A little light entertainment: 1939 Ford 1 ton Utility restoration

[jack neville]

Back panel finally installed and welded up.

[jack neville]

One of the weaknesses of these cabs is the square shape of the rear section. No doubt years of neglect in the open air weakens the timber and screws but the design itself is flawed. There is no strength in the B pillar so every time you shut the door you are weakening the rear section. I have seen some interesting re-enforcing and bracing of these cabs but I designed mine to be a little more discreet. On top of the rear panel is a timber strip for fixing the canvas canopy to (tacked on). I welded up a 30mm x 5mm steel strip to place under the wood and made my timber strip 5mm thinner. This strengthens the corners without being obvious. A wipe of mastic helps hide the steel. Once painted and with canvas in place it is not apparent.

[jack neville]

Las tthing to do on the cab is to put some filler to cover the rust repairs on the side panels. While the filler was drying I worked on the bonnet. I had three bonnets, none of which were perfect. One had a good main panel but the under side bracing was rusted out. The other had good bracing and badly dented main panel. The last was really rusted but it had the only good catch. So like the two cabs making one good one, it took three bonnets to get one. Strip and sandblasted it was just a matter of welding back the bracing. The bracing comes in three pieces just to make life difficult