Projects Why does old junk keep finding me? A '34 story...

As Britney says, Oops, I did it again...

I was surfing feeBay in late August and came across this 1934 Ford 1/2 ton pickup truck. I was drawn in like a moth to flame.





Good rear fenders? Who needs those...







At least the cab is solid



I love the dash on the seat



And of course the obligatory junk in the bed is important. Apparently a past owner liked horse drawn buggies



It has a 59A-B flathead in it, with the original '34 trans.

These trucks all come with a story. The story on this one is that an old guy in Northeastern CT owned it for close to 60 years. He stored it mostly in his barn. That likely explains the mouse excrement under the seat.

Wish me luck & tell me there is a cure for the hantavirus...

My plan is to build it mostly stock. Like this one...



I think it counts as a hot rod with that '46 flattie in it!

 

Nice project. We’ll look forward to the pictures of the completed truck in a few weeks.

 

I know I don't have the ability or sticktoitness to bring it back to life but well worth the effort , and love the red one !!! Have a great Thanksgiving . God bless

 

Great start. Put it back together. Get it running and drive the shiznit out of it. My ‘34


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B. View attachment 4888512

 

Awesome truck and from where I live. I wish I had seen and bought that. Good luck!

 

I like those trucks!

 

Thanks - I went to school at UConn. The truck actually came out of the Manchester area, not too far from you. A guy in SC had purchased it, and brought it down south.

Here's a pic of the day it left to be shipped to me



And after arrival at my place



It would be have been better if it was more like this one...


The first thing I did was remove that goofy tow bar, and test fit the fenders and spare tire carrier. Just in the effort to see what was missing. Looking better already!

 

Looks like a very solid and complete truck, and I really like your plans for it, with a souped up later engine but mostly stock appearance. I don't know what you paid, but I bet the auction would have done better if the seller would have assembled and cleaned it up the way you did in your last pic, makes a world of difference!

 

Nice solid start. Agree it looks way better with just some minor assembly and cleanup that you have done already.

 

I can see why you were drawn to it, I like those trucks too.

 

Man that’s sweet


Just putting it together and cleaning it makes it killer !

 

arr boy ye be blinded by good fortune that be rusty treasure it is ,

 

Thanks for the compliments, gentlemen.

I didn't really care for the Arrow 775 headlights on the truck, either. Their smaller size looks out of proportion to me.

So I found some original '33 - '34 Ford commercial headlights. One was a complete light in real nice shape that only needed new bulbs and sockets. The other, believe it or not, was at one point in it's life converted into a lamp for some dude's man cave. Oh, the shame!



I bought it, and the hand crank, for only $45. I replaced the reflector, painted the housing, and added new bulbs and sockets. It's much happier in it's new home now - back where it belongs at the front of a truck...



I think the larger size of these original headlamps is more proportionately and aesthetically correct.



I also found a correct original Sparton horn to replace the Sparton Model A horn that was on the truck. This is the correct profile for the '33 - '34 commercial vehicles.

 

Nice project. Looks like a great start.

 

Great project. Have fun.

 

Damn, I wish the one I found and bought out of Norwalk Ct. was that nice!
Mine was so rusty that it looked like it had sat in salt water for years. I had to replace everything on it but one fender, the cab roof and top of the cowl and the hood.
Love your truck, have fun with it.

 

Despite what the seller said when we were working out a deal, the reality was that the motor in the truck was stuck. How badly, I couldn't tell unless I removed the top end of the motor. So the front sheetmetal came off..


One positive thing is that the frame appears to have been repainted at some point in it's life. There is no rust on it either.



Next the heads and intake came off. It was a big pain to lever off the heads, as some studs had rust.



Both sets of bores looked about the same. Minor surface rust, and a mild ridge at the very top, but no heavy rust or sludge. That seemed promising.



I used some 600 grit emory paper and a shop vac to remove the light surface rust. Then I used a cocktail of acetone, PB Blaster, and liquid wrench to pour in each cylinder. The liquid was only trapped in four cylinders - it did flow fairly easily down the other half.



