Re: Truck based woody
 

This morning I set about with the sawzall and angle grinder. I will be replacing the floor sections and sills with reproduction pieces before woodwork begins in earnest. Aside from the cowl, none of the sheet metal in the photos will be used on the woody, as I have better pieces set aside. What I have accomplished today will allow me to carefully measure and plan what I intend to do. When I needed a break this afternoon I went to a buddy's place and we dug up 4) 16" innie wheels all with 7.00x16's that are plenty good for rollers. That was a huge plus!

Re: Truck based woody
 

Wow, a man on a mission. I can post pictures of how a 32 header is assembled, but I don't think it will be as helpful as a later woodie.

Keep V-8ing an d 4-banging!

Re: Truck based woody
 

Or a man posessed.......

Re: Truck based woody
 

I am in the throes of doing a couple of 39 woodies and have all the original wood apart and can take pictures of any of the ford joints etc that you need. Just PM me with what you need.

Re: Truck based woody
 

Thanks Gary. It will be winter before I can start on the wood and I'm sure I will have questions. Picked up another load on Wednesday. The second of 3. None of this batch will be cut up. Last load will be the tonner and a 9' script stakebed , more doors and a running 8ba. Once again I'll be doing 30 mph over Washington Pass wound out in second gear, leaving a blanket of grey diesel smoke for the enjoyment of all those people riding my a$$. State law mandates you pull over after you have accumulated 5 cars in your wake. It's kinda hard to see how many there are through the haze..... Here's Wednesday's haul.

Re: Truck based woody
 

3rd load was on Tuesday. I left Anacortes at 4:30 am from a motel. Arrived in Twisp after snow in Washington Pass at 9 am. Loaded up the tonner, the script bed, the 8rt , the panel rear doors and who knows what else and then stopped to buy some trim pieces and more fenders from a CL ad in East Wenatchee, lastly to Marysville Wa where another CL lister had a bed for an f3 that fit my tonner that was loaded on my trailer. I have been wondering about rear fenders for jailbar pickups. After careful measurements, seems the crown or ridge line on a pickup fender is where the panel truck fender has it's flange. In other words, the more common pickup rear fender can be cut there and flanged to become a rear fender for a panel, or in my case , A woody.....After I caught the 9 pm ferry I was home in bed at 11:30. I'm no math expert but that's like a 16 hour day on the road. I have everything I need to build the woody now but the wood, and with bi-weekly deliveries to the cabinetshop from a large mainland hardwood supplier, that's the easy part. I know they are '39 rear doors but we are gonna switch belt lines. Not like that is gonna be easy.

Re: Truck based woody
 

It's starting to look like a woody already!!
This will be a great thread to follow, I'll love seeing this one completed.

Re: Truck based woody
 

Been doing some copying from the 1/2 ton panel. Tonight after work I built and installed frame extensions as on the panel. These extend the frame rails 5 1/2" rearward. I also milled crossmembers that will be the first actual wood for the project. As previously stated, I am mocking things up with the current beat up sheet metal installed. I will be able to rough out the details and not worry about having to climb on the hood or other parts or ding them by being covered with tools etc. The current front clip will be removed for engine/tranny install, king pins, brakes etc. and as completion nears, will be replaced by the nicest sheet metal I have, which is now safely stored in a shed. The way things are going, I will probably get the shape of the body together before I remove everything back to the bare frame for mechanical work. This creative phase is just too much fun to stop now and do yet another brake job etc......

Re: Truck based woody
 

I really should have gone to the woody meet in San Diego. I am sort of laying out the floor plan or footprint of the body using these pickup fenders. I have now seen quite a few photos of commercial based woodies on various chassis. Most are rather slab sided, which is fine, but I want the sharp ridged crown of the pickup fenders to be parallel to the wood sides. They were from a parallel sided pickup box with no wheel tubs inside, which is stock '40-'47 ford 1/2 ton. I can take care of this with a wedge shaped forward section which includes both front and rear doors, then becoming parallel sided after the rear doors. The width of the rear section of the body would be something like 60-61" wide without going down to check. The flanged section of the un-cut pickup fenders would protrude inside the body and require a sturdy inner panel which would have a substantial flange to mate to the floor. I ask because it looks like most woodies have the angle or 'wedge' change behind the front door, not the rear door. It also seems the '40 ford built woody is quite a bit straighter in line than the '46, so I lean towards that look for my one-off commercial rig. I hope this makes sense. Thanks for any help as I start out.

Re: Truck based woody
 

Any updates? I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next update on your progress!

