Hello everybody,
I am a new member here on your boards. This past weekend my grandfather gave me his 1954 F100. I was my great grandfathers before him so its a very special machine to me and my family. It has been sitting in his shed for about 32 years now since the passing of my great grandfather. I can remember wanting to fix this old truck up since i was a little kid.. im only 26 now .. but we'll just say for the past 20 years. I've known it was there. I would love to fix this truck up the right way to keep its originality but at the same time give it a sporty look.. (lowered,wheels,remove spare fender well) ect.. but keep the original motor( i believe a 239 Y block V8) and 3 spd on the column, original waterfall blue color and a simple.. but clean interior. I also would like to upgrade the breaks to a disk setup if possible. I guess my first question to you guys where is a good starting point? Body work? drive train? interior? breaks? Ill add some pictures to this post so you can see it.. any info would be a GREAT help!

 

and apperently i cannot post in a correct format to save my life! .. sorry about that.. lol

 

Wow! Looks like a really solid truck. Welcome to the forums. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Welcome! Nice truck indeed. Looks like a candidate for a stock restoration, its all there and mostly factory from the pics. How many miles on it? Is it running?

 

Considering the family history and the memories you and hopefully other family members have of the truck, I would keep it as close to stock as possible. I don't have a problem modifying one but it would have to be one without the sentimental attachments yours would have. Very nice truck!

 

Welcome to the forum. Very sweet project, I suggest, a bit at a time, depending on what your budget is, if its not running, get it on the road, for some drive time...then evaluate where you'd like to start...give yourself room for changes, one thing at a time has really helped me out. Motor, wiring, those things are time consuming but should be first on the list...keep us posted

 

welcome to fte man.
as to your gp's truck a ride like that that has never been touched with possible if not true numbers matching . you do a body off restore .no other bs screw around work as they are getting rarer and rarer every day. by the time your my age you will be sitting pretty with it. again DO NOT ALTER CLASSIC'S RESTORE .
as to sizeing forget word cut and paste that's the problem. word posts over the web site size limit if you had used attachment at the lower end of the post area it would have been normal

 

The truck does run and has 113k original miles on it. Everthing on this truck is from the factory accept the cattle guard that my GGP welded to it back in the day.

 

Nice gift! I would keep it original as well. If you want to update a little as far as being able to stop etc..., that really would not affect the looks. Looks like the brush guard on the front and something on the rear bumper were add ons. You could moe the spare tire and replace that fender if you don't like that look. Personally, I haven't seen that many with the tire on the side so it is kind of unique. Mine is a '55 F-250 and I'm trying to keep the look original, but also make it more road worthy, a little more speed and better stopping.

 

Welcome to FTE! That is a nice looking truck you have there with a great link to your family history. From the pictures, it appears to be complete and in really nice shape. As far as where to start, I would suggest that you figure out what you want to do with the truck (driver, parade queen, custom, etc.) This might help determine what to do first. I'm always a supporter of getting the truck safe (brakes, steering, bearings, tires, glass) and mechanically sound (engine, transmission, rear end, frame, etc) before moving on to the cosmetics and creature comforts.

Our very own JNIOLON has an excellent article titled "Trials of the First Time Builder" that is on here somewhere, although I can't seem to find it right now. It's good reading and may give you some ideas and guidance.

Have fun and enjoy your truck!
Kent

 

brake wise just rebuild or replace the hydro units and have a brake shop reline the shoes with the newer material's. that truck is in prime restore shape . restore it and show it.
sure there is tons of things that can be done to it and have a street rod . but a 100 point restore of a true numbers matching with a true history of the truck as you have it's worth now and going to be worth more as you get older and understand the prize you have better.
i've been where you are only in my case it was a 57 chebby nomad sw 283 power pack, turbo glide and factory a'c. and a second was my gm's 67 falcon 289 three on the tree.

 

What a great family heirloom. The advice of my brethern is right on, in my opinion. Hose it down, get it running replace the fluids, get it inspected and drive it. You will be surprised how well and easy it drives stock. and that 239 Y-block will give you plenty of power. Then you can take your time and decide what you would like to do.

I have my grandfathers '54 F-100 tha he bought new and I bought from him in 1977. Look in my gallery to see the before and after pics. I kept mine all stock and Mine was in a lot worse shape than yours, so your truck is a no-brainer to keep it stock. I did go with radial tires on the original rims, however, to give a better ride. Yours is an easy one. Another factor is I think keeping stock is cheaper than going custom. And once you chop it up and go custom it is very hard to go back to stock. When I drive my truck I take a lot of pride in the fact that my hands are on the same wheel and on the same gearshift lever that my grandfather used with the same brake system, engine, and tranny.

