1959 F-500 project
 

I just got a 1959 F-500 dually, with the factory I-6 223 with 1V carb. It's in relatively good condition considering the environment it's been in for the past few years...

I've been searching all over the place and I'm having a hard time finding any references to the 59 f500 at all. The engine can be saved, but the doors and cab are in pretty rough shape. There's only a little rust showing, but it's had a heck of a lot of putty work done. The inside of the cab is pretty rotten and moldy from water dripping in a hole in the roof.

I haven't really decided what I'm going to do with it (If I want to restore it or just make it something functional for work)... I was hoping that someone could share tips on how they found the parts they needed to restore a project like this. Will the doors and cab off of a comparable 250 or 350 work on it? Is there a good place to buy cab corners, fenders, doors and so forth on the internet?

1959 F-500 project
 

Scwee-eet! Yes the cab, doors and grill are swapable along with the hood.

Except for the cab corners, everything you mentioned you will have to get from a dry climate junkyard. Good lnews though, you should be able to find most since these years are not very popular. Ebay is a god sent for old truck parts! Make sure to search under different names, in the motors section and on the home page. Hemmings is also a very helpful when it comes to rare items. Get in touch with the http://www.aths.org/ to help because they know these large trucks well! Get some pics up the beast! -4speed

1959 F-500 project
 

Thanks for your enthusiasm! I'll post pictures as soon as I get batteries in my camera. I've decided to document the entire process (unlike what I usually do... tear everything apart and then try to figure out where I went wrong ) and I'll be posting it to my website.

I heard about a local junkyard that has some parts for early 60's trucks so I need to go and look at them and see what exactly they have. Ebay had more than I thought they would! I tried hemmings.com, but they currently don't have any listings that I could see for parts.

Here's a dumb question... The dashboard looks like a dark green in color, I'm thinking this might be the original color. I'd like this to be as original as possible. Is there any way to find out the original colors Ford offered in 59?

1959 F-500 project
 

http://www.autocolorlibrary.com try that for the colors. I'm not sure if they did this back then, but if a company ordered a fleet of trucks, they could special order any color they liked. Just a thought. Go to your local barnes&nobles or borders and pick of a copy of hemmings(more sources in the mag) -4speed P.S that question is no where near dumb(I asked why my truck didn't have two master cylinders, I have an automatic and the ones for the clutch):-X19 Also, pick up a 59' shop manual because it covers all models of 59's.

1959 F-500 project
 

Hey, welcome! :-wink


Alright Roger.....you've gotta get some pics of that thing up!!! I'll be clear about this - I L-O-V-E big vintage trucks! Esp. '57 - '60. I have a '60 F100, but something about the professional or heavy duty trucks just gets me goin'. I've seen alot in the way of early - mid '50s F3s and up, but have only seen one "refridgerator" style F500 before. It was a '57 dually flatbed in Indiana, with a tilt bed and winch to boot! Gotta get me one of those next. Duallies just kill me.

Hey, get the info off of the VIN tag on the glove box door and post it, we can help ya decipher it. That will tell you the color code and a bunch of other stuff. My truck's color code is "X", or "Goldenrod Yellow".

Stay with the forum, you'll come up with more friends and information than you would ever guess! Get interior and exterior shots if you can.

1959 F-500 project
 

Wow! I looked through both of your galleries, and they were great! Right now, mine is parked about an hour and a half away on an old logging road. I'm waiting on someone to bring it down for me on his flatbed. I hope to have it here by next week, and then I'll get all the pics I can. Don't be suprised that it's a bit rough around the edges. It looks like someone took some old yellow-brown housepaint and used the coarsest brush they could find to paint it. Whoever did it was pretty thorough, though, so I'm thinking that's what saved it from rusting where it was sitting ;)

1959 F-500 project
 

Hey no hurry(well, maybe...). Don't worry about it being rough, you haven't seen mine up close! He probably used thompsons water sealer over it to protect it!:-X04 Right now though, you can go look some info up on your truck so when it gets there you'll be rareing to go! -4speed

1959 F-500 project
 

Whatever, John! Your truck's a freakin' show queen compared to mine! Oo. That shot of yours where you said, "Just look at the body". If I show you a pic of mine like that, you'll think the rear bedside is wavin' goodbye! :-X01 Hey dad, I'm comin' up your way here today. Well almost...I'm going to be in Mansfield!

