New project vehicle - 1951 Ford F1 pickup

[Daox]

Sometime next week I'll be having a 1951 Ford F1 towed to the house. My wife has always wanted a cool old truck and a friend of mine found this one (he owns ~5 old fords in multiple phases of restoration). The body and frame are in great shape for having sat in a field for so long. It also comes from a time when trucks were used as trucks, not an urban luxury vehicles. Novel idea eh? The plan is to restore it to like original condition. It'll be used on rare occasion to haul lumber or what have you from the home improvement store, and maybe take it to a show if I feel so inclined.

I'm totally new to restoring old cars. I've done plenty of mechanical work on modern vehicles. Body work is going to be the biggest area for me to learn I'm sure. Any websites anyone can recommend, or info or a list of tools to start out would be helpful.

Here are some pics:

[MetroMPG]

Two words: "classic aeroshell".

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Favourite picture (digging the juxtaposition of vehicles):

[MetroMPG]

Truth is, I'm envious. I'd love a 40's/early 50's pickup to convert to electric.

Though I'd leave the truck's "patina" - I dig that look.

[Daox]

lol classic aeroshell. That'd be interesting. Truth is this truck will rarely enough see the road let alone high speeds. No ecomodding will be done, just restoration.

Still looking for any info on body work. Would love to find some good info online if anyone knows of any good sites.

[MetroMPG]

Save yourself the trouble and clear-coat the surface rust! Looks neat.

[Old Mechanic]

Flathead V8 or 6 cyl?

I have done a couple of restorations. Started out doing bodywork in April 1969, when that truck was a baby relatively speaking.

I would have the metal media blasted my self, get the rust off as well as layers of paint and bondo. If you don't want to spend that money then get one of those scotch abrasive wheels that goes on a drill. I have a Bosch 5 amp drill that has been running for the last 10 years and is still going strong.

Assuming the metal is not swiss cheese, you can work it very easily without much experience since there are not many really flat spots and the gentle curves cover imperfections easily.

I took a 49 Plymouth businessman's coupe (1 seat) and sectioned and channeled it and put it on an 83 Nissan truck frame with a 73 240 Z engine. It weighed 2300 pounds when I was finished 800 pounds less than stock.

Sorry for the poor picture quality, it was photoed over 10 years ago then printed. This is a photo of the old fuzzy print. You can see that back of my 37 Ford 5 window coupe in the back ground. It ended up as long as an old VW and as tall as a 97 Nissan Altima. The whole floor was made from scratch.

For the younger crowd, sectioned means I cut the rear end off and removed 9 inches from the doors back then welded it back together.

Channeled means the body was lowered on the frame, about 8 inches. The original body was in pretty rough shape so there was not really much good metal where the body was lowered. The original rocker panels were about 2 inches off the ground when it was first set on the frame.

Both cars, 37 Ford and 49 Plymouth, are long gone.

regards
Mech

[Frank Lee]

Just put some new glass in and give it a heart transplant; the rest can't be improved on!

[Daox]

Its got the flathead in it. The body is in great shape dent wise. There are only one or two rusted through areas. Most of the rust is just surface rust.

[jakobnev]

Aren't you tempted at all to keep the looks and go with wood gas or steam?

[Old Mechanic]

Originally Posted by Daox

Its got the flathead in it. The body is in great shape dent wise. There are only one or two rusted through areas. Most of the rust is just surface rust.

LOL, both engines were flatheads.

Measure your restoration hours in the thousands, if you are going for a nice job. Most people loose interest long before they anywhere near completion.

I waited until I retired amd could devote most of my remaining energy to the job and even then I never completely finsihed it, but that was after working on cars for 30 years full time.

I tell you what would be neat. Build it up with a Cummins 4BT diesel engine.

regards
Mech