From the looks of your grille guard, it looks factory, or dealer accessory. You can tell as it has the holes in the gravel pan for the support bars. It looks like some one welded on those round short tubes on the guard and mounted something on teh frame horns behind the bumper. The guard really kept your grille in good shape, few dings and dents.

keep us informed, look in the gallery to see our trucks to get some ideas!

abe
'54 F-100

 

Fiftyfourford is a friend of mine (Tanner) and I've told him I'd try to keep it as close to original as possible if he could because it is a heritage truck to his family. I also told him that if he does take something off of it that is original to the truck that isn't broken or that is but can be repaired, don't toss it in the can, hang onto it in case you want to put it back on.

The grille guard and rear bumper could go, and I told him there may be someone that would buy them off of him to put on their truck as they're still in pretty nice shape. I took the exterior pics while it was on the trailer at dusk, I think my kids played with the digital camera as the pics it takes aren't usually that blurry.

The grille guard bolts to the top of the front bumper, it has a couple of chain hooks and a pair of tubes welded to it, but they could be cut off and ground smooth, the guard is in really good shape, it's profile of the bars is actually a 'U' shape with the open end facing the truck. I'm sure it's an aftermarket piece and not farm made.

The edge of the triangle on the bed side of the rear bumper has a piece of rebar welded to it's edge and looks very well done, not sure if it's a farm built piece.

When we were pulling it off the trailer, Tanner pushed in on the clutch to take it out of gear, there was a loud pop. Sounded like a return spring breaking or a pivot point breaking, but we didn't see anything wrong. But when he'd push in on the clutch, the fork only moved about 3/4". We had to rock the truck back & forth to get it out of gear.

I told Tanner that I'd get it all up to snuff first, redo the brakes, make sure all the lights work and get the engine running again. It ran when last parked, but it's been a few years since it's been ran I believe. Check the oil level, flush the coolant system and just put in straight water for now, check the hoses for cracks and leaks. Rebuild the carb, clean the points and set them, pull the plugs, squirt some Marvel Mystrey oil in each cylinder and turn over by hand with a breakover bar a few times. Would like to pull distributor and prime the oil system, but I don't have a primer, I wonder if a later model distributor shaft could be turned into a primer? Not sure if this would be a good time to perform a compression test, but since the plugs are all out.... Try cleaning and gapping the plugs, if they're too far gone, get a new set and gap them.

See it the fuel tank is drained, if not, clean it out. The fuel pump diaphram is probably toast, so rebuild that, replace the fuel lines. Also, does anyone know of a way to convert the oil bath air filter over to a regular type air filter that will work in the stock housing.

The truck has the 6 volt system on it and I know Tanner would like to change over to the 12 volt system. What all is involved in doing this and will it appear stock? I hate to see him get a new 6 volt battery, then turn around and change it over to a 12 volt system and eat the 6 volt battery. Do you think a battery charger would start the truck?

He'll need some new glass, the driver's side window, the rear window and the windshield are all cracked, I think I'd just go ahead and replace the passenger side glass and the wing windows as well, new gaskets, felts, etc. Clean up the window mechanisms and grease everything up.

From what I can tell, it doesn't look like any mice of rats have gotten ahold of the wiring. The tires are pretty much gone, it'd be okay to drive down the street in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't take it anywhere.

I told Tanner to do what he could to get it running and try and keep it running as he did things to it and worked on it. It's so much more of an enjoyable project if you can enjoy it as opposed to tearing the whole thing down and losing interest because you can't drive it. My '65 Mustang coupe is a testiment to that as it hasn't moved under it's own power since the early 90's.

I'll likely get goading into helping Tanner on this project as it's home right now is about 8 miles from my house. Another member on here with a '56 (vintage56) is a friend and co-worker of mine and he'll probably come out and help us assess what needs to be done to the truck.

Larry Hampton

 

"I told Tanner to do what he could to get it running and try and keep it running as he did things to it and worked on it. It's so much more of an enjoyable project if you can enjoy it as opposed to tearing the whole thing down and losing interest because you can't drive it."

Amen to that! Well it sounds like Tanner has a good friend in you to help him get it running. If you need tires, go with the radials.

My opinion about the electrical system is to keep it 6 volt. Now I am a purist and this has been talked about here before but the 6 volt will start the truck just as quick and easy as the 12 volt system, [B]if you have a good starter and generator and replace the old battery cables (ground and the one to the starter) with new proper sized cables, '0' or '1' gauge cables. The old cables may look good on the outside but inside if there is any corrosion you will lose current.

Did'nt see a pic of the rear but from what you described it was probably a homemade piece to give the rear of the box more solidness.

abe

 

That is a great looking truck there. I guess I am what they call a darksider here My truck will have a fuel injected motor IFS and a healthy dose of lowering.

Browse around you will see what lots of others have done and see what direction that you want to go.

Since it appears to be in decent shape it would be pretty easy to go original on but I would not be affraid to lower it some and maybe even do IFS to get the power disc brakes and steering, I would keep the original wheels though, kind of a classic look.

but, first I would just clean it up do some maintence and enjoy driving it for a bit, you will decide quickly what needs to be done first.