A little light entertainment: 1939 Ford 1 ton Utility restoration

[Howard]

Interesting as always Jack. Love it.

[jack neville]

Thanks Howard. Got all the body pieces primed today while we had some sun.
The timber is milled so i'll begin the puzzle of assembling the rear body.
Discovered this identity number on the front panel which I had never seen before. Not sure what it all means. The front panel is pretty beaten up but i'm hoping to get some better shape into it once i've added some timber to it to stiffen it up.

[jack neville]

The front panel would not stay where I wanted it to due to excessive stretching particularly at the bottom. So a lot of shrinking and hammering and it came back to a much better fit. Front timber also done. There was probably a jig to assemble these composite timber steel bodies so without one it is rather difficult to work out the next step. This front panel doesn't actually get attached until after the side panels are fitted first.

[jack neville]

With the front wall frame shaped and assembled I was able to put that in place on the chassis temporarily and prop it up and attach the side top rails. These composite bodies have rather weak corners so I added a 4mm thick angle to the outside of the front corners and tapped it to take some countersunk bolts.
The rear end of the top rails are also propped up so I could hang the side panels on the top rail to see how they look.

[jack neville]

One thing I only just learned is that these Australian utes have two different rear body lengths. The roadster cab have a rear body about 100 mm shorter than the rear body on the full cab. As this was a body from a full cab civilian version it is the longer one so I had to trim the floor strips down.

[jack neville]

The rear floor cross members are all done and sit level.
I added the internal corner brace and bolted up the reinforced corners. There is a folded steel piece that reinforces the tilt bow brackets that is screwed under the top rail. This was added as well.

[jack neville]

I then added the side panels. These after clamping in tight to the contour of the front corners are simply nailed to the corner post and nailed along the top rail. I will leave the top nails out for now till I have worked out the way to tackle the rear corners.
So far it is coming up level and square and lines up perfectly with the front cab lines.

[Keith Webb]

Excellent work Jack, I'm really enjoying watching your progress on a very challenging restoration.

[jack neville]

Thanks Keith. It still bemuses me how complicated the construction of these vehicles is. The crazy part is how after you nail sheetmetal to timber the finishing off requires welding of the corners over the timber and trying to stop the timber smouldering. Why weren’t they welded entirely in the first place? I guess cost must factor into it somehow.

[colin jones]

Wonderful work Jack, it will be a total credit to you once completed. I never realized just how much timber was used in these old vehicles. I guess it was in greater supply back then as was the experienced coach builders/workers of the day. One would hope that these restored vehicles will be around for many a year to come for all to see as you won't find them out in paddocks in 50 or so years time. Excellent job.

[jack neville]

Thanks Colin. Your blank canvas panels have been definitely worth the trouble and expense to produce. I’m very happy how it is slowly piecing together. These low production Aussie vehicles really have very little data available to follow and good examples to copy are just as hard to source.
But I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.

[jack neville]

With the side panels attached I was then ready to attach the front panel which is also nailed into place.
The floor metal strips and rear corners and inner guards all needed positioning to check alignment before I fixed anything permanently but as I don't have 100 clamps it was a bit confusing which order to do it in. The rear corners both have a large piece of timber carved in the shape of the corner which took some time to shape but I had good patterns to follow. I clamped the timber and the inner rear corner panel into position. When I was happy with them I nailed the top of the side panels in place.

[jack neville]

The inner guards are welded to the outside floor strips but these had been separated to assist in straightening the worn and damaged strips some time ago. There was a bit of rust damage to repair and then they were reassembled. The condition of the inner guards was very dented but I have had a couple of goes at straightening them. They have stretched as well so they are not going to be perfect but I will do a bit more work on them once they are firmly fitted to the body and more workable.

[jack neville]

The metal floor strips are screwed to the timber cross members so the cross members needed to be fixed into position. Special large headed bolts go through the two floor strips above the chassis rails and secure all the cross members. Once the four centre floor strips were secured this gave me a solid anchor to assist in aligning the strips attached to the inner guard. They were as straight as I could get them but they needed a bit of persuasion with wooden blocks and clamps.

[jack neville]

With the floor secured and the side panels mostly attached I was able to turn my attention to the rear most cross member which fixes the rear corners but is not supported by the chassis. As this piece is missing on all my utes I have no real idea how it is formed. There is evidence that the bottom of the rear inner corner panels screw to the timber but the holes are small and it does not look strong enough to properly support the corners. I decided to just make it strong enough. I put a 28mm thick piece of timber each side of the corner piece and inserted four 10mm bolts through the lot. The rear section was squared up and clamped in position first so I got the rear tailgate opening nice and square. The ends of the floor strips were then screwed to this timber. Once this was done I nailed the inners corner panel to the corner timber pieces. The back feels very strong and solid.

[jack neville]

The inner guards attach to the side panels with several solid rivets but I have just bolted them together for now.

Next is to make a new rear sill panel. I don't have anything other than some poor photos and some rough measurements I took from another vehicle years ago. There is a recess for a number plate in the panel and it follows the same curve at the bottom of the rear side panels.

I therefore had to cut a section out of my rear timber work to accommodate the recess.

[jack neville]

I had to make some curved pieces on my timber former to match the rear side corners and weld together some folded sections for the number plate recess and top sill. A lot of trial and fit, welding and grinding.

[jack neville]

Fits in place quite well. I will get it sandblasted and then tidy it up with a bit of filler before it gets welded to the floor strips and the side corners.

Then it is on to making these rear outside corner panels.

[jack neville]

A wartime photo of a well equipped Ford roadster ute.

[jack neville]

I was recently talking to good friend Euan Mac Donald and he supplied this for me.
I will need to make another one to match but how cool is it that something like this has survived? And in such good condition and so complete. New timber and canvas and a sandblast. Very happy to have this.

[jack neville]

The rear corner panels are another quirky feature of these vehicles.
The rear timber corner has a strip of steel nailed to its edge which acts as the anchor for the outside edge of the rear corner panel.

[jack neville]

I formed up the rear corner panels which have the outside edge rolled over to engage the steel strip and the inside edge folded at right angles to nail to the inside edge.

[jack neville]

I've sent the panels and a few bits off for sandblasting so I moved onto the tailgate.

It is a bit sad across the bottom and needs some extra strength in it to hold its shape due to being dented and stretched. I straightened it as best I could. I got a 2mm repair panel folded up and cut the bottom rusted section out up as far as the bottom line of pressings and welded this in.

[jack neville]

To iron out the imperfections in the top edge I clamped a piece of 50 x 25mm RHS in tightly to the top lip and welded it in. Another 25 x 25mm RHS was added to straighten the centre section. The wide piece is 5mm thick and will be used to tap into to take the tie down hooks. Originally they were rivetted to a thinner piece but bolting on with countersunk bolts will be easier.
The tailgate will be a bit heavier but in came out straight and flat.

[John Mackie]

Great work Jack.. One comment on the PUS rear body no. prefix , it stands for PICK UP STRAIGHTSIDE.

[Ganmain Tony]

Love these old utes.

Simply superb Jack - great work.

[jack neville]

Thanks boys.
John, I should have expected that an old Ford man like you would have known what that stood for.

[jack neville]

I digressed from the tailgate for a change to make the hood bows. I didn"t have any original remains except the hood bow brackets but fortunately thanks to Mike Cecil I received original some original plans several years ago.

[jack neville]

Work continues on the floor boards as well.

[Keith Webb]

Very much enjoying watching the excellent standard of work Jack!