floor pans or the cab mounts in the book. The only fenders and hood I can find are fiberglass. Am I gonna have to find a donor truck for these parts? I hate to cut up something good (not sure if the owner will let me swap the cabs as I think he wants as much of the original truck there as possible) but on the other hand, patch panels for the fenders and the sprung hood with a fabbed floor in the donor truck would make a neat little runner with a 302 and a C4 if someone if not concerned with originality.

Vintage Air makes a couple of setups it looks like I could adapt to the '59. A Slim Line Under Dash System/Mini Slim Line Under Dash System that's self contained and leave the stock heater or a Gen II Mini Space Saver/Gen II Compac System/Super Cooler that ditches the stock heater. Looks like about $1100 for a complete system.

OFP also has a Power Assist Steering Kit that bolts to the existing steering system for $699 and the Toyota kit for $579 but neither description shows anything about a pump. A stock steering box rebuild kit is $259. The book shows a power steering belt for a 57-60 272,292 with a part number of B8QH-8620-F for $13, did any of these trucks come factory with power steering?

I found floor pans for 48-52, 53-55, & 56 but none for 57-60, how similar are they? I found lower fender patch panels for $80 each. I also found lower cab corners, rocker panels, door body step plates and door body kick plates. That's pretty much it for steel parts (short of fleetside wheel housings and short bed stepside sides and some stepside fenders).

Since this truck is an early 59, am I going to have a hard time finding a hood? The genuine Ford flairside tailgate (that means stepside, right?) is $500 (ouch) but all the bed strips and wood kits are for shortbeds.

The headliner kits ($180 ea) show a 4 pcs kit for small back window and a 3 pcs kit for a wrap around window. In my pics, I only see 3 pieces, one for the middle and one for each side (where the speakers are), where's the 4th piece?

I found Custom Cab door emblems ($43 ea) but no other 57-60 emblems. Also found some small round mirrors, but this truck looks as though it also had trailer towing mirrors. Lots of door window parts including glass and even some power window kits, some street rod company make switches that use the stock handles. Found all the felts and I think all the weatherstripping too.

Is it just me, or does it seem like there are no parts for the 57-60 trucks, and if they're are, half of them happen to fit the 53-56 also and the half that don't are more expensive than fo any other model (if he'd had just been born 3 years earlier and his grandpa got a new truck, I'd be looking for easy to find 56 parts )

I didn't get a good look at his tail lamps, the book shows either a sorta square looking one and the cool looking sheild one, could the truck used either one? Will all steering wheels accept the rim blow trim, or are there different wheels?

I need to double check if its a 3 speed or a 4 speed, what are the names and numbers of these trannies? (New Process I'm told)

About what does it cost to rebuild a 292 Y block? I'm excited and want to learn, but I'm also getting confused so bear with me please.

 

Try http://www.classicfabrication.com/ for floor pan and cab mounts.

Yep, very few parts are being reproduced. Look for a good donor truck, or tour the wrecking yards of the southwest.

 

I don't have the obsolete ford catalog, but there are quite a few pieces being made. Wait till the macs or dennis carpenter comes.

That power steering pump is likely a 58 ford passenger car(those are what came with pwr steering)

The bed strips will posibly have to be a special order, although bruce honkey might have the parts.

Angus hit the nail right on the head for all sheet metal.

I can't remember the names of each tranny, 3 spd was on the column, 4spd on the floor.

headliners, what about that piece thats on the roof of the cab?

Both the little round mirrors, and the big trailer towing mirrors are factory, yours being a f-250, it was likely it came with the bulky mirrors(you can find N.O.S ones on ebay).

They only repoduce the standard cab wheels(you have a custom cab). Some PC-7 expoy will help cure any cracks.

Tailgates are repo'd (your lucky). Its very hard to find nice dent free rust free tailgates.

The cost to rebuild a Y-block varies. Alot of the parts you can get through a local napa or car quest which saves you the shipping. George(user name "earl") is currently rebuilding his, although he's doing his to exact clearances of fords engine deparment

I think I covered most everything, let me know if I skipped something. -4speed

 

Hi Larry,
Like Angus said, it's not just you. These trucks are not considered to be as "popular" as the '53-'56, therefore, less repo parts are readily available.

Southwestern Salvage yards is what I would sugguest as well. You might even get lucky and find an early '59 hood.

To be honest, nobody seems to know the exact date the "modification/improvements" were made to the '59 hood. Just that it was early, right after production started on the '59 model year. If you were to use a later '59 hood, no one would probably ever question it.

These trucks did come with factory power steering as an option. On the Custom Cab with power steering, the horn ring says "power steering".

On the small back window headliner, the 4th piece goes under and behind the rear window.

