old school ford build thread..

[JDMwannabee]

well this one is going to take a while.. a few of you know about this build, but ill post it anyway. its been a project of mine and my fathers for about a year or so now, but the truck has been in the family for years...

it started out its life as a us forestry truck in 1954. it was driven by workers for 7 years, then sold to my great grandfather. He drove the truck untill he couldn't get around any more and gave it to my grandfather. 1974 was the last year the truck was on the road. It was stored in my grandfathers shed for a long time and somewhere along the line my uncle started taking the truck apart, and lost the chrome. he also took the bed off some time and set it out in the yard. up untill this point it still had the original wood in it. still in good shape.. he soon lost intrest in the truck and over the years things got piled up on the bed and the shed the truck was in began to rot. it was just about to fall down when the truck was pulled out and parked in a field. the shed was torn down and a new one was built in its place. but there wasn't any room for the truck. my father wanted to get the truck and restore it, but my grandfather still had hopes that he would be able to re build it one day. so it sat.. well.. when katrina came through it really hit my grandparents property hard. they lost over 100 trees.. and one of them was a 70 year old oak that fell right over the truck.. i have a picture of it somewhere, ill have to find it. but the tree had a huge fork in it and one limb fell on either side of the truck. so close that you couldn't open the doors.. but it didn't hit it at all.. we cut the tree from around it and left it sitting.. about two years ago i was at my grandfathers house mowing grass and he told me "if one more person comes by here and asks for that old ford im going to give it to them" instantly i told him that i wanted it. me and my father went back that evening and looked the truck over.. it needed alot of work, but the body was in pretty good shape rust wise.. and just a few dents here and there. so we decided to take it to our house and start the build..

here is the truck how we got it.































more later..

Enjoy!







its going to take a while to post all the progress pics and explain the build, but ill get there..

[Fuel]

Needs more low.

[JDMwannabee]

oh, its gonna get more low... lol.. just wait. i have about 90 more progress pics.. haha..

[Fuel]

Haha I'm just joking sir, looks like you have your hands full!

[JDMwannabee]

yeah.. the hard work is going to be the body work.. the frame is already done for the most part.. i just have to order bags.. and we have a chevy 350 thats going in it. already been fitted. but body work is next.. ill post more about the build tomorrow.

[Rblevins]

This could get good

[JDMwannabee]

alright.. so its time for the tare down.. and remember that the truck has been sitting since 74 and hasn't ran since my uncle got his hands on it in the mid 80's.

the first thing that we wanted to do was see if we could even get the factory engine to turn over.

first we changed the oil.



and that oil filter is from the late 60's..

we changed out all the plugs and wires and had to borrow a coil pack from a friend, and since the gas tank was disconected and all fuel lines were gone we cleaned out the old fuel pump and hooked a plascic water bottle full of gas up to it. after about 10 mins of tinkering and praying, the engine finally came to life and ran great! ill try to find the video of it.

old


i can't find the pics or vids of the running engine. but ill keep looking.

but while i was looking i found these shots of the truck before we picked it up.

[JDMwannabee]

more of the tear down..

the passenger side door was stuck shut. it looked like it was jamed up into the finder some how. so we had to pull open the small acces pannel covers to the hinges and un bolt them.











as for the drivers door, it opened just fine, but the bolts in the hinge were rusted on. so we had to un bolt the hinge from the cab and cut it off of the door.




and we think that this had something to do with the pass door being stuck..

[Rblevins]

**Grabs popcorn. And prays for more
Pictures!

[JDMwannabee]

and more..




i don't have the pics of the front clip coming off, but here are some other shots i got.














we also picked up this little cherry to snag some parts from.. (engine)

[Fuel]

I'm sure that will buff right out

What color are you going to paint it? I vote Flat Green.

[Rblevins]

By cherry you mean rotten apple! Hahah

[chad423]

good god i love this! minus the 350 going in an old ford haha but to each his own, sir! looks sick!

[JDMwannabee]

OK.. time for an update before i go to bed.

so you saw the wrecked chevy before we stripped it.. here it is after.




and after we got everything off the frame other than the engine, we thought we were going to use a new frame, but we ended up doing some custom work to the original one. but anyway, here are more pics..














and on to the frame work.

we stole a front end out of a 72 chevy truck that already had the right spots for motor mounts, and also had disc brakes. and not to mention, it makes the truck lower, and easier to bag.....











by the way, this was the easiest frame clip ive ever delt with.. we basicly just cut the old front clip off and slipped the new one right over the frame rails with only one cut on the bottom of the new frame. measurments and everything took less than a afternoon..

and i could post more, but im gonna leave you guys waiting till tomorrow.. haha.. im going to bed.. GOODNIGHT!

[manilikecars]

This is really good work rusty. Are you doing it? My neighbor had a red 56 Ford. Id like to build one some day. Along with a ton of other stuff ha ha. Amy said I can have as many toys as I want as long as they fit into the garage and I get to build a garage. She has already approved a 6 car garage seperate from the house. Like a 60x60 shop or something. Oh I can't wait to be done with school.

[JDMwannabee]

haha.. that will be nice. and yeah, me and my dad are building it.

[JDMwannabee]

im going to try to get everything i have done on here tonight.. so here goes..


when we got done with the front end, we started looking for a nice rear end setup to use.. after looking for a while we found one that we could do a little work to and make it work. and the best part is it was free!!! well it was pretty nice anyway.

so here it is. im going to let you guys try to guess what we got it from.


old...


new!


and yes.. its Independent suspension.. and disc brakes.. once again, perfect for air bags...

we had to do a little cutting, some fabbing, and alot of measuring.. but it went in nice, and lined up perfectly...

here are some more pics of the install..

[JDMwannabee]

so that was just the mock up, but here is the finished rear end..




after we got it all together we fitted the cab and front fenders and the engine and trans. it all came together great, after that, we took it back apart, cleaned it. painted the frame and put it back together..













we cad to cut inside the cab a little for the trans to fit right, but you won't be able to notice it when we are done.


















i can only load so many pics at a time or my photobucket will freez up. so more in a minute.

[JDMwannabee]

we picked up a new bed since the original one was in such bad shape, but the new one ended up being just as bad as the old one.. the rust wasn't as bad in some spots, but worse in others, and it was a little more dinged up in some places as well.. so im not sure what we are going to use yet.






and we are thinking about going with these wheels on the truck. atleast for a little while.


here is some of the clean up..






and the painted frame..















and now we are in the process of straightning out the body work. ill post more pics soon..


enjoy!

[Rblevins]

You my friend cease to amaze me with this build lol....You are deff on the right track and cant wait to see this all come together for ya

[JDMwannabee]

lol.. thanks man. its going to take a while.. and even longer now that my family is dealing with some medical issues. but we will start back on it soon.

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