This is the start of putting my 50 F-1 back on the road. After sitting a few years it sure felt good to clean it up. I realized how much I missed the old truck. It sure is a blast to drive with the old top shift and 302. Here it is languishing in the carport. After a little clean up. Above you can see my 94 F-150. It's Tabago Green and white. I've been thinking that may make a great color for this truck. It looks like a 60s era color to me. Here is an old repair. The picture is dark and it is of the frame rail note the dark line about 10 inches or so behind the front spring shackle. Apparently this is collision damage. This is a weld. The top of the frame rails on both sides have no such mark but the sides and bottom do. Apparently both frame rails broke here and bent up leaving the top of the rail intact. This is one explanation for the 51 front clip. The bottom of the core support has been remade also out of heavier gauge metal. All in all it's a good repair but I wonder if it needs reinforced. I'll have better pics of this area later. It needs a gas tank, wiring, tires and all the systems gone through. it does have some vintage speed parts like the bell housing and the motor mounts. I thought the wheels were locked up turns out the emergency brake was on and it has a good pedal so things are not quite as bad as I first thought. The tail lights have got to go. That back bumper ??? I have not decided about it. Thought about no back bumper maybe a oval nerf bar. I'm going try and make look like it was done up in 1964.
Mine's similar, only big change, fuel cell in the back(hate idea of 15 gals behind the seat)and a T5 from an S10, having some problems with clutch linkage. .... good luck
You may have luck with the clutch by finding a junkyard 52 with a column shift. By 52 the colomn shifts were a different trans design and they were not using the old into the trans case clutch bar. Personally I like the behind the seat tank but I can understand why folks change it.
Getting closer on the F-1. I had a helper for a while today. He helped install another carburetor and ran the starter as I fooled around under the hood. Back tracking a little. The engine quit the last time it was out years ago. It was idling fine then had an erratic idle and quit. I had to have it pulled home. I thought it would be a very simple fix then life got in the way. Today after a carb change it ran rough for a few seconds and quit. Not much better than it was before the carb change. Tomorrow I'm going to eliminate the usual suspects.. points condenser cap coil should be good but I'll check some more stuff first rotor check the grounds and replace as necessary replace any bad wires gap the plugs carb gaskets I am afraid it may have jumped time, I do not think so but it might have. I'm going the check the valves. It might have pulled a stud. The way it quit, all of sudden makes me think condenser. Here is a wheel from my collection of Ford wheels it is reversed I have two of them . Thinking about cleaning them up and putting them on the back, painted and with new tires. I'm gonna try see if will clear the fender first.
Good news, the engine is running. It does really well, I knew it would because I built it. The problem was in the harness, it wound up being a bunch of little things. I'm not sure what to do next. I guess you can say it's a mix of procrastination with a little intimidation. I'm going to start with the wiring. I really do not know if a ready made harness is for me. I want to use some of the 1950 features such as the start button among others so I'll have to modify a ready made harness. First I'm going to trace the wiring and see what needs to be done. Once I have it traced out in the present condition I'll see what needs to replaced and figure the best route for a professional good working harness. So much needs to be done. So I need to finish one thing and move to another and not be distracted by other components that will have to wait their turn. So here's the plan so far.... Engine good... check Wiring... needs repair Fuel tank... needs repair Engine tune... after wiring and fuel tank brakes... need repair tires... need replaced suspension...needs repair paint and body... needs repair That's my punch list so far.
Keep up the good work. It will get done, just have to take on one job and get the done, then on to the next.
Well, I hesitated to post this but it is true. I got the old truck running as said above. I worked on the brakes some and......that was it. I was really shocked. It's been 5 years! It just goes to show how time goes by. Here's the update.... We have moved. I have a two bay garage. No more working in the dang dirt. That move was made a year ago. I started a project with my son on a truck he liked. It was a pretty simple deal we got his project running and when the dirty work started he bailed. Computer games are his interest.....well that was that. He has earned an academic scholarship so I can't fuss much. It was kind of disheartening....I could have put that expense and effort into my stuff and I walked away from these things for a while. Back to the F1... Those reverses are pretty much junk so I did not use them. The truck has a new set of Cokers on 15" Ford steel wheels. The back bumper has to go! Cranked it up yesterday, after 5 years it runs well. More coming soon, very soon.
The Jalopy Journal
