1952 F-6 Build

[Dirtyrat]

Looking good Torchie. I wonder if you could blend the two hoods? Truck hood at the cowl, blended out to what you have there. Might make matching the cowl area easier.

What about cutting the F hood, and attaching the back portion to the cowl as like a filler, and then blending the rear of the new hood to that? That would allow you the ability to cut the F hood however you needed to match the rear line of the new hood.

BTW, I love this build, wish I would have thought of it, I really like this front end on the F.

 

[Torchie]

What about cutting the F hood, and attaching the back portion to the cowl as like a filler, and then blending the rear of the new hood to that? That would allow you the ability to cut the F hood however you needed to match the rear line of the new hood.

BTW, I love this build, wish I would have thought of it, I really like this front end on the F.

That's more or less the plan at this point. Just got to make sure that I have the fenders in the right place before I go to cutting on the hoods
I like the look of them lower but wheel clearence becomes a big issue. I would end up having to really open up the wheel well.
The last pic I posted showed the fenders almost in the stock position. Since then I have remounted the brackets in the stock position and am awaitng some help in getting the clip back on.
With the fenders in the stock position I should have only a small amount of cowl/hood work to do.
Sometimes I lose sight of my original vision which is a traditional style custom. Not one with bags that lays frame.
(Not that there's anything wrong with that style)
Torchie.

 

[Torchie]

With the help of my favorite helper(oldest daughter) we put the front clip back on the frame.
Pic 1 Show it at stock 41 mounting position .Plenty of wheel clearence.

Pic 2 Shows a stock 41 to compare wheel clearence with. It looks like I have more. Could be tire size ect...

Pic 3 Shows the proper hood/fender fitment. The plan is to have them fit like this when all is done This pic also points to the fact the there is a 1 inch height difference between the cowl and the hood. The hood being higher. I believe the the cab tilts slightly downward so I will shim up the front. And given the amount of wheel clearence that I have I should also be able to lower the entire clip as well.

Pic 4 . Shows where the back of the fender ends up. Cab will need to be slid back to accomodate this.
Thanks for all your patience with me on this. Just my "quest for the best" getting the better of me.
Torchie.

 

[Torchie]

What about cutting the F hood, and attaching the back portion to the cowl as like a filler, and then blending the rear of the new hood to that? That would allow you the ability to cut the F hood however you needed to match the rear line of the new hood.

BTW, I love this build, wish I would have thought of it, I really like this front end on the F.

Well DR I can't really take credit for it either.
Here are 2 pics of the inspiration for my build.
First one is of the Chuck Porter 49 F-1. Built in 1955.Chopped,channeled and sectioned. Found by his daughter and fully restord to original show condition in 2012.
The 2nd one is probably the biggest inspiration to my build.
Jack Rushton's 41 Ford custom Pickup.
41 Ford pickup cab chopped 3 and 1/2 inches and fitted with 41 Ford car front clip. 1948 F series box and rear fenders
So mine is kind of a combination of both of them. F series cab with 41 car front clip. Chopped 4 inches and channeled, but no section. F series box and rear fenders.
The cool thing is that both still exsist. The Porter truck in it's original configuration and the Rushton truck with some changes.
Timeless beauties both....
Torchie.

 

[gold03]

I like Porter's truck because it was built in 55. A rare custom truck from in the day. Thank goodness his daughter found and repainted it because somebody painted the most garish flame job ever done on it. I always thought it would have looked better with horizontal grill bars, but that's just me.

It did get busted up a bit unfortunately when it ran into a Volvo.

http://www.customclassictrucks.com/techarticles/0707ct_1949_f1_tech/

 

[Torchie]

I like Porter's truck because it was built in 55. A rare custom truck from in the day. Thank goodness his daughter found and repainted it because somebody painted the most garish flame job ever done on it. I always thought it would have looked better with horizontal grill bars, but that's just me.

It did get busted up a bit unfortunately when it ran into a Volvo.

http://www.customclassictrucks.com/techarticles/0707ct_1949_f1_tech/

Yeah gold . It's interesting to see the progression of these old survivor rods and customs. Every new owner wants to add their touch to them which can make for some interesting things
Great articles about both trucks on the Kustomrama site. The Porter truck did get damaged but it is all fixed and restored back to it's 1955 look's. You take these 2 tucks and add the Rod and Custom dream truck and you have my short list of favorite custom trucks. Although there were more done back in the day than people realize.
My goal for my build(If I had one.Other than getting it done) eould to have some one think that it was built "back in the day".
I will leave you with a couple of Dream truck pics.
Torchie.

