Start

When she first showed up off the tow truck

I guess I should give a little back story to this project.  My grandfather used to own this 1948 Ford Pickup truck.  The man had the engine rebuilt and then blew the radiator.  I am told that my grandfather was so frustrated with the truck that he parked it in a field about 35 years ago.  About 13 years ago,  my mother bought the truck from my grandfather and gave it to my father as a birthday gift.  8 years later, the truck was moved to the front of an auto body shop.  Last year the truck was given to me as a graduation present and I had it moved to my front yard.

I decided about a month ago that I really wanted to start working on this truck.  There is a great amount of heritage to this truck and I thought that it would be a great thing to keep in the family.  I figured that in-order for my wife to never really consider making me get rid of the truck and for my offspring to covet the truck there needs to be a few changes made to OEM specs of the truck.

Stock, the truck is rear wheel drive, has all four drum brakes, a flathead 6-cylinder engine which produced a whopping 95 hp.

Some things that I want in the truck:

A/C
Power steering
All wheel drive
Fuel injection
More power!


THE PLAN:

Keep the exterior fairly original.  I've started taking apart the body to start taking out dents and rust and eventually paint.

Find a new drive train.  Instead of making everything custom, I figure the most economical rout would be to find an existing vehicle and throw it into the truck.  Current options fitting the desired criteria include Audi S4,  Nissan R34, BMW X3.

No measurements have been taken to see what would fit in the best yet, and the budget for this project has not yet been decided.

Currents allotted funds are zilch!

THE PROGRESS:

Original pics:

Birthday is Aug 26th!

Situated behind the fence

Side shot with the puppies.  Check out how the spare tire mount is added on the side . . . aftermarket ghetto fix.

Left side

Original Flat six. (95 hp! wooohoooo)

Tearing out old metal bed 

Old wood bed

No more wood bed

Hornets were everywhere!

Rear fender removed.  Only busted 3 bolts

The fender.  Need to decided if I want to try and remove the dent they put in there for the mounted spare of not.

ooooooo front drum brakes! 

Original tags under the hood

Bed finally off.  Took a reciprocating saw to a few bolts.  Hardest part was a stupid spring holding the whole thing on!

front fender off

and another shot of the bed off