Re: Truck based woody
 

Unfortunately we are getting really busy with work in the woodshop again so the wody has to wait a bit. My employee took Thursday off so I went at it all day on my project. Today, being Saturday I got to finish up and now I have the rear fenders set up for good and the plywood subfloor bolted down. The plywood subfloor is some pressure treated 3/4 ply leftover from a bathroom remodel a few years back. Then I used some 1/8" steel sides from an old fire engine to make inner fenders. I have a lot of maple and a lot of marine plywood stashed away. As far as the 80,000.00 needed to build this thing, so far it has been some galvanized bolts from the local hardware store. I have a good running 8ba and a bunch of carbs and distributers, not to mention water pumps and generators and starters. I have collected good used tires all my life as a secondary passion, so I'm good to go there too. This will never be the 1000 point woody some dream of, but it will be a solid example of how a truck based commercial would have been produced on a small scale.

Re: Truck based woody
 

Work has indeed stayed busy, then we have had 6 members of my wife's family visiting since Friday. They caught the morning ferry off the island today so I busted out some scrap lumber, plywood strips and some sheetrock screws and started mocking up the woodie in three dimensions. None of what you see here will be a final part of the wagon, it's only a rough layout. Since I have seen photos of commercial woodies with just two doors like a panel truck, I was tempted, but decided to lay it out as a 4 door wagon. The rear passenger doors will have 4 square corners without a curved cut-out at the rear fender, making them easier to build and far stronger. In the photos you will see I used an extra panel truck passenger side door I had for the mock-up to lead into the shape of the body lines. The panel doors have a square top corner that mimics what I will be building from wood. So far just some sticks and screws, but it is still fun to look at and visualize the outcome. I have about a thousand board feet of clear 1" western white pine, sometimes called sugar pine or pattern pine. I plan to make the two main longitudinal roof rails from 3 laminations of this. It is a very close color match to the maple but easier to machine. It will be covered in black material on the exterior and only exposed on the interior. The structural body will be maple with maple veneer panels. We have a vaccuum press that will press up to a 4x8 sheet, so I can make the panels with exterior glue. My plan is to build the body with the doors and rear gates and retain the ability to lift it off when it's near completion. At that point I will install the engine/tranny and do brakes, kingpins etc without having to crawl around on the floor. I know it's kind of backwards, but I have to keep my interest up and I'm kind of like an excited kid wanting to see the woody come together. The mechanical part is not that exciting as I have done all the procedures many times on past Ford trucks.

Re: Truck based woody
 

Mock ups are good, gives you an idea of what the end result will look like. And this one looks like it will turn out great!

Re: Truck based woody
 

Got an afternoon to make some progress. Working on the longitudinal roof stringers. They are quite clear pine and the boards laid out flat are shaped sort of like an elongated hockey stick. There are a right and left stack of 5 hockey sticks each laminated up. About 4x4 now and curved in two directions. I know with all the rattle traps I've written about and photographed here, many of you may be rolling your eyes that this beatnick is building some kind of woodie out of scraps and an old hammered pickup. I spend my days building furniture, doors, and cabinetry for clients, who along with their interior designers and architects who are very demanding. After work and weekends I have to do it differently. 'Free style' if you will. I am enclosing a shot or two of a dining set I recently built for our Washington State Treasurer and his wife so you will see I can do proper work when called upon to do so. I feel pulled to do a neat job of the woodie, might even spray on the paint when I get all the nice sheet metal I have saved in one of my sheds. Think I gotta brush the varnish though. Too many years working in boatyards in my younger years.

Re: Truck based woody
 

I don't know about anybody else, but i'm diggin' what you're doing here.

Re: Truck based woody
 

Nice looking work!

Re: Truck based woody
 

Thanks guys, I'm itching to build the door posts and rear corners now. Trying to work on parts that I already have the material for. Looks like I need to order some maple which would arrive a week from today. In the mean time I will work on the 59 ab that is the most likely engine for this project. With all the flathead trucks I have had over the years they have all been 4 speeds. Never owned or driven a car or half ton with a 3 speed. Are they syncro-mesh units? Like the general public could drive this thing when complete?

Re: Truck based woody
 

Yes, second and third are synchronized and if working properly they shift, as my old friend from Jersey says, "smooth as buttah".

Re: Truck based woody
 

Dining set is beautiful! I don't think anyone can question your skills. Besides, when building anything, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Keep V-8ing and 4-banging!

Re: Truck based woody
 

Thanks for the vote of confidence. The people on this site are so highly experienced and professional I sometimes feel like some kind of a hick the way I do things. 20 years ago I had occasion to stop at the 'Sportsman Shop' in Alger Wa. Bob Brown builds only ford Sportsman wood bodied convertibles. He does all phases from the ground up. A mossy old metal building in the woods, a bunch of homemade tools his son as his employee, a bunch of parts trucks and a hand painted wooden sign over the door. After I spent an afternoon there I was humbled and no longer felt the need for high end tooling and european made woodworking tools and cad drawings (whatever they are). My shop was kind of like his. His cars grace the likes of Pebble Beach and win high honors with the best of what comes out of the most exclusive shops in the country. Correct me if I'm wrong. I know very little about show cars having only been to one car show and that as a visitor. Didn't look all that fun to me, but neither does golf and that is hugely popular they say.