Hello everybody, my name is Donnie and as my friends would tell me I came to the dark side.(seeing is how I work on the other brand lol) I picked up my 62 Uni 3 weeks ago today. Found it sitting in a field not far from me. Paid the gentleman and drove her home. I didn't think I was going to make it seeing how the brakes where way out of adjustment. So far all I have done to her is but a new master cylinder on, rebuilt the factory holley carb, installed an accel electronic ignition, replaced the radiator, replaced all the engine mounts and adjusted the brakes. I have the 62 F100 Service manual supplement already for it and the 61 service manual should be here tomorrow. The only things that don't work on her are the turn signals and the blower motor for the heater (there are some wires cut under the dash, time to trace them in the manual) I have been driving her for the past 4 days and am loving every minute of it. I have never gotten so many waves or smiles in anything that I have owned than I have in this truck. My plans for her at the moment is to use her for going to the trash dump (seeing I totaled my datsun last july). One day she will be restored to her former glory. I decoded the Vin last night and found out that she was built in San Jose in June of 62, has the 292 with the HD Cruise o Matic transmission with 3.70 rear gears. There is no rust through on the truck but in one spot (a small corner in the bed, but it acts like a drain hole) and one spot on the bottom edge of the hood. Anyway here are some pictures of her.

 

1st & foremost welcome aboard. What a nice truck you found; great condition & potential. Man you west coast guys have the best picking grounds around. The price on the windshield would of been sold if I rode by as well.
Sounds like your on the right track about using the truck for what it was made for and slowly nuturing her back to prime/ pristine state.
Again welcome aboard. Glad to have ya along.

Mitch

 

Thanks, if I had been in Southern California I can tell you it would have been triple of what the asking price was. I only had 650 in my wallet and the the guy took it. I believe in function over form. Trucks where meant to be work horses and haul things. And since I cannot afford a "new truck" this will do for now.

 

Welcome to FTE!! Wow, $650 and you drove it home, I call that a find. See there is some body rot in the typical places, not sure why Ford designed the darn hood without relief holes, had same issue with hood on the 65. Appears you are on the right track, focus on working on areas where the truck is mechanically sound. What I appreciate about these classics treasures is that they are about as basic as it gets, with minimal mechanical skills majority of the work can be done as a 'do it yourselfer'. Couple suggest, where 'NumbersDummy' post info specific to your year truck may want to bookmark for future references. Same with info posted by FTE members, there are several who have posted pic's of works in progress from welding cab mounts, beds, etc. Looking forward to your input and suggestions. Again, welcome to FTE.

 

Welcome,

Come on down to the F100 Western Nationals in June and bring the truck. nice buy for the money. Take a good look at the torque Box directly under the rust in the bed you posted.

Garbz

 

Welcome to ford trucks, good to see another 62 out there running around.

 

Whether this is an original California truck I don't know. Unless it was unregistered for a long time then it certainly has the wrong plates for 1962. Those plates would be around 2004-2005 which could very well mean the truck was brought in from out of state. I have seen a lot of that with cars from the 90's having plates from 2004 and up lately.

Nevertheless it is still a Ford, welcome to FTE...

 

when i was cleaning it out I found the reg going all the way back to 68, it was sitting for a few years and the story I got from the PO was that it had one plate on it, so he got 2 new ones. I am in the process of getting a set of YOM plates for it.

 

Welcome to FTE

CA began issuing Black plates 1/1/1963 (issued thru circa 12/1968-non Commercial, thru 12/1970-Commercial plates).

tbm3fan: Once the new Black plates were introduced, the Orange plates used 1956/62 were no longer viable. Some were turned in, some ppl saved them...why you can still find them today.

However, the Black plates are still viable today.

But...if one of the Black plates is lost (or damaged so it cannot not be read) and the polizei notice this, they'll pass along an equipment fix ticket.

This is one possible reason why the former owner installed the newer reflector plates.

Where was the truck sold new?

Look on the Warranty Plate, located on the inside of the glovebox door for the DSO code.

If the code is 72: NorCal, if 71: SoCal. If anything else, the truck was not sold new in CA.

NOTE: Very important! Do not buy YOM CA (Orange plates w/black letters used 1956/62)...until you verify if the license number is clear!

You can call the CA DMV's 800 number to do this. Motorcycle plates use/used the same sequence of numbers/letters. This applies to both Commercial and non Commercial plates.

If the license number appears on a motorcycle, you cannot use the plates you bought.

You will also need to find a 1962 year tag (sticker) that attached to the plate.

One other thing...when these trucks were new, one did not have to install Commercial plates. But today...it's a different story.

CA requires a permanent camper shell if you want non Commercial plates. The Commercial plates cost more to register...every fracatta year!

 

Thanks for the info, the DSO is 72 and the assembly plant code is R. So does that mean the truck was built and sold here in Nor Cal? AS for the YOM plates, the ones I am looking at are not in the system and are clear, so is the 62 Sticker, they are also Commercial Plates.

 

Looks great! I got mine at a steal too, $800! Cnt wait to drive her soon.

 

72 = San Jose (NorCal) Ford District Sales Office, where the original selling dealer ordered the truck from.

R = San Jose Assembly Plant.

 

Well, its been 4 months now of daily driving, the truck runs and drives great, ended up rebuilding the wheel cylinders and installing a new master cylinder.

 

$650 what a deal. i am just wondering what the difference between a unibody and non unibody is. obviosly the body but anything else?