 

[clamor]

hood customizationification

I really like the look of the front of the F series hood on top of the car fenders here.

What if you gave the truck hood sort of a mullet scalping (to keep the back, top and most of the front) and then took the portions of the car hood that lined up with the fenders all the way around?

Looks like you'd probably have to take some width out of the truck hood, too. But it'd be pretty cool to bring that truck look into the front end a little.

Thx for the great writeup, Torchie.
It's been a blast getting caught up with it over the last few days (darn work getting in the way of my web-ricating).
-Chaz

 

[Torchie]

It snowed here all day again. And of course since it snowed I had 4 calls about the wooden boat that I have had for sale for over a month [S All of the calls were from out of state including one from Alabama. That's a long way to tow a boat.
Anyway....
Moved the front clip mount down about an inch.Still have good wheel clearence. Pulled the cab back about an inch and a half for hinge clearence.
Lifted the front of the cab an inch and the back a quarter inch or so and this is what I came up with.
Looks like it fits [cl[cl[cl[cl[cl
Hood alignment is good. Wheel clearence is good(I could even drop it a little more).
Starting to look like what I had in mind. Hood still needs to be brought in to the cowl sides and If neccesary I could go with a lift off hood and some hidden fasteners to fore go the hinge issue's.
So I think that the next step is to tack a few parts in place and then deal with the seized king pins so I can actualy turn the front wheels to finalize the front fender height.
All in all I am happy with it.
Torchie.

 

[sgtpontiac]

As well you should be Torchie.....

Looks great.....Snow......bah humbug.....nice work... [P

 

[gold03]

Torchie, that looks awesome![cl

Try a couple of full length wedge cuts on the hood to make it narrower, then use the original hood to fill in the cab to fit the new hood at the cowl.

The back of the fenders look like you need to cut off the back, attach that to the cab, and weld in a filler strip.

Very nice[dr

 

[zzrodder]

Snow, WHAAA?? Kinda early 'aint it ??
The 41 front end is going to look awesome - obviously some fab work to mate it up but in general it's not really that far off from matching the truck cab proportions. [P[P

 

[Torchie]

Torchie, that looks awesome![cl

Try a couple of full length wedge cuts on the hood to make it narrower, then use the original hood to fill in the cab to fit the new hood at the cowl.

The back of the fenders look like you need to cut off the back, attach that to the cab, and weld in a filler strip.

Very nice[dr

That's the plan for the hood gold. Once I get the fenders locked in place.
The mounting flange on the fenders is not at a 90 degree angle. My plan is some cuts thru the flanges to the top edge of the fender. Using a hammer and dolly I will bend them down to 90 degree's. Drill thru the cowl and run some bolts thru the holes for mounting.This will pull the fenders in tight to the cowl which is where they need too be.
If I don't pull in the fenders when I pie cut the hood the to narrow it there will be a gap where the hood is narrower the the engine compartment opening(hope that made sense).
In the first pic you can see the angle of the mounting flange on the fender.
In the second pic the fender is actualy pressed aganst the cowl with the angle of the flange causing the gap between the edge of the fender and the cowl.
Torchie

 

[Torchie]

Snow, WHAAA?? Kinda early 'aint it ??
The 41 front end is going to look awesome - obviously some fab work to mate it up but in general it's not really that far off from matching the truck cab proportions. [P[P

Too darn early ZZ.
When i started to plan out this build over a year ago I had a 41 Ford cab that was given to me for free and that is what I was going to use. When i went to pick it up it turned out to be really bad. Thin from years of exposure and the lower 6-8 inches were gone from sitting on the ground. It would have been a better fit at the cowl I believe.
But I got to say that I am liking the way this is turning out with the F-series cab. As they say Neccesity is the mother of invention.
Torchie.

 

[gold03]

I think I see what you are talking about. Will the front clip pull together that much in the back without causing grief up front? You are pretty close to having that all lined up[cl. If you pull in the back of the clip, will it upset the way the wheel and tire look in the opening? It looks pretty good right now.

