Would it be appropriate to have a build thread for a '48 Ford F4??? It's not like it would be rod or custom which is why I'm asking. The build is fairly stock looking with an updated engine and tranny. Your thoughts? thanks David
my opinion probably doesn't count, but i think a F4 build is appropriate. i would like to see it. i am sure i would learn from it. Please proceed. jack orchard
Why not? These big trucks are often made into ramp trucks and carry the little cars we know and love in style.
thanks for the input guys. I've got a couple of years of work documented with photos already (before I found the HAMB) but had to quit working on the F4 for the past couple of years. Now, I'm getting back to work on it and thought it would be fun to post its progress. I've definitely learned a lot from the HAMB as well as by trial and error and I'm sure there is plenty more to learn.
If your going more stock check out the Ford Barn fourms mostly stock resto stuff over there,or the FTE Ford truck enthusiast fourms they have a specific section for the 40-50s trucks lots of good guys over there.I don't care where you put it but you will get a lot of info over there,I'm on all of them because I have hotrods but my 50 F1 is a stocker.
Ok, well here goes. This 1948 F4 actually belongs to a friend of mine and I've been working to restore it for him. The truck came from Iowa, I believe, and from what I was told, it was an Anheuser Bush truck. The original color of the truck is red as can be seen in the following two pictures. The truck was pretty rusted in the usual places on the fenders, cab corners and floor board. My friend took it to another guy to restore it and he took it apart, and stripped the sheet metal and then it sat. So the truck was taken to yet another guy and he installed a 302/AOD and a power steering box and it sat some more. Unfortunately, the guy got evicted and many of the parts were lost. Take that back, most of the parts were lost. That's when I offered to restore it for him and this is what it looked like when I got it. Some body did rig it up to run before I got it as evidence by the gas can sitting in the interior, but for the most part it was in sad shape. Looking at the rear frame horns you can see where someone torched off something. I'm not really sure what was on the back but in the process of removing it, they hacked off several inches of frame rail. Anyway, this is where I started.
I love these trucks! I'm wondering what your friend is looking for? A true restoration is nice but the original engine and transmission are missing. Read through some of the posts here, on the Ford Truck Enthusiast site and the Ford Barn site. If your friend just wants a truck to drive then the existing 302 and automatic transmission should be fine. One of the drawbacks of reusing the original rear end is that it will be "geared wrong" for the 302 & AOD. The engine will need to spin at high revolutions to attain highway speeds. Then you might want to consider braking. The original drum brakes might be okay but after driving it for a while you might wish to modernize with front end disc brakes. There are disc brake kits available for the F-1 sized trucks but if you want to keep the big F-4 wheels you've got some fabricating to do. Good luck!
My friend owns pest control business so the truck will probably be somewhat of a marketing tool and driven around town. I agree the gearing will be way to "low" in the rear end for comfortable highway speeds. I've thought about the brakes as well. Supposedly someone has worked on them, but I'm gonna go through them anyway to make sure they are safe. As for discs on the front, there's a broken down RV near my house with discs and I've always wondered what it would take to adapt them to the spindles of the F4. The lugs are probably different though.
Some of the first pics will probably be a bit boring but the truck was missing pretty much everything so first order of business was to get a gas tank. The owner and I debated about putting saddle tanks on the truck but we ended up just going with the stock style tank. The I started running the fuel line and mounted an electric fuel pump with prefilter to the frame rail. The next thing I wanted to make better was the radiator. I'm not sure where the radiator that was on the truck came from but it was rough and the position of the lower outlet crimped the lower radiator hose. I debated on which side of the radiator to position the lower output and ended up deciding to place it on the passenger side to give more clearance for the lower hose. The radiator I ended getting was a factory inline 6 radiator. Now I needed to figure out how to route the lower radiator hose. Ford made several styles of water pumps for the old windsor motors so I decided to try an early Mustang water pump as the inlet was on the passenger side. I ordered the pump, mounted it up but when I went to install the crank and water pump pulleys they hit each other. The Mustang water pump snout was lower and the pulley wouldn't even go on because it was hitting the crank pulley. So, I ended up going back with driver side inlet water pump. This means I'll have to cross under the the crank pulley to route the lower radiator hose. Probably not the best alternative, but does provide more room to route it. The new radiator is on the left.
The owner wanted A/C in the truck so I contacted Classic Auto Air and purchased one of their kits. Because I wasn't using one of their compressors and bought the kit "open ended", meaning the hoses running between the compressor, condenser, dryer and evaporator were not terminated. I modified the kit some what by mounting the dryer in the fender well as there was no room for it in the engine compartment. The local AC shop was great and they crimped all of the hoses once I determined the length and "clocked" them with their fitting.
The radiator I used didn't have provisions for a transmission cooler so I had to figure out how to mount one. I ended up making a bracket to mount the trans cooler and electric fan controller in front of both the A/C condenser and radiator. I think it worked out nice.
Very nice truck !! And great job on it... Keep us in pics and updates please....can't wait to see it when complete. Cheers..........
Thank you for the positive comments guys. This is the first vehicle I've attempted to restore so I'm learning a lot and making some rookie mistakes along the way but I'm having a lot of fun working on it.
To operate the AOD, I ended up getting one of Lokar's Midnight series shifters, gear indicator shifter boot, and kickdown cables. To operate everything I changed out the Ford gear selector on the transmission for the Lokar gear selector. Since the Lokar unit is adjustable I thought it might make it easier to get the shifter adjusted. Everything worked out good and I've been really impressed with the quality of the Lokar pieces.
Looking good. I like the way you put the Air Con hoses outside of the engine bay and under the front fenders / guards. In mine I hid all the Air Con behind the cab under the chassis and the transmission coolers went into the chassis rails. The new fuel tank looks good, I took mine out and got some more leg room in the cab. It is interesting to see new ideas so I hope you add more photos soon.
Thanks HOTFR8. I agree with you in regards to seeing new ideas based on how other people build their vehicles. I've definitely learned a lot on HAMB. As for more room in the cab, yeah, it's amazing how small the cab is. I'll get some pics up this week. I meant to add some this weekend but time just slipped away.
..you could have just mounted your trans cooler on the inside of the framersail next to the trans, easier and keeps the heat away from your radiator, specially runnin air cond....they will cool just fine on the framerail long as they are in an air flow area. Neat truck, I wanna see it when it's done.
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