A little light entertainment: 1939 Ford 1 ton Utility restoration

[jack neville]

The inner guards are welded to the outside floor strips but these had been separated to assist in straightening the worn and damaged strips some time ago. There was a bit of rust damage to repair and then they were reassembled. The condition of the inner guards was very dented but I have had a couple of goes at straightening them. They have stretched as well so they are not going to be perfect but I will do a bit more work on them once they are firmly fitted to the body and more workable.

[jack neville]

The metal floor strips are screwed to the timber cross members so the cross members needed to be fixed into position. Special large headed bolts go through the two floor strips above the chassis rails and secure all the cross members. Once the four centre floor strips were secured this gave me a solid anchor to assist in aligning the strips attached to the inner guard. They were as straight as I could get them but they needed a bit of persuasion with wooden blocks and clamps.

[jack neville]

With the floor secured and the side panels mostly attached I was able to turn my attention to the rear most cross member which fixes the rear corners but is not supported by the chassis. As this piece is missing on all my utes I have no real idea how it is formed. There is evidence that the bottom of the rear inner corner panels screw to the timber but the holes are small and it does not look strong enough to properly support the corners. I decided to just make it strong enough. I put a 28mm thick piece of timber each side of the corner piece and inserted four 10mm bolts through the lot. The rear section was squared up and clamped in position first so I got the rear tailgate opening nice and square. The ends of the floor strips were then screwed to this timber. Once this was done I nailed the inners corner panel to the corner timber pieces. The back feels very strong and solid.

[jack neville]

The inner guards attach to the side panels with several solid rivets but I have just bolted them together for now.

Next is to make a new rear sill panel. I don't have anything other than some poor photos and some rough measurements I took from another vehicle years ago. There is a recess for a number plate in the panel and it follows the same curve at the bottom of the rear side panels.

I therefore had to cut a section out of my rear timber work to accommodate the recess.

[jack neville]

I had to make some curved pieces on my timber former to match the rear side corners and weld together some folded sections for the number plate recess and top sill. A lot of trial and fit, welding and grinding.

[jack neville]

Fits in place quite well. I will get it sandblasted and then tidy it up with a bit of filler before it gets welded to the floor strips and the side corners.

Then it is on to making these rear outside corner panels.

[jack neville]

A wartime photo of a well equipped Ford roadster ute.