Your plan is to make the hood narrower in the rear to match the cowl. You have the option of making the front clip narrower to match the hood, OR making the tops of the fenders wider toward the hood. OR a combination of the two. A long pie cut along the top of the fender, following the hood line coming to a point at the front of the fender. Then add a filler strip. Rework that little kick in the top of the fender to line up with the cowl. Rework the bottom rear of the fenders to match the "rocker" area. [[S[[[S[

It's looking killer! I like it a lot!

I'm out on Vancouver island on vacation. You have me inspired to go home early and do some work on my truck!

 

[Torchie]

I think I see what you are talking about. Will the front clip pull together that much in the back without causing grief up front? You are pretty close to having that all lined up[cl. If you pull in the back of the clip, will it upset the way the wheel and tire look in the opening? It looks pretty good right now.

Your plan is to make the hood narrower in the rear to match the cowl. You have the option of making the front clip narrower to match the hood, OR making the tops of the fenders wider toward the hood. OR a combination of the two. A long pie cut along the top of the fender, following the hood line coming to a point at the front of the fender. Then add a filler strip. Rework that little kick in the top of the fender to line up with the cowl. Rework the bottom rear of the fenders to match the "rocker" area. [[S[[[S[

It's looking killer! I like it a lot!

I'm out on Vancouver island on vacation. You have me inspired to go home early and do some work on my truck!

Thanks for the input gold and everyone else. Keep it coming.
The thing to remember(And sometimes I even tend to forget) is that the frame, hood and front clip are all 41 car and are designed to go together. The thing that is the fly in the ointment is the use of The F-series cab.
As I recall when I measured the cowl on the truck it was about an inch or so narrower than the car. Part of the reason that the gap looks so much larger is the angle of the mounting flange on the fenders holding them away from the cowl. Take that out of the equation and the gap is considerably smaller.
The front sheet metal on these cars is very flexible. If I narrow the whole front clip to match the cowl then I will have issue with fitment for the front of the hood, grill, ect. Hence just the adjustment at the rear of the clip and the hood only.

The idea here is that the front of the truck remain as true to the 41 car as possible, minus whatever customizing tricks I may have up my sleeve such as frenched headlights and shaved and peaked hood. And truthfully I may not even do any of that.
The first pic show the tire/wheel opening and it looks like the tire is flush to the wheel opening.
Second pic give a truer look at the spacing. Tire is tucked into the fender so pulling the rear of the fender in should not cause grief.
So get off the island and back to work gold. Winter IS coming....
Torchie.

 

[Torchie]

I neglected to adress the "rocker panel" area that you spoke of gold.
41 Ford cars were cosidered to be the last of the running board cars. They have a seperate running board that can be removed unlike the 46-8's that had a step sill.
The reason people don't think of them as running board cars is the fact tht at the bottom of the doors was a curved out area that covered the running boards. See the first pic.
That area on the lower rear of the fender on my truck (See 2nd pic) is where that door bottom/running board cover area lines up and makes the transition into the fender. If yu look close at the pic you might see that the bottom of that area comes fairly close to being even with the bottom of the door.
So I will have two choices. Remove that piece and finish to match the rest of the fender or fabricate the door bottom/running board cover to match the fender. The Rushton pickup that I showed a few post back went with fabing the running board cover on the door and thru to the back fender. I haven't decided yet.
Hope all this text hasn't been boring as watching paint dry.
Torchie.

 

[Torchie]

Rain, hail, sleet, snow and sunshine. And all today.
Too miserable to work outside so I spent some time in the garage reworking the drivers side of the the roof. Out with the old and in with the new.
Please overlook the Tack welds as apparently my eyes are not as recovered from this weeks injections as I thought. Good thing I get to grind most of them off. [cl
But the end result is that the roof looks better.
Torchie. [

 

[gold03]

Roof looks great Torchie.

The running board is a nice option. Either way it will look cool.

Cool place for exhaust as well. Running board/side pipe?

 

[Torchie]

Roof looks great Torchie.

The running board is a nice option. Either way it will look cool.

Cool place for exhaust as well. Running board/side pipe?

Wanting to go with the running boards. Wether or not I make the covers remains to be seen. At the rate I'm going this may turn out to be a heirloom project for one of my daughters to finish
Torchie.

 

[Flipper_1938]

This thing is gonna be cool! I think it needs to go about 6 inches lower though Keep up the good work!