Thanks vtwhead, will have to learn a few thing about posting. Posted a pic in sitting and rotting of it when found almost 2 years ago, took a year to be able to get it out, too wet and farmer had ripped out plugged culvert to drain land.
Years ago I worked one one of these trucks that was chopped and channeled. It was a real neat looking piece.
Thanks RmK57, am pretty happy with how it’s turned out, after getting it home, cleaned up and having a good look at things, it was a bit further gone than I thought. At that point decided to just get on the road, rust is into the seams so I don’t have the budget to blow it all apart and fix it properly, I cut out the majority of the rust and welded patches, replaced 70 % of the cab floor, pounded out most of the dents. Painted the patches but thats the extent of the bodywork lm going to do.
Buddy of mine had one when we were in HS...late 70's, the 352 tossed a rod and we found a (I think) 70 LTD with a 390 we swapped in. Dang truck ran pretty good after that. Have fun with it, looks like you're up for it!
Looks good. I can't drive mine anywhere without questions. I especially love the "my grandpa had one just like that" and then they follow with "How did you weld the bed and cab together?"
The truck came with the 223 which was surprisingly not stuck and 3 in the tree, lots of parts had been robbed off of it, the pumpkin and axles, wheels. I was not too concerned as I had a 64 doaner at home with a 292/3 spd, that being said, it’s amazing how many subtle differences between the two trucks, obviously the body but I’m talking all the little things, bolts, screws, wiring. I did use the front axle and rear diff from the 64, never dealt with kingpins before that was some learning curve, spent about 2 weeks heating, beating, pressing, finally just cut thru the bearings, had to do the other axle as I needed a spindle off it, rear was easier but not by much. Then it was the motors turn to bite my ass, had been soaking it as it was stuck, well after a month I pulled the heads and seeing that there was no hope yanked out the motor, that’s when I found that the motor and trans had come from an accident victim, the truck showed no signs of a major accident but the block had 3 mountings broken and welded, bell house was broken and one ear broke off trans. Funny thing is we drove that truck home and about the farm 16 years earlier, till the coloumn locked up and nobody could be bothered to fix it.
On the unibody the torque box comes up into the back of the cab with a step that the bed is welded to, major PITA, I put more structure into the cab and welded a flange to the box, the box bed needs to be replaced anyway , don’t know what was hauled in that truck but the bed is beat!
Now I’m on the search for a motor, found a running motor in a grain truck which doesn’t solve my broken bell housing problem. Took that to a machine shop to be welded, then tackled the tranny, here again subtle differences, while the cases where the same just about everything inside was different, still I managed to make one out of the two. Grain truck was a 58 far as I know, block turns out to be 56 272 with 30 thou overbore and a complete hodgepodge of parts, for example 4 different cast rods all same part #, 4 diff types of pushrods, 3 diff style lifters,heads same part # one Cleveland one from São Paulo, and one oddball piston which also had a split pin bushing, 7 of the pistons were split skirt Ariel, which I have never seen before, and the other was typical flat top, must not have been able to get the right bushing so a larger one was slit and pressed in. Even with all this the engine ran, and rather well, compression was 95 to 120, (oddball was 120) forgot to mention most of the top rings were broken, one was completely gone, along with part of the land.
Spent many fun filled Friday and Saturday nights cruising with a friend in one of these. He owned it all 4 years of High School without a single repair having to be done to it. Hard to believe because he put it through hell and back.
Great job on the metal replacement. Coming along great! Been working on mine for several years. Have a big window section for the back of the cab to put in, made a tailgate, added an Industrial Chassis IFS kit, using a modified adjustable QA1 coilover setup in front, created a mirror image inner fender so the right and left sides matched, a Copperstate Components reverse tilt hood kit, swapped in a 390/C6 and have a 4 bar setup with more adjustable QA1 coilovers for the rear......need to get back on it or sell it. They are great little trucks. Lots of ways you can go with one. SPark
Got ahead of myself a little, I actually installed that motor in my truck before finding out about the guts of it, when I found it I verified that it ran before dragging it home, got it for free but had to take the whole truck, once I had it home I put a better carb on and got it running rather well , as I was running it with some mixed gas in the tank I was unconcerned about the blue tinged exhaust, ran it till it was good and warm then dropped the oil, nothing scary in the pan so I drained the glycol and pulled the motor. Then proceeded to put it in my truck along with the front clip, had everything hooked up and fresh fluids and then I fired it up in the shop, well holy fuck did it smoke, so I’m thinking ok probably just some oil leak down from the valves and some residual mixed fuel should clear up, nope! Only getting worse, open shop door and push it outside thinking perhaps it’ll clear once it warms up, wrong again. Don’t know what secret sauce was in the oil but it didn’t smoke until I changed it. So back into the shop, popped the heads off and began learn about all the fun stuff inside.
Wow nice truck LM14, been keeping mine as close to stock as possible till I get ins/ reg on it then who knows
I now have a rebuilt motor, using the 272 block (had to have the deck stitched due to head gasket installed backwards) punched out to 292, used the crank, rods,and valve train parts from the stuck doaner motor. The heads on the 272 were practically new (small valve truck but oh well), did come across a pair of ECZ-C heads but they needed a complete rebuild, well outside my budget. I’m more of a Chevy guy, this is my first complete rebuild of a Ford engine, apart from a couple top ends on inline 4s , fairly familiar with y block now as I have had this one together and apart several times, instructions are for losers and admitting defeat, right! Right?
It’s official, insured and plated. Too bad it’s efn winter , -16c still took it for a little ride after the inspection. Bloody cold, would need a winter front.
Had some good weather today, -1c so I took the truck out for a spin, put on 50 miles. All back roads to avoid all the calcium slop on the pavement
Those sure are kool trucks, there is a nice solid one for sale in my neck of the woods but they want 9000.00 for it! I don't know what they are going for but 9K seems way to much!
BIL finally got his truck back on the road. Is not fond of pics since it’s not quite where he wants it yet. 55 intersmashable 66 ss 327,Saginaw 4sp,9”Ford rear, been sitting in his shop about 12 years at least.
The Jalopy Journal
