Projects A Farm Truck Comes to the City—’29 Pickup Build

The two most dangerous things a car guy can possess are a trailer and a friend with a knack for sniffing out deals.

With my speedster out of the weeds and more or less done, I recently began thinking about taking on a new challenge. My somewhat nebulous vision was a practical alternative to the highly-specialize speedster, maybe a truck or 2-door wagon.

This is where knowing a guy like @Hitchhiker pays off (although my wife might term it differently ). He’d found a solid ’29 Ford pickup on the Washington peninsula; normally he would snap it up, but he was flat out of storage space. Was I interested? My brother and I headed out with the trailer and came home with this, fresh off the farm:




Two things drew me to this truck. First, the cab and bed are surprisingly rust-free. There’s a little rot in the lower driver’s door and front bed panel, but that’s it. Granted, some of the hinge areas have brutal old farm fixes, but I’ll take that over the usual destroyed subfloor and patch-panels-all-around. Second, it’s small. My world is crammed into a small city lot. With my enclosed garage dedicated to speedster and workshop, most of the work on this project will happen in a narrow carport.

Actually, a third thing drew me in: I think it looks damn cool. I’m a sucker for the unusual, and to my eye these early pickups have a neat transitional vibe to them. Sort of half Model T, half Model A. I love it.

The plan? Like I said, a knockabout hotrod truck, ying to the speedster’s yang. I’ll give it the usual period treatment: nice stance, updated brakes, ’39 trans and hop-up the original banger. I already have a lot of the needed parts as duplicates from the speedster build. For much of the rest I’ll call in some favors from Hitchhiker, who is currently beating the crap out of my oh-so-dangerous trailer as he moves into his new shop.

Once again, I’ll document the journey here. As anybody who followed my other thread knows, this won’t be the place to come for dazzling metal work and row-of-dimes welding. But it promises to have plenty of creative problem-solving from a DIY amateur who isn’t afraid to educate himself in public.

 

Good score, solid doors have been hard to find for well over the 20 years I have been buying them. I have a cab stashed away here as well

 

Thanks Tman. That's what I've heard, too. These doors are solid, latches and regulators work smoothly. But the hinge areas have suffered from clumsy repairs over the years. I'll post more on that soon.

 

Good save there ! I actually also have a well built old sprint car single axel trailer that's hauled a lot - just not heavy stuff.

 

EXCELLENT! I had an early '28 AA with wire wheels and full fenders, that I sometimes regret selling. The pickup will be a fun project, look forward to the build. Bob

 

Looking forward to follow your progress on this.
Amazing that cars like this are still being found.

 

Sweet, you can know for sure that that truck was tucked inside a building for a lot of years if it was on the Peninsula. Anything that sits out side in that area grows a coat of moss and worse real quick.

 

28-29 pickups are cool!

 

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone!

Right there with you! This little trailer has been great to me. Perfect for navigating narrow side streets. Between hauling Model As and bringing stuff to swap meets, I've more than gotten my money out of it.

Thanks Bob. Early in my search I actually eyeballed an AA in Oregon, but it was just too big. This pickup is perfect.

I'm sure it's quite different than Sweden. Only visited once and loved it; was supposed to go again last year until the pandemic put an end to travel. Love that pheaton project of yours, by the way.

You can say that again! On top of that, if near the coast, they've suffered years of beach driving. A couple years ago I was one of the first guys into a swap meet, spotted a '62 Chev PU with prominant $800 price tag. And I could see it was running, exhause coming out the pipe! Rushed over thinking I'd struck gold, but when I got there, found a mass of rust with a cab roof attached. It was out of Ocean Shores.

Couldn't agree more!

 

I'm the friend your parents warned you about as I'm a "bad influence"

 

Love it. Would make a sweet banger...i want it.

 

Nice truck


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

My own personal Eddie Haskell...

 

I like pickmeups and these are top of my list along with the '40........have fun!

 

Very cool truck Clark

 

Does that make you Wally or Beaver?

 

These days? Lumpy

 

Don't know if you take Rodding USA or not but they recently featured a 29 PU built by Jack Linden from Prescott AZ. that sets the standard for a bitchin 29 PU. Yours looks like a great start.

 

very nice - im rite there with you mines ready for road - just waiting for the NM mvd to give me a title
good luck with yours - will follow

 

Good save, that will be a nice little hauler!

 

A lot of ways to go, these trucks are slick looking as a rod or as a roadster like Al Andregg's

 

That sounds like a children's book. Farm truck comes to the city. You should write that....

 

Nice truck! Congrats.

 

I absolutely love those Model A trucks.

One of the nicest ones I’ve ever seen is this one owned by Johnny Martinez.

 

Thanks! I’ve seen your thread, intriguing roof, no leaks to worry about. Good luck on your title quest, I’ve done it successfully a few times. My truck has an interesting title saga, which I will tell shortly.

Yeah, the thread title is a riff on my other build, A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds. The funny thing about your comment is my wife actually writes and illustrates children’s books. My writing is aimed at a more mature audience; whole lotta F-bombs.

Sorry about your buddy, and I understand—a guy needs dreams, especially in recovery. All that stock and only one door. I had no idea of their scarcity before I bought the truck. Reproductions are like $1700+ each when you factor tax and shipping. Not in my budget.

Great video, thanks for sharing. Best line: “I shortly realized just how expensive it was going to be to do one of these.” Yup.

 

If this hot rod building thing does not work out for you, fall back on the creative writing you got going on in the intro of this new project. Keep the updates coming.

 

Super cool truck Clark, glad you rescued it! That thing is going to be perfect for swap meets.

 

no leaks to worry about from the roof the biggest hole is the missing drivers side window its agood thing it doesnt rain much here in NM - if i spend another nickle on this truck my wife is gunna shot me - better go hide the shot gun ive got under the bed to a better place

 

OK, let’s get this thing started. Here’s the truck, tucked away in my carport enjoying a rare bit of sunshine.


First order of business was to blow everything up. Remove the body, pull the running gear, and dismantle the chassis for sand blasting. @Hitchhiker came by to help me remove the cab. We picked a nice rainy day to do it because, well, it’s Seattle.





Had to dismantle a work bench to make room in the garage; used the material to build the cart.




Rolled the cab inside for winter. Now my speedster has a garage buddy, and I can work on it in a heated space.



Right after I took this picture, the rain turned to snow. Commentary from Mother Nature?

Next up: Doors get ready for their close-up

 

It was a typical northwest rain mostly coming straight down and only some slightly from the side.