I encountered a young man when I was on the mainland the other day who said he had a rolling frame for a '47 one ton ford. He said he had pulled the cab and sheet metal off for a 1/2 ton project years ago. It had been a running/driving vehicle at that time. There wasn't time that day to look at it, but he said it had a six and a 4 speed crashbox. Well on Friday I had a delivery to make with my trailer so I went and picked it up. I'm glad I got it, but it was sitting next to his brother's house at least 5 years with no tarp over the engine, no spark plugs, no spray paint cap over the carb and the shifter out of the transmission. In my usual optimistic way I had decided to bring a boat fuel tank and a six volt battery along as I would be stuck on the mainland until the 7 pm ferry and thought I might use the time to try to get it running..... I jerked the engine and tranny out with my skidsteer, changed out a tire/wheel and generally wire brushed the stuff I considered valuable and shot it with pb blaster. Afterwards I couldn't resist setting my panel's old front clip on it along with Tinman's blue hood. I told myself (and my wife) that this was to shed water away from the front end parts. Just before I came in for the evening I decided just for yucks to measure that other 120 hp cummins 6at that is on a running stand in the back of my shop. The frame rails have been cut short, but he had the piece there. I know of a 1 1/2 ton with really nice sheet metal, but of course it would be crazy to start building another tonner. What would I DO with it!

 

Your having Way To Much Fun Gary.
I am so envious. Not much chance that
I6 is any good. But I use a 50/50 mix of
acetone and atf as a penetrate . It is way
cheaper than Blaster or any off the shelf
panther ****. And works well to coat parts
to keep them from rusting. But I think you
already know about this stuff. It's old school
like us.

 

And so it begins!.............keep tuned in folks

 

Jeez, Gary, these things find you! Get the popcorn ready guys. Stu

 

I can't wait to see where this project goes!

 

That Cummins will work nicely.

 

This is supposed to be the start of a new phase. I have been rounding up parts to build a jailbar based commercial truck woody. The tonner just happened in my search. Plan is to find a cab with bad floors/corners/doors and cut it for its cowl. My '47 half ton has a beautiful cab and doors, but the bed and fenders are pretty bad. It came with some good front fenders. The chassis is fine and even has one of them 'titles'. The woody project is something I have wanted to do for years. After 44 years in custom woodworking I get bored with the bread and butter of kitchen cabinets. That is done more and more by employees and I would use the lower shop to build this thing. My first 10 years was in wood boat construction so I am not intimidated by curves. Not in vehicles anyways.... Of course that 1/2 ton's cab would be nice on my new chassis. I may build the woody on spec to test if there is a market. Of course it would never command the price of an original and I don't do concourse restorations. I haven't ruled out mixing in running gear from my '79 toyota landcruiser wagon. PS, PB, discs, 4wd, straight six. The body is completely rotten, but it runs and drives nicely and I have tons of LC parts and Jailbar parts.

 

Where do you hide the gas can when you take the ferry,haha. I got a real butt-chewing for just having a brand new gas can, never had gas in it. Had to leave it and pick it up on the way home from work.
Did you ever go to the wooden boat school? When I first came to Pt. Hadlock my brother in law was renting the place it's now in right across from the Ajax cafe. He and 4-5 other old boat hippys lived there and worked on boats.

BTW, love the idea of the wood body. Do it up like the A huckster with roll up canvas sides?

 

They have changed the rules about gas tanks. Now we can transport 2, 5 gallon approved cans of gas. As for boat schools, I built 3 boats while in high school and upon graduation went straight to work in a boat yard. Took a couple years off of that and started a skiff building company where I built 14 wood skiffs. Knew a lot of boat hippies, but prefered to work with the old guys and keep my hair short. I was pretty square. Glad to see you back from the real world and joining the cyber-truckers!

 

Yeah, just didn't have much to talk about with my 40 on hold. I haven't even had the 29 out much this summer but did license it so I could hrass the bikers during the Sturgis Rally. This was the 75th and there was around a million of them buzzing around the hills for a couple weeks.
I need to do something with the pipes on the rpu so I don't breath so much exhaust. Maybe this week so I can cruise up to Deadweird for Kool Deadwood Nights.

 

Just wear one of those cheapo dust masks from the hardware store. Just got in from a 50 mile trip in the panel with no tailpipe and old leaky floors. I feel your pain.....Or I feel something anyways. Not good.