1952 F-6 Build

[Torchie]

Spent most of the day doing what I had to do so I thought that I would do some stuff that I wanted to do.
Cut the last vestages of the 41 car body from the frame. Then in anticipation of doing a mock up with the bed I had to remove these mounts as well.
The rear body piece was no biggie but the side frame bracket......

There is nothing harder in cardom than original Ford rivits. Ground the tops off then hit them real hard with a punch and a BFH. And off they come usually.

The garage art was done with an airbrush by my oldest. "Just messing around" she said.....
Torchie.

 

[Dirtyrat]

I hate the stock rivots.. most of the ones on the frame I had would NOT come out even after grinding off the head, I had to drill them out... UGH! I feel your pain.

 

[Torchie]

I hate the stock rivots.. most of the ones on the frame I had would NOT come out even after grinding off the head, I had to drill them out... UGH! I feel your pain.

My usual process DR is to grind the heads off. Remove what ever bracket they are holding on. Then grind them down flush to the frame and break out the punch and the BFH to finish the job. But believe me I have drilled more than my share.
That's some tough Rouge River steel!
Torchie.

 

[gold03]

Nice flames!

I hates rivets[ddd

 

[christcrusader13]

My usual process DR is to grind the heads off. Remove what ever bracket they are holding on. Then grind them down flush to the frame and break out the punch and the BFH to finish the job. But believe me I have drilled more than my share.
That's some tough Rouge River steel!
Torchie.

Yeah.... those rivets are evil.... i ened up grinding off the heads and breaking out the air hammer with a punch insert.... tap...TAP...TAAAAAP... BAM... oh yeah, after drilling out the first 5 I was like there has to be a better way....

This thing is looking good!

 

[Torchie]

So we need to form a club. Get some shirts made up with "I heart Ford Rivets" with a not symbol over the hearts

2nd day in a row of doing something to the truck. They say that 3 times in a row makes it a habit. That is what I am shooting for.
Waiting for the new to me front fenders to get here so I thought that I would start to disassemble the old fronts. To make it easier for me I started with the hood latch plate. 11 of the unfriendliest little Ford screws you've ever seen . All frozen!! So out came the small angle grinder.

And just to keep the flame going I set a rear fender over the tire. Maybe I should make this a flatbed.
Torchie.

 

[gold03]

Keep going!

Glad to see you back on.

 

[Torchie]

Well Gold I don't know that I am back on but lets see how far we get shall we?
Inspite of todays "This ain't Northern Michigan's" heat and humidity and having to drive my daughter to the airport I managed to do a few things.
I had the rear fender just sitting over the tire as shown in my last post so I decided to drag in some more parts and do kind of a quick mock up.

Not much room to work with the boat taking up space in the shop so the pics aren't the greatest. I guess all this points to me dragging the beast out of the garage and doing a better mock up where I can get a full straight on side view.

As I am still waiting on my front fenders. That may be awhile yet.
So here's what I've got.....
Torchie.

 

[Torchie]

Being as the holiday weekend starts here tomorrow and i do't know if I will get to work on it I will do a double post today.
Here are some better pics. Ride height of the truck is lower than this as it is sitting on wheel dolly's.
Front fenders need to come forward about 2-3 inches. Right now they are back so that the inner wells sit on the frame and hold the fenders up.
Last pics show where the majority of the work will need to be done.
The new set of fenders will have the backs on them but I will have to modify the rear hood edge to match the F cowl and I will have to remake the front edge of the running boards to mate up to the 41 car fenders.
Well it sort of looks like something
Have a safe holiday weekend everyone.
Torchie.

 

[bob w]

Gonna be cool!

 

[Torchie]

Gonna be cool!

Thanks Bob!

 

[Dirtyrat]

I agree, that looks really cool, I like that front end way better than the truck front end!

 

[Torchie]

Thanks DR. The 41 car front end has kind of a 40 Willy's vibe to it. It is supposed to rain here tomorrow so I may just head out to the shop and maybe take it off the wheel dolly's to get a better idea of the stance.
Torchie.

 

[MercuryMac]

Hi Torchie. I'm glad I voted for the '41 front end, too. Your truck would have hit a glass ceiling at real nice hot rod; but now it will be up in the show stopper category.
Keep on being creative.

 

[Torchie]

Here's todays offering.
Jacked up the truck and pulled out the wheel dolly's. Of course to do this I had to undo most of yesterdays work but I really want to see it at ride height with the fenders and running boards on
Once I dropped it down I had to move the front clip and since I am by myself I got a little help with the hood.

So pics show the actual ride height (Notice the mandatory beer bottle shot)
Straight on front shot shows better alignment with the hood and grill as well.
I am still sort of guestimating with the front fenders as the floor angle pic shows. As per usual with these some one cut off the bottom so I won't know the exact location of the rear part of the fender until my new ones arrive.

This is a static drop so what you see is what you get. I can go lower in the front with a combination of longer shackles and or a reversed eye spring. Reversing the eye gives you about a 1 inch drop. Too long of shackles and you can get some squirrly driving characteristics.

Rear can be lowered by the same techniques or by channeling out the rear crossmember the spring sits under and putting the spring up into the cross member. This alone would give you about 3 inches more drop.
I am still thinking of running 15" whells insted of the stock 16" to get a little more clearence for the front tires.
Torchie.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Looks like a good ratrodder trap to me! [cl[cl[cl
[P[P[P

 

[Torchie]

And here is the cheese DR......

 

[gold03]

Will you have to section the hood?

I think it's looking real good. Very cool lines. You won't trip over one every where you go.

 

[Torchie]

Not sure on the hood yet Gold.
Once I have the full fenders and get them set in place then I will know more.
The more I look at it the more I think that I may have to combine parts of the F hood with the the 41. It will be interesting no matter what.

Here are a couple more pics to give everyone a better idea of the scale.
The bum in the pic claims that he is Six foot,two and one half inch's tall.(or at least he used to be)[ddd

Torchie.

 

[Torchie]

Let's spend a little time messing with the grill. Some people feel that for a car or truck to be called a custom the are certain things that need to be done to it. Chopped. Sectioned. Frenched head and tail lights. Channeled. Shaved. peaked hood. Lowered and the list goes on......
My take on it is that any modification you make that changes the stock look of a vehicle makes it a custom. Mild to wild. Your choice.
What I am going after with this build is a truck that could have been built anywhere from 1948 to about 53-54. At this point the newest part on it is 1952.
I am leaning towards leaving the grill stock so that it is easily identified as a 41 car front. But here are a couple of options that were used during this time period.
1st pic is the stock grill after getting some of the paint off it.
2nd pic shows a mock up of a very popular look. Speedway still offers these replacement panels but in fibreglass. Outer grills would be left chrome.
3rd pic shows a 48 Caddy grill. These were cut down and one of these was used on one of if not the first chopped 41 coupes. You still have to make a transition piece to blend the hood nose to the top of the grill.
I hope this post wasn't too wordy.
Lets hear some opinions.
Torchie.