1948 Ford F1 Truck Page

2009-04-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Another interesting set back of sorts was figuring out what transmission fluid went in the new transmission. It turns out even though the c6 was made originally to run on type F, Since it is rebuilt it now has different materials the internal clutches are made of, so no type F instead Mercon or Synthetic. So I decided to use Mobil 1 synthetic ATF which will extend the life of the tranny according to my transmission guy!

2009-04-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more shots of the torque converter shaft and pilot bearing on the back of the crank shaft, also a picture of the new transmission cross bar.

2009-04-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last few months dealing with parts. First getting a pair of matching motormounts for the engine.Before it was over I had three passenger side mounts and no drivers aside mounts. This whole process ate up the month of March.Next when I went to attach the motor to the transmission the engine would sieze up when the transmission housing was torque tight. Two weeks later with lots of online help, I discovered they torque converter shaft was too big in diameter to fit the pilot bearing in the rear of the crank shaft. So next I returned the torque converter and exchanged it for the right one which fits perfectly and is finally permanently in place, I hope! In the mean time my neighbor Mike and I did a few dry fit tests with the new motor mounts and the engine with tranny attached. Come to find we had to cut out the old transmission crossmember, leaving enough for the brake booster to bolt too, but clearing the center section which was too narrow to accomadate the C6 transmission forcing the engine to stay too far foward. Hopefully next weekend we will once again try to get it into place!

2009-02-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

Worked this week end on truck and steering wheel removal. Learned valueable lesson about mushrooming the steering shaft on the threaded end. Long story short, the wheel needed holes drilled and threaded for wheel puller to attach. Once on the nut that holds wheel on wouldn't fit with the bolts for puller in place. The puller didn't pull the wheel, it mashed the end of the shaft. Today I put a bolt down the center of the shaft to protect from further damage and then heated the base with a torch. The wheel came off pretty easily this way. Here are some shots:

2009-01-20T10:59:00.000-08:00

Slowly accumulating the parts needed to get the old truck moving again. Recently purchased the ceramic coated headers from Sanderson's and a new eliminator gas petal from Summit. The gauge cluster final arrived some those are ready to go as well. With the warmer weather I seal primed the cab, still need to strip and prime the hood. Here is a bunch of parts pictures.

2008-12-18T12:47:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I purchased my new gauges for the truck. Found a three gauge insert that has room for a small tachometer in the middle. Here are some photos of the insert and the gauges going into it.

2008-11-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

I worked on plugging all the firewall holes yesterday using plastic plugs from Ace Hardware. I siliconed them in with black rtv sealant. Fast way to get 40 plus holes filed

2008-11-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

Engine coming together. Primed oil pump today. Here are a few shots

2008-10-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

This was a frustrating week trying to get the engine sealed up, but I kept running into things I'd forgetten or needed or for the engine. Once I started on the timing chain housing I was frustrated to find the new housing had a tear in the new front seal. Since it was an aftermarket housing, they used a different seal entirely, which requires a lip to the front seal. No info was provided as to what replacement seal was needed. Two days later I finaly got a hold of a company rep who said he's send two new seals out to me. Now I have to wait for those to arrive. Other missing items included a dip stick tube, and a waterpump backing plate. It's costly and time consumming to track all of this stuff down. I'm hoping the new front seal will arrive tomorrow, so I can seal it up, and prime the oil pump. Then I have about a month to patch fire wall hole, rebleed the brakes, and get everything back on the front end of the trucks body.

2008-10-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well the engine arrived and I manged to muscle it onto a engine stand without help. Here is a couple of photos of the long block and some mockups with the intake, carb, distributor and valve covers on.

2008-10-16T00:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a while. Lots of other stuff keeping me busy. The 460 rebuilt longblock arives tomorrow, so the engine build will finally be under way. I have amassed a ton of parts over the last few months, I just need to get a harmonic balancer to have whats needed to complete the engine. It's starting to look like I might get it out on a test drive before Christmas!

