Cab 12 Alteration???

[r.morrison]

Rob....my cardiologist told me the exact same thing....and that was for driving a classic 1994 Ford F150 pick up! David's comments are spot on. We'll "carry on...carrying on"! Robert

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Robert

Went out and took some pictures from two cab 12 ....one modified one pristine(big word considering the rust). My apologies if some are fuzzy I did a quick job using my phone instead of the my better Sony.

First the wheel..... I have seen numerous mod jobs some better than others some with CMP 20 in.rims others with Budd wheel 20 in.rims.

The best is using the inner half of the 16 in. rim welded to the 20 in rim. Seems they cut out the center of the front face of the 20 in. rim and weld in the 16 in rim using the rim mounting bolts as a form of alignment..... and apparently they were driven like that on the road.

I have attached a picture of a better job.

Now for the floor modification.

Will need to attach in two series as there are more than five.

I have tried to included right on the pictures as much explanations as possible.....if it is not clear please comeback with questions.

They really did a good job ofo getting the inner fender bulge out of the way and from what I can observed....unless the truck was driven on very rough ground doing a hard right turn.... the 20 inch tire does not appear to rub.
None of the pedal were relocated...in particular the gas pedal. From my experience unless you intend to use a modern throttle cable sued on hot rods there is no room to modify the linkage for the gas pedal.

They cut along the famous angle iron arches and only flattened the side peice of the toe board. I would gamble to say that given a spare inner fender I could reverse the process. They used stiff 1/8 plates fro the floor and the side vertical wall of the box.

All in all not a bad conversion. Why the h*** did the designer not think of that or the modification carried into the Service Bulletin?????

The next posting will focus on the truck with out the modifications and how they would cut.

Enjoy.

Bob C

[Bob Carriere]

These pictures are of the unmodified cab 12 and where it would be done.

Again if anything is unclear ask away.

PS..... last picture in wrong order.... it shows the finished inside of the mods.


Now Robert......are you going to torch it....or endure the pain like a trouper????

Alex...... what do you think??? will you endure or are you blessed with a healthy small frame and small feet???

Bob C.

PS to the PS....... this unmodified cab 12 has the dot and dash floor plates.


Cheers

[chris vickery]

I'm a pretty large lad myself and like you guys decided to restore a 12cab Ford CMP as my first truck. My helper, my father, also a bigger fella.
Here is what I did;
-reduced the seat cushion to maximize room
-eliminated the wooden spacers under the seat mounts
-tried to drive wearing work boots, a no go.
-switched to running shoes
-drove barefoot but not for long as the engine heat cooked my little piggies
-finally figured a way to clutch as little as possible while utilizing the right toes and heel combo to facilitate fuel delivery and braking capabilities as needed.
In other words, if I had no arms I'd be great at painting with my feet... Practice and more practice.

[r.morrison]

Well, some great points put forth here (with the exception of Mr Love's !). David's alteration has some great points and so does Bob's in as much as cutting out the bulbous part of the fender and creating a flat surface. And Chris's going through the motions of foot size etc. I sold my ballet slippers years ago! And I am squeamish about the cutting of the original fender. I wish I had a spare to sacrifice. I'm probably just going to sit in the cab, taking in all this info and put a plan together. I also realised why Phil has removed the roof on his unit. Sure makes it a hell of a lot easier getting in and out and I think it looks cool! Thanks again for your input gents. Robert

[rob love]

Originally Posted by r.morrison

Well, some great points put forth here (with the exception of Mr Love's !)

... ...

[Alex van de Wetering]

Alex...... what do you think??? will you endure or are you blessed with a healthy small frame and small feet???

I have a desk job and also do scale modelling......so, my frame is not as small as it should be. No small feet either.

To be honest, I haven't looked at the pedals yet. As always I intend to keep eveything stock and original, so I can only hope a pair of all-Stars will solve any issues.

I did see one or two cab 11/12 Chevrolets that had some extra room created for the left foot, by bending the engine cover a bit towards the engine and filling the triangular gap (about an inch at max I think) with some sheet metal. That is a small mod that is hard to spot and gives extra clearance for your left foot.

Bob, that modification to the inner fender is quite interesting. I think it's a clever idea, even though I think it could be done a bit more stylish. I would look at bending the whole inner fender and also the frontmost inner fender piece outward (with the inspection panel for the steering box). This should give a cleaner result, even though I am not sure if it would clear the wheel. Than again....clearance between the inner fender and wheel is also linked to tyre size used....and if you have a 4x2 or 4x4 truck. You could even limit the maximum steering angle by adding a stop to the front axle.

But, why did the previous owner of that truck go to all the trouble of adding extra room for the feet and still retain the original pedal setup? Why didn't he convert to a more conventional pedal setup.....maybe by using cab 13 parts and moving the gas pedal to the right in the newly created space???

Another idea....what about hand controls?

Alex