I refilled the stuck piston bores with the cocktail each day, and rocked the truck back in forth in 3rd gear, followed by tapping on the stuck pistons with a hammer and a wooden block. After 4 days of this, the motor freed up! Sahweet!



There was no rust where the rings had been frozen, so I rotated the assembly a bit, and repeated the 600 grit emory paper polish, being careful to vacuum out the debris with my shop vac. None of the valves were stuck, which is good.

She turns over smoothly now through the entire 360 degrees. I put motor oil in the bores to prevent rust from starting again until I get the motor running.



I also selectively replaced many of the engine studs and cleaned up the carbon from the tops of the pistons, from the combustion chamber on the heads, and from the valves. I could see that the pistons are marked +.040"

 

The past few weeks I've been buttoning up the engine again. I found some NOS 24 stud head gaskets on-line


They have the Ford logo on them


I torqued the new head nuts down to 60 ft-lbs in 20 ft-lb increments using the torque pattern per Frank Oddo's book. I used a new intake gasket too.





I rebuilt the original distributor with an NOS coil and condenser and new gaskets. I cleaned the points and re-gapped them too.



Then bolted more accessories on, like a new fuel pump, two rebuilt water pumps (the old ones were seized solid), an NOS starter switch, and new vacuum lines





I also found the guts I needed for my ignition switch from a fellow HAMBer on here.



And installed them into the truck last weekend. Now I have a perfectly working switch with two keys



The interior looks a look better now that I've installed the dash and front floor section, and fixed up the wiring too.

 

The grille that was on the truck had some rot at the bottom. That's pretty common, as the inner apron is a dirt and water trap. I have been looking for a nice grille at a decent price for the last few months.



This compound curve would be really challenging to fix properly, and the outer lower chin patch panel is no longer being manufactured.



A guy on the HAMB was selling an NOS drivers side fender for a '33 - '34 truck. I had to have it





After talking to him, turns out he also had a nice grille shell in his parts pile too. We made a package deal for both.



No rot in this one. Nice and straight too. Thanks, Tom!





Another HAMBer transported them from Tom's place to his house. He was nice enough to meet me at an IKEA nearby yesterday morning. Thanks, George!



The old driver's side fender is very solid, but the NOS one is much nicer. This is the old one

 

I had bought new reproduction United Pacific fenders from JEG's. One last month, and one a few weeks ago. These look and fit great! The new tail light and mounting bracket look nice too.



These fenders certainly are of high quality, with a bead detail that matches the original quite well.

 

Last night and today, I installed the NOS front fender and the grille shell. I swapped over the cool art deco V8 emblem from the original grille shell.



My new horn is mounted on the headlight bar now.



I spent some time with a palm sander, and cleaned up all the rust on the top of the NOS fender. I sprayed some black lacquer on it to blend with the original paint. It has some nice character now.







I really like the lines on this truck. I had to stop and admire it for a while after I finished up for the day...

 

You're doing all the right things the right way. Great looking truck.

 

Looking great!! Neat truck with really cool lines. Congratulations!!

 

Good looking truck! Nice job, headed in the right direction.

 

Have you made the first trip around the block yet?

Devin

 

Nice truck! Never knew there were different centers on the V8 & Four Cylinder crankshafts. Bob

 

Bitchin truck.

 

Absolutely fantastic old truck.
I like your plans for it.

 

Is it running yet?


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Not yet - I need to rebuild the carb, plumb the fuel system, and get a new 6 volt battery. Hopefully in the next month or so I will be able to do that...

I talked to someone two weeks ago at Early Ford V8 Sales, Inc. and she told me that they were out of inventory of the '33 - '34 pickup running boards. She also confirmed that the manufacturer had stopped making them. I figured it would just be a matter of time before you couldn't get them anymore (like the reproduction '33 - '34 passenger car running boards with the bonded rubber covers) so I order a set from Howell's Sheetmetal. Four days later, these arrived:



I also have had a 1933 Connecticut license plate hanging on my wall for the last 10 years or so. Wrong year, but it looks better on the truck than on my wall...