The search for my favorite pickujp is over!

[av8]

I've been in love with the early F-1 pickup since I saw my first one in the tiny showroom of the Ford dealership in Lone Pine, California, in 1948. It would be almost a decade before I actually had one, or more correctly shared one, with my stepdad. When I quit drag racing and started motorcycle dirt tracking in the late Fifties dad had just bought a '50 F-1 from a neighbor to use as his work car.

I'd been mooching rides to the races for me and my bike with pals who had pickups and bike trailers, and it was inconvenient for all of us. So, I cut a deal with my dad to use his F-1 on weekends. I also received permission to repaint it, from light green to white, then added big and little wide whites to the wheels which I painted red. A talented pal did some simple striping for me -- in red. No mechanical changes, just a rubber rake and a good color combo. The "old" F-1 looked as good as good as any of the F-100s in the pits, and owing to its lack of years and miles it was super dependable and always a treat to drive.

Fast forward through the better part of a lifetime, a bunch of F-100s, and one rather scabby F-1 five years ago that was far too gone to be brought back without many hundreds of hours and several thousand dollars -- just to get it presentable.

Then, last Saturday Vern Tardel told me of an F-1 that was in "very good condition" and had a righteous asking price -- right here in Sonoma County. The great puzzle was that this truck had eluded Vern and was previously unknown to him. Vern's known for a long time just how fond I am of early F-1s and he knew the story of the one I shared with my dad, who passed away peacefully just a couple of weeks ago.

The short part of this story is that we looked at the truck last night and I bought it today! It's a stunner, in as good condition as the one my dad shared with me decades ago. But more important, it comes into my life just after my dad departed. This F-1 would have put a big smile on his face, just as it does mine when I recall special times we shared that involved the first F-1. The circle is complete . . .

[CTFuzz]

Amen

[Rocky]

Yeah, Mike. I know exactly what you're talkin about.

[plan9]

congrats man, any plans for it? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Detonator]

It's beautiful. So was the story about your dad. Thanks Mike.

[NealinCA]

That truck is perfect. Thanks for sharing the story about your dad also.

My dad has been in love with the 48-50 F-series trucks since he was a kid also (he is now 66). I grew up hearing about the first new F-series trucks he saw in the Ford showroom.

He finally bought his first F-1 this last year. He has had F-2's through F-8's, but never an F-1. He is pretty excited about the project.

Keep the pics coming.

Neal

This one was at the LARS swapmeet area. I thought it looked pretty right.

[cadlights]

I put about 200 thousand miles on a truck just like that,
all I did to it was replace a pair of water pumps.
My favorite truck I ever owned. It had stainless steel stacks and it would talk to ya, most beautiful sound in the world. I am real happy for ya and very jealous. I love my 49 sedan but there's nothing like an F-1 pickup. Kinda like your easy chair at night.

[av8]

Just amazing . . .

[scarliner]

Thats a good lookin ol hauler Av8, the last time we saw any that nice in our part of the country was 1967 or so.If we did have any that nice they would have been in side stored since the sixties.The mid-west weather has a way of making those old Fords rust out real bad in the seams of the front fenders and around the lower part of the cab.
Kinda ironic about the way life sometimes helps heal its own wounds.Good luck with the truck and have fun with it.

[fargoguy]

Mike- That's a BEAUTIFUL truck! Now all you need is a white paint job and some pinstriping and you're set. Congrats on a great find!

[zonkola]

Beautiful truck. That's my favorite 'late model' pickup as well. I've been seriously considering one of those as my next project after the roadster, set up as a fuel-injected 5.0 daily driver. And in that exact shade of green, as a matter of fact.

So does this mean you won't be needing a '34 pickup roof? If not, drop me a line...

[av8]

And an extra-special touch. This is the only accessory clock I've ever seen in an F-1 -- and it works, with that comforting ticking that car clocks used to have!

[roadstar]

I couldn't be happier for you man. It sounds like it's really going to mean alot to you to own this truck.

And holy S#$T is it clean looking!

[zonkola]

Does she have a sister?

[ray]

wow, someone really put a lot of WORK into that PATINA! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

nice truck!

[Missouri_Mike]

Congrats on the find, Mike. Sounds like this one's a keeper, for a lot of reasons.

Further proof that good things really do happen to good people.

[mytlo56]

Wow! What a great old truck. I'm very sorry to hear about your father...but it sounds as though you have your head screwed on straight and are really dealing with things well. That's very admirable when dealing with the loss of a loved one.

Now do that truck up the way that you and your dad would have seen fit and represent him well.

[av8]

Zonk -- The '34 highboy is on hold for awhile and is now in reduced-priority status. It will get built but not as quickly now, and I won't be needing that top in the near future. I thank you for the original offer, however.

