I ran into an old ford cabover sitting in the weeds a few months ago and noticed it had nearly new front tires. I asked how much the owner wanted for the tires and he said $500 for the tires, $550 for the truck.

Needless to say, I bought the old jalopy.

I looked over everything and found that the original Y-block had been replaced with a 360 FE. The brakes worked and the motor ran so after a jump-start I drove the old beast home.

The first thing I noticed is the shifter was REALLY loose. When in gear the shifter could move in all directions at least 5 inches. That will have to be fixed. I also noticed that it pulls hard to the right. Upon closer examination I found that the right tire is further aft than the left tire by about 3/4-inch. Not sure how I'm going to resolve that.

The two-speed shift motor was froze up so i tore it down and cleaned the gunked-up lower bearing which made it shift like new.

It came without a bed so I've been looking around for a flatbed to throw on the old thing. In the interim, however, my dad and I welded up a gooseneck hitch so we can at least haul cattle and horses with the thing.

We decided to do some motor work so i got a used set of heads that had a valve job done and I massaged the heads with my Dremel to make the old combustion chamber design a little more efficient.

This pic shows our progress thus far:

 

Sweet. I love the old cabovers.

 

Cool project!!

Those old cab overs are wicked.

 

Looking good! Glad to see that exhaust manifold I sent you getting some use.

Sam

 

Yep, works great!

It may not look like it in the picture, but the wheelbase of the truck is pretty close to the same as our '90 Extended Cab Ford F250. With where the hitch is mounted, the OAL of the truck and trailer is about 6" shorter than the F250 with the same trailer. The turning radius, though, is quite a bit shorter than the pickup!

Upon further investigation, we found that the front axle is bent about an inch rearward on the right side. That explains the pull to the right when going down the road. Now to find an axle... And figure out how to install power steering...

 

Revisiting this thread because I'm planning (too many) projects.

Does anyone know where I might take the front axle to get it straightened?

I'm in central KS.

 

What makes you think the axle is bent,measure from the grease fitting on the front spring hanger to the flat boss under the spring pack doing this on both sides will tell you how much the axle has moved, I'll guess you may have measured it this way as you said 3/4" difference, but most likely the center pin in the spring pack is bent or broken.

 

You can see the bend in the axle from above. It's so obvious I wouldn't even need to measure it except to know it it's fixable.

BUT it seems that this project has been postponed/canceled - I bought a '55 F600 that is in better shape and looks better, IMO. I'll probably be pulling the engine for use in the '55. If anyone is interested in an old cabover, let me know!