to change back over to civilian production and hence there was a big supply of white walls but most of the public didn't want them so they sat for a while and were eventually sold at a discount rate. Hot rodders "back in the day" didn't have a lot of money so they took what they could get for the money they had. Going fast was more important than looking good so they would rather spend money on speed parts rather than tires. The guys with customs were actually more into the white walls than the real hot rodders. If you look at a lot of pictures of hot rods from back in the late 40's and into the 50's most of the tires are black walls not white walls. So much for your old school theory! Sorry, I'm not trying to bust your chops just want to pass along some truth that not everyone ran white walls back in the day.

 

Maybe a Classic Haulers catalog too? lol

You found a gem, that's for sure. And as alot of people have pointed out already, these trucks are so basic. Definitely don't be the least bit apprehensive to tackle issues yourself. You'll have more than enough help around here to solve any problems you may face. And get one of our catalogs, lol!

If we can help you in any way, let us know.

Congratulations,
Gabriel @ Classic Haulers

 

Hi Gabriel!

I'm not sure if the FTE gods allow you guys to do this, but we have all been asking about you.

Being new, you might want to start a thread of your own and introduce yourself!

Welcome to FTE!

Edit note: Never mind I see it's a few threads down! Da Doy!

 

I am not sure either, but figured I would risk it to get some info out there because I know a lot of guys have been wondering about us and asking around on here. Just glad to have the new shop finished and getting my focus back on the trucks themselves.

Thanks for the hospitality,
Gabriel @ Classic Haulers