I'm going to drive the F-1 just as it is and upgrade it along the way. I plan to replace the two-barrel with an Offy 4-bbl manifold and a smallish AFB, the stock distributor will give way to a new Mallory, and a pair of new tube headers will feed new tiny Flowmasters that will exit in -- TA-DA -- polished stainless cab stacks!

Eventually it will receive a cosmetic upgrade with a 3-inch axle from El Polacko, big and little wide whites, a tonneu cover, and plated bumpers and grille trim. But for now, it looks so wonderful I feel no need to rush into the dress-up changes.

I'm thinking about building a new stroker motor for it over the Winter, using the perfect 8CM block I got from Rocky and an equally perfect 8CM crank courtesy of Digger Dave of the North of 49 crew/crazies. This would allow us to use it as a tow/push truck for Fuller's 'liner at Bonneville next year, and there's a special connection in that sort of thing.

[av8]

This looks like a nice place to spend a lot of time . . .

[av8]

Finally, just a bit more of the tastiness of this sweet old truck . . .

[Alfster]

All it needs is to be driven. Nice score.

[Elmo Rodge]

Wow.

[Boones]

That is a great fine and in such nice condition is a bonus. Back here it seems all of them rust around the grill opening and front fenders...

So you going to reproduce the white one from your earlier days?

[Skate Fink]

Sorry about your Dad, thanks for the story and photos, congrats on your "dream" and KUDOS to Vern for being a good friend!! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Harrison]

Awesome truck Mike. I bet your dad would have been thrilled to see you get it.

Your plan sounds solid. This is going to be a fun ride.

Post pics as you go.

-JH

[Nads]

Great story, thanks.
What a beautiful truck I can't believe the condition it's in. Here in Florida it would be rust riddled.

Talking about fathers, my old man was in hospital last week getting a heart artery stent. He's had two sets of open heart surgery in the past. I worry about him intensely. I'm trying to mend all the damage we inflicted on each other before he's gone, otherwise it will be too late.

[Sam F.]

cool story and very cool find, weird how sometimes things happen

[Roothawg]

The funny thing is Mike, I was thinking that you deserved a new project the other day after you posted pics of old Bluey. It's good to see new fire in a great guy. You can't recreate that kind of excitement, the excitement of the dream car find.

I know what you are talking about, my Dad loves the 36 Ford's....he's getting pumped that mine is coming up on the priority list.

[286merc]

Great score Mike and sorry to hear about your dad.

So what are the plans for the truck? For it to survive unmolested this long does it have a 6 or were you really lucky to get the V8?

Ive a 43 out back but that isnt going to get touched until I find an earlier nose; God are those 42-47 ugly!

[Bigcheese327]

Great score Mr. Bishop! I know she'll get taken good care of with you.

Oh, and 286, I don't think that '42-'47 sheetmetal's too awful bad....

[cadlights]

Stainlees steel stacks? Ya gonna love em. I'm only six years younger than your dad. I can see him smiling already.
Take care, have fun and good luck.
I'm still jealous.

[CharlieLed]

Nice truck Mike, sometimes fate has a way of bringing to us what we need, when we need it. I'm just happy to share it with you. Good luck with your new baby... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

BTW, I've been through Lone Pine quite a few times headin' up to Mammoth, it's a small town now...I can't imagine what it was like in '48. A shiny new ride like that would probably been the talk of the town!

[Gracie]

Wow! Why do me and you have such similar tastes? I've wanted one of those ever since I was a little kid... I used to call them the "trucks with nostrils". My dad's old 48 Chevy truck was traded for our first mustang back in the late 70s... now we have neither. That was a bad trade if you ask me. Oh well. My new truck is ugly but I can't wait to get to fixing it up... I got a Dodge A-100 old ugly flat front here in Vegas for $50 last month... no engine or tranny but my buddy the hemi guy is going to give me the slantie and trans out of his coronet when he is ready to drop that hemi... I wish he'd hurry up! The old Dodge is just like the one my dad had that was our "going to the dump" truck when I was a kid.... trucks have wonderful memories don't they?

[48bill]

Mike,

Like you I have always wanted an F-1 and got mine four years ago. I redid it to use as a daily driver and I use it almost daily. Yours is just like the one that made the impression on me at 12 years old (1952) when I worked in the cemetary at our church. The boss had a green 48 F-1 and it was the first thing I drove. He must have gone through a clutch a year letting us kids learn to drive it. Mine is tan, Caddy powered with a Mor Drop axle and apparently belonged to a fire department for a number of years. It has a later model bed and rear fenders which is OK for me. I'd post a picture but I don't know how to do so. There is a pic of it on http://community.webshots.com/photo/17242398/17242929LoILEDTYdC taken by Skip Readio in 2001 at the Road Agents meet just after it was repainted.

