A little light entertainment: 1939 Ford 1 ton Utility restoration

[jack neville]

Try again. Stupid iPad !

[jack neville]

And the front

[jack neville]

I managed to get a little side tracked from the 39 ute with some work for Chris Collins on his Morris Tillys x 2 and Jakes 41 Dodge ambulance... and Diamond T and Wiles Junior Cooker...etc. you know how it goes!

Anyway back to the ute, I have decided the rear body side panels are not salvageable. I am getting some blank panels pressed to form the three top ribs. A separate sheet for each side which will then have the bottom pressing folded in and cut outs for the guards formed up by hand. A separate panel will be required for the tailgate outer skin. The doors should be ok.

I have a 40 model and 41 model of these utes to restore in the future and as the triple rib pressing is the same on all three models I will get blank panels made sufficient to reskin the rear sides, the doors and the tailgate.

Once these panels are pressed up there will be no use for retaining the dies required so my man will most likely scrap the dies and reuse the considerable amount of steel going into making them.

This is a once off opportunity if anyone else is considering getting panels to rebuild one of these Australian utes. I don't have a price as yet as we are still working on them but if anyone is interested send me a PM.

[Mike K]

I always liked those utes . Never got the chance to get hold of one in good enough shape to restore. I did have a 11D hardtop . I looked at a 1941 11Y at Werribee garden centre but it was stuffed , the guy wanted 2k$ for it , a chassis and cab .

Regarding the panels . I was at John Belfields workshop , he was fabricating new side panels for his ute. He used formers to make the 3 ribbed section with a brake press. He is a clever chap, the job turned out excellent . I guess you have seen his ute at Corowa ?

[jack neville]

I did start to post this on another thread but since I have got the photos on the computer and can load them better I will update onto here. New blank side panels for the rear body, door skins and tailgate. The first two photos show the small original sample and a test piece. Third photo shows how the die was formed up. I got some panels with a longer section to be used for door skins as required.

[jack neville]

Photos of full panel. Still considerable amount of folding and shaping to be done but it can be hand finished. Nice to have clean straight metal to work with instead of chasing warped rusty rubbish full of holes.
Mr Jones is a very handy man to know. Well done Colin.

[jack neville]

Its been a while since I touched the Ford ute but time to do some more work on it.
I need to put the rear body together before I can continue on with the running boards as whichever way I go with them I need to line them up between the front and rear guards to get them right. I picked up a rear tailgate separate to the rest of the vehicle from Colin Anderson many years ago. The pictures tell the story of its condition.