2008-09-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

Monday and tuesday this week I worked more on sanding the back panel and glasing the small holes in the body filler.I removed the front and rear windshields and bought a complete new glass set on Ebay for a steal! I also removed the front grill lower valence piece that was half rusted away. Someone at one time decided to shore it up and welded it to several bolts going into the frame work in front of the radiator. That posed a challenge getting it off.

Next, after getting as close to flat as I could with bondo, I primered the exposed parts of the cab, which helped light up the flaws that still need to be worked out.

2008-09-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Well it was 101 F today. Youch! Major headache to match the heat, but some more goodies arrived by mail. My new gas tank came in, so I spent the better part of the morning figuring out how to plumb it, using both solid aluminum fuel lines and braided stainess hose with anodized fittings. There should be a class in the use of and understanding thereof of the fittings(i.e. size -6, -8, and all the wierd little gizmos you need to connect to different things like Edelbrock carbs, stock fuel pumps, inline fuel filters, 37 degree flring tools... but the summit boys and fellow members came to the rescue again. Here is a photo of the gas tank in a mock up of where it will mount under the bed!
I also found out what's missing from my hood latch. A fellow 48 F1'er sent of photo of the hood latch retaining spring, which I am missing. Now just to find one!
Here's the little culpret! Thanks for this picture Tom

2008-08-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

Started the axle swap yesterday. I got as far as mounting the new transaxle when I discovered the u-bolts and the leaf spring plates I had wouldn't work. So I was able to track down what I needed from a place called No limits Engineering. Good helpful folks there. Here is what that looks like so far.

2008-08-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Worked on the roof seem yesterday and today. I am using Evercoat's metal 2 metal body filler for the roof seam, both inside and out, topped by their Rage filler. The metal 2 metal works very well and is rust and moisture proof. Next the Rage top coat smooths it all out. After doing a couple of layers of that, I added yet another layer of fiber filled filler today to help keep it all from cracking out, which will then be skim coated with another coat of Rage when I'm done. I then hit all the exposed metal surfaces with One step rust coverter, for a total of three coats. Here are some shots from yesterday.

2008-08-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

I picked up my diferential today. It's a late 60's F100 axle with a 3.0 pumpkin swap. The guy gave me the ubolt mounts, emergency brake cables and nice brake drums, total cost $375.00. Best I could find that hooked me up with what I needed. Now this weekend, I'll attempt the switchover! Here are some shots of the 9 inch rear end. The brakes look pretty good, though I will replace the wheel cylinders, and brake lines at the very least. I'll also have to take the drums in, and get them turned.

2008-08-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

Stripped more paint off the last couple of days, then welded holes above the rear window at the seam, which I will eventually do the entire seam(very slow and pain staking, not to mention I suck at welding and grinding) and scored a aluminum gas tank from Classic Performance Parts for 150 dollars less than list, made to fit under the bed with a bed fill that is flush mounted to the wooden bed, today off Ebay. Here are some shots of the truck and tank.

2008-07-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

So Monday and Tuesday I started to strip paint off the roof of the truck. Under many coats of paint, I found bondo and huge pitted rust areas. So I'm glad I went thru the effort to get to the metal. Here are some shots.

My mascot and his faithfull companion

2008-07-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

Pretzel is a great pal. Always following me around, begging for walks or a game of fetch. He also has a great sense of humor, as he will bounce tennis ballls on me while I'm under the truck or climb in the cab if I leave the door open!

Heres a shot with his girl friend Teva!

What I would like the truck to look like

2008-07-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Here are two different f1's that have nice red paint jobs that I'd like to paint this one with. Don't know the names of the reds though!

Body work continued

2008-07-27T20:12:00.001-07:00

Just finished this door and have now done the front two fenders, hood, and passenger door.

Welding in old gas filler hole

2008-07-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

With no welding experience but lots of encouragement and advice, I bought a MIG welder, and welded in a sheet metal patch on the old filler hole. Here are a few shots.

