Projects 1949 M47 pickup. Basement barn find!

Im not giving up hope just yet but the guy I bought it from one of the first things he said was that it was missing the tailgate. But for the price I paid....it doesn't matter

 

Is the Mercury grille to the left yours or a second one? You'll want to scoop it up if you can.

 

Looks like the box still has the steel floor. If you have no plans for it, perhaps you want nice exposed wood, do not scrap it. You could probably peddle it on Ford Truck Enthusiasts, unless the tin worm has munched on it.

 

The steel floor looks to be in pretty decent shape. Some rot in the front drivers side corner and rear passenger side, but nothing irreparable.
I do plan on being able to haul a motorcycle in the back once it's on the road so I was actually thinking of going to the wood floor instead of the steel floor though I have no idea which is gonna be stronger and more appropriate for that. But that's all a ways down the road

 

All of that in the pic is up for sale. The extra Merc grill, the rad support, and the headlight flashing is all worth the asking price. The hood, section that says ford and ford grill will be put back on the market. Likely as "art", but I won't ruin the parts so anyone looking for the parts can still use them. I'll just put the grill and the ford section on some flat bar making it easy to mount and then just put the hood up as is but cleaned off, and keep all the parts I can use on my truck.

I live right in the city so stuff like this is harder to come by, driving out an hour outside of the city to pick it all up on Monday...soonest I can get there with holidays and borrowing a truck to put the hood in the back.

 

I had a ‘48 F1 at one time, as I recall the SS on the grill bars slid over metal, like the SS was decorative?

 

On the Merc there's a vertical support on each side that the grill bars mount to. The grill is all.one piece, though I have not looked at it in more detail than a cursory look while moving it basement to my garage.

Once all the pieces are in one place I'm going to lay everything out in its approximate location so I can finally take a good stock of what I have and what I am missing!

 

Didn’t this start off as a 47, then a 48 and now a 49? Hence my first comments about my ‘42 and wanting a Mercury front for it

 

Yeah sorry. Originally got it i was told it was a 46 or 47.
Then someone told me, it's got one windshield wiper so it's a 48.
Verified with the vin and it's a 49.

This is all very fresh and I'm posting as I'm discovering new stuff!!!

 

Where are you located? I might be interested in the hood. Ron

 

I'm up in Montreal!

Edit: just updated my info to say as much also!

 

Thanks, but a little too far for me. Was up that way in August 2019, but no plans to be back there any time soon. Ron

 

Okay, thanks for confirming I’m not ready for the looney bin yet

 

An update for today!!!
My son and I moved a bunch of scrap wood and steel out of the way and we mounted the front axle and suspension to the frame. Then we put the hubs on that were in a box deep under junk. Put the wheels on and everything is good!
Tuesday morning I'll be rolling this thing out of the basement and it will see light for the first time since the early 70's. We will load it all on to trailers and take it to the garage I'm renting and I can finally have everything in one place to start working on it!

Here's a dark picture but the truck frame is sitting on its own two wheels!

 

I'm busy over here.
Went today to pick up those parts off that ford front end I posted earlier and the guy had just recently rebuilt a '49 m68. He had it parked outside when I pulled up and he let me take a look and started it right up for me (it's -10 outside right now!). Very cool to see the 3/4 ton version of my truck. While he was walking me to the parts I was buying he said he had some extra parts from his build and lo and behold he has the radiator fan and flywheel I was missing!!! He gave me a helluva deal on everything and I'm walking away more than happy.
So far I've been incredibly lucky...I discover a piece I'm missing, start looking and it turns up pretty quickly close by!

Here's pics of his truck and the parts I bought for good measure.

 

Been a while since I dealt with an 8ba flywheel but yours looks like its drilled for both an 11 inch and 10 inch clutch.

 

I do think that is the case!
I'm going to measure it exactly once I get it into the garage to be sure. But for the price I can have it drilled for whatever I need if necessary!

 

I have a question about the engine which is basically a Ford truck but labelled as a Mercury for Canadian trucks. What is the possibility of a 4" crank being in those trucks? Or is it just a plain old Ford engine.

 

According to this the mercury engines had the 4" stroke.
http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_specs-90to125late.htm

 

Yeah but....I think that refers to cars, not trucks. But keep your fingers crossed! What do the heads say? of course those can be changed but ya never know.

Dave

I see the blue engine says 8BA Made in Canada. Me thinks plain ole 239 Ford.

 

Yeah I have no idea how I can tell aside from pulling the motor apart.

 

Another picture dump of moving the truck out of the basement.
I'll be resting up for a bit and then I'll be jumping in to the deep end with this thing.

 

Welcome to the Hamb Tony...

Good on you fellas that was a helluva adventure and great finale to a most interesting find...yeah a good sleep is well deserved...

Here's something for build inspiration I saw the other day in a restoration Thread on the Drag Roadster...not exactly sure which direction your going, it's early in the game so to speak...The Pickup was a Tow vehicle for Ole #276 and albeit not a Mercury it really has the look...just my opinion of course...



https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/iron-brogan-b-mr-restoration.866485/

Credit to Photographer, Owner
​

 

That stance on that truck is meeeaaannnnn

 

Yeah its a mix of Custom/Hotrod to me, pretty heavy on the chop but I wouldn't go any more than that or it would look crushed...I'm sure there are a few Threads on these Ford/Mercury pickups with plenty of Ideas for future directions...I suspect that is the mid fifties...

 

I'm going to build this up stock. Roll it, work out quirks.....then I can start thinking about chopping. The roof really is begging to be chopped a bit, but also....I'm a pretty practical kinda guy and I have the feeling this is going to be a long time truck so don't wanna do anything toooo drastic to it any time soon.

 

Now you did it. Went and got snow all over it after it has been in that basement and protected for all of those years. Do you not have any sense of what has been preserved?















Great that you got it out and yes, you deserve a rest after all of that work. Just joking with you above but couldn't you have picked a better weather day?

 

You Did It!

 

It was supposed to be 0 and sunny!
It was -4 and snowing for exactly the three hours we spent moving it. Literally, we finished moving clouds cleared and the sun came out!!
I was actually kinda peeved at all the snow.
Gonna brush off what I can and run a heater and hopefully not create ice slicks everywhere!!!! The garage isn't heated otherwise.

 

I know you’re not firing the engine soon, but that fan hub is like the one I had as well. I had laid mine “fan down” and came back to a puddle of oil. I went to a friend that knows about FHs to see where (I assumed) to get a new seal for it. I can’t recall all the details, but he told me it wasn’t a deal problem, I’m pretty sure there’s an open hole in it and he put a few ounces of oil in it after drawing it out. Anyways, noticing the oil on you hub, I thought I’d mention it so you’d look into it before using it. Again, it’s been a good 15+ years, so my memory is a bit sketchy about it.