Projects 1934 Ford Pickup Build U.S. Mail

That wasn’t rat rod, that was survivor. My &0.02


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Straightening out the roof was the first order of business on the cab. Sorry I didn't take any before pictures but it had all the typical dents.

 

Then it was on to repairing the doors. The drivers door was by far the worst. The outer skin on it needed a lot of straightening. Hinges were bent. The passenger door was much straighter but still had some thin spots that required patching.

 

Wow, I can tell already this is going to be a super nice truck when you're done.

 

Cab corners and back panel were good. Just needed to fix a little bit on the front lower panels on the cab.

 

Your mock-up is just KICKASS!

 

With the cab metalwork complete (at least for now), it was time to get the perimeter frame up on the table and start work on the chassis. I decided to set the truck up with 2 degrees of rake and 5 inches of ground clearance.

 

mikie likes it !
great Sheetmetal work, love the sectioned frame rails to give the truck the channeled look keeping a full floor.
.. GO spit GO !

 

The rear axle was the first order of business. Locating it was just a matter of pulling a few measurements from the front horns.

 

Thanks Sloppy J. I can't take any of the credit for the awesome metalwork. I have the guys at QRSR helping me.

 

With the Winters QC in place we welded in the motor mounts and set the flathead and T5 in place.

 

With the engine and rear end located it was time to tie everything together.

 

I love the style and stance your going for, well done.

 

Looking good Pete....

Wonder who will get theres done first, You or me

 

Thanks Bruce. You've got a pretty good head start on me.

 

Normally the front end would be next but because I want to run a suicide front end we decided to get the cab into position first, see what everything looked like, and then position the grill and axle. Channeling the cab was the first step and we decided to remove the firewall, section it, and mount it to the frame. It turned out that 2" could be removed from the area above the original forward cab mounts. The other 4 inches had to be sectioned out of the middle of the firewall.

 

With the firewall roughly in place the floor was cut out of the cab following the shape of the frame rails and mounted to the chassis.

 

If a guy is going to channel the body, model A bumper bracket to body "spacers" work great when separated as front body to frame mounts...

 

Sloppy, Great tip. Thank you.

 

Great attention to detail. Others should take note.

 

Channeling the cab created its share of details to be addressed. Starting with rear panel. The panel was first notched to get the cab on the chassis, then the lower bead detail had to be moved up 2" to meet the original floor pan.

 

More cab channel details. This time tying the floor and cab back together.

 

I believe I saw that cab on CL a couple years ago and drooled on the keyboard over it. Glad it went to a good home and is getting an awesome rebirth as a hot rod!

 

Moving to the front again it was time to tackle the firewall transition.

 

Nice work that firewall came out great, keep the detailed pics coming

 

TOP OF THE RANGE

 

VERY nice!

 

Up to the front of the truck, we decided it was time to channel the grill 3" and section it another 3". The original grill was in very nice shape. It needed a little work on the bottom lip but otherwise had faired quite well over the years.

 

Very nice work indeed! But considering what you are doing to the truck I suggest that the relevance of a US mail truck is long gone and the thread's title be amended...