Gas tank relocation, Welding and Learning!

2008-07-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

The old gas tank location is in the cab, behind the driver's seat. Since this is not a safe place, it was relcated to the rear of the chasis, under the pickup bed.

The grill Part 2

2008-07-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

So I was able to find a great deal on an intact almost perfect grill on Ebay. Since it was obscurely listed I had no bidding to compete with me, so I got it for less than half of what the normally go for. It had tons of old peeling paint that had to be stripped off, and the hit with a rust inhibitor.Here are a couple before and after shots.

The grill

2008-07-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

The grill turned out to be held in by 18, 60 year old rusted bolts! Tree days, and many nasty cuts later the last of the were sawzalled off!

Body Work and gas tanks

2008-07-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

Now while the weather is nice I'm slowly stripping down old paint and rust, replacing the front grill in the process. I'm also treating the frame with a rust converter to protect it, and give it a nice finished look. I also got the engine compartment painted, and the rear frame.

Engine Update

2008-07-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

With the brakes done I started to try and narrow done the engine ID. After taking off the valve covers, it became apparent that the engine was in need of a rebuild. The heads were DOVE-C which are low chambered high compression, desirable heads. So I bought a cherry picker and pulled the engine. At this point I figured if Im spending all this time replacing stuff with newer, safer options, then what's the point if it potentially could break down any minute, and eats oil, leaking all over the shop too. So I pulled the engine and took the transmission to Santa Rosa Transmission shop, where they diagnosed it as old and worn. $1100,00 dollars later, it was rebuilt with new parts ready to go. The engine rebuild locally would have cost around 3k, but I could get one built with a 70k, 7 year warrenty for 2k form Spokane, so that is the next big savings project.

2008-07-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

The best part of the truck was it came with a new front disc brake conversion kit for Classic Performance Parts and a new brake booster master cylinder. So my next project delt with doing this conversion and putting in all new brake lines.

2008-07-27T16:20:00.001-07:00

After buying the truck, Mel graciously delivering it to my house. I had no idea where to start, so I figured why not try and get it running. So where to start? No idea of what the engine came from or what year of car, etc..., no battery or coil, battery cables coming through the fire wall to the passenger side floor. So I searched for numbers on the engine block, hit the internet and narrowed it down to a 71 lincoln, either 460 or 429. I bought the appropriate coil for it, and a new battery. The truck cranked over great but would not start. No spark. After trying everything I could think of, I remembered what Mel had told me. "If you get stuck, go online to the Ford truck forum and ask those guys, they are very helpfull!"

So I went, but found that most of the members were dealing with stock truck issues, not hodge podge hot rod stuff. Thus Clubhotrod.com came to the rescue. These guys build anything and everything. The are quick with the answers or where to find them. A few days later, I had a new negative wire from the distrbuter, to the negative terminal on the coil, and boom! It starts and runs, first crank over, with seven year old gas! Things were looking up. I had great plans, I'd modify the engine with some highperformance parts, do the body work and be good to go!:)

48 Ford F1 Resurrection Page

2008-07-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

Last September(2007) I finished reading a book by Michael Perry, called "Truck a love story", which journels a year in the life of Michael, as he and his brother-in-law rebuild his 1951 International Harvester Pickup. My wife had read the book, and thought I'd enjoy it. Thebook was great in many ways. First it motivated my wife to work in the garden with me, which she enjoys in short spurts! Secondly she said to me after I finished the book, " now if you wanted to restore an old truck, that would be something I'd support" Words I'm sure she must regret now that I actually doing this. I immediately got on the internet and went to craigslist. I found a 1948 Ford truck in good shape, that had been started into a hot rod project. It had a 1971 Lincoln 429 engine, and Ford c-6 transmission already installed. Mel the man I would end up buying this truck from, had purchased it as is, 7 years earlier from the original hot rod conversion guy. The truck was running when he bought it, but had since sat for seven years, and now wouldn't start.

So the story begins!