Ford P/U - Project

[James Y]

Brought the truck in and started disassembly, removed the cab and front end, down to bare frame, replaced a couple of the cross members. A great thing about these 40 trucks is the amount of parts that are avaliable, virtually every part original or reproduction can still be had. Makes a restoration relatively straight forward.

Warning!! Purists look away!

I also want the truck to be easily driven on a daily basis, part of the appeal of these trucks is the Hot Rod community that is very inventive, I am putting a Borg and Warner 5 speed T5 transmission behind the flathead.

The HAMB forum, has a lot of information and really unique enginnnering solutions.

Link to https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showt...T5+TORQUE+TUBE

I wanted to keep the Banjo rear end and torque tube so I have been following the build out on the HAMB, hopefully the link works.

[Paul Singleton]

A friend of mine built a hot rod a couple of years ago and used a 1946 Ford rear axle with an automatic transmission. He bought a kit to convert the banjo rear axle to an open driveshaft. I think the kit came from Speedway Automotive. This may be an option for you also.

[James Y]

Thx Paul, I wanted to keep the torque tube configuration.

I was able to pick-up a built flathead motor from a fellow in Quebec and was able to arrange shipping from Quebec to Alberta. He packed it very carefully and it arrived unscathed. I was more than happy with the motor, it should be be a real intresting combination.

[James Y]

I followed the directions on the HAMB link adapting a T5 to the torque tube, it was a lot of work finding the 2 transmissions first, then I had to find a new transmission case as the one I was planning to use was damaged. I did find a NOS case on Ebay that worked. It was my first time taking on a manual transmission rebuild but crossing my fingers I put all the pieces in correctly.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by James Y

I followed the directions on the HAMB link adapting a T5 to the torque tube,...

James, do you have a link to that thread, please?

[James Y]

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showt...T5+TORQUE+TUBE

This should work

James

[Tony Smith]

Thanks, James!

[James Y]

I am going to update this thread. Progress has been made. 2020 was a year of working on the frame, fitting the motor, trans and torque tube.

[James Y]

Started the cab, mounting to the frame and rust repair. A new floor was installed getting rid of all the rusted metal. Repair of the bulkhead, lots of welding and grinding.

[James Y]

More pictures

[James Y]

More progress pics

[Wayne Hingley]

Great progress James. That frame looks like it belongs in a race car. Did you get the floor from another truck?

[James Y]

The frame is all stock Ford, old Henry must have had some good engineers onboard to determine the holes in the frame. When you really think that’s these frames are 80 plus years old now and still relatively not out of touch with current truck frames the engineering has passed the test of time. The aftermarket supply for these 40 fords is amazing, some of the reproduction parts are dead on, the floor came from George Moir out at Stony Plain, you will be familiar with him. He had a complete floor the toe boards came from another cab that i picked up, the cab corners were hard to get but a guy in Montreal made reproductions, I had to fabricated the inner cab corners myself and the donor cab gave up specific pieces for repair.

[James Y]

The attachment support brackets for the hood hinges were all bent up on the original hood, from the donor cab I separated the support brackets that were in excellent shape and transferred over to the hood restoring the proper geometry for the hood hinges,

[James Y]

Put the cab back on the frame and mounted the front sheet metal, lining up all the fenders on these trucks is a pain. The front fenders float on a yoke at the front and all parts need to line up loosely and then tightened.

[James Y]

Added the 800wt, box and tool boxes and running boards.

[Ron Pier]

Must be nearly ready for paint Jim? Ron

[James Y]

Still figuring out the paint, I would like to leave the original rusted look, just trying to figure out ho to deal with all the new metal.

Now down on the ground, my cheapo rear fenders need major work, sliced them apart and added 5” so the fenders will match the running board width.

[James Y]

Fenders mounted, need to shorten the rear of the fender to match the frame.

[James Y]

Made the frame to hold the tool boxes, probably overkill, but did not want any bending with the weight of the boxes bouncing down the road. Filler panels under the box are made. More welding and grinding are on the agenda.

[James Y]

More progress.
Built the fender for the passenger side, this is also the side that holds the spare tire.

With the T5 transmission the stock cover was too shallow, with a lot of grinding and welding I raised it up 1”. Still need to figure a nice way to do the transition at the back of the cover to the floor.