1947 79t

[Brad Hole]

Hey guys! New to the forum, so figured I might as well introduce myself - or more importantly, my truck.

This Ford 79T was purchased by Landon Cartage, based out of Kenosha, WI, as a semi-tractor. In 1959, the truck was bought by a local farmer and used to spread wood chips on Bong AFB as the base was abandoned and being turned into wildland. In 1962, when the contract ran out, he sold the truck to Dave Glasman, of Woodworth, WI (now part of Bristol, WI).

Throughout the rest of the 1960s, Dave converted the truck from a semi tractor to the tow truck, as it stands today. He replaced the original flathead with a 1956 Mercury 312 Y-Block, the transmission with a HD truck transmission, and built every part of the wrecker body from scratch, spare for the winch (which was sold to him by someone that we are pretty sure, erm, borrowed from Landon Cartage).

He completed the project in 1970 and towed very heavily with it through the 1970s and early 1980s (my father remembers riding home in it one night). By the mid-1980s Dave had purchased/built more modern tow trucks and relegated the truck to parade duties. In 1993, when the plates expired, he backed the truck inside of a semi trailer and left it sit.

In July of 2016, Dave approached me about purchasing the truck, as his towing business and repair garage had closed for good and his family wanted nothing to do with it. That following Labor Day, I brought the truck home. Some fuel in the makeshift tank, a new battery and it fired right up! (It did later get new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. I have not yet touched the carb, however - knock on wood)

The unfortunate part, however, is that the air was humid and unmoving in the trailer while it was stored. This means that the rust got pretty serious in spots. I wasn't the greatest with taking some of the before pictures, but I'll do my best to find them as I go.

I've acquired most of the needed parts to fix the bad rust, the rest my father and I can patch. There was one hole, on the passenger side of the bed in front of the wheel that you could stick your foot through, which we replaced last winter (Again, I'll attempt to find photos but no guarantees). Otherwise, other than painting the bed, I have done nothing to the exterior of the truck as of yet.

Photos to follow

[Brad Hole]

This is the truck as I found it - could we still call it a barn find?

There was a lot of discussion about how to get the truck out between my father and I. At this point, the truck would not start, but the brakes were locked up. We debated between getting a crane to pick it out the back, or going the tow truck route. The crane was considered because of the limited room in the yard and short approach to the trailer. However, we found someone with a flatbed that was the same height as the deck of the trailer and had a short enough wheelbase to fit the bill, so he brought the truck home for us.

Tears were forming in Dave's eyes as we left with his Baby (we've known Dave for years and years, and it hasn't gone more than three miles from its former home). Once it arrived, we began the work of taking it apart to get it running.

The right rear brake had locked up tight, and nothing we could do would get the drum broke free and off the hub. It took a PortaPower and around one ton of force to finally break the drum free. All the other wheels were free at this point, and the truck ran now, so we figured "Alright, ready to move!" Jumped in, put the truck into 1st gear low (the truck has an original two-speed rear end), and stalled the engine, blowing out a chunk of exhaust manifold gasket. Apparently the parking brake had rusted solid to the driveshaft, too!

Some work on the parking brake, a new manifold gasket, a new gas tank and the truck was ready to roll - at least to a garage where we could work on it inside for a weekend

Cleaned the rest of the rust off the brake drums, replaced the master cylinder and brake lines, and it was ready to roll!

[mhsprecher]

Pretty cool and a good story. Good luck with it!

[alanwoodieman]

it is a barn find, just a different type of barn! looking good, please give us more pictures as work progresses, I love these old trucks--have a former army fire engine (1941)-working on getting it ready to drive out of the yard now, lights, better tires and it will be on the road again

[jrvariel48]

That's an awesome looking truck!! Have fun with it!

[dwick01]

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Very cool!!

[corvette8n]

It's good you have the history to go with the truck, great find. Keep the pictures coming as you progress with the cleanup. Did your truck originally come with a 239 flathead?

[D. Jones]

What a great friend, find and project.

Wish I had been able to get my father-in-laws home built Ford wrecker, unfortunately it was gone before I married his youngest.

Keep the pictures coming.

[Brad Hole]

Hi all!

Well, my father and I did some digging around our phones last night and came up with some more photos from last fall/winter, so here we go!

Backing up ever so slightly, lets go back in photo-land to just getting the truck home.

Like I had said before, nothing we did could get the brake drum free. We finally resorted to the PortaPower method...we didn't even bend any studs

The last photo is the only time I've put the truck to any use so far...I had another truck that my father and I were storing some of our hit and miss engines on, but we don't have a hoist to put them on the truck. Raymond the Wrecker to the rescue!

[Brad Hole]

Originally Posted by corvette8n

Did your truck originally come with a 239 flathead?

The truck was originally supplied with one, yes, and Dave says he still has it stored in another trailer on his property. However, he believes there may be a crack in the block. He planned to build a stand to run it on, but that project was put on the backburner when he realized it was cracked

[Brad Hole]

At that point, it was already October and we hadn't much driveway room, so any major work ceased for the summer/fall. In mid-winter I was able to find a buddies's shop I could use to work on the truck inside. The very first thing that needed to be done was to replace the driveshaft. There was around 15 degrees of slop in the slip yolk and 1/4 inch of play in the hanger bearing. Unfortunately, that hanger bearing is no longer made with that offset, so I had to modify it slightly and add a spacer between the crossmember and the bearing.

As I had said, the rust got to it pretty bad in some spots. The first spot we went after was the bed side. Thankfully, it was made out of 1/8th inch diamond plate, so it was easy enough to make the repair blend in.