For other '57-'60 era emblems, a good place to check besides the salvage yards would be e-bay, or swap meets. Another option is to have the existing ones repaired and re-plated by a pot metal repair shop (if they are not pitted too badly).

The custom cab ('59 &'60 only) used a chrome horn ring, instead of the standard horn "button". The steering wheel was different for these. The wheel was also white from the factory.

I hope this helps.

 

Larry,
Post what parts you need and we'll jump in with where you can get it. If you are in Edmund OK, there are plenty of used parts and trucks to be found in your great state. I used to live in OK. In July I came down through OK and I took 81 instead of I-35 and was amazed at all the old iron still re(u)sting peacefully, and how much was drug out by the road for sale. 57-60's are still considered 'work trucks' by the general populace, so are left lying in the back, so you gotta dig around to find them. But they are out there. When I finally decided to buy a '59 from a friend a couple of years ago I took a look at 15 or so other 57-60's I knew about right around here just for comparison.
Anyway, yes 53-56's are easy, 57-60's are getting easier. If there are any parts that you are completely dead ended on I know some yards here in TX that have 59's .
Good Luck!
Brett

 

hi stang,i to have a 58' i had no d/s front fender and no driver's door when i got my truck.my hood was damaged also, i found a good hood and door in a junk yard about 50 mile's from my home.i found good fender on a web site called car-part.com for 55.00 shipped to my door.watch out some of these place's want alot of money for junk.i hope you find what your looking for/scott.

 

Try e-bay. I have acquired tons of NOS parts from e-bay for my 1960 F-100. Also try Joblot's, Concours Parts, Sacramento Vintage Ford, Mac's, and *********. You are right though about the severe lack of parts. Most of mine are NOS, a few still manufactured Ford parts, and very few reproduction parts.

 

Man, you guys are awesome. I talked to a buddy of mine that does awesome bodywork. He's pushing 60 and is old school. His name is Melvin Baffery and had the turquoise and white '55 Crown Vic with the fiberglass one piece front end (I guess it's 2 piece as the hood comes off) that was at Columbus and at Texas Fun Ford. Melvin has restored some neat old cars, one had a wooden frame!! He said he'd take the paint and body on after the first of the year. I've got to get the mechanicals ship shape first so I'm going to start on the brakes and wheel bearings first as the shoes are all in a box on the passenger floor. I'm thinking of replacing all the brake lines with stainless as they're probably pretty rusted as the fluid hadn't been changed in years. I'll have to find out if anyone makes prebent lines for this truck, I was thinking stainless as it will probably not get a lot of road time. What do you guys think about that DOT5 fluid if I'm replacing all the wheel cylinders and the master cylinder along with all the connections as it won't retain moisture and I'm guessing the maintenance won't be done as much on this minimally driven vehicle. The thing was running before it was parked, so I'm thinking of then getting it running again after the brakes are done and get it to my house so I can get the motor and tranny pulled so I can get them rebuilt. If I can get it all mechanically sound, I'll then be ready to take it to Melvin's for him to have it a few months and I'll take the seat to get it redone and start having the brite work redone or replaced. I'll order some new wheels and hubcaps that I'll take to Melvin while he has the truck to paint, unless you guys think I should have them powder coated if they're just white and not a body color. I've got a table saw and a small shaper, so if I just knew the dimensions of the cross section of the oak, I can make that up pretty easily.

Brett, did you take 81 across the whole state? My hometown is on 81, Hennessey, 20 miles south of Enid and 20 north of Kingfisher. I'll have to see if any old farmers up there have any hulks lying around.

When I go looking for parts, I'll keep you guys up to date on what I find and where. There's a '57-'60 fleetside about a 1/4 mile from my house that I'll have to go visit the owner about.
Just let me know of what are the hardest parts to find so maybe I can help you guys out.

Larry

 

Don't rule-out the F-100's F-500's and F600's and up. Fenders are different on some of the big ones, but hoods and doors are about the same, as are many small parts.

Way to go considering the y-block! Don't rule-out the 312 y-blocks found in '57 Ford, Mercury, Thunderbirds. Those were runnin' son-of-a-guns. One good way to spot them is the 4-barrel carb. They will bolt right in to your pickup.

I think I read that Bruce Horkey (507-831-5625) will make wood kits for a long box as well as the short box.

Sacramento Vintage Ford is a good catalog to get a hold of. Also very good and helpful people to work with. About as much Ford pickup knowledge there as anywhere I've found. I can't remember how much stuff they have for '57-'60 but if it's available they probably have it.

Good luck, and be safe.

BobJonesSpecial

 

I got my Dennis Carpenter catalog in the mail today and have been pouring thru it. I've been searching Ebay since I found out about the project just to see what's usually sold on there.

Larry