Enjoy yours and the great memories of your earlier one and most of all your Dad.

Bill in CT

[50Fraud]

Excellent. It's in the perfect condition for an old truck. Your plans for it sound just right, too.

Stacks? A fine idea!

[Digger_Dave]

Mike, I don't think that 8CM crank could find a better home!

Ya done good!! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[38Chevy4door]

Sorry to hear about your dad.
Congratulations on the truck..an extremely nice score, you can relive some fond memories and good thoughts, and a good friend put you onto it...it just seems right.
Steve

[hotrodladycrusr]

I was very sorry to hear the news of your dads passing. I do believe he has played a role in you obtaining your favorite truck and that he will be sitting right beside you on that bench seat, mile after mile, for years to come. I look forward to checking it out in person on the salt next year.

[av8]

Thanks to all you folks for the kind sentiments about my dad. We had a memorial celibration today for the family and it was great! The laughter outweighed the tears as kids, grandkids, and close friends recalled the wonderful mom and dad who provided good times and good foundations for all of us.

The business of the new F-1 begins tomorrow with the re-polish to kill the oxidation. It's just the beginning of what promises to be an on-going, long-term love affair/project with Bob Gregorie's best commercial vehicle design.

[SamIyam]

Wow!
It's just how I imagined!

I'm sure I speak for the rest of us when I say; keep us updated on the progress she makes, starting with an update on the polish job you're gonna give her (probably doing that right now)...

Can't wait to see it in person... I hope to make it up there soon...
Sam.

[av8]

Her?! What's this "her" stuff, Sam? My hot rods have all been pals, not girlfriends.

And yeah, let's try to get together for lunch and a roadtest in the truck.

[Rocky]

I can't think of a better resting place for that 8-CM.

[just steve]

Mike -- that's a sweeeeet ol' truck -- a bonafide Cacklefest push truck. Congrats!

How many miles on it? Looks even nicer than my 54 Chebby.

later,
Steve.

[av8]

Rocky -- That 8CM sure as hell won't be resting!

There's 21K and change on the odo, Steve.

[atch]

great score, mike,

i've had clarence for over 30 years; seems like i've driven him around the world a dozen times. don't know for sure, the odometer broke years ago.

if you get the opportunity to have half as much fun in your f-1 as i've had in mine you'll be a lucky man. here's hopin' you can have ten times as much...

sorry about your dad. i can't even imagine how tough it must be to bury a parent. mine are in their mid 70's and both tough as nails. they'll probably outlive me. anyway, my concolences.

[C9]

Very nice Mike.

Nice for the ol truck as well.
Something very special when the right vehicle finds it's home.

I've been looking at these as well.
A friend down the street has a couple, one flat six daily driver in remarkable shape and another that restoration is completed on. It's just waiting for a flathead to be finished and installed.

I'll try to get some pics when I'm at his shop tomorrow.

[av8]

Thanks for the sentiments about my dad, atch.

Ya gotta wonder about the F-1 and the hold it has on some of us. Sure, I have the connection with my dad, and the one that trails all the way back to that first one I saw in a dealership showroom when it was new and I was so young and very impressionable, but there's more to it than that.

Bob Gregorie was in charge of Ford's design studio and staff at the time the F-1 was created, and I see his genius in the desgin. Aside from the Lincoln Zephyr-style flat windshield, there are some other touches that were not only bold -- for a truck of that era -- but were executed with a great deal of class . . . subtle features like the hood nostrils and disguised air-outlet grilles on the hood sides. Also, up to that point no one had even considered adding horizontal character lines to truck fenders to break up their visual mass.

The inletted headlights and grille of the F-1, which provide the truck with its distinct "face," is a neat piece of packaging/industrial design in that critical elements like headlights are protected by non-critical elements like sheet metal, out of harm's way.

We could probably analyze this for hours, but I just think that there was a great deal of creative thought that went into the creation of this super-distinct commercial Ford.

[av8]

I envy your friend, Jay. If I could afford it I'd have at least a half-dozen F-1s -- a daily-driver speed-shop truck like this one will be, a tube-chassis Super-Gas F-1, a LSR vintage race truck for Bonneville, a custom that paid tribute to Chuck Porter's F-1, a dead-nuts correct restoration to demonstrate that I can be as anal as the next guy, and fnally a decent old beater that I'd loan to anyone who needed truck to haul stuff and maybe get their life together.

[Brootal]

Sorry to hear about your Dad too Mike. Good to hear that he passed peacefully.

Glad to hear that you're going to polish up the paint. This pa-tee-na thing has just got completely out of hand. I don't think I could drive around in a faded vehicle of any kind if I knew the paint would polish up OK.