[Brad Hole]

And I'm back! Life took ahold of me and I forgot to update this. Whoops!

Anyway, as we had left off, the rest of the outside sheet metal holes were patched. It was mid-march by that point, and so far we had only patched the holes in bed - hadn't even painted them yet.
I received a phone call sometime in mid-march and found out that Dave was going to have an 80th birthday party in two weeks and his grandson was going to bring his '56 (don't quote me, I may be mistaken on the year) wrecker there and they would like to show them together. Well, I couldn't say no to that! So a week of ensuing (and frantic) sheet metal work, last minute mechanical work, and a fair amount of painting, I had it ready for the party.

I knew that there was no chance of being able to paint the cab in time, but I couldn't leave the bed looking as poor as it did and with a large patch welded in. Luckily, I found a paint at Menards that was an almost exact match to the original red color. A quick coat of red and a lot of buffing and waxing later, and I had a presentable truck for the party!

(I seem to be having trouble getting photos to load at the moment, bear with me for a bit)

[cas3]

great story, i love old wreckers. currently out of stock, but i have had several. keep the pics commin !

[Brad Hole]

Here we are, more pictures now!

As I said, a lot of buffing compound and wax went into the truck last year - all of which I did by hand, but in the end it was worth it. I also had the truck in our town's 4th of July parade, which was another fiasco on its own. Long story short, don't buy a Y-block with the truck-style water pump
The final photo shows the worst part of not having a garage/shed/shop to store your vehicle in in a southern Wisconsin winter...

[cas3]

those cab styles are famous for rusting out the inner windshield molding near the defrost holes. from the old windshield gasket leaking i presume, but they are hard to find not rusted out. for out side storage i cut an old 265 gal oil tank in half the long way, and place it over the cabs of any trucks i hope to save. they are wide enough to keep most of the water out of the doors, and windshield area. nice rig!

[jrvariel48]

The truck looks great!!

[FortyNiner]

I like your work. Raymond does look quite forlorn - in a stout hearted way - in the snow. He needs a roof over his old head.

[alanwoodieman]

Boy what a piece of history, please don't ever paint the cab, just fix the rust and sort of match to original. Looks like a lot of fun.

[Brad Hole]

Alright, so here's where the real work begins...

So, over the summer I found both NOS fenders, as well as a grill shell that may as well have been NORS as there is barely even any rust in the pinch seams, though it is painted white as opposed to the factory dark brown primer.
However, as I do not have a shop (or even a garage big enough to fit a Mini-Cooper) of my own, I had to find a friend with a shop that would allow me to place my truck there for a few months while I do all the sheet metal work and begin a restoration.

I have put a lot of thought into what I wanted to do with this truck. Do I restore it to being a flathead with a 4-speed? Do I leave it powered as it is? Do I leave the patina it has acquired over the last 40+ years? Or do I restore it to look as Dave had built it in 1970, albeit with minor lighting improvements/additions (namely better marker lights)?
I decided on the last option. Though I love the look of patina (work-clothes, as I call it), it would be near impossible to get the new sheet metal to match the original. And I would love to be able to leave the sheet metal the way it is and not have to repair/replace it, but it is too far gone to be able to save in some spots.
I know it may not fit in with this site, as the site is all about restoring to original, off-the-showroom-floor condition. And there is certainly nothing wrong with that, as a matter of fact, I very much prefer that, and love seeing the amazing work that goes into that. But this truck has so much history the way it is. My father remembers riding home in it, while the family car was towed behind. The truck was modified by Dave Glasman's hands to be how it sits today. The wrecker was built from scratch, every little bracket, every bend of metal. It is a history that can't be replaced, one that can't be replicated. I would love to restore the truck to its 1947 glory, but I just can't do that to it.

Anyway, on to where it sits now. I got it to fit inside a shop, though it was a very tight fit. The top of the headache rack sits at 7'3", the door had a max opening of 7'6". The door opener, however, hung down few inches closer to the floor. How I got the truck inside without hitting anything, I have no idea

[Brad Hole]

Here's why I got all new sheet metal. Is it fixable as it is? Yeah, probably. But I am certainly not a rich man by any means. Besides, I still have student loans to pay off

While waiting for my ride to arrive to bring me home, I decided to start taking the driver's fender off. I had brought some wrenches and sockets with, so by the time my ride arrived (which happened to have some other tools on it), I had only 5 bolts left. Two the heads had rounded off, one was stuck hard, and the other two I hadn't gotten to yet. So, with grinder in hand, we ground the heads off the three I couldn't get by hand, and I went to remove the other two bolts. For those that have taken the fenders off a 42-47 Truck, they are the two located in front of the radiator that can only be accessed by removing the front cowling and/or removing grill bars, where there is barely room for two 7/16ths wrenches and a single hand. Well, the first bolt, closest to the center came out with minimal fuss. The inner bolt, however, rounded off both the bolt head and the nut. Unfortunately, we didn't have a cutoff wheel for the grinder with us, and it was getting dark, so we called it quits for the night.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get back out to the shop to work in it and remove the other fender as well.

In addition to the metal work, it needs some minor engine work (gaskets to seal up some oil leaks), as well as some wiring work. I'll send the sheet metal out to get repainted the same color I painted the bed, and I will find a sign artist that can recreate the logo on the door who can repaint the doors once they are painted as well to look the same as they did when Dave built the truck in 1970 - though I will remove his phone number and license numbers and replace it with "Not for hire."

Looks like I have my work cut out for me I'll do my best to photograph and document, as well as keep up to date on here!