Roger, you'll notice that 4speed's a my truck are the loved/hated Indian Turquoise and white! I like it tho'. You must be somewhere out west, if you're talking about logging roads. If you're going to restore that thing, you might consider, in this order, Redi-Stripping the cab or blasting it w/a soft medium like glass beads or walnut shells. There's no way you're going to hand strip/sand it if it's that thorough.

You've inspired me to add yet another gallery on my...gallery. Hmm. Anyway, I'm trying to assemble a collection of kool deliveries, professional trucks and medium and heavy haulers.

1959 F-500 project
 

Oh roger, your in WV. What part?

Shane, you little dog you! If you get lost stumble up towards akron! You getting a tailgate or what? -4speed

1959 F-500 project
 

ya know? I think I will. I don't know if I can get it today....delivering a 9" rear to Mike (don't remember his screen name, but he's on here). I'll get in touch with the other guy tho' about that gate. I'm going to have access to a full machine shop and welders here very soon!

1959 F-500 project
 

That mike guy lives in kent doesn't he? I'm real close to kent;)

1959 F-500 project
 

Yeah, he does in fact. We drove up to Mansfield and met Mike there. Nice guy too! It's kool to meet people, instead of just words on a screen ya know?

I'm going to talk to BigWin about that gate, because today was my only chance to get up there before we go. Shipping will figure in now! :mad:

1959 F-500 project
 

Hi Roger, :-wink
Here are the original factory colors for 1959 Ford trucks.......

Code..............Part #.....................Color

A..................M 1J 1724..............Raven Black
C..................M 1J 1012..............Wedgewood Blue
D..................M 1J 1019..............Indian Turquoise
E..................M 1J 524................Colonial White
G..................M 1J 1014..............April Green
P................................................P rime
R..................M 1J 175................Vermillion (red)
S................................................S pecial
U..................M 14283................Meadow Green
V..................M 1J 1024..............Academy Blue
X..................M 1J 358................Goldenrod Yellow

I hope this helps. :)

There's a pair of F-500 coal trucks (a 1957, and a 1959) in a salvage yard about a mile from my house here in N.J., but the sheetmetal is pretty much shot on both.

1959 F-500 project
 

Hello again :)

I live in central West Virginia. I'm about 2 hours south of Pittsburgh. I've decided to finish up my degree, so I'm going to Fairmont state college. I looked up the color of the dash at the autocolorlibrary site that mr4speedford showed me, and I think the dash is the Meadow Green color.

My dad likes the indian turqoise color, but I'm not a big fan ;) I think I'd like it to be the meadow green color.

I've been searching around for more websites, and I found www.kanter.com. kanter seems to have a wide selection, but their prices are high. For instance, a 41 to 74 exhaust deflector costs $175... over $500 if you want stainless. From the link Sixoh provided, at motorhaven the same thing would only cost $16... that's a BIG difference!

Kenny, what is the name of the salvage yard?

1959 F-500 project
 

Kanter is nice for the engine parts and hard to find "novelty" parts. Motorhaven has quite a few parts but sometimes they don't have what I'm looking for. I use www.dennis-carpenter.com(highlight and past into browser bar) for most of my parts. www.joblotauto.com has alot of the big truck parts and they have a nice selection. If you know the part # of the part I can give you a few sites to look up parts. If I was you, I'd buy a 1959 shop manual first because its always nice to have around! Order some catalogs for parts and wait around for the truck! Also, what are your plans for the truck? -4speed