Hot Rods Went to a small swapmeet and bought a '54 F100 : Need Ford, F100 Experts

So was at this little swap...and an older guy had a flyer with a F100 he was selling. Flyer said 352...C6, 9 inch, power steering, power brakes and ac. I have history on it going back to the late 70s. The oldest owner (1977 to 79 or so) was Brad Gallant who owned Gallant Truck Salvage in Oceanside. The po doesn't really know how the power steering was pulled off... from what I've read online it's possible its a hybrid of a Ford control valve mated to the F100 shaft off the steering box. Then a ram assist was added. The power brakes uses a remote booster like a 50s Tbird Midland unit. All in all I'm very happy with it...vin says it was made in Long Beach and its never left Socal. Has a supposed 352 engine but has Power by Ford valve covers which are later..and D2TEAA heads..which are 1972 390 heads. Intake is a C5AE 9425 C.

It looks like a pretty careful assembly of factory parts to make a cool truck. Can you F100 experts spot something I didn't see? Don't know of it has a dropped axle..or lowered spring..but seems to sit 70s low..which I like...not modern low. Also..how can I find out for shits and giggles what size the motor is? I'm assuming they used the D2 heads for the hardened exhaust seats? Or maybe it's a 1972 motor with a 1965 intake. Who knows. Also has a round clock in the dash...was that an option? They also neatly adapted the original 3 speed manual column shift lever to the C6...sorry for the shitty pictures of the suspension.

 

Looks pretty darn straight, and rust free. congrats

 

I'm going to say not dropped. Scroll down the page. Ford Dropped Axles | Nostalgia Sid's | Custom Axle Alterations
Springs look like they are out flat but not drooping as ones with leaves removed do. Meaning that the weight of the FE or a set of custom springs may have done that.
Looks like a good looking start on a fun truck. I have wished over the years that I had kept the 56 long bed I got from my father in law when it got tired and had shortened the frame and done an engine swap on it. That was a pretty solid old truck that was the same color but the engine would go though a quart of oil in 15 miles on the way to work and a quart on the way back.

 

Congrats - did good - search ----- https://www.fordification.com

 

Mr48 is right, stock front springs. Looks like the right amount of droop with the engine. The front Axle does not look like a dropped axle. The power steering looks like stock F100 with a Mustang power steering slave cylinder adapted to work. A very popular upgrade in the ‘70’s. The stock F100 radio was a round unit mounted in the dash to the left of the glovebox. I think the clock was something someone fitted into the hole. Can’t see it in the picture though. looks like a great truck to start with. I’ve built a bunch of these F100’s feel free to ask more questions.

 

Thanks all for the great info and good words...will get a pic of the clock tomorrow. I thought it was a radio...till I looked closely at it today and realized it was a clock..lol

 

Looks like a great truck with all the right accessories.. I don't know too much about FE's but I did have a late 60's 390 in my old '54 Ford panel truck

Was it the swapmeet in Chatsworth?.

 

Great score, I remember going to Gallants back in the 80s....

 

Nice truck - think the one way to tell an early block from late is the factory motor mounts on the side - two screw/bolts on an early block and three bolts on a later block. If it is a factory radio with the round face the two controls are on either side of the dial. Have fun !

 

Nice truck.. best wishes with the resurrection...

 

Great truck.

 

Nice score. Looks like a solid truck.

 

Thanks again for the nice words...so I think the truck did come with a radio as it has what's left of a factory antenna in the passenger cowl. Any idea what the clock is from?

The swap was a tiny one in Oceanside..

 

The axle does not look like the ones I have encountered. I dont see the incorporated
boss area to recieve the sping and bolts cast into the couple of f-100s I had. Pictures may not show it clearly?

 

That is the same clock that was in the dash of a 56-f-100 I had. 12v A.M. only.

 

I don’t think the clock was an option but that the place the round radio went….

 

1955 Ford car clock?

 

Nice start!

 

Looks like the one! So it looks like my truck came with a radio originally...and it was replaced with this clock at some point. My question is how rare is the radio option in a '54? I was at a small swap this morning and found a factory speaker grill for it..the one that goes over the rear view mirror...

 

cool truck somebody done a lot of good mods on this truck to just let it sit. so does it run? as far as your suspension there used to be company in Long Beach {I think} called Bobs f100s sold all kinds of stuff for those trucks, and he put together a power steering unit similar to that might be worth researching. Tom

 

Many,many years (decades?) ago,Sanyo offered an AM/FM stereo replacement radio that fit in that round opening. Good Luck finding one now. But,Hey! you never know...

