Winner of the F100 Super Naturals held in Nashville, Tennessee
1952 Ford Truck
I purchased this truck from the original owner’s family. It was bought new with the largest motor available sitting on a full ton chassis. It was purchased to run moonshine in Tuscaloosa country Alabama. It was then retired to sit in a barn for 29 years where I finally talked my friend and prior owner to sell it to me. I cannot talk about who they are because they still to this day, produce and sell shine.
My promise to him was I would put the truck back to its original glory days. As an engineer, I got carried away. I took off every nut and bolt, took a lot of pictures and placed them all in their own plastic bags. I never thought there would be that many or this much work. Kept a log on how things came apart so I knew how to put them together correctly. You will not believe this but all of them except 4 bolts screwed apart. I wire brushed them and put clear coating on them prior to placing in bags. To my shock, they were 99% fine threaded which of course takes longer to unscrew and then to put them back together.
Most of the pistons were lock up so after removing the rods they were hammered out. I only had to hone by hand and add new rings and pistons. To be on the safe side I had the heads worked. After I put in new bearings and rods. Then the motor sat for 10 years. It was manually hand cranked every month by hand religiously w/o failure. After it was installed it was time to fire it up. With a milk jug and a hose, it was ready. To my pleasant surprise and with a lot of pumping the throttle it cranked. My wife did not even know it was running it was so smooth and noise free...no stuck anything.
After 12 years it was ready to go to the body shop. We made three trips with the frame, the cab and the bed. After the frame was completed it was returned to the farm and the motor and driveline was installed and returned to the body shop.
There is a body shop known as Randy's. There two brothers that work there that are well known in the south for their pristine work on corvette refinishing. It stayed there 3 years. After all parts were completed it was put back together.
The truck was born as an F3 with the Five Star package. Which included an inch of extra padding in the seat, dual trumpet horns, extra chrome on the hood, ivory grill, head liner and all other interior panels, dual wipers and dome light.
The truck was completed in March of 2016. The original owner died of cancer prior to ever seeing it's completion.
Its first show was at the F100 Super nationals. The truck was said by many this one stood tall compared to the hundreds of other trucks that were presented. The head of the F100 club said he has never seen an authentic F3 ever and he believes it to be the best and maybe the only one left in the USA.
The judges had only positive feedback when they worked their way around. Comments such as a perfect paint job not even any orange peel, no ripples in the planes, perfect image of a 1952 Ford F3 truck, interior was correct and spotless, engine and compartment was done correctly all the way down to the P610 original DLC (Deluxe Champion tires by Firestone) touching the ground. I even kept the original three piece rimes. One of the judges spotted the bracket with the correct ford part number holding the tail light and said he has never seen one before.
The truck was awarded "Best in Class" and "Truck of the Year”. For 2016.
This next year we decided to bring it back and was again awarded "Best in Class”. After seeing the truck I was interviewed by MAV TV because they believed the truck to be one of a kind. It is to air this fall.
I am getting old, well I am old but maybe have one more project left in me.
Enjoy the photos.