So are you tempted to paint it white and put the red steelies and wide whites on it too?? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[SlowLearner]

Just adding my voice to the chorus. Congratulations on that beautiful truck!
My first "driving" experience was in in a 15 year old F-1 when my uncle put me on his lap. We had borrowed one from somewhere to help haul stuff from my grandmother's old house after her funeral.
It was some crazy (patinaed) yellow with a (Cadillac?) naked (!) lady hood ornament, and a big flat (weird to my 10 year old eyes) V8 lurking in the shadows when I lifted the hood. And it sounded like music through its rusted tail pipe.
And my ne'er-do-well (favorite) uncle let me STEER it on public roads!!, back and forth for miles up a mountain road to the dump. Marked me for life!
And condolences for your father's passing. Glad it was peaceful, and you and your family are blessed with good memories. What a fine legacy.
Sometimes things work Okay. -Keith

[SamIyam]

Mike, I think you could cover all your bases with just five trucks... make the super gas and the LSR truck on in the same...
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gifSam.

[Drewfus]

As per all the previous responses, I also wish to offer my condolences, as well as congrats.

As a side note, was just thinking.....IMHO......

Hot Rods have attitude,
Kustoms have style and grace,
but pickups......

they have soul.



Cheers, and let the happy memories live.

Drewfus.

[fab32]

Wow! I've been away for a few days and wandering around the HAMB I find Mike has aquired a new love. Congrats on the new PU, it sure looks like a beauty.
Now you have to go and do the unthinkable and suggest it might be used as a tow/push vehicle for Fuller's 'liner. I was disappointed at not being able to go to Bonneville this year but it may have been a blessing in disquise. If both of those events come to fruition I just may have to walk to the salt flats next year. On second thought I'll walk to Omaha and hitch a ride with Rocky. How many cases of Diet Dr. Pepper do you think he would charge for a ride?

Frank

[AHotRod]

Congrats....Enjoy!

[av8]

Sam -- A NHRA SG F-1 and a SCTA-BNI XF/PP F-1 are really at cross purposes. I've long envisioned the SG F-1 as a drag car in the spirit of the old funny cars -- a car, or truck in this case, that was far quicker and faster than you'd expect it to be. As planned, this one is an Alston pro-truck chassis with a pruned F-1 steel body, Fairlane 'glas one-piece front fenders and hood and rear fenders, aluminum bed panels, powered with an aluminum 427 connecting to a narrowed 9-inch through a race-grade trans-braked 'Glide and converter. We're talking about an 1800-pound car that will run 9.90/130 laps all day long without breaking a sweat -- with an uncut truck body that looks like a 16-second 80-mph lap would be a struggle.

The Salt truck would be flathead powered and based on a stock chassis dropped right down to the limits of the rules. Count on this one having lots of ballast to keep it on the racing surface.

Just wanted to set you non-truck guys straight about what's required in our world.

Tomorrow I'll post some sketchbook details of the Porter tribute truck concept I've been working on for a few years. Fuller and I are gonna do this one -- if we live long enough.

[Sailor]

Sorry about your dad, Mike.

Trucks look very nice indeed. Lots of really neat touches on these old things. Its going to a good home.

[Roothawg]

Mike, My dad was over last night working on the Fly, and I showed him pics of your truck. He will be 65 in December and is an avid truck fan......he wanted me to let you know that what you found is a real gem.

I think he got wood when he saw the interior of the bed.......... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

[Mike]

I'm sorry to hear about your dad, Mike.

I love the truck, gorgeous machine. It reminds me of my '51 F1 before the Arizona sun made most of the green paint fall off.

[Tiny]

Bitchen cream puff you got there Mike I suppose you want you reverse eye springs and grill chrome back. Please say no.
Tiny

[Rolf]

Sorry about your Dad, Mike. My folks are still alive, I don't know how I would handle it.

Nice truck, it will get a good home. I like the idea of a driving project. Keep us posted!

[radarlover]

I'm a little late on this post, sorry to hear about your dad Mike. Now would some one please photochop the truck to look like the one Mike's dad had back when. White paint, red rims, ect. Please, please.

[av8]

Look for a fresh thread tomorrow or Wednesday, when the old fella is returned to his fresh, young truck look with no more effort than a few hours of deoxidizing and polishing old enamel.

[av8]

Tiny -- I'm doing okay on grille trim, but if you want to part with those spring we might work a deal.

I'm going to drop the front end in stages, as budget allows, '50s style, beginning with tires, then move on to springs, and maybe go so far as an axle. The full package works out to better than seven inches! I can knock the front down more than four inches without the axle, and condsidering that the truck will probably be a Bonneville/Elmo push truck for Fuller's 'liner, that four-inch drop will be just fine.

[Uncle Pancakes]

That truck was one hell of a find. Sorry to hear about your dad, get your favorite photo of him have it copied and put it in the truck (on the visor or in the glove) that way he will always be riding with you in it.