 

The late 60's into the early/mid 70's F250 4x4's had the power assist attached to the pitman arm.

 

If that were a radio, where are the holes for the tuning and on off volume?


It very could have been a clock option.

 

Definitely 1955 Ford passenger car, I'd have to check my books whether it was used in trucks but it wasn't '54 or '56 passenger cars so I'm guessing probably not. I've done my share of work restoring a few to get one that's working, fun little mechanism that electrically winds the wind up clock. It can run down a battery on a seldom used car. And it's not very accurate, as many times as you try to adjust the speed. I'm probably not telling anything you don't already know.

 

That's my favorite all time truck. When I was kid in the 70's a guy down the street had one. Bone stock and solid that was his driver. I delivered papers and would always stop to look at it. I recall him saying one day he had no desire to sell but if he did he wouldn't take less than $1200 for it. LOL

Nice find and buy.

 

The F100 radio was really cool. It had a knob in the center, kinda like the clock, that turned it on and the for the volume. The outer edge of the face, looking kinda like the clock, was the dial. You turned the whole face of the radio to tune it in. It was only AM. I don’t think it was a rare option, I think most had the radio and the rarity is the radio delete.

 

Found an online brochure, the radio is listed as optional equipment but it doesn't seem to mention a clock... heater and oil filter are also under optional equipment. I searched my junnkyard pics, I didn't see any '54 dashboards but I saw 4 '57 dashboards and they all had flat blank panels for the dash between the instrument cluster and the glovebox (dispatch box in the terminology of the brochure) Here's a link to the brochure:

http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/stat...cks/1954 Ford F100 Truck Brochure/image4.html

 

The stock radios are pretty pricey. I think I've seen a complete radio, speaker and cover on C/L or eBay and it was $1500. I have a speaker cover and one that needs work, but no radio. Man, there's no swap meets around here and with the big 3 gone......I'm dying .

 

Ah, mystery parts, what fun...

The power steering I suspect is pre-Twin-Ibeam, as Ford switched from the Eaton pump that you have to a Ford-sourced pump with the suspension change in '65. Ford offered power steering on the trucks at least as early as '58, it wouldn't have been too hard to cobble something together with factory parts. If you made me guess, I'd say '58-64 for parts. Maybe even a complete axle change.

Discovering what FE you have may be tougher. The 'Power by Ford' valve covers appeared in '67, the last year the 352 was made. The 352 disappeared in cars altogether after '67, came back in '68 in the trucks as the 360 which was just a 352 with the 390 bore size. To determine the stroke, turn the motor until the timing pointer is on TDC. Pull plugs 1 and 4, then using a thin stiff rod down the plug hole as straight as possible, make a reference mark as to how far it went in. Do both cylinders the same, then measure the distance between the marks. That will be the stroke. Roughly 3.5" it's a 352/360. If it's closer to 3.75", it's a 390. If you can find a casting number on the block (and there may not be one) and it's a C8 or newer, that will identify it as a 360/390 block. Don't get too hung up on head casting numbers, Ford switched parts around on these a lot. I'm sure the C5 intake was just the particular 4V intake they found as most of these were 2V motors. You also have the passenger-car-style oil filter mount, not the Twin Ibeam type typically found on the truck versions but that doesn't mean much either. Again, make me guess and I'd say you have a '70s 360. Other than the bore size/pistons, it's basically the same as the 352. All of those vintage truck FEs are low compression versions by the way. Raising it will really help wake them up...

As to the clock, I think somebody just wanted a clock pretty badly for some reason. That's not the same opening as the matching radio, as while the round part is the same size, the radio has pushbutton tuning and the bottom of the faceplate is squared off for those. That design was '55 only, and if you look at pics of restored trucks, radios and clocks are conspicuously absent from all of them in these years. I suspect if a radio was ordered, it was a dealer-install deal, maybe even a under-dash unit. Although I wouldn't put it past Ford to make the dealer cut the dash...

Looks like a really sound truck, have fun!

 

Thanks for all the replies! I don't think the radio option was common..I can't remember looking at a F100 and seeing a 4" hole or radio in the dash...also I don't think they would be pricey if they were common. The truck also has this Ford script heater which is cool. I'm guessing the heater is far more common. Maybe the radio got pulled when the switched to 12v? If the clock is a '56 it was already 12v. There is a small panel and an am fm radio near the e brake handle...im sure that am fm is 12 volt.