Bare Bones Fords
 

Looking for information regarding the 1940 Ford commercial trucks offered from the factory with just the cowl forward tin for custom applications, bus, ambulance etc. Any photos, order forms or general knowledge would be appreciated. Someone sent me this photo a while ago but it may be a stripped woodie.

Re: Bare Bones Fords
 

1940 Ford Ambulance



https://external-content.duckduckgo....b80295b923d0b4

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Great, but hoping for photos before anything was built. Just the bare ford and how it was ordered..

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Sometime in the last week or two, I remember seeing pictures of just what you want. It was either here or on the H.A.M.B. I just took a quick look but can't find it. There were at least two pictures, showing models with a minimum cowl and one complete with windshield. If nothing else, perhaps you can put a little more effort into it than I did.

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I'll give it a shot. thanks

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That picture was taken at my place in 2016. I had just sawn the 1/2 ton pickup's cab off at the windshield to convert into a one-off phantom woodie wagon. The entire process is chronicled here on a thread titled 'Truck Based Woody'. Much closer to your original request was a project I built a few years later where I mounted a ford factory cowl ('40-'47) with no provision for a windshield onto a fully functional chassis/drivetrain of a toyota landcruiser 4 door station wagon. Ford made these cowls with and without a windshield. The subject is well documented in James Wagner's great book titled 'Ford Trucks since 1905'. Out of print but often on ebay and amazon. I will add some pics here, but will get some links for you tomorrow morning.

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And the factory ford cowl. There are pics of this cowl as found in my thread here called '40 front fenders' which fizzled out because the 40 fenders weren't working with the toyota's wheelbase. Progress picked up with the adoption of jailbar front fenders in my improved thread on the subject which I named 'Covid excuse to play Hookey'. You should find a lot of cowl photos, but really you need the Wagner book and here are some other good searches on Fordbarn. An important one, Huge. Called something like 'Australian open cab pickups of ww2'. Another is to look up 'Railway express trucks' on a search here. There are examples with the 40 ford cowl without windshield.

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Still love that woody. Toooo cool.

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Gary…..Myself and I'm sure others here are still impressed by the Woodie and the Foyota……….Mark

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If you are looking for one, During the Grand National Roadster show I saw an open/drive away cowl at the Kennedy Brothers shop in Pomona that was for sale the beginning of February. It was like a roadster cowl with no windshield. The price was cheap too

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Here are some photos of the bare cowl. From research, I found that the '40-'41' cowl (or cab) is interchangeable with the '42-'47 with a few fender holes altered. I bought 5 jailbar trucks in a package deal about ten years ago and they came with an additional truckload of random parts. Ten hour round trip when the ferry crossing is taken into account. I loved every minute of each haul. The 7.3 IDI winding out in 3rd climbing the mountain passes in the crisp fall weather. Don't git much better in my playbook.

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paetsgone - You can probably find line drawings of the various drive-away cowl and chassis versions sold by Ford in the 1940 Ford Truck Dealer Showroom Album and the 1940 Ford Salesman's Pocket Handbook. I don't have either of these books.

Ford offered driveaway chassis in a couple of configurations - with or without a windshield.

Here are some 1935/36 examples to give you an idea. I know these aren't the 1940 model, but this is what was typically provided to the dealers so they could sell these incomplete models to customers and aftermarket body companies.

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https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/attac...3&d=1744298756

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/attac...4&d=1744298756

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/attac...5&d=1744298756

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Great stuff Thanks

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Thanks. I did find a Ford flier yesterday

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My interest is in a ww2 Fords used in the desert of north Africa by the British. I am re-creating this truck pictured. General believe is the trucks in question were purchased off a lot in Cairo. I’m trying to confirm whether they were cut down Full cab Ford ½ tons or something like we have been speaking about. I think that is the rear section of a cab but I’m not quite sure. It may be just a wood back. Note that the bed does not look to be Ford. This has been the slowest moving project i have ever has the misfortion of attempting.

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Here's a nice pair from the Aussie thread.

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Maybe this?
The March/April V8 Times, page 66, 1941 Ford sales brochure showing trucks offered including cab/chassis and cowl/chassis.

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Sounds like exactly what you want... Someone post this thing up :)